I wanted to bring you up to speed with my current situation, contrary to media reports I have not left my role as Assistant Manager at Bury because there was never a formal arrangement in place.

I agreed to go in and help Alan Knill out after his Assistant, Chris Wilder, left to go to Oxford. I went in over the Christmas period to see how things went.

We have now both decided that the situation wasn’t working for either of us.

I will now go back to looking for jobs and getting out there to as many games as possible and I am looking forward to furthering my coaching career.

I would like to thanks Alan Knill and Bury Football Club and wish them all the best in their quest for promotion.

I wanted to bring people up to date with my situations, as I have now left Chester City.

I felt it would be a difficult situation to remain at the club after the change of circumstances, although I must stress that Mark Wright had wanted me to stay on in a coaching capacity and didn’t want me to leave.

I have enjoyed my time at Chester, I have really enjoyed working with the players and the fans have been absolutely fantastic.

I also want to thank the Chairman for providing me with a fantastic management opportunity and now I am looking forward to progressing my career elsewhere.

I would like to wish Mark Wright and Steve Bleasdale all the best for the rest of the season.

I will now go back to continuing my studies at university, which I have neglected over the past few months, while I seek further management opportunities.

I was as shocked as anyone to hear the news of Simon’s departure. It came as a complete surprise especially with games coming up against Morecambe and Aldershot, games which I think we can win at home.

Simon is a great bloke and a very good coach. We had an excellent working relationship, one which I hope we can renew again in the future. I firmly believe he will go on to be a successful Manager and hopefully he will be back in the game very soon.

I felt it was a difficult time for him, with Chester’s limited resources and the Club in the transfer embargo which prevented him bringing any new faces in, which could have freshened things up, made a real impact and probably got us out of the position we are in.

So to say it is hugely disappointing is an understatement.

I have spoken to the club and I was asked to be Caretaker Manager for the Morecambe game. I will be taking training and preparing the players for the game.

I also had a long chat with Simon about my position. He bought me to the club, which I am extremely grateful for and now I have his full backing which is very important to me.

I would like to state that I am not going to be putting my name forward for the vacant Managers job.

I feel that at this time in my career I want to continue my development as a coach and have more experience as an Assistant Manager, which will hopefully stand me in good stead for the future, when hopefully I will be a Manager.

First of all I better apologise for a lack of updates. It’s been a busy few weeks, the games have been coming thick and fast and there has been a lot of planning to do.

I am beginning to realise now why managers age so quickly, there is always something going on and something to do, be it watch dvd’s, go to games, plan training sessions or write reports on the opposition.

Throw into the equation getting myself back to full fitness, so I am available for selection you can see why it’s been so manic!

I would just like to set the record straight about me signing on as a player for Chester. I may have just celebrated a big birthday but I never retired. I have read a few stories about the Manager persuading me to come out of retirement, but I always hoped that I would get another chance to play.

I always wanted the decision to finish playing to be mine, not forced upon me by any managers. I am still feeling good and I know I can do a job if needed.

It’s been a while since my last game but I have been joining in training and I am getting closer to full fitness, so if needed I will soon be ready to hopefully help out Chester City.

Not long after I left he rang me and I told him I was keen to get back in anyway I could as soon as possible, it didn’t necessary have to be as a youth team manager or coach, just anything to do with football – that was what I wanted to do. I was as interested in managing in the non-league as anything else and he told me about a club with a new stadium who were looking for a new manager – it was St. Neots Town. I told him I was certainly interested in hearing more about the post and he arranged for me to have a meeting with the chairman, Bob Bridges. After a few minutes with Bob I didn’t need much more convincing, the facilities they had were better than some conference clubs; a week later they offered me the job.

I was glad to take at the end of last season and get a few games under my belt at that level so I could see what the standard of the league was all about – it made my work in the summer a lot easier. I knew the sort of players I needed to find to improve what I had inherited it was the learning curve that I needed.

A few players left in the summer, a few that I didn’t want to keep on and I brought in the ones that I did. I assembled a young squad compared to the rest of the division but from my background I knew it was the way to go – against the grain, I’ve been told it won’t work but I believe it will.

We had a good pre-season, the young lads took everything on board I asked of them; they’ve passed the ball and are fit and strong. I am pleased with the way that they have gone about things, they have done everything I have asked of them. They always give me 100% and do their best, with a little guidance and the right instructions they will come out with the right results, nine times out of ten and who knows, at this stage, what they are capable of achieving.

Everything has been agreed at Chester now and I have signed a two year contract, which I am delighted about. I am under no illusions how much more work there is than playing but I have to admit that the long days have taken a bit of adjusting too!!

As a player you just turn up, train, go home and get yourself ready for the match at the weekend but there is a lot more to it than that for me now. There is lot of preparation is involved, a lot of homework needs to be done such as dealing with scouting reports, watching DVD’s of opponents and the preparation that is involved in any game takes up to a week before hand, if not longer.

Saturday’s trip to Grimsby is going to be another tough one. They have had an indifferent start but they are a decent team who love to pass it, which should suit us. We are away from home though but we know we need to pick up points away from home as well and I think it is going to be a decent football match.

To bring you up to date negotiations have begun with Chester about the possibility of me becoming Assistant Manager on a permanent basis. Nothing has been confirmed yet but hopefully during the week I will put pen to paper on a deal to stay here.

It has been hard work so far but very very rewarding. We have improved a lot since the first game I was involved in, against Rotherham. That was a tough game and we got beat but since then we have had a resounding win against Barnet at home and then secured a good point against high flying Bury on Saturday.

The atmosphere has always been good , in the squad, because the players always believed that they were going to win games and get up the league but getting points on the board and kick-starting the season was always going to be a relief, the lads have worked incredibly hard and long may it continue.