Chester dreams of opportunity to realise his Premier potential

The Hull City defender had just been asked to provide the waiting media with a flavour of what manager Steve Bruce had said to his players last Monday morning.

Less than 48 hours had elapsed since the hugely disappointing 2-0 defeat at Barnsley and, judging by Chester’s reply, the Tigers chief clearly still had plenty to say about how his players had blown a chance to seal automatic promotion.

Hull will have a second go at claiming the required victory today and Chester, one of the club’s most consistent performers this term, is adamant there will be no repeat of last weekend’s no-show at Oakwell.

“I felt physically sick at how we performed against Barnsley and the thought that we might be letting this chance slip,” admits Chester ahead of today’s final-day meeting with Cardiff City.

“Bearing in mind how we have trained this week, I am certainly confident we will get the win we need. It feels like a long time since the Ipswich game (when Hull last won, on April 13).

“We were all eager to get over that line and get the job done. More than anything, the feeling we have at the moment is excitement that we are one win away from the Premier League. If you weren’t excited there would probably be something wrong with us.

“Fair play to Watford for putting it right on our toes. The pressure is on us to get the victory. But it is also on them to get a result as well.”

Victory for Hull against a Cardiff side led by one-time Watford manager Malky Mackay would make the result from Vicarage Road academic. If Hull slip up, however, then providing the Hornets can better how Bruce’s men get on then the Hertfordshire club will be promoted.

“Promotion would be massive for all of us,” said Chester, who joined Hull from Manchester United. “There are a few of us who have been at big clubs in the Premier League but never got a chance to play at that level.

“We are all eager to show that we are good enough to play there again. There would be no better way to reach the top than to get promoted with Hull.

“It would be a dream for me. As young kids, we all watch the Premier League and it is where we all want to be. We have put ourselves in a great position.

“This was always the aim. No one seemed to give us a chance at the start of the season but, in my mind, we were more than good enough to achieve it.

“I looked around our squad and thought, ‘This is as good as anyone else in this division’.

“I have not gone into a final day like this before. It is not something I have been involved with in my career. But we will just go out and try and achieve the victory that we need. After that, nothing else matters.

“The manager has been saying for the last few weeks that we need to enjoy it. As coaches, the staff would love to still have the chance to play in games like this.

“They have said they will take the heat if anything goes wrong, meaning we can just go out there and enjoy it.”

Chester may not have any personal experience of going into the final day with so much at stake but his formative years were spent with a club well versed in coping with the pressure of winning honours.

The 24-year-old said: “As a young lad, I was never involved with the United first team going out and winning titles but even watching the first-team squad and how they deal with it is nice to see. You can learn from things like that.

“I owe Manchester United a lot. Seeing the joys of playing top-flight football and then coming down has given me an even bigger hunger to get back there.

“I’d love to play against them because I have still got friends and people who I would like to see again. As a United fan, it would be brilliant to walk out at Old Trafford and play against them.”

Anyway, back to that first meeting between manager and players since the 2-0 loss at Barnsley. On what printable message Bruce tried to convey on Monday morning at the club’s Cottingham training ground, Chester said: “He just said that we have worked so hard to get where we are and we might never get this opportunity again in our careers.

“We have got to go out there and show what we have shown for the most part of the season.

“We need to be a bit more intense without the ball and make it more difficult for teams when they’ve got the ball. We need to turn them a bit more and get behind them.

“The manager gave us a few stern words at the start of the week, but the week has just gone as normal and we feel confident going into the Cardiff game.

“I can’t wait for kick-off. I have had my mates texting me all through the week.

“They are excited and I realise this is a huge opportunity for all of us to make our friends and family proud of us.”

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