Have Chester made a mistake

No.

In my opinion he's still the right man for us. We're 12th and more than 3/4 of the way through campaign, I'd have taken that happily pre-season.

I do question his first XI and tactics right now but I'm backing him to get it right. We are a good side but have had terrible luck as well this season.

Slightly optimistic but I think we'll turn it round on Saturday and kick start our season a little bit, and reach that 50 point mark at least with games to spare.

I'm in the camp of thinking we were right to give him a 2 1/2 year contract. I think he's perfect for the club, there's not many others out there (I don't ever want us becoming a Southport with their merry go round of managers).

I think he's the right man for the job, but he really does needs to get back to basics with the team and tactics. All season he has said that the target was 50 points and that he always prefers 442. But in recent weeks he seems to have abandoned his own methods saying that we're trying a few things to try and break into the top 7 or 8.

Defensively, we need to get back to the Astles/Hughes pairing in the middle that worked so well earlier in the season. Same situation having Shaw/Lloyd partnership in midfield. George, Hudson and Joyce aren't good enough imo.

Southport is a huge match for us now, lose and we are starring down the barrel with a run of very tough games to come, but I think we will pick up enough points to make us safe by the end of the season.

Only at Chester can a team go from being very tough to beat with play off aspirations to looking like relegation material. Remember Curle and Williamson?

I blame Steve Burr. It's all his fault!
Funny how the same thing that happened with Burr is now happening with Macca as Manager.
There has been one constant in the past few years, not Burr, not the Board or chairman but Jon McCarthy.
I quite like him as a person so I hope he gets us back on path but it is a bit worrying.

Play-off talk was ridiculous, there is no way this club will be pushing for the play-offs for many years. I'm actually fairly comfortable with mid-table mediocrity for a few years anyway.
I think we'll be ok this season again. Just. But we are only 10 points clear of a relegation spot so we must get a few wins from somewhere.

It does make you wonder what goes on at our Club at Christmas to have these downturns.

I saw on twitter that the Cowleys have put a large part of their recent success down to having been teachers. McCarthy has a similar background and has clearly made several players better, which is very exciting. He's getting a few bits wrong tactically and with team selection at the minute, but he'll learn. I have confidence in him, though perhaps we should think about having Iwelumo just as a coach (Alabi's certainly improved recently) and get another assistant manager in.

I agree with what you say about assistant manager, but you've got to realise that we couldn't even find £2k yesterday for an overnight stay. The fact is that the financial landscape isn't going to improve unless we can conjure up what Lincoln City and Sutton have done this season.

Macca deserved an extension to his current contract, but not by two and a half years. For us, a club with limited finances, it's a huge gamble to be honest. I'd have given it another year and see where we go from there. He's not a bad manager, he's surpassed expectations this season and if you'd have said in August we'd be in our current position, clear of any real relegation danger, then I'd have taken it with both hands. For that reason alone, he deserves the new deal. I can see why the club want stability and want to avoid chopping and changing needlessly, but what if things do go drastically wrong? We need new blood in the summer that's a certainty. Progress has been very, VERY slow but steady since promotion to the National League, but it's progress nonetheless but it's a results business. We have a long run of bad form and the fans will, understandably, want action taken to halt the slide. I just hope there is a clause in the new contract. We most definitely do not want a situation similar to the one we had with Steve Burr. I hope the mistakes have been learned from that. In a perfect world, we'll have a great 2 1/2 years ahead, but we are Chester and it's never been easy. Nor will it ever be busy. Take the rough with the smooth.

SMITHERS !

No manager at our club should be on anything more than an annual rolling contract .

I really don't think we've made a mistake. I think we've made a very shrewd appointment and JM will make us punch way above our weight. Time will tell.

A sticky run of form is just that. It's not a disaster and I've faith he'll put things right at Southport.

The fact their centre back told Richards he should have started thw game at FT, tells you everything about the game.

I take it their CB hasn't seen Richards play much lately.

Didn't he offer Higgins a new contract though? This was despite the fact that he was the worst player (Bar Hobson) last season. Constantly caught out of position, hospital backpasses and lack of physicality. 

If the club retain the likes of George, Durrell, Chappell, Joyce et al and have to let go of Lynch, Hughes and Alabi then I really do fear for us next season. McCarthy has to be ruthless in the closed season with the above named perpetrators of the recent demise. 

I think a combination of depression with the current run of form and frustration with the poor performances is, NATURALLY, influencing people's opinions.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing - the fact is that we are where we are with Macca. Maybe, 2 1/2 year contract IS too much for an unproven manager but we're stuck with it as there's a cost to replace him if we chose to take that path, money we don't have + there's no guarantee a replacement would do any better within the constraints he would have to operate.

I've said it before, Macca has not become a bad manager but he's still raw and will make mistakes. Of course, he should not be above CONSTRUCTIVE criticism but as long he's big enough to accept it, act upon it AS HE SEES FIT, and we see the improvement we all crave, I believe he will retain the fan's support.

I genuinely don't think there's a HUGE amount wrong that a "back to basics" approach + PROPER assistance for Macca + the confidence that comes from a win won't fix.

He's been offered constructive criticism a few times by Neil Turner but does get a little defensive.

Refusing to blame shape for Gateshead the latest example