By Webmaster
October 10 2002

City were unable to make it 14 league games in a row unbeaten as 19th placed Nuneaton Borough took all the points with a well fought 2-1 victory. A crowd of 2,500+ turned up at the Deva Stadium.

Chester City - W. Brown, Hatswell, Ruffer, Bolland, Carden, Blackburn, McIntyre, Kelly, Brady, Cameron, Sugden.

Mark Wright had Scott Guyett, Steve Harkness and last seasons top goal scorer Mark Beesley all out for the televised fixture. However the two Wayne’s, Wayne Hatswell and Wayne Brown returned to the starting line-up.

Dave Cameron who headed home an 87th minute winner against Margate last weekend replaced Michael Twiss upfront.

City went into the clash as firm favourites but after just 59 seconds they fell behind to Terry Angus close range strike. Jimmy Kelly failed to clear down the right and a low cross which wasn’t cleared by the city defence was side footed home.

The Blues could of responded within 47 seconds when they broke down the left flank and Dave Cameron held the ball up for Kevin McIntyre who lashed a left footed shot high over the bar from the edge of the area.

After a hectic 2 minutes of eventful football City took control of the game and pushed forward searching for an equaliser before half time. Some tidy passing left Paul Carden in a good shooting position but the central midfielder scuffed his strike and watched it dribble to the Nuneaton keeper.

A tussle that had been growing from the kick off created a yellow card for Nuneaton’s goal scorer Terry Angus after wrestling with Dave Cameron.

Chris Blackburn did well to meet a cross but was unable to keep his header down. A freekick wide on the right also caused Nuneaton Borough problems as Kevin McIntyre cross caught the wind and swerved no more than a foot wide.

Terry Angus evening was cut short for a second bookable offence when he fouled Cameron near the manager’s dug outs when he could of easily stayed on his feet.

City seemed to be controlling the game and territorial possession was firmly in Chester’s favour, but a mistake from Wayne Hatswell let Nuneaton down the right. Phil Bolland saved Hatswell’s blushes by intercepting eventual cross and conceding a corner.

At the half time whistle the players left the field knowing they would need to produce in the second half.

The start of the second half saw more attackive pressure from Chester and the equaliser looked on its way. It came after a succession of corners, the third corner saw Ryan Sugden leap highest to head Chester back on even terms. Nuneaton keeper McKenzie seemed to position himself wrong and was unable to intercept the cross before it arrived at Ryan Sugden’s head.

Minutes after the restart an overhead kick went narrowly wide from Jimmy Kelly. Another City goal seemed the only possible outcome from the game as Chester continued to push forward.

Sugden neatly turned and made room for a shot but lashed at it and was lucky not to give away a throw in. Both Kelly and Carden saw shots blocked.

A goal did come with just over 10 minutes remaining, but from the unlikely source of Nuneaton Borough. A long ball out of defence should have been easily dealt with by Wayne Hatswell but the centre back misjudged the flight and found Quayle latch onto it and fire past Wayne Brown in the city goal.

Even a triple substitution on Michael Twiss, Ben Davis and Micky “Trueman” Brown could not break the deadlock 3 successive corners create two goal mouth scrambles and a Twiss effort saved from just under the bar.

A ring of undeserving boos surrounded the Deva Stadium at the final whistle. It’s plain to see that Chester are not free scoring this season like top of the league side Yeovil Town.