An enforced two-week fixture break will allow Chester to ‘press the reset button’, says joint-manager Anthony Johnson.

The eliminated Blues have no FA Cup fixture to contest this weekend and will not return to National League North action until Saturday, October 12.

And Johnson, whose side played out a 3-3 home draw with Leamington at the weekend, intends to take full advantage of their competitive break.

“It feels like this has come at the perfect time for us,” he said.

“The positive momentum and consistency we’d shown earlier in the season hadn’t really been there in the last three games against Altrincham and Leamington.

“This is an opportunity for us to press that reset button and review the progress we’ve made, the players we’ve used, the injuries we’ve picked up and what needs to be improved.”

Aware of the potential disruption to Chester’s match sharpness, Johnson says that the club’s training schedules have been adapted accordingly.

He added: “Sessions have been more demanding for the players and probably more intense than we’ve had before.

"They’ve been full-on physical sessions with plenty of ball work throughout.

“We’ve treated this time as a mini pre-season in a way and the players have responded brilliantly.

“We hope they’ll be coming back into the Kings Lynn game on October 12 as sharp as they were at the start of this season.”

The club’s early-season success has been founded on their sharpness in front of goal.

Though they trail league leaders York City by three points, the Blues boast the best scoring record in the division after netting 27 times to date.

Chester also rank among the league’s top four defences with 13 goals conceded.

Prior to the Leamington game, in which the Blues’ were guilty of some uncharacteristically poor defending, eight of the 11 goals conceded came in the final 20 minutes of matches,

And Johnson is adamant there is scope for improvement in this area, saying: “I feel like we’ve been hard to beat all season.

“We’ve attacked with a lot of flair and gusto and, if I was pushed, I’d call it an eight out of 10 start for us.

“When you look at York we know we’re never going to be able to match their spending power or match the full-time structure they’ve got in place there.

“So we have to look at how we can close that gap in other ways.

“Before last Saturday all the goals we’d conceded came in the final 20 minutes, bar the Spennymoor defeat, came in games where we were coasting at three or four-nil up.

“We’d maybe taken our foot of the gas in those games and conceded when it hasn’t really hurt us.

“But switching off like that can affect the players’ mindset.

“When they’re not winning games comfortably and go behind late on, as we did against Leamington, then it can leave you chasing the game.

“We feel like we’ve conceded too may times from set-pieces and from wide areas too and we need to cut out silly fouls in dangerous areas.

“So it’s been back-to basics at times this week and hopefully we can tighten up in these areas.”