What happened to...

During the 2002/03 season Chester used 30 different players in the Conference, a far cry from the 41 that appeared during the 2001/02 season when the club also employed four different managers.

Most appearances were made by Kevin McIntyre who started 39 games and also came off the bench for the final game against Yeovil where he scored his first goal for City. Having got a taste for goalscoring Kevin of course followed this up with a memorable goal in the play-offs at his old club Doncaster. Lets hope that Macca can extend this newly found goalscoring ability into the forthcoming season.

Close behind Kevin comes goalkeeper Wayne Brown who only missed three games, against Margate and Gravesend when he was replaced by Ian McCaldon, and at Nuneaton when Jon Worsnop played in goal. Having completed 199 League games for Chester at the end of the season Wayne will hopefully have played his 200th match at Stevenage on Saturday. Congratulations to Wayne who has seen the club through a difficult period since his debut, against Cardiff, in November 1996. The departure of Chris Blackburn and Martyn Lancaster also means that Wayne and Paul Carden are now the only two players to have played in the Football League for City.

The shortest Conference appearance by a Chester player in 2002/03 was made by Adam Griffin who joined the club on loan from Oldham Athletic. Midfielder Adam replaced Kevin McIntyre for the final 18 minutes of the televised game against Barnet and made his mark by striking the post within a few minutes of coming on the field. It was a short-lived spell at the Deva for Adam and although there was talk of a loan move to Scarborough he finished the season back at Oldham. Like many other clubs Oldham have had a difficult summer and it remains to be seen whether Adam starts the season with the Lancashire club.

Another player who only made a brief appearance in the Conference was Chris Tate. Chris was already familiar to City fans having made four appearances and scored one goal in the 2001/02 season and he returned on loan from Leyton Orient in October in order to improve his fitness. Chris came off the bench against Yeovil in November and set up Daryl Clare’s last minute equaliser before featuring for the final half hour at Stevenage the following week. However it was in cup competitions that Chris made a far deeper impression. First of all he scored one of the goals of the season in the Cheshire Senior Cup at Stockport as City triumphed by three goals to one. Unfortunately this goal was to count for nothing as City were then disqualified from the competition for playing an ineligible player – none other than Chris himself. Two weeks later he led the line with Daryl Clare in the FA Cup Second Round match at Second Division Colchester United and scored a brilliant late winner to deservedly take City through to the next round. All this activity stirred Leyton Orient’s interest and they decided that Chris might be the answer to their own goalscoring problems after all having not played him for twelve months. An extension to his loan spell at the Deva was turned down and he promptly scored two goals for the O’s reserve team before returning to the first team against Hartlepool. A goal in each of the next three games helped stake his claim for a regular place in the team and although he was sent off at Kiddrminster on Boxing Day he remained in the side for the remainder of the season. Chris remains on Orient’s books this season and is already off the mark with a goal in a pre-season friendly against one of our Conference rivals, Barnet.

Chas Sumner [Published 12/08/03]

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