Chester 0-2 Tranmere Rovers

Ex-Solihull boss Marcus Bignot joined Chester in September 2017, five months after being sacked by Grimsby

Chester have been relegated from the National League with four matches still to play following a home defeat by neighbours Tranmere.

Rovers, by contrast, kept their play-off semi-final hopes on track as goals from Andy Cook and James Norwood sent Micky Mellon's side up to fourth, just a point adrift of automatic qualification through to the semi-finals with two games in hand.

Rovers made a promising start and Norwood saw a header come back off the crossbar just eight minutes into the contest.

But Tranmere did go ahead in first-half stoppage time when Jeff Hughes' cross picked out Cook and he made no mistake in heading past Andy Firth.

Norwood made the game safe in the 64th minute when he latched onto a ball from the back to round Firth and roll the ball into the net.

The loss signalled the imminent end of a five-year stay in the fifth tier for Chester, whose manager Marcus Bignot is to leave the club at the end of the season.

Report supplied by Press Association.

Chester manager Marcus Bignot told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"Obviously it's a sad day for the football club, but many clubs have experienced relegation and bounced back.

"The important thing now is how the football club is going to bounce back from this.

"You look at these last three months, we've lost a CEO, two chairmen, four directors, (and) nine contracted players we've had to move out.

"Today we're facing Tranmere, we're can't lose and half the team aren't coming out of the first-team budget.

"We were competitive in large parts of that game but ultimately, the club, where we are, relegation was inevitable."

• Line-ups
• Live Text

Line-ups

Chester

• 1Firth
• 2Halls
• 15Hobson
• 27Roberts
• 35AndersonBooked at 39mins
• 6Astles
• 16VoseSubstituted forBrownat 80'minutes
• 22CrawfordBooked at 56mins
• 7Mahon
• 20Akintunde
• 9WhiteSubstituted forArcherat 66'minutes

Substitutes

• 8Cunningham
• 17Dawson
• 23Brown
• 30Archer
• 31Gough

Tranmere

• 1Davies
• 2Buxton
• 3Ridehalgh
• 24Hughes
• 5McNulty
• 4Sutton
• 7TollittSubstituted forHarrisat 84'minutes
• 15NorburnSubstituted forWallaceat 81'minutes
• 10NorwoodSubstituted forManganat 74'minutes
• 11JenningsBooked at 57mins
• 9Cook

Substitutes

• 8Harris
• 19Mangan
• 22Taylor
• 33Monthe
• 38Wallace

Referee:

Simon Barrow

Attendance:

3,103

Live Text

1. Post update

   Match ends, Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 2.

2. 90'

   Full Time

   Second Half ends, Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 2.

3. 84'

   Substitution

   Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. Jay Harris replaces Ben Tollitt.

4. 81'

   Substitution

   Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. James Wallace replaces Oliver Norburn.

5. 80'

   Substitution

   Substitution, Chester FC. Nathan Brown replaces Dominic Vose.

6. 74'

   Substitution

   Substitution, Tranmere Rovers. Andy Mangan replaces James Norwood.

7. 66'

   Substitution

   Substitution, Chester FC. Jordan Archer replaces Harry White.

8. 64'

   Goal!

   Goal! Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 2. James Norwood (Tranmere Rovers).

9. 57'

   Booking

   Connor Jennings (Tranmere Rovers) is shown the yellow card.

10. 56'

    Booking

    Tom Crawford (Chester FC) is shown the yellow card.

11. Second Half

    Second Half begins Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 1.

12. 45'+2'

    Half Time

    First Half ends, Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 1.

13. 45'+1'

    Goal!

    Goal! Chester FC 0, Tranmere Rovers 1. Andy Cook (Tranmere Rovers).

14. 39'

    Booking

    Myles Anderson (Chester FC) is shown the yellow card.

15. Kick Off

    First Half begins.

16. Posted at 14:09 7 Apr 201814:09 7 Apr 2018

    Post update

    Lineups are announced and players are warming up.