By Webmaster
September 23 2002

After two scoreless draws on the road, nobody expected a 7 goal thriller at the Deva Stadium yesterday afternoon. The game seemed to have everything, Goals, Penalty’s, Red Cards, a host of bookings, 20 man bust ups, Chris Blackburn in goal, spectacular freekicks and a fat man in red shorts.

Chester City – W.Brown 6, Guyett 9, Bolland 8, Ruffer 7, Harkness 9, McIntyre 10, Kelly, Blackburn, Brodie, Sugden, Twiss

2,231 turned up at the Deva to witness one of the most eventful games in Chester’s history. After the disappointing 0-0 draws away at Hereford United and Halifax Town many predicted a hat-trick of scoreless draws.

0-0 was off the cards within a minute when a well worked Dagenham move left City stunned with Terry striking his club into an early lead. Questions had to be asked about Chester’s statuesque defending.

It took only 6 minutes for the Seals to hit back when a long ball was met by Ryan Sugden who lofted the ball over the out rushing keeper. City began to play the ball around and looked extremely dangerous going forward and a fantastic double save by Dagenham keeper Town Roberts could stop Chester going 2-1 up in the 18th minute.

We didn’t have to wait long for the 2nd goal as Ryan Sugden beat the offside trap and was brought down by Roberts. Roberts was given a yellow card when a straight red was the only sane outcome. With Mark Beesley not in the squad, captain Jimmy Kelly stepped up as the late Dagenham fans made their entry.

Kelly made no mistake by sending Roberts the wrong way. City were now firmly in the driving seat and were very effective going forward.

However on a rare Dagenham attack, Carl Ruffer was judged to of blocked hith his arm and the Daggers were awarded a free kick 20 yards from goal. Bruce struck a left footed gem into the top right hand corner of Wayne Browns goal via the underside of the crossbar.

After the 3 minutes of first half injury time was over City went into the break unlucky not to be in the lead.

Early in the second half the ball deflected into space and Jimmy Kelly shot while receiving a crunching tackle. Injured Kelly saw his strike come back off the post and fall to a red shirt with both Twiss and Sugden closing in.

The game got a bit heated and tackles were flying in from everywhere. It was only a matter of time before the afternoons first dismissal. Dagenham and Redbridge’s Vickers hacked down Michael Twiss when the striker was making a burst into the area. Vickers injured on the floor was finally given his marching orders and Chester had a man over.

The goal that put City back into the lead came in the 61st minute when an unchallenged Phil Bolland headed home from 6 yards to the delight of the City support.

The match turned sour when a vicious tackle from Dagenham’s number 12 angered the Chester players and Mark Wright. A 20 man plus bust up broke out near the dugouts with Mark Wright and Dagenham manager Gary Hill in the thick of It. Hill was sent to the stands.

With Chester looking in control and with the match rapped up Wayne Brown rushed out of his goal to catch a long ball but stepped out of his area and was shown the red card. With substitute John Wornsop not on the bench midfielder Chris Blackburn deputised between the sticks.

Ryan Sugden had the perfect chance to secure the points for Chester when a miss hit kick from Roberts rebounded back off his own defender and “Suggers” ran onto it and closed down on Roberts. The former Scarborough defender struck a poor side footed shot into Roberts body.

City with all their men getting behind the ball gave Blackburn little to do and rapped up the game in the 81st minute when Guyett jumped highest to head Chester to the top of the Nationwide Conference for the third time this season.

The scoring wasn’t quite over as a lively Kevin McIntyre picked out Sugden, who shot a bullet strike past Tony Roberts to round off a great day for City.

Ryan Sugden is now City’s top goal scorer with 6 goals. Yesterday saw the first goals from a non striker.

Man Of The Match - Jimmy Kelly - He seemed to be everywhere!

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE

The game really did have everything.