The Bucks put in a commanding performance to comfortably beat Chester 3-1 on Boxing Day.

After an even opening five minutes or so, the Bucks grabbed the lead on 8 minutes. Jordan Cranston took a short corner to Remi Walker, who shifted it on to Jamie Meddows on the edge of the area, and from 20 yards out, Meddows hit a shot that found its way past George Murray-Jones in the Chester goal thanks to a deflection.

From that point, the Bucks dominated the rest of the first half, with the visitors reduced to a few pop shots from outside the area.

Telford could and perhaps should have made it two on 15 minutes when Walker got into the left channel and squared for Matty Stenson, but the Bucks’ top scorer had to slide and didn’t connect cleanly allowing a Chester man to hook clear off the line. Six minutes later, Dion Kelly-Evans’ last ditch tackle denied Ammar Dyer, who found himself in on goal after some lovely interplay between Stenson and Walker.

Wilkin’s men did eventually make it 2-0 in the 33rd minute. It was another slick move from the Bucks, slicing through Chester with some neat passing football that led to Walker laying the ball off to Stenson, who placed a shot into the keeper’s bottom left corner from just outside the box.

The Bucks contained to dictate the play and went into half time 2-0, with the visitors booed off by the travelling fans.

Calum McIntrye made a quadruple substitution at half time, and the changes seemed to work as Chester came out on the front foot after the break. Having tested Gracey a couple of times, the Blues found a way back into the game in the 56th minute. A well-worked corner routine saw Nathan Woodthorpe steer the ball to the back post, where an unmarked Kevin Roberts was on hand to tap home from two yards out.

That brought the away fans to live, and it felt as though the momentum was shifting toward the Blues. But just as it seemed that the Bucks were on the ropes, up popped Stenson to deliver the knockout blow. Just four minutes after Chester had scored, a somewhat hopeful long ball forward saw the Chester defender leave it for his keeper, but the ball didn’t carry into the penalty area, allowing Stenson to nip in, round Murray-Jones, and slide home into the empty net.

The goal knocked all the wind out of the visitors’ sails, and the game settled into a similar pattern to that which had unfolded in the first, with the Bucks once again in control. There were fewer clear cut chances this time, though. Meddows came closest to adding a fourth in the 78th minute, when he drove into the right channel before cutting back onto his left foot and curling an effort narrowly wide of Murray-Jones’ right-hand post.

A 3-1 win for the Bucks that sees Wilkin’s men jump up to 10th in the table.