A 1-1 draw at home with Northwich Victoria has seen my local team Chester F.C be crowned champions of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League. Congratulations to manager Neil Young, the players and backroom staff for such a great achievement.
It was a day of great joy for the crowd at the Exacta Stadium which has set a new record for a league game at this level with 5,009 present (around 200-300 from Northwich) which is a wonderful advert for watching lower league. The Blues have now achieved their 2nd successive promotion in the two years since the club reformed after the folding of Chester City Football Club.
From turning up at the ground at 1.30pm where there were long queue's of people waiting to get in to the ground at all the turnstiles for the home fans was fantastic to see. Something that I had not seen at this ground for a number of years. The atmosphere around the ground inside and out before the game, was one of hope that Chester would get the minimum point needed to get across the finishing line to win the league with games to spare. Instead of the pressure of needing a result and in the end an element of luck to claim the title the year before.
The game itself was tight as 1st versus 2nd in the league went head to head. Both teams didnt create much in the first half, with Chester looking a little nervy when in possession of the ball. Lots of long balls up to the front two of Wilde and Williams and not recieving much joy and much frustration for the home fans, as it was the Northwich players who settled the better on the near perfect surface to play football on and the two centre halves of Northwich were dealing with any ball put forward by a Chester player, 0-0 at half time and half way to getting that all important minimum point. The 2nd half began badly for Chester as they fell behind to a goal from a free kick conceded near the halfway line. A number of the home fans didn't agree that it was a free kick and as at the top level of football the referee got a hammering for it. A "cheat" and "you havn't got a clue" were just a couple of the views that were sadly aimed towards the referee. When to be honest Chester's defending of it was of much more concern as they failed to deal with the first ball in to the box which was won by Dom Collins, his header hit the post and and Kyle Armstrong was quickest to react to give Northwich the lead 2 minutes
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| Northwich players celebrate goal |
in to the 2nd half. This I hoped would have been the wake up call needed to get a reaction from the players, but the game fell in to the same pattern as the first with Chester playing long balls and Northwich passing the ball better on the ground but not getting much in and around the box. Chester had the best joy from dead ball situations, with George Horan having a header cleared off the line around the hour mark, sadly that was the only real chance of note up to that point. Even though they had managed to net 92 league goals so far this season, it was hard to see where Neil Young's side were going to fashion an equaliser from as Northwich looked very content with Chester's style of play. But as happens with teams at the top of the league luck began to go our way as Northwich centerback Ian Kearney recieved his 2nd yellow card for a foul on Simm in the 78th minute. This forced Northwich back and reduced there attacking treat meaning Chester's players could push out with the ball much more freely and force Northwich nearer their own penalty area. Then the moment that sent the Chester fans wild, fullback Matty McGinn had been pushed up on to the left of midfield at this point and was allowed to run with the ball towards the left edge of the Northwich box, where he cut inside and it looked like he was
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| Chester celebrate McGinn equaliser |
shaping to shoot with his right foot, when he readjused his body to send an unstoppable left footed shot, which I could see perfectly from my angle in the West Stand, into the far corner of the net, no chance for the Northwich keeper, 1-1. Chester had a chance to win it in the last few minutes but the keeper made a good save. 5 minutes of injury time seemed like so much longer, but huge cheers were greeted at the final whistle as the minimum point was gained to comfirm Chester F.C as Champions. A point was a fair result and now
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| Pic 1. |
the club can start the process of planning for next season. It must also be mentioned how nice it was to see the Northwich supporters stay behind and congratulate my teams achievement aswell, a pleasing moment which proves football at this level is not all bad. It was also great to be able to go to a game where hard challenges were made by players and there was no rolling around and moaning about it, they just got up and got on with it. The link at the end of this proves there can be some quality and exciting moments further down the league ladder.
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| Pic 2. |
Even though there was an annoucement to stay off the pitch at the end of the game, picture 1 & 2 prove that was never going to happen as fans from all stands run on to celebrate just after the full time whistle.
Youtube link to Chester's championship winning equaliser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-vUwQZe_10
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| Chester players do a lap of the pitch after the game |
From turning up at the ground at 1.30pm where there were long queue's of people waiting to get in to the ground at all the turnstiles for the home fans was fantastic to see. Something that I had not seen at this ground for a number of years. The atmosphere around the ground inside and out before the game, was one of hope that Chester would get the minimum point needed to get across the finishing line to win the league with games to spare. Instead of the pressure of needing a result and in the end an element of luck to claim the title the year before. 
The game itself was tight as 1st versus 2nd in the league went head to head. Both teams didnt create much in the first half, with Chester looking a little nervy when in possession of the ball. Lots of long balls up to the front two of Wilde and Williams and not recieving much joy and much frustration for the home fans, as it was the Northwich players who settled the better on the near perfect surface to play football on and the two centre halves of Northwich were dealing with any ball put forward by a Chester player, 0-0 at half time and half way to getting that all important minimum point. The 2nd half began badly for Chester as they fell behind to a goal from a free kick conceded near the halfway line. A number of the home fans didn't agree that it was a free kick and as at the top level of football the referee got a hammering for it. A "cheat" and "you havn't got a clue" were just a couple of the views that were sadly aimed towards the referee. When to be honest Chester's defending of it was of much more concern as they failed to deal with the first ball in to the box which was won by Dom Collins, his header hit the post and and Kyle Armstrong was quickest to react to give Northwich the lead 2 minutes 
