WATCH Marcus Bignot tells Chester FC players they are going full-time after shocking FA Cup exit

Marcus Bignot has told his Chester FC players they will be going full-time from Monday after their humiliating FA Cup exit at the hands of lower-league Kidderminster Harriers.

The Blues went down to a miserable 2-0 defeat to their National League North opponents that sparked an angry response from the short-changed travelling supporters.

And, while Bignot did his best to keep a lid on his anger, he made it clear that his part-time squad will now have to commit to an extra day’s training in the week - whether they like it or not.

He said: “I can agree with them (the fans) and their calls, and their shouts, and their views. Judging on today, you’ve got to agree with them.

“But as a manager I can agree with them and I can join the bandwagon or because I’ve got these players, I’ve inherited this group... Kidderminster are full-time, they’ve been full-time for how many years now. We’re not and if we continue not to be full-time that’s the kind of performance and results you can get.

“We need to go full-time and I’ve told the boys it’s going to be a full-time programme starting from Monday. It has to be. You can’t expect to compete at National (League) level, never mind in the North, where there’s six or seven professional teams.

“We have to be full-time, and once we get full-time that takes any excuses away from the players. If we get performances like that after we’ve gone full-time then they’ll see a different side to me.

“But at the moment I’m not going to rip shreds off them because I need them. I’m going to need every single player because this is the group we’ve got.

“I can lambast them, I can smash their confidence, but that’s not going to do them any good. I’m going to build them up and be prepared to work harder with them, so these boys are going to commit to a full-time programme and go from there.

“They are going to have to commit. They get paid well. It’s not a punishment. We want to improve and we want to be better.

“We’re in a league now that’s full-time and we have to be full-time so we’ll be introducing another day, and we need it.