29 December 2019
MIXED BAG FOR BLUES
Chester started the festive period with a superb 3-1 victory at Southport on Boxing Day only to follow it up with a surprising 1-0 home loss against Curzon Ashton.

The Blues started the Southport match well and were unfortunate to find themselves a goal down against the run of play when former player Ryan Astles opened the scoring for the home side. Chester had already hit the woodwork twice before George Waring converted a George Glendon cross to equalise on 33 minutes.

Four minutes into the second period the turnaround was complete as Akwasi Asante rounded goalkeeper Charlie Alison to put Chester 2-1 in front. Gary Roberts wrapped up the points in style with a 30-yarder (pictured below) that gave Albinson no chance 20 minutes from time.

Joint manager Bernard Morley told the Chester Chronicle: “That was probably one of the best performances I’ve seen in my 18 months at Chester. I felt like we stuck to the game plan. We had to outwork them on their patch to get something out of the game which we clearly did. We went 1-0 down but we reacted really well and everybody stuck to their job and that is the reason we have had a great result.”

As a Chester manager I’m proud of the performance and for Chester fans, I know it was difficult for them to get here today with no trains and what not. There had to be a good six or seven hundred standing in the rain and here in the main stand, it was unbelievable and it drives us on.”

It’s such a sad day for Chester fans. The word legend is often overused in football but if any Chester player deserves the accolade it is Gary Talbot who has sadly died at the age of 82 after a battle with cancer. A predatory goalscorer he was a member of the 1964/65 “Famous Five” forward line and the club’s record Football League goalscorer for many years until his total was surpassed by Stuart Rimmer in the 1990s. Gary also had the distinction of scoring one of the FA Cup’s fastest ever hat-tricks, in just under three minutes, against Crewe Alexandra in November 1964. All these feats were achieved while juggling a successful career as a press photographer. • Obituary

“Darlington threw bodies on the line for 45 minutes and the penny just hasn’t dropped for us today but that’s just football. We’ll always pick the bones out of any goal we concede, and any goal we concede is not acceptable, but we bang on about midfield runners and Holness was a midfield runner and we’ve not tracked him.”

“The second goal you can’t legislate for mistake like that. If we get in at 1-0 then the second half might have been a different game. But we haven’t scored today and that is unlike us. We simply weren’t good enough and we didn’t convert our chances. We’ve had a dozen corners, a dozen throws into the box, we’ve recycled the ball well into the box but it just hasn’t fallen for us.”