Stolen goods: Chester (a)

Cod Almighty | Match Report

by Mike Worden

16 September 2006

Chester City 0 Grimsby Town 2

Those arriving at the Deva before kick off could have been forgiven for questioning whether there was a game to be played that afternoon, so quiet was the area around the ground. These are tough times at Chester and another sub-2,000 crowd was expected.

Town were there, immaculate in plum. A good sprinkling of Mariners fans had crossed the Pennines for the second time in four days. Most were standing behind the goal, with others forking out the extra couple of quid to sit in the West stand. The crowd was so quiet that you could almost hear the cows munching the grass in the field immediately behind the side stand.

Danny Boshell was the only change from the side that had played at Rochdale on Tuesday and played on the left side of midfield, with Ravenhill and Bolland in the centre. Bore was on the right. The back four were Newey, Fenton, Whittle and Croft. Jones and Rankin were paired up front.

As the game was about to kick off, a whole army of Chester mascots left the field. All shapes and sizes and in various types of kit and sportsgear. The announcer said that there were supposed to be only three official mascots. Presumably the other 22 must have gatecrashed.

First half
Chester kicked off towards England. The locals don't like being reminded of it, but the Deva pitch is actually in Wales.

It was the home side that looked the brighter team. Roberto Martinez, reunited with Chester's new assistant manager Graham Barrow, who brought him to England and Wigan more than 10 years ago, looked lively. Indeed the Spaniard soon created an opening for himself cutting inside on the edge of the box and firing a shot towards the top corner of the Town goal. Fortunately Phil Barnes pulled off a great save knocking the ball away for a corner.

Soon after Laurence Wilson was given a chance by a mix-up in the Town defence, but his effort cleared the bar with ease. Gregg Blundell also looked tricky and the home side were passing the ball better than Town.

For most of the first half Town struggled to create much of an impression, and what was created was generally down the right when Peter Bore ran at the full back. There were numerous corners and free kicks, most taken by Tom Newey with little effect.

When Town won a throw-in on the left, Newey went over to take it. Obviously preparing for a long throw into the box, Newey seemed to disappear into the stand to start his run up. When he appeared, the throw just went straight up into the air. The referee indicated a foul throw and gave it to Chester. Just in case anybody missed it, Newey took another foul throw a little later.

Second half
The sun came out at half time. Which was nice.

The affable announcer, known as 'Cleggy', went through a list of all the Football League and Conference half-times. Only the arrival of the teams on the pitch for the second half stopped him enlightening us about the Conference North and South scores too.

Town responded to the sunny conditions and started to play some better football. It wasn't exactly flowing football but compared to the first half it wasn't too bad. Boshell and Bolland were industrious in midfield, both of them getting back to make crucial interceptions and then bringing the ball out to set up attacks.

Despite playing better, Town still couldn't create many real chances. Danny Boshell had a run at goal finishing with a low, hard shot which Danby in the Chester goal dealt with comfortably. The best effort came from Peter Bore, who received a pass from Rankin on the Town right, cut in and hit a great shot towards the goal. Danby was well beaten but the shot hit the crossbar.

On 62 minutes the inevitable booking for Ravenhill happened, for a challenge on one of his former team-mates. Mr Hill probably already had written it in his book before the game kicked off, just leaving space to add the time. Rankin followed him into the book later, oddly just after the award of a Town free kick.

Mr Hill gave handball against Hand. Was it ball to Hand or Hand to ball?

Chester had already made some changes, but on 75 minutes Rodger made Town's first. Andy Taylor replaced Rankin, to the surprise of a number of Town fans who thought that Jones should have been the player to go off. Immediately Taylor's energy added spark to the Town attack.

With the referee indicating three minutes of added time, and the game heading for a draw, people started to drift away. Best not to take any chances with such a big crowd.

And then the kind of mix-up that we have seen too often happen in our own defence happened to Chester's. Danby and Westwood seemed to leave the ball to each other and up popped Gary Jones to poke the ball into the net. He hadn't moved so fast all game and his usual arms-out celebration followed.

Town fans were still celebrating when another defensive slip up allowed Taylor to run forward to the left of the goal and squeeze a shot past Danby into the far corner. Game over. Ninety minutes of boredom and then two minutes of excitement. See, you should never leave a game before the final whistle.

This was not a good Town display, but better than some of the other away trips this season. The points may have been stolen, but who cares. Last season we gave away points right at the end of some games, mistakes that cost us in May. It's nice to get the luck once in a while.

Man of the match
There were three candidates. Barnes had a much more assured game than we have been used to seeing and showed how a little confidence can make all the difference. He made a great save from Martinez early on and dealt with balls into the box very well all game. He even shouted at the defence a few times. Justin Whittle had a solid game again, but the MOM goes to his partner in defence, Nick Fenton, who dealt with the Chester attacks very well, especially in the first half. Fenton also had an overhead kick cleared off the Chester line in the second half.

Official Warning
Not much to say really about Mr Hill, although some may say he was a little fussy at times. You could have put money on the first booking of the game being Ravenhill, and it was. He booked more of their players than ours, but then you might expect that against Chester.

The Others
Change the manager, change most of the players, bring in a former manager to help out, but Chester can't seem to make any real progression towards being a serious contender in this league. There is a lot going on behind the scenes and Blues fans know who is pulling their weight and who isn't. They should have taken their chances in the first half of this game and they paid for not doing so. A long hard winter at the Deva looks on the cards.