Chester FC V Tranmere Rovers MATCH THREAD

Is it not more embarrassing for yourselves that a club that's 7 years old is in the same league as you?

So my thoughts on the game last night are as follows.



Firstly any football matters pale into insignificance. A fellow fan died last night at the match. Really really sad.
Credit to Tranmere for joining in the applause as he left the stadium. 


As regards the football I would make the following observations.

It was an entertaining game of football with a great atmosphere in the stadium. 

Tranmere are a better team than us. They have better resources, more money and overall were stronger. However we stayed with them for most of the game and on another day may have got a result. There were certainly plenty of positives.

One major positive was Sam Hughes who was immense I thought and, in his first game as captain showed some true leadership skills. Bodes well for his future but we won't be keeping him. Not many have mentioned it on here but I think we were playing 3 centre backs for quite a bit of the game as Horwood was advanced and quite central at times. This meant Sam was more in the think of it than had he been completely at right back.  

Mahon's short cameo was also promising - he should have come on earlier for me.

We were far too lightweight in midfield and the game just bypassed us there really. 

The penalty was laughable because it was clearly outside the box. Well done to Alabi for sticking it away well though after a lengthy delay but it also could well have been a card for their player. 

Alabi generally had a decent game, working very hard and doing his best to get the ball to stick.

This brings us on to Richards... The lad has decent pace and at the start of the game created a few problems. However for me he is just not at the physical level for this league, gets knocked off the ball very easily and doesn't hold it up well. Occasionally he wins a freekick in a dangerous position but you have to have more than this. His work rate is also very questionable in my opinion. If he showed half the fight and desire that Hughes does we might just have a player on our hands as it is. I'm not into a witch hunt for the lad but he seems to want o be a superstar without putting the hard graft in.

Cook scoring the winner was truly nauseating. However if the group of lads (sadly some of them aren't even that young) in the tosser corner (not there every home match are they) are going to give out stick when he's warming up you've got to expect it back. If Alabi had done that to their fans, or Wrexhams after a winner I would have laughed my head off so get over it.  

We'll be ok this season and McCarthy has given certain players a really good shot of it this season. Quite a number of those players have stepped up and been much improved (Hunt, Shaw, for example) and others (Joyce, Durrell though not through attitude or effort for either and Richards) haven't.  Decisions needs to be made for next year which of these need ditching so we can give chances to others. And we need to safeguard our best asset and get as much as we can for him in the summer. 

Finally Dawson needs a haircut.

Presumably his sister is out collecting her dole money. 

Am I classed as a fuckwit? I think my criticism of Richards was well and truly justified.  The rest of the team did OK.

Pretty good assessment of last night's match. Hard to take after such a battling performance but they had too much quality for us in the end.
We are leaking an alarming amount of goals. There's no getting away from it that our form since Xmas would have us in the relegation spots and we are almost certain to lose Alabi and Hughes. One concern is our failure to close down on the edge of the box..the first Tranmere goal wasa carbon copy of one of the goals at Dagenham. I tend to agree that the weak links in the team are Hudson, Joyce and Richards. There has to be a better centre half out there than Hudson, surely? It's all been said about the other two..not national league standard. I hope Macca is brave enough to make the rights calls, as I don't see any of that trio improving. We should be safe so we have 11 games to start planning for next season. Want to see more of Dawson and must get Mahon back in the team...he ran them ragged when he came on but with Mahon you always feel there's no end product....I haven't seen shooting that weak since I left primary school. I'm not sure why Killock didn't play right back last night, which would have given us a a more solid looking 442 with Astles and Hughes in the middle. We were playing 5 at the back sometimes last night, with three centre halves but we got over run in midfield. 

There were positives, lots of them. I just can't agree that Richards played anything other than poorly.

Will Sam Hughes taking the captain's armband help us at a tribunal in any way?

That game was reminiscent of a lot of our games this season . we conceded another 3 goals due to almost non existent challenges (their first goal ) .We rarely strung together more than 2 passes before losing the ball resulting in constant pressure on the defence . We have to be much stronger in midfield next season if we are to improve . Thought Alabi and Hughes did well and Mahon when he came on but that defensive pairing will always see us struggling in the goals against column .

Dragon boy...tell us something we dont know mate.We're all well aware that our taxes go to mong's like you;)
Have a drink on me before you return to you damp bedsit all on yer lonesome you poor wretch.

TEN year's in the conference though - MASSIVE!

I notice after stepping onto the pitch, Richards was just making up the numbers.

Calling Richards performance as poor is quite complimentary! I could think of a lot more unsavoury words to describe it.

You forgot Salisbury aswell.
Anyway who's to say we wouldn't of got promoted had we did go down?

If as you say we killed our club and we really are only seven years old, why the rivalry? 

Anything that enhances his reputation (or vice versa) will be taken into account at a tribunal.