Match Report - Liverpool

By Andy Lance
August 14 2002

Against a strong Liverpool XI Mark Wright’s Chester City were not expected to trouble the premiership side, but against all the odds City came away with a fantastic 1-0 victory thanks to a late Chris Blackburn strike.

Chester City - W. Brown, Ruffer, Hatswell, Guyett , Harkness 8, McIntyre, Kelly, Woodyatt, Davies, Beesley, Twiss.

Liverpool - Kirkland, Carragher, Vignal, Warnock, Babbel, Diao, Berger, Smicer, Biscan, Baros, Cheyrou.

A crowd of 5,172 turned out to see one of Chester’s finest victories and celebrate 10 years of football at the Deva Stadium. Also the Chester players ran out through the new tunnel wearing the all new home shirts.

The defending trio of Scott Guyett, Carl Ruffer and Wayne Hatswell were faultless throughout the game and came up with some vital saving challenges early in the game. With Harkness and Bolland (yes and Lancaster!!) in the squad, the City defence is sure to be one of the strongest in the Conference next season.

In a tense encounter, there were few clear cut chances for both sides. Liverpool’s best chance fell to Markus Babbel who headed over after losing his marker. Michael Twiss was outstanding for City and twice narrowly missed Kirkland’s goal.

Mid-way through the second half City had a scare when the ball twice was played across Wayne Brown’s penalty area begging for a red shirted player to slide in. Chester looked defensively strong throughout the match and took the lead in the 84th minute when substitute Chris Blackburn burst through and rounded the Liverpool keeper to the delight of the home support.