STEVE Mungall's promotion from caretaker to supremo may not have come on the back of the result he wanted, but it obviously didn't matter to City owner Steve Vaughan.

He had seen enough in the previous two matches, and the manner of this battling draw with one of the best teams in the Conference, to convince him the Scot was the right man to lead Chester, at least until the end of the season.

City didn't have the panache which had been a feature of their wins against Hereford and Morecambe, but in this gruelling clash they showed they had character and a determination not to buckle under pressure from muscular opponents.

'Doncaster adapted better than us in the first half, but we showed good character after that,' said Mungall.

That just about summed it up. There were times when Doncaster looked like delaying any announcement from the boardroom about Mungall's future and at half-time the visitors were well worth their lead after taking the game to their opponents.

And the opening goal didn't come as any surprise as Martyn Lancaster failed to cut out a pass from Tristan Whitman and the burly Neil Campbell pounced to shoot home.

Campbell had been walking a tightrope with more than one dubious challenge and when he led with an elbow on 27 minutes he connected with Michael Rose and the referee had no hesitation in showing the red card.

Chester's numerical advantage lasted only a minute before Dean Spink followed for violent conduct in a clash with Tim Ryan.

Mungall sent on Scott Ruscoe for the start of the second half in place of Wes Kilgannon and the response from the substitute was dramatic.

Just short of the hour he took a return pass from Chris Blackburn to fire past Barry Richardson for City's richly deserved equaliswer.

A cut and thrust half could have gone either way as both sides probed for weaknesses, but it was Chester who should have grabbed the winner three minutes from time.

Jimmy Haarhoff, who had chased lost causes all afternoon, dispossessed former City midfielder Paul Carden and it was a measure of his new-found confidence that he shot instead of releasing the unmarked Blackburn.

Sadly for him, and City, his shot flashed past the far post and the chance was lost, but in the end a draw was probably a fair result.

Chester: Brown, Kilgannon (Ruscoe 45), M Rose, Porter, Halford, Lancaster, C O'Brien, Blackburn, Haarhoff (Wright 90), Spink, O'Brien. Subs: Baxter, Ruffer, Jago.

Sent off: Spink. Booked: Lancaster, Haarhoff, Halford.

Doncaster: Richardson, Marples, Barrick, Carden, Hawkins, Ryan, Watson (Jackson 45), Owen, Campbell, Whitman (Barnes 69), Patterson (Cauldwell 67).

Sent off: Campbell. Booked: Campbell, Cauldwell.

Attendance: 2,148.