CHESTER will arrive at Holker Street fresh from producing their best performance of the campaign, which saw them secure a 3-2 victory over their arch-rivals Wrexham.

The English side’s triumph over the Welsh outfit in the cross-border derby on Saturday was lit up by John Rooney’s stunning 25-yard free-kick, which opened the scoring on 34 minutes.

The former Macclesfield Town and New York Red Bulls midfielder is the brother of Manchester United and England superstar striker Wayne Rooney.

Looking ahead to tonight’s clash (7.45pm kick-off) Blues boss Steve Burr said: “Barrow are up there and doing well, the side they’ve got and the finances at their disposal.

“I think if you look at them and the likes of Bromley that came up – well backed financially – we know that going to Barrow is always a difficult place to go.

“I’m just delighted we got back to playing with the intensity of how I expect my sides to perform. We now need to take that into the game on Tuesday night. We know how difficult it’s going to be but I’ll put up with anything as long as I see that intensity week-in, week-out.

“You have always got to earn the right to win matches.”

In fact, Barrow only sit 17th in the National League table. They will attempt to bounce back from Saturday’s 1-0 reverse at Altrincham, and get back to winning ways in Furness following their 1-1 home draw with Kidderminster and 3-1 Holker Street defeat by Aldershot.

Bluebirds boss Darren Edmondson said: “We had Chester’s game with Wrexham watched so we’ll have a run-down on what Chester do.

“And then what we need to do is make sure that we’re in the ascendancy and we play like we did on Saturday because that was a pretty decent performance in terms of possession of the ball, going past people and creating chances.

“So if we do that at home, with the fans behind us, then it will be a tough evening for Chester.”

Burr may play with three strikers up top, with the front-line including Ross Hannah. Kane Richards replaced fellow Blues striker Craig Hobson at the weekend, before netting his side’s third goal and so he will be targeting a starting spot. Chester’s on-loan Oxford United forward James Roberts has been handed ‘compassionate leave’ following the tragic death of his 16-year-old brother.

Commenting on Burr, Edmondson added: “He’s an experienced manager who is good at this level. He’s got some good players in there, going forward especially.

“So it’s not going to be an easy game, there aren’t any easy games in this league – we constantly say it.

“They will try and pass the ball around like Alty did and if we’re not in faces and don’t win the ball nice and high then there will be a lot of work to do on the defensive side.

“But if we can be good in possession, like we were on Saturday, then we can definitely cause Chester a problem.”