MARK Wright knows what it feels like to win the FA Cup as a player, but now as a manager he is just happy to be getting a second bite at getting past round three and a crack at the big boys.

By Derek Davis

MARK Wright knows what it feels like to win the FA Cup as a player, but now as a manager he is just happy to be getting a second bite at getting past round three and a crack at the big boys.

The Chester boss scooped a winner's medal with Liverpool in 1992 and would love to get them, or another glamorous, club in the next round if they can get past Ipswich.

Wright appreciates City are lucky to be in the third round, but while the £24,000 they receive for getting through the second round is welcome, the big money could follow after this round with £40,000 for the victors and the chance of a big live game on television which would net £150,000 plus decent gate receipts.

Tomorrow's game is not expected to fill the 5,500 Deva Stadium, although could double their normal gate of about 2,000.

The Cheshire side are back in the FA Cup despite being eliminated from the second round by Bury last month. The Shakers were subsequently kicked out - and Chester reinstated - for fielding an ineligible player in their replay win at the Saunders Honda Stadium.

Wright added: “We're lucky to be back in and we've got to take it with both hands. Whatever side we put out, we'll be having a real good go and we want our supporters to come along and enjoy the afternoon.”

But City's chances of springing a major FA Cup shock tomorrow are being undermined by a series of selection problems and Ipswich are odds on favourites to make the next round - where they need the money as much as Chester.

Ashley Westwood and Paul Linwood are both nursing hamstring injuries and the defensive duo are unlikely to be fit for City's third-round tie against the Blues.

As well as being under-strength in defence, Chester are short of options in midfield. Stephen Vaughan has been loaned to Rochdale for a month and winger Ryan Semple is back with Lincoln City following a brief and unsuccessful loan period.

Long-term casualties Glenn Cronin and Rob Marsh-Evans remain sidelined, so Dean Bennett could be pitched into Chester's starting XI despite missing most of December with a thigh problem.

To add to Chester's woes, some players have been ill this week and striker Drewe Broughton - back in the fold after a loan spell with Boston United - is cup-tied.

Blues boss Mark Wright said: “We've got real selection problems because we've got people injured and ill. At this moment in time, we've got 12 or 13 players which is disappointing and pretty hard, but at the same time you've got to get on with it.

“You get these problems in football but this is the FA Cup - you've got to go out and enjoy it.”

Although Jim Magilton and Wright have played for three of the same clubs, Oxford, Southampton and Liverpool - with varying degrees of success, they have never come across each other - until now.