“We contributed a lot to the defeat today!” Elliott blames missed opportunities and defensive fragility for Chester loss

Akwasi Asante, Anthony Dudley, Craig Mahon and George Waring were the hosts’s matchwinners while Ben Davies curled home a consolation free kick for the Pilgrims.

But Elliott believes that the only real difference between the two teams on the day was the finishing.

“Strange game, I’m struggling to get my head around it because I didn’t think ‘wow, Chester are a brilliant team and they deserved to win 4-1’.

“I come away thinking we contributed a lot to the defeat today.

“I need to compose myself a little bit. It didn’t feel like a 4-1 game at times, especially first half.

“I felt it was really harsh on us bing 2-0 down, I thought we had chances, hit post twice and had two other good moments.

“I felt we were a bit fragile in our own box today.”

Nicky Walker and Gavin Allott both struck the woodwork for United in the first half, but as the contest wore on the Blues proved to be more clinical.

“My gut (instinct) is that there didn’t seem to be much in it in general play. It wasn’t as if George (Willis) was making save after save,” Elliott added.

“I’ve been involved in 4-1 losses before and you think ‘yep, they’ve torn you to bits’.

“I didn’t feel that today, I just felt we weren’t clinical and they had chances and they scored them.”

The Boston boss pointed the finger of blame at Willis for the opening goal, in which the keeper was beaten to the ball by Steve Howson before Asante was gifted a simple tap-in, something he discussed with his team.

“All the goals were poor. You can’t deny that,” he added.

“The first goal’s killed us, George has made a big error, to be honest.

“The game changed after that. I spoke to him about it, in front of everyone else.

“It’s important everyone knows their responsibilities.

“They get praise when they play well, so they should be able to accept criticism as well.

“When you come to away grounds you’ve got to try to get that first goal.”

Elliott also commented on Jay Rollins’s early booking, given for diving in the box.

He added: “I don’t know if it was a penalty, but I think it was harsh to book him.

“My problem was that he runs at pace and it disrupted his run.

“It was harsh to say he dived, we all know Jay’s a good, honest lad.”