Gravesend & N 0 Chester 4

IT WAS another bad day at the office for Andy Ford and his Gravesend & Northfleet team on Saturday as they were hammered at home by Chester.

After getting their first points of the season last week at Farnborough, hopes were high that Fleet could push on. Unfortunately, nobody told Chester boss Mark Wright.

After a steady opening 32 minutes, Fleet helped bring about their own downfall when keeper Alex O'Reilly rushed out to break up a Chester attack, missed his challenge and Darynn Stamp was left to roll the ball into an empty net.

Four minutes later, Chester doubled their lead when a superb corner from Kevin McIntyre was powered home by Phil Bolland who easily outjumped Rob Howarth.

Fleet, on the other hand, had attempts from Wayne Brown and a great opportunity from Ben Abbey to give them hope.

Michael Twiss came on for Jamie Heard and Chester upped the pace and almost immediately made an impact when he hit a post. On 85 minutes, he forced a superb save from O'Reilly and then had a shot cleared off the line by Matt Lee.

Twiss eventually got on the scoresheet a minute from time when he fired home Danny Collins' cross from close range.

Then he put the icing on the cake in stoppage time when he outfoxed O'Reilly in a one-on-one.

Despite the defeat, Ford was philosophical in defeat. He said: "We didn't really test their keeper today.

"Ben Abbey went through and if he scored things would have been different. But another individual mistake at the back, we were 3-0 down and the game was over.

"We knew it would be tough but at times we looked the better side. We had a large percentage of possession and needed to convert that into getting the final ball right."