The Chester City boss is determined that there will not be a repeat of this season's struggle during the second half of the campaign.

The Blues clinched the one point they needed from Tuesday night's goalless home draw against Stockport County to retain their Football League status.

But safety was only achieved in the club's penultimate match of the season following a miserable run of results which featured only two wins from their last 25 games.

Davies remained confident that City would secure their League status despite their worrying slide towards the drop zone, and he is now confident they can wrap up their campaign with a home victory against Macclesfield Town tomorrow at the Deva Stadium, (3pm kick-off).
He said: "We've got to learn from our mistakes.

"There are a few young players in our squad that have been in our first team for the last two or three months and they can take a lot of experience from this season.

"Going into next season they won't be youngsters anymore – they can call themselves squad players and build on that.

"I take the view that if a player is good enough I put him out on the pitch.

"I think everyone can take something from our experiences this season and make sure that we don't end up in that situation again.

"It would be nice to think that we need a point for promotion or to get into the play-offs next season rather than have a repeat of what has just happened.

"It has been tough in our last three or four games because we've been looking over our shoulder.

"But the players have shown a lot of character and a lot of desire and togetherness, but in our last two games we seem to have been a bit up-tight with our play.

"I've been saying the right things to the players, but they look at the league table as well and it was just nice to get it over with on Tuesday night.

"We need to now build on two cleansheets by scoring a couple of goals - but we can still finish above Macclesfield and that will be our aim tomorrow.

"The lads have stuck together and I'd like to take that team spirit into next season, and add a few players to the mix because we showed form earlier in the season that we won't be far away.

"We are lucky to have some of the players we've got – John Danby being one player who showed his ability again on Tuesday – and we've also got a lot of good young players coming through."

Davies admitted he now faced the worst phase of his managerial career in deciding who should be retained by the club: "It is a difficult time of the season, because every one of the players, whether good, bad, or indifferent, has given everything they have got since I have been in charge.

"It would be a difficult job if a couple of players were to go, but that's part of management and decisions will have to be made in the next week or so.

"I have arranged to meet each of the players one by one early next week."

n Defender Paul Linwood and goalkeeper John Danby are in contention for the Chester City Player of the Year Award to be presented by the Chester Official Supporters Club, Chester City Trust, and Chester City ISA at 2.40pm tomorrow.