Mark Maguire admits the Chester board were ‘blown away’ by Marcus Bignot and has confidence in his ability to turn around the struggling side.

The Blues chief executive – alongside with key members of the board – conducted interviews earlier this week with a shortlist of 10 candidates, and it was former Solihull and Grimsby boss Bignot who outshone his fellow candidates, with his ‘professionalism’ and ‘dynamism’ impressing Maguire, speaking as he unveiled the 43-year-old as Jon McCarthy’s successor.

“We’ve secured a fantastic manager and I’m looking forward to getting working with him,” Maguire explained.

“It’s been an intense few days of interviews with an exceptional group of candidates. The very fact Marcus came out on top of those says everything about him and the way he presented.

“On (Tuesday) the interviews seemed to get better and better as the day went on and we thought it couldn’t get any better, but then Marcus walked in and blew us away with his presentation, his understanding of the club, his professionalism, dynamism, knowledge of the squad and ideas about how he can make a difference straight away.

“With the way he will buy into the culture of the club and the infrastructure we’ve got here already, he blew us away and we’re delighted to have secured him.

“It says a lot that he was head-hunted by a team in the league above and that’s a compliment to his abilities, his jobs with Solihull and Birmingham Ladies before that. He has all the attributes, qualities and personality to make an immedaite impact.”

Results are the name of the game for Bignot in the immediate future, with Chester languishing in the National League relegation zone having collected just one win from their opening 11 fixtures, and he will look to end a miserable run of 16 home games without victory when the Blues host Maidenhead United on Saturday.

Asked whether there would be money available to strengthen the first-team squad, Maguire was adamant the current crop of players are good enough, and believes Bignot will be able to give them the ‘confidence’ needed to begin turning results around.

“The reality is where we are. We thought we’d invested really well in the squad in the summer,” he added.

“In terms of the conversations that we’ve had with Marcus so far, we’re all on the same page with what needs to be done.

“It’s an easy thing to say that we’re suddenly going to spend loads of money and refresh the squad, but we’ve got a really good set of players here, who we’re confident with Marcus coming into the fray that he can instill some confidence into them, take them forward and improve them.

“The first target is to get them playing so there’s no talk of any radical changes at this point. It’s all about getting behind what is needed right now.”