The Chester City boss saw his team crash to a 6-0 defeat at Dagenham and Redbridge and struggled to explain the reason for the disastrous performance in the capital.

He said: "I'm lost for words and I'm so disappointed because I wouldn't have thought that of the players, but I've got to take the brunt of that and I will take full responsibility because it's my team.

"I'm just asking the lads to be a little bit more honest out there to say the least.

"It's totally my fault, but the performance just shocked me after the way they've been playing in pre-season games and in training.

"I'm bamboozled really because they work hard during the week and then they come out for their first game and fail to perform.

"I told the players that I've seen a million good training players in my time and it looked like we had eight or nine out there who don't want to do it in games.

"It's back to the drawing board I'm afraid."

Davies admitted that his players fell a long way short of what he was expecting in their first league game of the campaign.

He added: "Basically not enough players wanted to scrap.

"We have got a hell of a lot of footballers out there, but unfortunately you can't do a lot if you haven't got the ball. To get the ball you've got to scrap and fight and work together. At times we did do that and we created chances – Ryan Lowe hit a shot against the bar and Anthony Barry missed a glorious opportunity – so we created chances, but I'm only talking about snippets of the game.

"We need players who are working for 80 or 90 minutes, not just for 10.

"The players were wanting to do things in fits and starts and I feel for about four or five lads that we did have, because all 11 weren't to blame.

"I thought Damien (Mozika) was the best player we had on the pitch, and I feel for people like him.

"I told the players to go away and think over the weekend about our performances for the future, otherwise we're going to have plenty of what we saw on Saturday."

Dagenham and Redbridge produced no real surprises for Davies or his City side as they knew the Londoners' direct style of football.

Davies said: "They hit the ball long and their two lads in attack are as good as we're going to see in our division this season.

"But there are areas where I thought they'd be weaker, but we didn't exploit them, and they overpowered us with their strengths.

"It was a bit of a blow that Linny (Paul Linwood) was unable to continue in the warm-up, and we lacked a bit of height there. It was an issue but it was something we could have overcome if we had stuck together.

"Unfortunately we had too many players who were just going through the motions. Only about five players were doing what I asked of them and what I expected. Nobody can afford that at any level because you soon get into trouble.

"I told the players before the game that it was up to them what sort of season they wanted to have. I believe in them, and I'm right behind them, the training is good and they are fitter, so we have to take that to every team we play against.

"They can have a bad season, an average season, but luckily enough because of the talented players we have they could have a special season where they can be up there.

"But I can talk as much as I like and we can train, work, and run, and in training do all the right things, but unless you take it out onto the park for the most important two hours of the week, it will mean nothing."

- Chester have received a bye into round two of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

City join Bury, Carlisle United, Darlington, Huddersfield Town, Lincoln City, Rochdale and Rotherham United in receiving a bye in the Northern Section of the tournament.

In the Southern Section, Cheltenham Town, Gillingham, Hereford United, Luton Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Peterborough United, Walsall and Wycombe Wanderers all received byes into round two.

The draw for the second round will take place on September 6 with ties being played week commencing October 6.

Ask Davies

If you have a question for Chester City's Simon Davies email it to digitalnews@nwn.co.uk and we'll ask as many as we can during our next weekly video interview with the Chester boss.