A crestfallen Steve Burr struggled to explain the traumatic finish to the season that ended with his side being relegated.
Chester knew three points from the game with Salisbury City would be enough to guarantee them Conference Premier football for another season.
Everything was going according to plan with four minutes remaining, with Danny Carlton and John Rooney giving the Blues a 2-1 lead and Aldershot Town drawing 1-1 with Hereford United, who had to win to have any chance of survival.
But then Jamie White equalised for the Whites and Michael Rankine scored a dramatic winner for the Bulls at the Recreation Ground, confining Chester to the drop.
Like the 3,500-strong crowd inside the Swansway Chester Stadium, Burr found it difficult to grasp what had transpired.
He said: "It's very hard to get your thoughts on your game when you've been relegated so it's difficult to make any positive comments because we are all down in the dumps because we haven't pulled it off and managed to keep the team in this division.
"We've just been keeping our heads above water out of the bottom four but, whether you want to call it a bit of bad luck or whatever, the table doesn't lie at the end of the season.
"To go down on 50 points, normally you'd expect that to be enough but that wasn't the case
"It was quite a dramatic turnaround really. It's very difficult to comprehend what's happened."
Burr replaced Neil Young as manager in January and a win over Barnet in his first game in charge hoisted the club out of the relegation places, only dropping back in on the final day.
His contract expires in the next fortnight and the 54-year-old is uncertain whether he will remain as manager.
Burr, who has been more used to battles at the top of the Conference Premier in recent seasons, has made no secret of his belief in the potential at the club.
He won the Conference North title when managing Northwich Victoria and many fans will be hoping the board can persuade him to stay, although he could be a target for other clubs.
Burr said: "I'll have to sit down with the people here and talk to them and see what they want to do,
"It will go down on my CV as the team has been relegated so they might not want me here.
"But I do feel that since I have arrived we have had a go at keeping the team up. There are certain decisions you've got to make while you are here that I have made with the backroom boys, and I feel that we have got most of them right.
"I thought we got the majority of them right against Sailsbury but the draw wasn't enough to keep us in this division.
"At the minute I'm very down at the fact that we haven't been able to pull it off and keep the team in this division, and that's a massive disappointment to me personally."
