Chester FC boss Steve Burr stressed the need to 'stick together' after a 2-0 loss at relegation rivals Torquay United heightened the pressure on his team.
Burr and his players spent almost half an hour in the dressing room after the defeat at Plainmoor, a result which leaves the Blues four points above the bottom four.
Nathan Blissett headed the home side into the lead from a third-minute corner and the Gulls completed the win late on when Iffy Allen finished off a counter attack with Chester committing men forward.
"We got off to the worst possible start didn't we," said Burr afterwards.
"It was really disappointing and after the setback with that we got ourselves going and I thought it was reasonably even up to half-time but it was a terrible start for us.
"In the second-half I felt we had some good opportunities to get ourselves back in the game but it just wasn't to be.
"We didn't test their keeper enough, not at all and that was disappointing. I think you could see again our final ball and our passing was poor and that confidence draining out of the team.
"We've had a few words in the dressing room, we've got four games to go and we've got to stick together to get ourselves out of this predicament."
Read: Jim Green's verdict on Chester's defeat at Plainmoor
With defender Ben Heneghan ruled out with a knee problem, Burr made three changes to his starting XI having opted to leave Ryan Higgins and Danny O'Brien out of his squad.
Sam Hughes took the place of Higgins at right-back but Gulls winger Toby Ajala gave the teenager a rough evening.
Burr explained afterwards: "It was a difficult game for Sam. We looked at the aerial presence of Torquay and Ryan like a lot of them has been struggling with his confidence a little but but there's a chance he'll be back in on Saturday.
"We left Danny at home too and brought the squad that we felt was going to get a result. We missed Ben because he's been a big player for us since he's been here hopefully it's not too bad and he'll be available for Saturday."
There were a couple of minor positives for Chester with winger Craig Mahon having his best game for some time and midfielder Luke George completing 85 minutes on his first start since January.
"Luke's been missing for a considerable amount of time and I think it showed how much we've missed him because he adds that bite in the middle of the park," said Burr.
"One of the pluses was obviously getting so many minutes of him. It was probably hard to tell but the pitch was quite heavy and took a lot out of him so you could see that things perhaps caught up with him fitness wise."
