Squeaky Bum Time

Yes, the phrase that's on everyone's lips at the moment, it really is squeaky bum time as the end of the season draws ever nearer, and Skelmersdale - our closest rivals in the Promotion hunt - are suddenly just 3 points behind us with a game in hand.

Skem - doing a "Hereford"

Now a lot has been said in various quarters about why the lead is now only 3 points instead of 13 - but let's just remember that Skem always had at least a couple of games in hand on us and have done a "Hereford" so far in winning 8 games on the bounce, but when you see the games they've played they have had a nice run of fixtures, granted they still needed to go out there and win them, but now is the time we'll see what they're made of - the next 4 games are tricky.

We of course simply have to get back to form, a few more wins and we're there, in the Premier League - what has gone largely unnoticed of course is the fact that we've actually qualified for the Play Offs, and that should be celebrated in itself - but it shows how far we've come as a club in the last 12 months that we're actually viewing that as a disappointment if we end up in the Play Offs.

If it happens then we'll deal with it - right now it looks like the lowest we'll fall to in the League would be 2nd place, which still ensures you home matches in both the Play Off Semi Final (against 5th place) and the Play Off Final, so we'd still be in pole position, but let's hope we don't even have talk of the play offs come April 29th at Garforth!

I've been doing my predictions all the way through the season, and originally I had us to win the League whilst Witton were playing Chorley at home in a few weeks time, but they have shockingly fallen away recently, but like every other Chester fans, hopes they get back to winning ways at home to Skem tomorrow.

I've now got us to clinch the title with a point at Garforth - this with us going into that game 3 points ahead of Skem, who are unlikely to slip up against Ossett in their last game.

Don;t you just hate tickly coughs?

It's been a while since I blogged on here and that has to do with me feeling lousy, a touch of man flu - have done a previous blog about that here, with a cracking video - but I really have felt so crap that the PC was just a distant thought, and annoyingly its dragged itself out still now, with one those dead annoying tickly chesty coughs, so lots of Covonia being sunk at the mo!

It's been another busy week or so, with all those recent home games taking place, and lots to deal with - the curzon Ashton game saw us entertain Graham Abel - one of Harry's Boys from the 80s, and on the same day I received a call from Ryan Lowe who wanted to come and see us in action, so I invited him to do a half time interview - knowing that he'd love the reception. Some obviously see Ryan as one of SV's friends - having spoken to Ryan on a few occasions, I know that he viewed the situation at Chester City as disastrous, but is more than delighted that we have come back the way we have, and will continue to support Chester FC in the future.

Whilst trying to sort out the half time interviews in that game, I got called to the ref's room as it was made known to us that the Assistant Referee had pulled up injured in the first half and a change was needed, but as no fourth official is at games at this level, we were left with going out over the PA system with trying to find a replacement, someone who was qualified to do the job.

Naturally, you start to think that 99% of people on our ground are Chester fans, and is it such a good idea for someone to put themselves forward for the role, imagine if a controversial decision was made, they could be victimised for life!

Thankfully the person who stepped in didn't put a foot wrong all the second half (for both teams), and the incident passed, but a shame that we couldn't win that game.

Saturday, back to winning ways at Mossley, and an important cleareance off the line from Michael Aspin who has been brilliant recently, and deserving of his man of the match awards that he's netted. Skem of course kept up their challenge with another win, you kind of expect it now!

We then went to Woodley on Tuesday night, in a place that felt about -2 having left Chester in sunshine - what's going on there???

Oi! Mind the roof!

We were also on the flight path to Manchester Airport, so every time the ball went in the air you'd catch sight of an incoming plane probably returning from a warmer climate, and after originally venting my jealousy towards them, realised that they'd be flying back in to a colder one!

What about the game then? Well most of it was spent watching high clearances coming back at the player who launched it - a bit like those days on the beach when you smack one of those lightweight balls in the air and then with gust of wind it flies back over your own head for a goal kick, or even worse a goal!

It wasn't the best of games that's for sure, and I think relief was all around the place when Simmo came on to level the match up, but disbelief a few minutes later when he blasted over from close range - that should have been the winner, but it wasn't - we have to deal with it and move on - oh and Skem won again!

