Chester City Reserves 0
Wrexham Reserves 0
Central League (West Division)

Match Report

After a game of few clear-cut chances the first mini derby of the season understandably ended goalless on a misty night at the Deva Stadium. Wrexham named the more experienced of the two sides, with eight of the starting eleven having experienced first team football at some time or other. Chester, on the other hand, fielded a young inexperienced side as several of their usual reserve side players had played in a JPT defeat at Carlisle United twenty-four hours earlier.

The first chance of the evening fell Chester’s way in the 10th minute when Gio Feliciello swung over a free kick from the right but captain Kevin Roberts failed to get a significant touch on the ball with a free header from ten yards out and the ball drifted harmlessly wide. Matty Done saw a shot blocked on 15 minutes as the Dragons took their turn to attack, before the main talking point of the game came in the 20th minute. Eifion Williams met a Mike Williams left-wing centre with a far post header that looped over Chester keeper Phil Palethorpe and into the far corner of the net via the upright. Everybody celebrated the goal only for it to be ruled out for what could only have been offside though it didn’t look as if anyone was in an offside position. Nevertheless the ‘goal’ was ruled out and with it went the Dragon’s best chance of what was, in truth, a disappointing game.

A well-worked move down the left-hand side on 38 minutes ended with Mike Carvill pulling the ball back to Levi Mackin whose right-foot shot from the edge of the box had Palethorpe diving low down to his right to save, and a few minutes later ex-Wrexham trainee Tom Vickers failed to deal with a punt forward and Carvill had half a chance but his shot was deflected behind for a corner. Chester spent most of the first half reduced to shooting from distance, though Chris Holroyd should have done better when put clear in first half added-on time but he lifted the ball over Michael Jones and also over the bar when more composure would have seen him opening the scoring.

Eifion Williams went close with a dink towards the far post on 56 minutes and Carvill, stretching to reach it admittedly, could only return the ball into the side netting. And at the other end Jones then did well to turn a 25-yard pile driver from Roberts over for a corner. The Dragons’ keeper then did even better to tip another Roberts long-range effort behind on 82 minutes and from the resulting corner Mike Williams somehow managed to scramble the ball away from the goal line. The last chance of the game fell to Mike Williams but his header from Silvio Spann’s free kick could only find the top of the net.

Coach Joey Jones said afterwards: “I give all the credit to Chester. I knew before the match that they had youthful enthusiasm and that they would fight right to the end, and I was quite impressed with Chester. But, having said that, we had a few young players in our team as well who are the same age as the Chester lads and I also thought they did well too. Chris Marriott, Jamie Price and Mark Stewart all did well. We probably needed a bit more out of our more experienced lads than we what we got. One of the pleasing aspects from the game was that we managed to keep a clean sheet and got a draw but we’ve got to start getting into the habit of winning games because when you’re at a professional club you can live or die by a result!”