Preview - N'hampton (H)

By Chris Thompson
November 12 2005

CHESTER must line up once again without striker Gregg Blundell.

CHESTER CITY v NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Saturday 12th November 2005, 15:00 LEAGUE 2
Saunders Honda Stadium

Chester City		Northampton Town
	V
1. Chris MacKenzie		1. Lee Harper
2. Stephen Vaughan		2. Jason Crowe
3. Carl Regan		3. Fred Murray
4. Shaun Hessey		4. Ashley Westwood
5. Phil Bolland		5. Luke Chambers
6. Luke Dimech		6. Chris Doig
7. Stuart Drummond		7. Ian Taylor
8. Michael Branch		8. Andy Kirk
9. Gregg Blundell		9. Scott McGleish
10. Ryan lowe		10. Josh Low
11. Tom Curtis		11. Eoin Jess
14. Ben Davies		12. David Hunt
15. Dave Artell		14. Dave Rowson
17. Craig Dove		15. Brett Johnson
20. Tom Curle		16. Sean Dyche
21. Abdul El Kholti		17. Bradley Johnson
22. Scott McNiven		18. Gavin Johnson
23. Marcus Richardson		19. Martin Smith
30. Justin Walker		20. Pedj Bojic
		21. David Galbraith
		22. David Hicks
		23. Matthew Gearing
		24. Liam Dolman
		25. Scott Cross
		27. Petr Mikolanda
		28. Ryan Gilligan
		29. Junior Mendes
		30. Jon Docker

---

chester city news

CHESTER must line up once again without striker Gregg Blundell.

Since his absence due to concussion against Rochdale in October, the Blues have won just twice in six outings, including a humiliating 3-0 defeat at Cambridge's Abbey Stadium in the LDV Vans 1st round.

A training ground injury prevented him from making his comeback against Shrewsbury two weeks ago, but he is expected to return for when Chester travel, rather ironically, to Rochdale in the return fixture.

So Keith Curle is forced to stick with skipper Michael Branch, Ryan Lowe and under-fire target man Marcus Richardson at the forefront of his attack.

Stewart Drummond should roll back into his side after his welcomed return from suspension last week against Folkestone Invicta, while Phil Bolland will be pressing for a place in the side ahead of the inconsistent former Mansfield defensive duo Luke Dimech and Dave Artell.

Otherwise, the squad is injury free, and Curle is expected to start with a similar squad to that which turned around a shameful first half performance against Folkestone Invicta to win 2-1, in the end, convincingly.

northampton town news

Defender Gavin Johnson is out of the Northampton squad after twisting his ankle playing for the reserves.

Town boss Colin Calderwood could stick with the same side that dumped Wycombe out of the FA Cup last weekend, with Sean Dyche and Scott Cross still out.

chestercity.tk predicts

Abdul El Kholti faces a regular spot on the bench, despite delivering another promising performance coming on as a second half subsitute against Folkestone.
He may play if Keith Curle reverts uncharacteristically to two strikers, by dropping Marcus Richardson to the subsitutes, and pushing Ryan Lowe forward.
However, El Kholti is extremely unlikely to penetrate a strong midfield, comprising of Ryan Lowe, Tom Curtis, Stewart Drummond and Ben Davies
The other subsitutes should include defenders Phil Bolland and Shaun Hessey; midfielders Craig Dove or Justin Walker should return in place of Stephen Vaughan, who has disappointed of late.
Youngsters Paul Rutherford and Tom Curle will also be want to appear.

curle's preview

"I think against Folkestone there was a lot of desire to do well, a lot of anticipation, a lot of energy, but sometimes you just have to go back to basics, back to ABC, back to finding a team mate with the simple ball.

'The momentum we had in the early part of the season was because we were doing the simple things quickly and crisply, so that's what we are working on in training. We don't want to complicate our style of play."

calderwood's preview

"I haven't been surprised about how well Chester have done this season." admitted Calderwood. "Keith Curle is a very good manager and he bought in some very good players in the summer. The players have to carry it out on the pitch but a lot of credit for what has been a huge turn around for the club has to go to the man in charge."