On the media side of things, I had a phone call from Al Jazeera TV the other day, who are doing a programme on English Football, and they want to see the impact the fans have on their clubs, and are doing a piece on Liverpool, Plymouth, and Chester - when the call came through I was curious to see why they had chosen us, but the producer that I'm actually dealing with is from Chester, so it's a good story for him to cover!

The good news was is that he rang me back after I originally called him to return a left voicemail, as he went on to say that he was calling from Qatar, so my bill would have been huge had he not called me back!

We may see something on the Radcliffe game for the above feature, so will keep posting about that with the latest developments with it.

A delighted Michael Owen

This week has also been dominated by getting the press release ready for the Manor House Stables, and Steve Ashton has done a lot of work on this one and deserves great credit for pulling it together, it's also great to see Michael Owen wanting to help his home town club out too, and along with fellow owner Andrew Black, and the help of Mike Foster at Deva Racing, has given Chester fans the chance to 'own' a racehorse that will run in Chester FC colours and will hopefully net some prize money - it is of course £50 per month for 6 months, and that may be too much for some, but I'm sure there will be 50 people out there - especially in the business world that follow Chester and fancy a bit of a punt on this one!

So, onto tomorrow then, and the home game against Cammell Laird, and a chance to put things right again, and we've hopefully got a stack of former players attending the game tomorrow, and we're hoping that they'll be able to walk round the pitch to applaud the supporters before taking their seats - we've got plans for players from the 50s through to the 90s attending tomorrow which should be great to see.

It's also Grand National Day tomorrow, and I'm sure the usual lengthy queues in the bookies with first timers in there with their slips, who are you going for? I'm going for Balabriggs - hopefully it will end up a worthy winner!

So, fingers crossed tomorrow then, and let's hope we can net another 3 points in our pursuit of the title - COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!

Busy Busy Busy as Friday is set to be Media Day!

Well this week has seen another busy week in the media role at the club with plenty going on!

But first, reflections on the match at Woodley Sports on Tuesday - or rather, the lack of a match on Tuesday!

BP garage - not quite Woodley Sports FC

Tuesday didn't start well for me, as the sat nav was programmed in, and guided me all the way through the motorways to Stockport in about 45 minutes flat, before telling me we were 1.2 miles from the ground, but when the voice said destination on the left I looked in amazement as I didn't realise that Woodley Sports played at a BP garage - thanks Sat Nav - useless piece of s...

Anyway, "perform a U-turn" was the most annoying and regular thing I was hearing as I tried to work out where the hell the ground was, so had to pull over and then drive with one hand on the Evo-Stik League handbook for directions, whilst the other steered me to what I hoped was closer to the ground!

When I eventually got there, you could feel the friendliness of the place from the off, and after a lovely pre match burger, I went to meet Woodley's official Wayne Ashworth, who had gone out of his way to accommodate Chester, and provide a great night for Blues fans - inviting comments from Chester fans in the match day programme, offering hospitality for just £25, reducing prices for Dads & Lads to a tenner, when they could quite easily have increased prices for this fixture.

Naturally being pulled from pillar to post, and then the big nightmare started, the lights started to fail, with them coming back on, before going off again - repeat that two or three times and we know what happened.

I was gutted for Wayne who was so keen to get the game on, but this one was out of his hands, one thing that struck me was how many electric "experts" there seemed to be all of a sudden at the game.

We're working with Woodley & the Evo-Stik League to come up with a solution, and hopefully that will mean a game back at Woodley free or charge - it's a shame that some fans cannot make the re-arranged game on April 5th, and Woodley won't be able to say that a refund can be made until they have agreement with the Evo-Stik League, so those who think the club are ;fobbing them off' should just give them a bit of time to sort things out - they have to do this the correct way, which is why it's not being rushed.

The attention if of course turned now to the Chorley game on Saturday, and even though the game is actually tomorrow, there has been so much going on in the last couple of days media wise it's been hard to catch up!

