YORK City boss Steve Watson is looking forward to Saturday's clash at home to Chester, which he says "has the makings of a cracking game".

Watson also said the Minstermen need to improve on last week's showing, when York were not at their best but got the all-important three points against Kettering Town.

Both York are Chester are vying for top spots in National League North. When the two met back in October, City led the table and Chester were just two points behind.

The stakes have altered just slightly since then, with King's Lynn Town overtaking the pair, but it remains an important second-against-third match-up between two sides of real quality on their day.

Watson also noted that York have performed well against sides near them in the league - they won 1-0 at Chester earlier in the season, beat King's Lynn at home and put in a good performance at The Walks.

On Tuesday night, Chester suffered a 2-0 defeat at Gateshead.

"You don't judge a team on one game," Watson said.

"They had good spells against Gateshead but Gateshead were good on the night - they're a good side - they keep the ball well and use it well.

"Their manager admitted Gateshead deserved the win.

"But you know enough about Chester from watching them all season to know their quality, they've got good pace in the flanks and dangers all over the pitch.

"We know it's going to be a really tough game but a game we're all looking forward to.

"Chester are another big club, they've got experienced players on the pitch and an experienced management team.

"Both are in good positions in the league and both in a position where we need to bang out as many wins as we can and hope there is a sticky spell for the leaders somewhere in the future.

"Two good sets of fans, I know they're quite verbal with each other, certainly on social media, and in a good, footballing way when they play each other.

"It's got the makings of a cracking weekend game.

"We have had a good response to all the games against teams around us," he continued, indicating the win in Cheshire earlier this season, when Dan Maguire netted his first goal in York colours to send City five points clear at the top.

"We had a good game at Chester, although Chester were very good," he said. "We got the goal we needed and we were solid. We were against King's Lynn at home and we did well against King's Lynn away, and against Stockport.

"The teams that get promoted are the teams who do well against every team

"We know that we need to be a lot better to achieve what we want to achieve this weekend."

At this stage of the season, Watson admits that wins are important, but suggested that does not preclude playing an entertaining style of football.

Jordan Burrow got the only goal of the game as York squeezed past Kettering, but it was not a world-beating performance.

Watson gave a balanced review of the 1-0 win, saying it was not dreadful but York know they need to "be better" to have a chance of achieving their goals at the end of the season.

He said: "Obviously your points total at the end of the season is all that matters but we know if we don't perform better there is less chance of us getting the points total we need.

"It wasn't a dreadful performance, but we didn't look after the ball well enough and we didn't create enough.

"We played a lot better and created a lot more at King's Lynn and we came away with nothing.

"It is that point in the season where it's very important to win but if you try to set the team up to play a certain way and you try to achieve a certain level and standard the fans want to watch, we need to be better than we were against Kettering.

"But we know that. It's not something we're too concerned about. We address it and that's all we can do."