Matty Hughes marked his long-awaited return to action with a goal on Friday evening as National League North Chester overcame Cheadle Town.

The 27-year-old suffered a torn ACL early last season and has been out of action ever since.

But it took him just eight minutes to pick up where he left off, scoring the opener in the Blues’ 2-1 win and getting 45 minutes under his belt ahead of the new season.

“It felt good, obviously there is a lot longer to go for me and I need to get more minutes in the bag but I feel good,” he told the club’s official website.

“That’s what I wanted [a goal]. I wanted to start off quick and I got the goal pretty early and just kicked on from there.”

With the striker currently training full-time with Chester in the hope of securing a contract, joint-boss Bernard Morley was coy on whether a deal would be offered.

He said: “We need to see him at 100% and showing those energy levels that he showed last season, then hopefully there will be a deal on the table for Matty Hughes.”