10th July 2010
The first ever game in Chester FC’s history finally arrived at 15:10 on the 10th July, but by 17:00, it had turned into a day that many will want to forget thanks to a few mindless idiots.
Over 1300 Chester fans made the journey to Llanelian road to witness their re-birth of their beloved club, only to have their day marred by a small group of the travelling support.
On the field, Neil Young appears to have put a squad together that would certainly be in the upper half of the first division, while once again Dave Challinor got his tactics right as he got one over on his ex-boss with a 2-0 victory.
Speaking before the game Challinor said "I know I’ve said results don’t really matter in pre-season, but after one or two things which have happened over the summer, I think Colwyn Bay supporters will be more than keen to see us put on a good show this afternoon, personally, I’m looking forward to a good test against a strong side."
With no less than six ex-Bay players in the Chester line-up, the game had a reunion feeling to it as the players ran out, but the game soon settled into a typical pre-season friendly, with neither team going in as hard as they would under normal league or cup conditions.
Chester had the better of the early minutes and very nearly took the lead when Mark Connolly delivered a precision free-kick. Michael Wilde directed the ball goal bound with an excellent header, but with the keeper beaten, Colwyn Bay were saved by the post.
Colwyn Bay grew stronger as the half went on, but both teams cancelled each other out as they went in at half time 0-0
Like last week, Dave Challinor once again made wholesale substitutions to have a look at the full squad. It didn’t take the Bay’s new line-up long to open the scoring after Lee Davey ran onto a cross that looked like it had just gone out of play, but Lee Davey played to the whistle and delivered a pinpoint cross for Ben Jones to head home.
Five minutes later Lee Davey drove in a low cross for Joe O’Sullivan to collect, swivel and fire home inside the far post.
Colwyn Bay continued to dominate, but neither team could create any further goal scoring opportunities and as the game entered the last fifteen minutes no one could be blamed for losing their concentration as events off the field took the focus off the game.
Overall, Colwyn Bay looked the more energetic and although had made more substitutions to give all the trialists a run, looked the more settled team.
Chester FC’s new manager, Neil Young, admitted after the game that his side will need to improve: “I thought we lost our way a bit in the last 10 minutes of the first half and in the second half we never really got a foothold in the game as their midfield began to dominate.”
