Ryan Astles insists he is focused solely on Chester's survival plight after being offered a new playing deal with the Blues.

The 23-year-old centre back is understood to be one of three players offered contracts for next season by the ailing club, whose National League future looks bleak.

Relegation looms large for Chester, with Sunday's derby defeat to Wrexham leaving them six points adrift of safety with just five games remaining.

In a season blighted by serious financial shortfalls, manager Marcus Bignot has already moved on several high-earners to safeguard the future of the cash-strapped club.

And while Astles' commanding performances at the back for Chester have provided a rare positive this term, he remains non-committal on his own future with the club.

He said: "To be fair I've had loads of people ask me about this (new contract), but I'm just concentrating on what's happening at the club now.

"We're in a position where I can't say 'I want to sign now', because I want us to get us out of this position we're in right now.

"I want us to stay up and I don't want to get relegated, so I've put that to one side and I am just concentrating on our games."

Sunday's 2-0 reverse at The Racecourse, a fourth successive reverse for Bignot's side, left Astles deflated.

After containing the hosts and frustrating the home supporters for more than an hour, Chester were undone by two goals in quick succession from Scott Quigley and Nicky Deverdics.

The quickfire double evoked memories of the 2-0 home defeat to Dover Athletic a week earlier, where the visitors snatched victory with goals at the same stage of the match.

"We don't really know why it happened like that, but it's happened an awful lot this season" added Astles.

"It's tough to take now and it's never good to be beaten in the derby.

"I thought for 60 or 70 minutes we were on top, controlled the game and everything was going well for us.

"But the goal just came out of nowhere really. I felt that at the back it was pretty easy up until the point we conceded and then obviously they stepped up and put in a better performance after that.

"Jordan (Archer) had a great chance to score with a header and he'll probably be disappointed with himself.

"If that goes in, the whole game changes because you could see at half-time that the crowd weren't happy with what they saw.

"The second half (Lucas) Dawson's had a great shot saved too, and they've scored from a corner and we're disappointed with that.

"So it's another game we feel we should picked something up from."

Bignot has spoken passionately about a need for the club need to develop it's own talented crop of talent to sustain its long-term future.

Academy prospects like Tom Crawford, James Jones and Matty Crawford have all impressed when called upon from a depleted squad.

Astles praised the attitude and workrate of his inexperienced younger team-mates but maintains that his side need victories to have any chance of avoiding the drop.

He added: "It's been good for Matty, James and Tom who've all come through the academy and it's good to see what the club is actually producing.

"But we need results. We can put performances in for those 60 or 70 minutes but if we don't score or get a couple of goals up and kill the games off it's pointless us actually doing it."