On Wednesday we had the Alan Irwin Show on City Talk, with then Podcast being made available here - Alan, who has upped City's coverage of the Blues this season, had Neil Young & Michael Wilde on the show which is in the studios at the top of the Liverpool tower, and I can tell you now you can feel the thing swaying when you're up there!



"Get in! I've got Wildey on my show!"

 Then yesterday I got a call from Colin Murray, who initially was ringing about his designer sunglasses that he left up here last time he visited - and he's going on holiday on Saturday so he wanted them back - so I did him a fair trade, he could have them if he got Wildey on his Friday night show, and I don't think he needed too much persuasion, as Wildey is of course the number one striker around!

We were also trying to sort out a time when Colin & friends could make it back up for a game, which will be on a Wednesday, so barring any more fixture changes I'm hoping that he'll be up for the game against Salford on the 9th March - and now here lies the spooky link - Colin's birthday is actually the 10th March, and what happened on the 10th March last year? Hmmm, a Chester fan for life guaranteed now, as his birthday falls on Day 1 of the reformation of Chester FC!

Colin also confirmed some more good news as Pat Nevin has now confirmed for the event on May 7th at Chester Racecourse, so that's the full set now, Colin, Perry, and Pat will all be attending.

Also tonight, The Non League Channel (internet based station) will be featuring the comments from Neil Young ahead of the game at Chorley on Saturday, so more coverage there.

The Friday Night Football Show also on tonight with myself joining Neil & Pat in the studio, thanks to Shane for the invite.

Also, yes there's more - the Seals Podcast should be out today which features the 'Team of the Decade' and I have to admit mine was sneaked in, at the last minute, so hopefully it made a difference to the voting!

So, all that AND the fact that tomorrow is the big game - it'll just be nice to slow down for the game!!!

The highs and lows of being a Chester fan!

Well it’s been a while since I last blogged, in fact 11 days, so plenty to catch up with on all things Chester FC.




Travelodge Durham - a bit busy last week!

  It was great to see Wildey take the goalscoring charts by storm recently, and obviously at Durham where he grabbed himself a hat trick, scoring all the goals in a 3-0 win on the artificial pitch with many making the trip to spend the weekend up in Durham!

Then onto Fylde on the Tuesday night where Wildey was rested, and many were expecting a very close game with Fylde, and that’s certainly how it started with Fylde going close on more than one occasion, but then the goal from Kyle Wilson started the ball rolling for us, and it wasn’t long before the second arrived when Iain Howard netted to effectively kill the game.

Then up popped Robbie Booth to score a third goal, and well deserved given Boothy’s form recently, and that was it, job done, in the Cup Semi Final, against either Curzon Ashton or Lancaster City – time will tell on that, but the fact remains we’re one win away from the final!

The following day I did an interview for Goal.com which will hopefully be published soon – great to see another media outlet getting interested in Chester FC – and we have a Chester fan in Gazz Pashley to thank for helping to set that up.

Then on Thursday, the day everyone wasn’t particularly looking forward to – the day when we would say farewell to Rich Wightman, and a half day at work was followed by the funeral at Caldy Valley Church which was packed out, and that was replicated at Blacon Crematorium where everyone had crammed in to the small venue for the service – even the Minister taking the service was astounded at the numbers turning up for Rich.

Then back to the Exacta Stadium for the Wake, and spirits were lifted throughout the afternoon with the family being extremely appreciative towards Chester fans, that was Rich’s life, and I’m sure will continue to be up there as he looks down from above.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's Wildey!

So, after a draining day for all, back to the football, and on Saturday Rich’s family and friends – about 30 in all were there to see the Blues thump home 5 goals in an amazing second half period that saw yet another Wilde hat trick – it wouldn’t surprise me to see him run into a telephone box, do a few twists, and all of a sudden come out as the caped crusader!

Typically, I managed to miss his best goal of the afternoon having run into tell those still working behind the scenes that it was 2-0, all I heard was a massive roar before getting my vantage point, it was like one of those moments where you see your bus driving off in the distance just as you’ve turned the last corner for the bus stop!

It didn’t help that doorman Ed told me that it was one of his best goals, great – just great. Thank god for NATV’s highlights package hey?

