Chester FC captain John McCombe says the Blues have enough about them to avoid relegation from the National League this season.

The Blues spurned a golden chance for three points at Leyton Orient on Tuesday night when they were held 2-2 by the O’s despite leading the contest at the break and having a man advantage for 45 minutes following Jamie Sendle-White’s red card on the stroke of half time.

And with Ross Hannah missing a spot kick that would have made it 3-1, Chester were left to rue what might have been as they sit 21st in the National League and three points off safety.

McCombe told the National League website: “Before the game we might have taken 2-2. It was a tough game. Obviously being 2-1 up and they had a man sent off, missing the penalty hurt us a little bit as if we would have gone into half time 3-1 then I think we would have gone on and won the game.

“We’re a bit disappointed with the second half as we should have played a bit better and we let Leyton Orient back into it, but it was a fair result.

“They’re underachieving this year but they have got good players and they came back into second half and put big Matt Harrold on up front and went a bit more direct.

“They had a few chances but we had a couple as well but we should have held on and won the game 2-1.”

Performances have improved over the past five or six games for the Blues, but their inability to seal the three points is proving costly.

And with the gap starting to widen between the struggling sides and safety, the need for wins is greater than ever.

“The performances have been really good over the past five or six games but we have got to start winning more games,” said McCombe.

“We have to find away. It doesn’t matter about playing well, we need to turn them into wins.

“We’ve definitely progressed but we feel we have the ability to progress even more than we have so far. We’ve been unlucky at Maidstone away, Eastleigh we drew and probably should have won, and then Bromley as well.

“We know we should be picking up more points.”

Chester are among the bookies favourites for the drop come the end of the season, and the prospect of National League North football is a very real one unless they can start picking up wins.

But McCombe, 32, is adamant that they have enough quality to see themselves safe.

He said: “It’s always tough. If you look at the league it is very even. You wouldn’t expect a team like Leyton Orient with their history and their budget to be down there, there are some big teams.

“But we know we are good enough.”