Chester FC remain in relegation danger after throwing away a 2-1 lead inside the final seven minutes to eventually lose 3-2 to fellow strugglers Woking.

The Blues bossed the game for long periods and lead inside the final 10 minutes after Liam Davies and Elliott Durrell had put them in the driving seat after Brian Saah had handed Woking the lead on 53 minutes.

But Terell Thomas struck on 85 minutes to level before Gozie Ugwu fired home a 90th-minute penalty after Luke George, who had played a fine game before this mistake, was deemed to have handled in the area.

But Chester’s inability to see out a game from a position of strength was all too evident again and they remain on shaky ground going into the final two game of the season.

Both sides came into the game needing to maximum points to help stave off the threat of relegation from the National League, although the position of Garry Hill’s men was far more precarious.

It had been four months since Chester last won a game at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium, a 2-0 victory over Aldershot Town that lifted them as high as seventh in the table following a tremendous run of just one defeat in 17 games.

Since then, though, Chester had been in freefall. The Blues had gleaned just 13 points from a possible 51 in the 17 games before the visit of the Cards and the mood among the home faithful had turned on its head from those heady December days, with the limp 2-0 Good Friday loss at Forest Green Rovers doing little to bring any cheer.

Ryan Lloyd and Tom Shaw returned to the starting line up after missing the loss at the New Lawn while there was another appearance on the bench for James Akintunde, who made a return to action in Gloucestershire after six months on the sidelines.

Chester started the contest slugglishly and almost found themselves a goal down within three minutes when a deep Woking corner fell at the feet of Joey Jones whose effort was cleared by Elliott Durrell as far as Ugwu who saw his goal-bound header nodded off the line by Theo Vassell.

Chester were struggling to find any kind of rhythm and looked nervy while their visitors looked hungry to take the contest to the out-of-sorts Blues.

Liam Davies, handed his first home start after making his debut for the club on Friday, was struggling in an unfamiliar wing back role and Jake Caprice had the better of him on more than one occasion as Woking found inroads in the Blues backline.

Alex Lynch had to be alert to save from Caprice after he skipped past Davies before Delano Sam-Yorke committed one of the worst misses of the season.

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Lloyd played a horrible back pass to Lynch on 15 minutes that was picked off by the big Cards striker who rounded the stranded Chester keeper before firing into the side netting with the goal at his mercy.

Durrell saw a long-range effort easily saved by Michael Poke while Sam Hughes nodded a corner just over as Chester looked to get something going from what was a pretty turgid first 30 minutes for the home side.

But the home side did raise their game for the final 15 minutes of the half.

Lloyd fired a 30-yarder just over before Ryan Astles produced a marauding run with the ball from defence into the Woking half, laying the ball off to Lloyd before connecting with the midfielder’s cross, but Poke was equal to it.

Durrell then saw a fierce 25-yard effort beaten away by Poke before the Cards keeper bravely denied James Alabi one-on-one after he had been played in by a fine through ball from Astles.

The Blues continued in a more positive fashion after the break but found themselves a goal down seven minutes after restart when a free kick from the left was whipped in by Jones but Hughes was unable to clear and Saah was on hand to fire home the opener from 12 yards.

But Chester didn’t sulk and they were level two minutes later when Wade Joyce found space on the right and crossed superbly to the far post where Davies rose highest to powerfully head home for a goal on his home debut.

The goal lifted Chester and they played with more urgency, moving the ball around with far more purpose than they have had at home in recent months, but they found that their lack of incision in the final third remained and they were struggling to make their spell of dominance count.

But with eight minutes left Chester finally hit the front when substitute James Akintunde, in his first home appearance for six months after injury, broke into the area and caused panic with the ball falling to Shaw who scuffed it into the path of Durrell who made no mistake from 10 yards.

But the home win that has eluded Chester for 2017 was to remain just that, elusive.

The Cards levelled with five minutes left when Keiran Murtagh played in Thomas in acres of space in the area and his poorly struck, bobbled effort crept past Lynch from 12 yards.

And there was more drama to come.

A Woking corner was deemed to have been handled by George and referee Steven Rushton had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Ugwu did the rest from the spot, finding the bottom left corner despite a hand from Lynch.

Chester couldn’t muster a response and remain in some danger heading into the final two games of the season. Rough justice but you make your own luck.

MATCH FILE

Chester: Lynch, George, Astles, Vassell, Hughes, Durrell, Shaw, Lloyd, Joyce (Akintunde 74), Davies, Alabi. Subs: Roberts, Hunt, Waters, Dawson.

Bookings:

Goals: Davies 55, Durrell 82.

Woking: Poke, Caprice (84), Thomas, Jones, Saah, Murtagh, Ugwu, Ralph, Saraiva (Kretzschmar 71), Sam-Yorke (Lucas 65), Ferdinand. Subs: B Hall, Lewis.

Bookings:

Goals: Saah 53, Thomas 85, Ugwiu 90 (pen).

Referee: Steven Rushton.

Attendance: 1,770.

Star man: Luke George.