Pass after pass went astray, culminating in a comedy second goal which effectively sealed Chester's fate.
The game had, in fact, started brightly for Chester who had their best chance through a mistake by keeper Shane Higgs, who presented them with a golden opportunity after just four minutes.
His poor clearance fell straight to debutant Joe O'Neill whose first-time effort had the keeper scrambling back to palm the ball away just before it crossed the goal-line.
Having largely been on the back foot, the visitors broke the deadlock with their first attack on 14 minutes when Steve Guinan crossed to the unmarked Brian Wilson who calmly sidefooted the ball home.
Chester opted to make changes at the break with Sean Hessey and Taiwo Atieno coming on in place of Stephen Vaughan and Ian Hillier.
But the switch made little impact as the Robins remained on top and had several chances to extend their lead before the Chester slip-up gave them their second goal.
The goal came as a result of a calamitous mix up between Phil Bolland and Chris MacKenzie in the 55th minute.
The Chester centre-back opted to give his keeper a difficult backpass which he could only scruff to Guinan, who struck the post and Steven Gillespie tapped home the rebound.
An injury-time penalty by Gillespie after David Bayliss had handled and the sending-off of the same player minutes later only added insult to injury.