See also

>> VIDEO INTERVIEW: Chester's Simon Davies - March 13, 2008
>> MATCH REPORT: Chester City 0 - Bradford City 1


The Blues boss watched his team suffer a 1-0 home defeat against Bradford City – Chester's eighth successive home loss – and considered using prayer in a bid to help his side's cause.

He said: "I'm not getting disillusioned, but I do feel sorry for the lads because I thought they gave it everything.

"We switched off a little bit for the goal, but as I said in the dressing room, we can't lay everything at the door of our defensive unit when we're missing sitters up front.

"Kevin Ellison missed from four yards – how I don't know, and we missed other half-chances.

"We keep creating, but at the moment we''re just not putting our chances away, so hopefully it will come.

"We'll keep working hard, and if we play like we did against Bradford, then we should get something at Barnet on Saturday.

"Maybe I should start praying if that would help because I've not done that yet."

Davies underlined his faith in the current squad of players at Chester, adding: "I keep telling the players that I believe if they believe, which I do, and it isn't just something I say.

"I have a good set of players and they gel well in the changing room, but we just need that little bit of luck and a little bit of an edge, and I'm sure it will come.

"Sometimes I think we push so much for a winner that we shut off our touch at the back and right now, even though everyone would like three points, one point wouldn't be bad.

"We know how good we are and we know how good we can be – we've got the same set of players here that were doing so well at the start of the season.

"The players actually know as a group of 11 or 16 that they are very capable of winning games.

"We've just got to be a little bit more professional, switch on at the back a little bit more, and start putting our chances away.

"I've never been involved with a team, either playing or coaching, that is creating so many chances but not actually putting the ball in the net.

"But we'll keep going, keep producing the chances, and hopefully we'll be knocking a few in."

Davies gave credit to the performances of Paul McManus and Paul Rutherford in last night's match: "I was pleased with the performances of Paul McManus and Paul Rutherford because they are only young lads and it's not always the best time to put them in, but we are a little bit down to the bare bones at the moment, so they got their opportunity and to be fair I thought they both did well.

"The Wrexham game might have been a bit too soon for Paul McManus, with the derby and the crowd, and I didn't really want to put him in at the weekend.

"We only had width on one side against Wrexham, but Paul gave us width on both sides last night, and that showed because we created a lot of chances."

- Centre half Paul Butler has been appointed as City's new assistant manager.