Former Chester player, Mickey Fields, has died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer. The local-born forward made 22 league appearances for the club in the 1950s and was also a prolific goalscorer for the Cheshire County League team. He had the distinction of scoring the only goal of the game when Chester beat Burnley to win the Lancashire Cup in 1957. Mickey was also an enthusiastic supporter of the club and was not only a season ticket holder at the Deva Stadium but also regularly attended away matches.

Mickey Fields was born in Chester on August 12th 1935 and played his early football for Lache Youth and Christleton before progressing through the Chester and District League. After a trial at Nottingham Forest Mickey was invited down to Sealand Road and started to play for the juniors before moving on to the A team and Reserves. His first game for the Reserves came at the start of the 1953/54 season and he was leading goalscorer for the Cheshire County League team in 1956/57 with an impressive 26 goals in just under 30 appearances.

Mickey made his full league debut in Division Three North in a 1-0 victory against Halifax at The Shay in April 1956 and continued to make occasional appearances over the next three seasons. Although most of his appearances for the reserves came at centre forward he often featured at inside left for the first team and his only Football League goal came, in September 1956, in a 4-3 home defeat to Chesterfield.

It was in the Lancashire Cup, a competition which tended to feature a mixture of reserve and first team players, that Mickey created the greatest impression. In the 1956/57 season he scored two goals in a first round victory at Rochdale and after beating Accrington Stanley in the second round Chester faced Liverpool in the semi-final at Sealand Road. Mickey scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory and followed this up with the winning goal in the Final against Burnley as Chester took the trophy out of Lancashire for the first time.

In January 1958 Mickey suffered a cartilage injury in a Cheshire Senior Cup tie against Cheadle Rovers that effectively ended his Football League career. At the time he was once again averaging a goal a game for the reserves having netted 22 times. On the verge of regaining full fitness he suffered a similar injury in his other knee and in May 1959 was released by Stan Pearson and signed for Borough United.

Mickey always remained as a part timer while playing at Chester and outside football he worked at Shell as a process operator. He will be sadly missed and the club send out their condolences to his family and friends.


Mickey in action against Accrington Stanley

FOOTBALL LEAGUE RECORD
Football League – 22 appearances, 1 goal
First Chester game - v Halifax Town (A) April 2nd 1956
Last Chester game - v Oldham Athletic (H) January 4th 1958

Chas Sumner [31/5/14]