CHESTER coach Jan Van Deventer was left ‘speechless’ by his side’s superb display in their 57-10 hammering of promotion rivals Huddersfield.

The Hare Lane club ran riot on the third-placed West Yorkshire side to underline their National League Two title credentials.

After recording the impressive bonus-point win, Chester pushed themselves level on points with leaders Hull Ionians with three games of the season remaining.

The hosts enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges and went 7-0 ahead through Sean Green’s early try, which James Robins converted.

Huddersfield reduced arrears with a penalty from fly-half Chris Johnson, before scrum-half Joe Green barrelled over for a converted score to put Huddersfield ahead.

But Chester took a two-point lead into the half-time break, with Shay Owen (pictured left) ploughing through the visitors defence to reach the whitewash.

A galvanised Chester emerged for the second half with renewed purpose as they set about dismantling the opposition’s defence at every opportunity.

First up was Guy Ford, who charged down the wing before crossing in the corner.

Three tries in quick succession followed with Green and Owen both notching their second scores of the afternoon and Rhodri Parry’s converted effort taking the score to 38-10.

Ford then scored his second of the contest after driving over from a maul, before Owen maintained his fine recent form by going over for his third soon after, with Robins deftly converting both efforts.

A delighted Van Deventer said: “It was an outstanding second half performance from us and one that came out of the blue for us.

“The quality of our attacking play in that second half actually left me a bit speechless - I just didn’t see it coming.

“When we played Huddersfield at their place it was in muddy conditions and it was attritional at times.

“This was completely different. By half-time I thought we’d missed a few chances and that we could have been further ahead.

“Defensively we’d been excellent up to that point and controlled things very well in that respect.

“But right from the second ha;f whistle I thought we were spectacular,

“All credit to the players for another phenomenal performance. We’ve seen off Wharfedale and Fylde in the last few weeks and this feels like another big hurdle cleared now.”

Hull remain top after their 22-15 home victory over Preston Grasshoppers, while third-placed Fylde lost 14-13 at Wharfedale and Stourbridge beat Otley 60-17.