Marcus Bignot felt a 'lack of game management' cost Chester as they suffered a second cross-border derby defeat of the campaign.

The Blues were the better side for the lion's share of the opening hour at The Racecourse, but Dean Keates' Wrexham edged ahead through Scott Quigley and quickly made it two when Nicky Deverdics capitalised on a lucky break to fire home.

"The pressure was all on Wrexham in the week," said Bignot, who was without Gary Roberts with a shin injury sustained against Dover Athletic.

"But it was only going to be pressure if we frustrated them and played to our game plan.

"We knew if we could prevent them from scoring in the first-half, and then for an hour, we would frustrate their supporters and we had a chance.

"There's a Jordan Archer turn and swivel on the edge of the 18-yard box, a Lucas Dawson shot, corners, the atmosphere changed and we were on top to be honest.

"But then there's a breakaway and it's five-minutes where we should have managed the game. There's opportunities on restarts, our keeper has the ball in his hands and can manage the game, slow things down, as we could all see the goal coming. I'm sure we could all see it, it needed that leadership out there.

"We were in control, there's no need, no need to give the goal away. I was going crazy on the touchline, I thought I was going to have a heart attack!"

Bignot admitted his young side - with an average age of just 23 - got 'leggy' once Wrexham had gone ahead and was frustrated his side's game plan went to waste, having been well in the encounter after a decent 15-minute spell at the start of the second period.

"We got Andy Halls in a lot down that right-hand side but we didn't really utilise Matty Waters enough first-half," he continued.

"That flipped second-half, we got Matty out there a lot on the wing, one-on-one situations. I was really pleased the way the game plan worked up until 60 minutes, we had the momentum, we were on the front foot, we were happy. But it's after that where we needed to manage it better.

"Fitness was a problem, we ran out of legs and going a goal down doesn't help.

"Myles, Shaun haven't played much football this season. The whole midfield haven't played much football, Dom Vose, Lucas Dawson is short of fitness.

"But mentally it's drained us, two goals in quick succession. Wrexham managed the game well from there on."