Steve Burr said he and his team ‘will take responsibility’ for the Blues 5-0 pummelling at home to Barnet on Saturday.

It was not so much the result but the performance that was most galling on a black afternoon at the Swansway Chester Stadium.

Emotions ran high on the terraces and the fans inquest began as soon as the full-time whistle had sounded, but the hope is that this is 'one of those days'.

Barnet were excellent but this was not the same Chester we have seen in pre-season, and the management and squad will be hurting too.

Already one-down when Danny Harrison saw red on 15 minutes, the 10-man hosts conceded twice more and found themselves 3-0 behind inside 31 minutes.

Barnet added two more in the opening 12 minutes of the second half to compound the pain before easing up.

“We will take responsibility when you lose a game like that,” said Burr.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed with the result. I think everything that could go wrong for us in 45 minutes of a football match, did go wrong.

“The sending off has obviously had a bearing but we were very sloppy with certain goals we conceded, which is not good enough.”

Burr questioned referee Steven Rushton’s decision to show Harrison a red card for a 50-50 challenge with Sam Togwell, who came off worse.

But the manager insisted he would not use that as an excuse for the result or the performance.

Burr said: “I spoke to Martin Allen and he thought it was a straight red but I thought the pair of them went high and the referee obviously decided to send Danny off and your plans go out the window.

“Even we’ve 10 men, we’ve had chances to score in the first half that may have changed things but I don’t really think so.

“I don’t want to make any excuses that we were down to 10 men but it was very difficult out there with 10 men.

"You get decisions that go for you and go against you, and they went against us but we just didn't seem to have any lady luck either.

"I thought we started off quite brightly in the first 10 or 15 minutes and they scored with their first attack.

“I think in the first half they had something like four shots and scored three goals, but that’s the nature of the game: putting your chances away and they did

“In all my time in football, that 45 minutes was hard to take because everything that could go against us, went against us.”

With midfield interceptor Harrison back in the dressing room, the Blues could not cope with the Bees pace or power.

Rooney could have given his side  some hope seconds before half time when Mr Rushton awarded the home side a penalty, but keeper Graham Stack saved well down to his right.

Burr said: “John’s apologised but he’s stood up before and hit the back of net for us and it’s just one of those and how the day went really.”

Big-spending Forest Green Rovers, who won 1-0 at Southport thanks to a Lee Hughes goal, are up next for the Blues on Tuesday (7.45pm).