Harrogate RUFC have only themselves to blame for Chester RUFC defeat, admits Sam Fox

The Aces travelled to Cheshire boosted by a quartet of new signings in their back-line and a relatively strong pack, but were unable to avoid what was their seventh consecutive defeat.

"Ultimately, I think that the scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the game," Fox reflected.

"I could probably sit here and blame a number of external factors like the referee or the 4G pitch or even talk about the crowd, but at the end of the day we have to take responsibility for our own shortcomings.

"We did have chances. We got into some good positions however on too many occasions we didn't come away from them with three, five or seven points and that is on us.

"It always comes back to the things that we are in control of. We didn't take some of our chances, which has been a recurring theme this season, but the pleasing thing was at least we were throwing some punches in this game, because in some of our recent matches we've barely thrown any.

"As a coaching group we will review the performance, look at how we prepared the team tactically, technically and physically and work out where we could have done better."

Injury and unavailability have seriously hindered Harrogate this term, particularly in the backs where most of their senior players have missed big chunks of action and, in some cases, the whole of the campaign.

On Saturday, they were without Fox himself, influential scrum-half Danny Matthews, Harry Barnard, Luke Edwards, Marcus Mercer, Mason Knowles and Sam Parry.

With this in mind, director of rugby Dave Doherty took advantage of the conclusion of the university Super Rugby season and brought in some reinforcements ahead of last month's registration deadline.

Leeds Beckett University fly-half Tom Steene started in the 10 shirt at Chester, Daniel Troup was deployed at inside centre, Charlie Benjamin took his place on the wing and scrum-half Campbell Swanson was named among ‘Gate’s replacements.

And Fox was encouraged by the impression that the Aces' newcomers made.

"We blooded those new faces and it's never easy when you've got combinations in your team that have never played together," he added.

"But I thought they all did really well considering all they have had with us is two or three training sessions.

"Daniel Troup really impressed me with his performance at 12. He offered us something different in that position, which bodes well.

"Having greater competition for places is obviously a big plus for us because obviously we could never have foreseen a situation where we would end up with six or seven of our most senior backs all out at once.

"The new players have got that little more experience of adult rugby than some of the boys we have been bringing through from the Colts and it is important to have a better balance in terms of the level of experience out on the field. Something like that definitely shows during games."

Young winger Ben Raubitschek charged down an attempted clearance, gathered the loose ball and sprinted clear to score Harrogate's opening try at Chester, bringing the visitors back into the contest at 12-7.

Powerhouse back-row forward Declan Thompson came off the replacements' bench to cross for the Aces' second touchdown after the interval, but by that stage, the damage had already been done.

Defeat leaves 'Gate bottom of National Two North having lost 19 of their 22 fixtures so far this term.