‘A BAD day at the office’ was Jan Van Deventer’s take on Chester’s 35-7 defeat at Hinckley.

The title-chasing Hare Lane club slumped to their second heaviest defeat of the season in Leicestershire and slipped to third in the National League Two standings.

A punishing afternoon for the visitors saw them ship five tries, four of which came from the prolific Callum Dacey.

The pacey left wing wreaked havoc in the home defence and crossed the whitewash twice in the opening 10 minutes.

Both scores were converted by Joe Wilson to hand Hinckley a 14-0 lead that they held until the interval.

Chester fell further behind early in the second half with Dacey storming clear to complete his hat-trick, before Wilson added the extras.

Chester rallied and hit back through a converted score from powerful number 8 Shay Owen.

But there was no way back for the visitors as Dacey ran in his fourth of the afternoon late on, before full back Josh Smith crashed over to complete the rout.

Reflecting on a day to forget for his side, head coach Van Deventer said: “It was a really bad day at the office for us.

“After a terrible start we never really get going and couldn’t find a way back in the game at all.

“It was a very poor performance and very out of character after some of our recent games.

“The players were off colour and there were far too many individual errors throughout the game.

“From one to 15 you could see that everyone missed at least two tackles, were guilty of handling errors at various times and some gave away very cheap penalties.

“It’s one of those games where we have to dust ourselves down and reflect, because it fell well below the standards we’ve set for ourselves of late.”

Hull Ionians now boast a five-point lead at the summit after their 59-10 hammering of South Leicester

Tynedale, while second-placed Huddersfield slipped to a surprise 20-13 home defeat to Wharfedale.