Steve Burr is hoping to call in a few favours as he bids to strengthen his threadbare Chester FC squad.

Burr’s side followed up their memorable 3-2 derby success over Wrexham on Saturday with a disappointing defeat by the same scoreline at Barrow on Tuesday, with depleted numbers leaving the Chester manager little room for manoeuvre.

The Blues boss had added Oxford United striker James Roberts on an initial month-long loan last week but the 19-year-old, who made an eye-catching debut against the Dragons, was given compassionate leave on Monday following the tragic death of his 16-year-old brother on Saturday night.

And with Dale Tonge departing the club last week in search of regular first-team football and Luke George still yet to full recover from a pulled thigh muscle, Burr has been left with a desperately thin squad – a problem he hopes to address before Saturday’s league visit of Lincoln City (3pm).

“We are trying to bring in one or two favours from clubs where we can maybe get lads in,” said the Blues manager, whose side slipped to 16th following defeat at Holker Street.

“We’re still looking to see what we can do and there will be a bit of work on now for Saturday.”

Look: Action from Chester FC's defeat at Barrow

With Chester’s inconsistencies evident again at Barrow, Burr expressed his frustration at his side’s inability to replicate their strong performances against the top sides when facing the National League’s lesser lights.

“From how I saw it, we came (to Barrow) thinking we would pass it around without doing the stuff that we did on Saturday, the hard work and the closing down and we didn’t get in amongst them,” he said.

“You have got to be like that and we need to have that Wrexham and Grimsby week in, week out. When we keep on getting inconsistencies like we do then we are going to be up and down, up and down and be left scratching our heads.

“We’ll be looking at getting down and working hard ready for Lincoln and looking to bounce back. From our point of view we need to find consistent level of performances if we are going to move up the table.”