City want Barry Conlon to stay for the rest of the season.

Stuart McCall met the striker’s agent yesterday with the offer of another short-term deal on the table.

And youngster Leon Osborne is also expected to be handed the chance to prove himself over the second half of the campaign.

McCall has been pleased with the way Conlon has responded to the six-month contract he signed in the summer. He is now waiting to find out if the Irishman will be happy to put pen to paper on the same terms – or hold out for a longer deal elsewhere.

McCall said: “It’s a tough one because I’m quite sure there are a couple of other teams that are willing to give him 18 months. At this stage we’re probably not willing to do that; it will be another deal to the end of the season.

“We’ll see what Barry thinks about that because in football you are looking for security. But both players have done well with the six-month deals they’ve had and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement and hopefully finalise something in the next couple of days.”

Peter Thorne has recovered from the injured shoulder he suffered at Brentford so Conlon may again have to settle for a bench role as City chase three much-needed points against Chester.

The visitors have won two of their last three games, including an impressive scalp at Darlington, and have bucked their ideas up since Mark Wright took the managerial reins for a third time.

McCall admitted: “We might have looked at this fixture a month ago as a home banker but that’s certainly not the case any more.

“Since Mark has come back in, he has tightened them up at the back and Chester have become very hard to beat. I saw him at a game at Rotherham a few weeks ago and he thought he had a real task on but he has really shored them up.

“They have won at Darlington, were unlucky by all accounts to lose to Darren Anderton’s last-minute goal at Bournemouth and then kept a clean sheet again last week to beat Notts County.

“Once you put results and performances together like that, then the confidence grows. A new manager comes in and things change and Mark has certainly improved them considerably.”

McCall is hoping his own side can replicate their encouraging performance at Brentford – but this time take the scoring chances that come along.

“Managers are always concerned when you’re not creating chances but the last couple of games we’ve had good opportunities and just not hit the target.

“That’s not a criticism of the strikers because they’ve all chipped in with goals. We’ve got to look to finish off our all-round attacking play.

“We didn’t get any luck last week and hopefully that will turn.

“But we’ve done some shooting and crossing in training and we’ll see if it pays off. We need a good positive performance to take into the Christmas period.”

Lee Bullock and Dean Furman both returned with 45-minute outings for the reserves and have reported no ill-effects. But neither are considered ready to be added to the squad for the weekend.