MARCUS Bignot hailed his battle-weary Blues as they grabbed a deserved share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw at Bromley.

Missing a host of key players, including Ryan Astles, Tom Shaw, Reece Hall-Johnson, Jordan Archer and Craig Mahon, the Blues shrugged off their growing injury list to claim a morale boosting point.

Ross Hannah handed the Blues a 14th minute lead after collecting Lucas Dawson’s pass and firing low underneath David Gregory.

And although the visitors were pegged back just a minute later as Louis Dennis levelled, Bignot was proud of his side.

“You only have to look where Bromley are in the league, it was always going to be a difficult game,” said the Blues boss. “I’ve got to give credit to our players, they’ve acquitted themselves really well again.

“We were comfortable coming in at half time in terms of how we went about our business and how we applied ourselves.

“In the second-half they’ve applied the pressure and we’ve stood up to it.

“It’s a really positive result for us.”

As is seemingly Chester’s luck of late, the game was not without an injury setback with the impressive Harry White forced off just past the hour mark.

Bignot was not giving too much away with regards the severity of White’s injury, but it is another blow for the threadbare Blues.

“He started and we are disappointed to lose him now because he was back to the Harry White we all know,” said Bignot. “Things were going well and we obviously got the setback with Harry and it kind of knocked our momentum a little bit.

“But Nyal Bell has come on and, again, he’s been superb.”

Bignot, who saw scorer Hannah go close to a winner as he struck a post in the second period, was encouraged by a fifth successive impressive performance.

Victory over Barrow, narrow defeats to Maidstone and Wrexham as well as draws with Eastleigh and Bromley have given Bignot reason to be confident he can lift the Blues out of the drop zone.

“Those travelling supporters, and thank you once again, they can only be proud of what they players have put on today,” continued Bignot. “You’ve just spoke about the players who are missing today and I’ve said we will only be as strong as our bench and the environment we create will only ever be as good as those people sitting in the stands.

“This group is coming together. That is five performances on the bounce and today we got the result we deserved with the performance.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Blues in the short term with tomorrow’s trip to Leyton Orient followed by a televised home clash against Dagenham on Saturday.

Bignot joked that he might need to ask people on the street to help him name a 16-man squad for the forthcoming trip to Brisbane Road.

“It’s a challenging week for us,” he said. “We travelled on the day today, we will travel on the day to Leyton Orient and then we’ve got an early kick-off on the television on Saturday, so it’s really going to test the squad.

“I’ve gone and said we are down to bare bones, I don’t even think we are down to bare bones now, I might have to pick someone up in my car on the way to the game and see whether they want to play.

“That’s where we are at, at the moment.”

But Bignot, who has been able to bring in defender Myles Anderson from Torquay United and Wolves’ youngster Ryan Rainey on loan deals in the last week, is confident the Blues will get their rewards if they keep doing the right things.

“Every single player that has played today has been a credit to the football club,” he added. “If we continue to work hard we will continue to get our just deserts.”

Bromley boss Neil Smith was left disappointed after his side, who slipped to seventh in the table, were held at home.

“I’m very frustrated,” said Smith. “It was a bit like last week where we’ve had chances and not put them away, especially in the second-half.

“I was a bit disappointed with how we played in the first-half, but we showed character to get a goal back after going behind.

“We huffed and puffed and it’s disappointing that we couldn’t put one of our chances away.

“We are unbeaten again, but it’s disappointing.”

Smith also found time to praise Chester for their resilience, adding: “Fair play to Chester.

“They hit us on the break a couple of times and obviously got their goal as well.

“They never gave up and we knew that they wouldn’t.

“We said before the game that when chances come along, they will be few and far between and we need to take them.”