Chester still have a 'great future' with the club's new manager set to be announced over the next 48 hours.

The board of City Fans United, the supporters-group that owns the club, have made their decision on Marcus Bignot's successor, with the final two candidates understood to be former Leeds United boss Neil Redfearn and ex-Mansfield manager Adam Murray, and an official announcement could be made on Tuesday on who will lead the recently-relegated Blues into National League North.

CFU chairman David Harrington-Wright revealed how the interview process targeted finding a manager with a broad contacts book and one who is willing to continue to provide the Blues' academy youngsters a pathway to the first-team after the recent success of promoting graduates such as Sam Hughes, James Jones and Tom Crawford.

"Having regional contacts was the essential part of the interview process and the whittling down of the 82 applications," said Harrington-Wright, the club's third chairman this season.

"It has to be somebody with the contacts to help the club. We can't do this ourselves and we need someone to come in with the contacts and the skillset and somebody who is prepared to come in and work with the existing set-up, work with Calum (McIntyre, academy head coach and first-team caretaker manager) and work with the youth we have got.

"A special mention to Calum, what he has done with that team in the last two or three weeks has been amazing.

"That was also part of the interview criteria and the set up with the new manager. Calum is important to Chester. We need somebody with guidance to come in and show him the next level of management. That will do him good and that will do Chester good."

Asked what the future held for Chester, he replied: "I think there is a great future for this football club.

"It's onwards and upwards. We have a new manager appointment to be announced in the next couple of days, season tickets go on sale on May 8 and we've just got to build from here," he added.

"The result (against Barrow) showed the youth and what they can do and what the academy has contributed to the team, but we can't just build a team with the youth we need a manager to come in, use the youth, use his contacts and let's build a team for next season.

"The board goals remain to return to the league we have just dropped out of but we've got to be realistic. It will come down to what team we can put together and what budget we can put together. At the end of the day, you see a performance like that (against Barrow) and that is what we want."

Harrington-Wright remains hopeful the club's first-team budget for the 2018/19 campaign can be increased further from the board's initial estimate of £250,000, down almost £200,000 from what has been spent on the first-team during the current season.

"The £250,000 is a figure that we were asked to give a rough estimate of, the final budget has not been set yet, but we have to give a rough idea," he added.

"The biggest thing we can do in the close season is secure new sponsors, speak to existing sponsors about their deals continuing and then work that back into the budget. It will be the biggest single influence we can have.

"I am expecting to announce three sponsors of a substantial level in the next couple of weeks, the ground board sales are already going well from new people who have never had a board before.

"I would like to think (the budget can be increased) and that is my aim but I am not prepared to put a figure on it as that would be commercial suicide. If I said I needed £500,000 that would be unrealistic but if I said £300,000 then that is perfectly achievable for me for next season but we have got to finalise the whole budget. Every single line of the budget has to be looked at."