Chester RUFC head coach Dave Craven says he can take comfort in the way his side played in their narrow 25-26 home loss to Sedgley Park on Saturday.

Craven’s men threw away a 15-point lead at Hare Lane in National League Two North against a visiting side who had thumped league leaders Hull Ionians the week before.

Craven’s side were close to victory but were left stunned following two quickfire kicks and a try from the visitors late on.

“I think that we played some of the best rugby we have all season during some spells on Saturday,” said Craven.

“But, on reflection we probably made too many mistakes and you can’t afford to do that against sides like Sedgley Park will punish you for it.

“We had a good start to the game and played some great stuff but we knew that they could play a bit and come back at us, and that’s what they did.”

Craven’s fourth-placed charges made a promising start to proceedings against their sixth-placed visitors from Manchester on Saturday with Sean Green crossing the whitewash on 22 minutes to give the hosts the advantage.

Will Goodwin converted the extras before Craig Ross further extended Chester’s lead with a try shortly after and Goodwin kicked over a penalty to put the Hare Lane side firmly in the driving seat at 15-0.

But Sedgley refused to lie down and centre Matthew Riley hauled them back into the contest with two tries and two conversions before James Harrison bolted clear of the Chester rearguard to restore parity.

The tie then swung back in Chester’s favour when Guy Ford and Ross both crossed for unconverted tries as the hosts looked on course for a battling triumph.

But they were left empty handed when Steve Collins kicked over twice and Juan Crous crossed to hand the win to the visitors.

“It is always disappointing to lose but there is no need to change anything as we played well enough,” said Craven.

“They beat the league leaders last week and I said that they were an unkown quantity at times and you didn’t know which side was going to turn up.

“But we can take some heart from our performance against a strong side.”

Chester are next in league action at Birmingham & Solihull on Saturday (2pm).