Departing head coach Dave Craven pointed to injuries as the chief reason for Chester RUFC’s up-and-down season.

Craven, who stepped into the breach when Nic Corrigan left in November, guided the club to fifth place in National League Two North but believes it could have been different if his squad had not been stretched so thin.

Chester closed with a 21-12 defeat at Huddersfield on Saturday but had just 18 players available for the trip to West Yorkshire.

Craven, who will now step aside with a permanent replacement expected to be announced in the next few weeks, feels the lack of bodies counted against his team.

He said: “I think realistically we could have finished a bit higher with a little more luck with injuries through the season. In the last few games we were right down to the core of our squad and that lack of consistency in selection does make things difficult.

“We’ve got a good squad but not a big squad and we haven’t got the depth of some clubs and we were right down to our last 18 players for the final game.

“It’s a very strong league this season, certainly the strongest I have ever experienced and apart from the top two and bottom three, the other clubs were very similar to us and probably lost a few games they expected to win.

“Consistency is a very big thing and that’s probably made the difference between finishing third and where we have.

“I’m stepping down now because I took it on in a caretaker basis if you like to help the club see through the season and I was very happy to do that.

“It requires a lot of time and it’s not something I can do at the moment so it’s for the best but we’ve had three months or so to choose the right man and he’ll be bringing in his own players so it’s going be all change.”

It took 32 minutes for the first points to arrive at Huddersfield with Tom Owen crossing in the corner to put the home side five points up.

Chester hit back with a series of quick passes allowing Rhys Hayes to score and convert but the hosts went into half-time 13-7 ahead thanks to Elliot Hodgson’s try.

Michael Clark nudged Huddersfield further clear but a pushover score for Gavin Woods brought Chester to within six points before Joel Hinchliffe’s penalty sealed the win for the hosts.