Bernard Morley insisted that not even a nasty work-related injury would keep him from tonight's (last night's) open training session at the Deva stadium.

In the course of his day job as a ceiling fixer, Chester's joint manager ended up in hospital on Monday after an accident with a nailgun that left him with a puncture wound and fractured finger.

"I was putting some shoe tack nails into a partition wall and I managed to put a 42 millimetre nail through the tip of my middle finger" he said.

"I still had the nail stuck in there as we went to A and E where they got it out and cleaned it up for me. It's left a bit of a hole in the finger and they've put me on some antibiotics so I'm fine now - it'd take a lot more than that for me to miss my football!"

Morley says that he and co-manager Anthony Johnson are 'pretty happy' with the way the club's pre-season has gone this summer.

The pair, who guided Salford City to the National League North title last term, take charge for their season's opener at home to Spennymoor Town on Saturday.

After their comprehensive overhaul of the Blues squad this summer, Morley feels the club are well-equipped for the new campaign.

"Pre-season has generally been good.

"There were a few elements that concerned us in the Everton game last weekend, but generally we're pretty happy in what we've seen from the players this summer.

"Considering we came in here with a blank canvas I think we are looking quite promising. I like to think that the squad we've been putting together here can certainly compete in this division.

"There's players with a lot of experience in there, who know what it takes to do well in this league."