Chester FC manager Marcus Bignot is hopeful that he can add two more players to his squad before Tuesday night's crunch home encounter with Barrow.

The Blues' National League woes deepened with a 2-1 home defeat to Boreham Wood at the Swansway Chester Stadium on Saturday where a dreadful 25-minute spell in the first half cost them dear as the visitors took a 2-0 lead into the break.

Chester rallied somewhat after the break and Nyal Bell reduced the arrears with 13 minutes remaining, but it was too little, too late for Bignot's men and he has moved to bring in more new faces after handing home debuts to loanees Offrande Zanzala and Reece Hall-Johnson.

"We will try our hardest to bring one or two players in for Tuesday of a mentality that will help this group," said Bignot.

"Fingers crossed. We've spoken to two clubs about their players and hopefully we will have some news over the weekend or hopefully Monday and hopefully we will have a couple of additions to the group."

And Bignot is hopeful that new players can ease some of the pressure on some members of the squad who have performed below par, admitting some are suffering from low confidence.

Added Bignot: "There are one or two clearly (low on confidence) and the supporters can see it. There are good players in there but their confidence has been knocked. Sometimes they just need to come out of the firing line.

Chester concede against Boreham Wood

"When I arrived there wasn't competition for places, there wasn't that depth to it and there wasn't balance to it."

As for the game itself, Bignot acknowledged that the first half was well below the standard required and said that his half-time team talk reflected the mood in the stands.

He said: "I thought up until the goal we were well in the game. Obviously the conditions played a part in terms of it being a spectacle.

"I thought for the period after the goal you could see the atmosphere changed around the ground, you could see the players' confidence visibly dropped. There certainly was negativity on the terraces, but in the second half that negativity went away and there was support from the terraces and that transcended and gave players belief.

"But the half time team talk and what you heard on the terraces was certainly off the same hymn sheet. Our supporters are intelligent supporters and know the situation of the football club off the pitch and know the problems we are facing on the pitch. They are not stupid and they realise what needs to be done, and what you are seeing is a football club trying to put things right, i.e going full-time and bringing in new players. One got Man of the Match (Reece Hall-Johnson) today and the other one (Offrande Zanzala) caused a nuisance all afternoon."

"Second half it was some way of going in the right direction of where we need to be. We know what's wrong and we are working to try and put things right. It is about now everybody, management, board, players, press, supporters, what are we going to do as a collective to go and get these positive performances and results in terms of getting us moving in the right direction."