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Chester City v Yeovil Town,Saturday 10th February 2001 Nationwide Conference League CHESTER CITY 2 V 1 Yeovil Town att:2265 Ruscoe(17),M.Beesley(32) Bent(85) Excellent City performance sees the brakes put on Yeovil’s promotion charge as the blues beat the champions elect 2-1 at the Deva. The feeling amongst most blues fans going into the Deva for Saturday's clash with league leaders Yeovil was that most would be happy coming away with a point from the game. Boss Graham Barrow was forced to put out a real make shift side after being hampered by injuries and suspensions, Steve Whitehall, Andy Porter, Paul Carden and Darren Moss where all ruled out before the game started and with a Yeovil side brimming with confidence visiting the Deva for the first time the feeling was that it would be a tall order for the blues to clinch three points from this game. Thanks to a fantastic first half performance the blues did clinch three points though and it left many coming away considering where the blues would be now in the league if it wasn't for all those draws on the run up to the Christmas period. It took the make shift City side which saw Matty Woods playing as a centre forward 10 minutes or so to settle into a game which started off being played at a frantic pace. Yeovil Town forward Barrington Belgrave had a couple of runs at the Chester defence but couldn't find a way through whilst at the other end Mark Beesley fired a shot over the North Stand from just outside the area. Matt Doughty embarked on a couple of runs at the Yeovil defence which where eventually cut out before City took a well deserved lead on 17 minutes, the impressive Jimmy Haarhoff quickly turned on the left hand side of the box and his initial shot was blocked by a Yeovil defender before the ball landed at the feet of Scott Ruscoe who curled his shot into the corner of the net from just outside the area. The blues didn't sit back on their one nil lead and kept at Yeovil not giving the Yeovil players any time on the ball for them to create openings in the City defence. The glovers however did have a chance on 23 minutes when Wayne Brown failed to claim the ball in the air from a corner and Yeovil's top scorer Warren Patmore found himself on the end of the cross but couldn't direct his header down into the City net. City should have doubled their lead moments later, Jimmy Haarhoff went on another now trademark run and after beating 3-4 Yeovil players squared the ball to Scott Ruscoe who had sprung the glovers offside trap but his shot was well saved by Yeovil keeper Pennock. It was to become 2-0 on 32 minutes, Chris Blackburn set Mark Beesley through on goal and Beesley who is starting to gain back a bit of confidence rounded the keeper and placed the ball into the empty net from a tight angle. City went looking for a third which would have surely killed the game off before half time but couldn't find it, the closest they came was when Matt Woods had a drive at goal which was pushed around the post by Tony Pennock. The blues came out for the second half minus Chris Blackburn who had limped off at half time and in his place came on Darren Wright. This led to another shuffling of the pack as Neil Fisher now had to come into central midfield with Scott Ruscoe. It was a very worrying first 10 minutes to the second half for blues fans as the new City midfield had a very nervous opening. Yeovil dominated possession whilst City gave away numerous silly fouls including one by Jimmy Haarhoff who was accused of throwing his weight around! The City midfield slowly but surely started to get a grip of the game and 15 minutes into the second half the game should have been over. Jimmy Haarhoff again had a run on the wing and he centered the ball to Matt Woods who was free on the edge of the 6 yard box with only Pennock to beat but his shot crashed against the crossbar and went out for a goal kick. It left you wondering if City would live to rue that missed oppurtunity. Yeovil came close to getting themselves back into the game on 70 minutes when a sweetly struck free kick flew narrowly over the City bar. As the game went into the last 10 minutes the glovers through everything at City. On came two subs and one of them, Bent nearly made an instant impact when his shot from the edge of the area rattled against the City post and out of play. They did grab a lifeline on 85 minutes when Bent headed a corner in from close range. He quickly retrieved the ball from the net and set about taking the ball straight back to the centre circle. You knew it was really going to be a nervous last 5 minutes as Yeovil and their supporters had got a sniff of a point which would have been extremly undeserved if it had come. It didn't though and after the City fans endured 4 minutes of stoppage time the referee finally blew up to give the blues three hard fought points. Chester:Brown,Fisher,Doughty,Ruscoe,Lancaster,P.Beesley,Ruffer,Woods,M.Beesley,Haarhoff,Blackburn Subs:Woodyatt,Price,Wright,Harris,Berry Yeovil:Pennock,Piper,Betts,Skiverton,Steele,Way,Belgrave,Smith,Patmore,Crittenden,Poole Subs:Bent,Lindegaard,O`Brien,Thompson,Weale Man Of The Match:Martyn Lancaster- For the third game in a row I'll give the Man Of The Match award to Martyn Lancaster who had another superb, confident performance at the back.
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