Team News: Witton retain the eleven that defeated Sutton Coldfield Town in the FA Trophy on Saturday.
Starting XI: M. Cooper; M. Holt, B. Harrison, I. Kearney, M. Wood; D. Griggs, D. Maguire, D. MacPherson, C. Botham; A. Kinsey, A. Stott.
Substitutes: C. Frost, B. Pritchard, P. Heler, L. Pugh, T. Smith.
LATEST SCORE
Witton Albion 0-1 CHESTER FC
HALF TIME
Witton Albion 0-1 Chester FC
Come on Witton! Big gate?
2-0 down according to Chester forum, gate 1560
FULL TIME
Witton Albion 2-3 Chester FC
Well… To start with it was fantastic to see WP with an excellent gate! Although I don’t know if its just me or do we often crumble a little under the pressure of a big gate (FC United at home being the exception, even though we were outplayed then).
Absolute pandemonium to immense disappointment in about 60 seconds, but in fairness Chester deserved the 3 points IMO. Let’s pick ourselves up for Saturday now, another big one.
COME ON WITTON.
Have to agree with you LP - bit of a bummer to lose after pulling back to 2-2 but we were outclassed for 90 minutes. Too late in putting Frosty up against Ruffer,if done earlier we could well have won it.
Put it down to experience and bounce back at Skem on saturday.
Chester you make me sick. Pay your debts.
Outplayed but not outfought, you can ask no more. Glad to see you all back, I am “Off” again.
WHS.
To be fair the best team won, but there were loads of positives for Albion. Seeing 1500+ on the terraces plus the associated bar sales, programmes etc will have given the club a handy pay day.
Home support was excellent and gave a good account of themselves. All the volunteers that made the game happen deserve a big thank you.
As for the team, IMO I think we wilted under the pressure and didn’t play as we could, but The team never gave up and when Mr Pritch and Frosty came on, i think we started to get back a bit of self belief. When it got to 2-2, for a brief few moments I thought we were going to nick a point. Chester are a good team and will definitely push Chorley for the title so we have to put the result in the right context. No shame in this defeat at all, in fact it was a good night to be on Wincham Park to watch an excellent game - just a pity about the result but it was no injustice.
Believe it or not this was my first game this season!! Not being able to make Wednesday evening games (usually anyway) and a few family and work issues have meant I’ve been absent till this evening!
So this was my first look at the latest new Albs, with Pritch the only familiar “face”, though I did spot a certain Mr Broadhead on the terraces!
When the team came round from the outside practice pitch I thought “oh they are giving the youth team an experience of the big (vs Chester) match atmosphere” then realised …
Anyway we were outplayed for much of the game by a very well organised Chester side, until those utterly mad last few minutes!!! I thought we’d nicked a point there for a minute!
As Knutsfordian says it was great to see Wincham park with a good crowd, thanks to Chester FC for that. Great promise in our team just a bit overawed by the big occasion perhaps?
All good and very honest assessments of the match. Chester passed the ball around very quickly and were very athletic in midfield and upfront. Had we have nicked a point (which you can argue we should have done getting it back to 2-2) then it would not have been a fair reflection of the game. The better side won, but given their wage bill is about 10 times ours and rumored at £8k a week, they should be the better side.
Good effort from the lads and no disgrace at all. In particular I thought young Ben was very composed and never looked out of his depth. Macca never stopped running for 90 minutes, and Matty Wood also did reasonably well.
We know that we are work in progress, yet still we are already one of the better teams in this league. We need to learn from last night and I would not be at all surprised if we go to their place in March and get a result (for the cup game I would play the youth team)!
Let’s pick ourselves up and get back to winning ways, the league table still looks a lot better than any of us would have believed at the start of the season.
Perhaps Neil could post the details of home and away support last night - Chesters website says 1200 of their fans made up the 1560 attendance ?
I would be amazed if there were only 350 went through the home turnstiles - it looked a good few more to me.
We may have lost to a Chester team who were better than us on the day, but you could not fault any player for effort and every single one gave their best on the night. All the people I have spoken to recognise that and were heartened by the team spirit and the will to fight to the end - bitter though it was !
I think we were definately over-awed by the occasion. Too many people thought it was Chester City we were playing rather than Chester FC… We gave them far too much respect, which disappointed me. They are paying good money out, but are still only recruiting the likes of Ruffer and Peers. Ruffer wasn’t one of our best players last year, and Peers spent most of last season on the bench at Halifax. They had some good players, and their system meant they won the midfield battle. I just think we could have given a better account of ourselves over 90 minutes.
It was fantatic to pull it back to 2 - 2, in a game that the lads could very easily have given up on. Although losing in that manner pobably feels worse than had it just finished 2 0, the added excitement may well see some of the casual supporters coming back down in future.
Was good to see Pritch get some game time, and he definately added something to the team. Age, weight, facial hair, etc etc… No, the big man did well. And just because we won 7 on the spin without him, then lost the first game he plays in, shouldn’t be held against him at all. :whistle:
The positives from the night far out-weigh any negatives. It’s just a shame we couldn’t nick the point that our character deserved, even if our performance didnt.
Have to agree with the other posts ,the best team won, and it was the best five minutes of football at wincham park this season.Chester were a lot quicker moving the ball around and counter attacked very quickly and we seemed to be on the back foot most of the time. The first half we spent most of it pumping long balls up front which was getting us nowhere, improved second half and managed a few shots on goal.Great to see a big crowd but think some of the lads were a little overawed . I`m sure with the team spirit that we have at the moment that we will learn alot from this game and will continue to improve and go and collect 3 pts on saturday.
Not at all concerned about last night’s result.That is history
Bring on Skem.
Sounds like we were unlucky not to get a point.As long as the team can pick there heads,and not dwell on losing to chester,that game is now behind witton,so start off on a winning run again at skelmesdale,
And I missed it. Left on 90ish minutes :blink:
there was approximately 450 through Wittons turnstile so leaves chesters gate about 1150