Chester FC keeper Alex Lynch says Saturday's abject performance at Maidstone United was 'nowhere near' the standard expected of them.

An horrendous opening 45 minutes from the Blues at the Gallagher Stadium on Saturday saw them 4-0 down at the break, although they did rally in the second half to reduce the arrears and make it 4-2 but the damage was already done.

And Lynch, who was recalled to the side for the game after being replaced by Liam Roberts for the previous three games, was honest in his appraisal of the performance and acknowledged his side had let down the travelling fans in the opening period.

"It was nowhere near good enough from all of us, we were no way near good enough," said Lynch.

"We had to come out second-half and keep any sort of pride left on the line, but the damage was already done.

“The pitch is no excuse, we train on it every day so we’re used to it and used to the bounce. We can’t use any excuses, we prepared right all week and didn’t turn up and were nowhere near the standards we set.

“You can’t roll over and die and let it become six, seven or eight. You’ve got to show some character and realise what’s going on. People have paid hard-earned money to get down here so we had to come out, show some fight and give it a good go and we’ve done that. People will see that although it doesn’t make up for what happened in the first-half.

“We’ve now got an important period coming up so we’ve got to knuckle down and try to pick up some more points. We’ve got to work hard to put it right."

Lynch was dropped in favour of Roberts for the game against Dover Athletic last month and was forced to watch from the sidelines for the next two games until getting a recall to the side for the trip to Kent on Saturday.

And while disappointed with the result, Lynch is hopeful he can retain the number one jersey for Saturday's trip to Southport (3pm).

He said: “It was good to be back in, every enjoys playing football although there’s not too many positives you can take after a result like that,” he continued.

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“It’s always frustrating if you’re not playing but you’ve got to look at yourself and the things I’ve done wrong which I could have done better to keep myself in the side. But that’s football, you can’t play every game, I just have to get my head down and work hard in training and try to get myself back in the side.

“The result hasn’t done myself or any of the defence any favours.

“You’ve got to realise that no ones place is a dead cert every week and that’s no different for every player. It’s given me a boost as I've been working hard in training to do the right things to try and win my place back, and hopefully I can keep doing going positively.”

Chester travel to a Southport side battling against relegation and looking for their first win under new manager Andy Preece following the sacking of ex-Blues boss Steve Burr earlier in the month.

And Lynch with Chester still seven points off the original target of 50 points set by manager Jon McCarthy, the trip to Haig Avenue is an important one for a Blues side who have lost their last four games in the Vanarama National League.

He added: “Southport is a massive game, all the games coming up now are massive.

“We need to pick up some points especially against the teams around us. Southport we’ve got to go there and get the three points.

“The confidence is 100 per cent there. Obviously everyone is down because that result was a shambles, but we know what ability we’ve got in there.

“We’ve got big characters in that dressing room and we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this rut we’re in.”