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The game kicked off without me (the cheek of it) and before I'd arrived we were already in the lead. I'm reliably informed that a Michael King run straight from the kick-off was halted illegally in the box after only 28 seconds. The winger picked himself up from the deck and beat the keeper from the spot.
When I finally arrived the first action I saw was a long range drive from the Chester captain, but this was dealt with by Danny McDonald. Either side of this effort the visitors were certainly putting themselves about, with a series of agricultural challenges.
Unfortunately for Chester it was this physical approached which helped us to increase our lead. King weaved his way into the box from the left wing and was simply hacked down near the by-line. Again the winger made no mistake as he sent the keeper the wrong way. From this position of dominance you'd have been forgiven for thinking that we would go on from here and destroy our opponents, but it was not to be.
Chester came back into the game and all of a sudden we were chasing. After 25 minutes they broke down the right wing and cut a cross back to the near post. An onrushing forward was attacking the space and got in ahead of the covering centre half, flashing a header past McDonald. From this point until half time we were very much the second best side and for long periods found ourselves struggling to cross the half way line. When the half time whistle came we were certainly glad of it.
At the start of the 2nd half we improved and started to press once more, but on a break we nearly lost our lead. The ball was played across a stretched defence and we were fortunate that the forward mis-timed his effort, as he screwed his shot wide. It was a glaring miss and when it happened the balance shifted totally towards us.
King was hunting a hat-trick and was unlucky when cutting in from the left wing onto his right foot. He fired in a shot to the near post but the keeper shovelled it away. We continued to press and won a free kick about 25 yards from goal in a central position. McKee stepped up and we've all seen his dead ball prowess this season. He floated the ball over the wall and the keeper got up and across very well to tip onto the bar. His defence didn't react though and Jackson nipped in to head home with the keeper still grounded.
With twenty minutes remaining we made changes to the team, as Liam Newman and Ross Wilson took the field in place of Jackson and Oliver Devenney. Newman was playing in a withdrawn role and immediately took to prompting the play. Wilson was up front and looking dangerous, having a couple of opportunities which could have borne fruit had he showed just a touch more composure. With time running down Chester managed a rare attack and hit the bar with a shot from nothing, but we held firm and repelled the danger.
Team:- Danny McDonald, Ed Williams, Steve Edwards, Curtis Woods, Tom Anderson, Oliver Devenney (Liam Newman), Dave Lynch, Michael King, Joe Jackson (Ross Wilson), Dom Knowles, Joe McKee.
Subs not used:- Cooke, James Taylor, Tom Taylor.