Davies Relieved To Be Safe

Chester City v Stockport County

Chester City got the point they needed to ensure their survival in League Two and City boss Simon Davies was more than delighted with an excellent team performance at the Deva Stadium on Tuesday night.

Speaking in his post match press conference, Davies said: "We worked extremely hard and there were some excellent individual performances."

"I think it all came together in terms of our performance and a bit of luck because Stockport had a good case for a penalty which in other games would perhaps have gone against us," explained Davies.

"Our players know all about pressure – they are grown men and they knew their livelihoods were at stake, and at times in the second half I thought the pressure showed with an under-hit or over-hit pass, but we stuck to the task and we got the result we wanted.

"We had the rub of the green, but I'm sure it's a case of what goes around comes around.

"There is a great team spirit in the dressing room at the moment and without that we would have lost against Stockport County on Tuesday night, and we would have lost against Shrewsbury last weekend.

"We dug in, but that's what it takes, and if we can build on that with three or four players for next season and have that same team spirit I feel we'll do ever so well.

"I must admit that my heart was in my mouth on Tuesday night in the first and 90th minutes! It's just hard when it's 0-0 and especially when you're playing on a greasy surface because anything can happen.

"I was delighted with the performance of our goalkeeper John Danby.  If he can get anywhere near that level consistently then we'll do well to hold onto him.  But for now we've got him and we're very happy to have him.  But there are other players in our team of the same calibre and first and foremost we need to retain their services and bring in three or four other bodies and then we can give it a go next season.

"I feel we have three or four really high-quality players in our team and we've got quality youngsters coming through the ranks.  We'll put the right mix together for next season and then we'll have a good team for the future.

"We can now relax and not look over our shoulders to see what division we're going to be in.  We'll give Macclesfield the respect that they deserve on Saturday and approach the game properly so that we pick up the three points.