CHESTER head coach Nic Corrigan apologised for what he branded an ‘unacceptable performance’ after his side slumped to a 14-0 defeat against Leicester Lions.

In what was the first ever meeting between these two sides, it was ill discipline that cost Chester dear.

While both David Ford and John MacKenzie were in the sin bin in the first half the Lions made their mark with two converted scores.

Indeed those ended up being the only points of the entire clash and Corrigan admitted his side had only themselves to blame for not making more of their opportunities.

“We had travelling supporters who travelled with us and I take the blame for the performance, which was unacceptable – end of story,” he said.

“We haven’t got that depth, we had five guys who started last week unavailable this week through injury and I’m not making excuses but we haven’t got that depth and it was a great opportunity for guys who had been fringe players to come and show what they said they can do – that then compounded by the fact that we had three injuries in the front row to two props and a hooker, one that left the prop in hospital, and at a game where it is very different – it was poor, really poor.

“We had six opportunities to score a try and I’ve got people who can’t keep their composure, which is unacceptable and this is the point now where I believe in loyalty and honesty, and this is the harder side of honesty – we were poor, including myself, from top to bottom this week and we’re sorry to our supporters, simple as that.”

Ford and MacKenzie returned to the pitch before the interval but William Nelson also saw yellow after the break.

And Corrigan admitted that his side must start to learn from rather than compounding their mistakes in this league as they slipped to ninth in the table.

The newly-promoted club began their campaign with four successive wins but since then have slipped to three defeats on the spin and Corrigan is keen to arrest the slide as soon as possible.

“You play 50 minutes with 15 men on the pitch, at one point of the game we had 13 men on the pitch, and its not necessarily discipline but game management and we were poor at that,” he added.

“I’m not giving you an over reaction, I’m giving it to you how it is and the players know this.”

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