KANE RICHARDS wants to see the Chester team starting to grow up.

The Blues striker admitted he was hurt and bitterly disappointed after his side’s 3-1 league defeat at Woking on Monday.

Chester’s latest loss means the club have conceded 13 goals in their opening seven matches and have pocketed just seven points.

“Our inconsistency hurts us more than anyone,” Richards said.

“People don’t understand how much a defeat hurts us in the changing room because we are the ones who have played in the game.

“I think we have really got to start to grow up. We have got a young squad and people are still learning, but we have got to just learn to see games out and learn to see what type of game it is and then I think the results will start to come.

“I’m not sure what our problem was at Woking, but it doesn’t matter whether people point the finger of blame at our defence, midfield, or forwards, because as a team we concede and score goals as a team.

“We all know that we didn’t start at it like we did on Saturday in our 4-0 win against Sutton United, and conceding two goals after we had equalised on Monday killed us a little bit and left us chasing the game.”

Richards, who has scored one goal so far this season, stressed the need for his club to do better, after partnering James Alabi in attack on Monday after his fellow striker had served a three-game suspension.

He added: “I love playing with James and we link up all the time, but I also don’t mind if I’m told to play up front by myself because that’s just part and parcel of being a striker.

“Having James back on Monday and playing alongside me did take a bit of the weight off me, but Woking had five or six across their backline, so it was a bit difficult.

“I think the team as a whole have got to do a lot better and cause teams more problems in the danger areas as well as making it harder for teams to score.”

Richards is now determined to help Chester get back on track this Saturday when they entertain high-flying Forest Green Rovers.

He said: “We don’t fear playing anyone in this league and I think we’ve already showed that if you look at the teams we’ve beaten.

“But it’s all about getting that consistency because we don’t want to be one of those teams who only win one in two or three games.

“We need to be putting runs together and getting points on the board

“We are always disappointed when we lose because we want to believe in ourselves.

“I didn’t think we started against Woking as well as we should have, but we’ll now have to go again on Saturday against Forest Green Rovers and see if we can get the three points.”

Chester manager Jon McCarthy admitted his side have conceded far too many goals this season and was planning to work on the problem ahead of the match against Forest Green, who have scored 14 times this term.

He said: “We have conceded too many goals to get anything from our games.

“I have always told the players that we either keep a cleansheet or concede just one goal and that’s it.

“Our players will tell you that I hammer that home to them and that has been an issue for us this season.

“Our goals tally for is respectable, so we need to do some more work on making sure we don’t concede. 

“We are getting close to it and every now and then we have showed good work in some games, but I need to look again and work harder to see what the issues are and make sure we are consistent.”