Chester coach Nic Corrigan was pleased with the response of his players after they went down to a battling defeat against high-flying Darlington Mowden Park.
After being disappointed with the performance and attitude of his players in their defeat at Luctonians the previous week, Corrigan was heartened at the character displayed in their defeat at Hare Lane on Saturday.
In truth, Chester can feel hard done by and could well have taken maximum points from their lofty North East visitors.
All the points for the home side, who held a slender 6-5 lead at the break, came from the boot of Luke Gray as Corrigan’s men battled manfully to try and match the visitors, who sit third in the SSE National League Two North.
The hosts thought that they had made a crucial breakthrough in the second period when Andy Oakden intercepted a floated Park pass in midfield before sprinting away from the defence to cross under the posts, only to be called back and penalised for offside by the referee.
Darlington proved too strong as the game progressed and edged their way to victory through a converted Zylon McGaffin try and a late penalty.
“It was bittersweet if I’m honest as I thought we did enough to get something from the game, “ said Corrigan.
“The pleasing aspect of the game was that the side showed the character that had been missing the week before.
“We freshened things up a little bit and the response and performance was very, very good. It gave me a degree of comfort in defeat to know that we matched one of the very best sides in the league and should have grabbed the victory.
“That said, we haven’t managed to beat any of the sides in the top four this season and, for me, that’s disappointing.”
Corrigan was pleased with the performance of his younger players in the defeat and singled out 19-year-old flanker Kyle Joseph as a star turn.
“Kyle had an excellent game and his progress through the ranks embodies what we are all about as a club,” said Corrigan.
“Kyle has come through every junior age group that we have at the club and has made his way into the first team and is performing well. That is what we want to see.
“There is a chance for the young players to show what they can do between now and the end of the season.
“We want to build a team with our young players as well as the seniors. “How we perform between now and the end of the season will allow us to identify where we need to strengthen and how we recruit for next season.”
Chester are back in action on Saturday, March 22, when they travel to Yorkshire to take on Hull RUFC (3pm).
Chester 2nds fell to a 24-12 defeat when they travelled to Wilmslow 2nds in the Bateman BMW Conference B on Saturday.