Made sure Colin Murray was aware of the score, and he promptly replied by saying we need to keep hold of Wildey – now there’s an understatement of the year!

Following the match was of course ‘the queue’ for the Chorley tickets – having only been given 1200 tickets (1100 initially until we advised we would need more), there were 500 tickets going on general sale, and a queue that featured about 20 people in it just after 4pm soon grew to around 250 by 4.45pm, and by 5pm it had stretched to 450 – such was the demand for a ticket to the match at Victory park – let’s hope it’s us who are celebrating a ‘Victory’ at the ‘Park’ on Saturday.

I began counting the numbers in the queue to try and assure everyone that they would be okay for a ticket, but unfortunately I ended up getting into conversations with people, and that was it, lost my count so I’d have to start again!

Thankfully the queue never went beyond the 500 mark, and only 20 tickets were left to sell on Monday at the ground, which as expected were snapped up in 5 minutes!

Sausage & Chips - you just can't beat it!

 So, a great weekend was had with Chester winning by a 5-0 margin, sausage & chips on the way home before celebrating with a few glasses of wine – well more than a few, but still just managed to watch Match of the Day, albeit hanging on to whatever vision I had left after all that Pinot Grigio!

Yesterday was of course St Milner’s Day with Chester fans across the globe paying tribute to the man who rescued a point from the very large jaws of defeat at the Racecourse that night 16 years ago – I remember it well as I’d left my tickets on the dining room table such was the rush to get over to that place down the 483.

I remember the sinking feeling once I’d got the massive floodlights in range, but I had no alternative, I had to go back for them as I was not missing this game – so I flew down the 483 back to Chester – thankfully the police must all have been concentrating on other matters so they didn’t see me going at 116mph all the way back to Chester! (hope they aren’t reading this by the way!)

Anyway, made it back in time – just – and got to witness an incredible 90 minutes, where the Blues had 12 men to beat (that referee was just encouraging a riot wasn’t he with his decisions?) and whilst we didn’t beat Wrexham, that equalizer was like the greatest goal ever, and probably one of the most celebrated goals ever too!

Ooh Andy Milner, Ooh Andy Milner!

So, raised a glass to Andy Milner yesterday too!

Onto today, or tonight to be more precise and 3 points is the order of the day at Woodley Sports, who have been extremely welcoming so far, hopefully they’ll allow us to leave with maximum points tonight, although I don’t want any on the way home down the M56!

Come on you Blues!

Where's a Terry Smith kettle when you need one?

It had been an unusually quiet week with the Blues last week, as we experienced the rarity of no midweek match, and given the bad weather, maybe we could have done with one as we're now in a cold snap that is dominating the game, with temperatures plummeting towards minus 20!

It also co-incided with a week off work too, so lots of attention given to the incoming e-mails to the club as well as making minor amends to the official website.

Then on Wednesday, the chance to listen to Alan Irwin's coverage of the Blues with his visit to the Exacta last Saturday for the Skem game - and how good was that programme?? He sat with Chris Pilsbury through the game whilst getting interviews with me before, during, and after the game, but I must admit I didn't think all of the footage would be used!

Typically, I'd misread the Twitter feed from Leigh Genesis last week, there's me thinking that Clitheroe had been beaten 2-1 when actually they'd lost to Clitheroe, and cue plenty of "nine points ahead" inaccuracies, ah well, that'll teach me!

Also on Wednesday night, time to do a few player interviews for the half season dvd and Trafford dvd that NATV are releasing very shortly, and the odd sight of me walking through Total Fitness - no I normally break into a cold sweat when just walking past a gym, so all the guilty feelings about not doing enough about my fitness were certainly rammed home when seeing everyone else utilising all the products that feature in TF.

Then the lads came in, all decked out in their CFC gear, with everyone looking on, seems that the lads will make an impact in there.

Anyway, carried out a few interviews with the lads, before heading off home to return to my position as couch potato, and catch up with the Apprentice and then the latest goings on in the Jungle!

So, thoughts then turned towards the weekend, and whether Saturday's game would be on or off. Friday saw the first pitch inspection take place to show that ther pitch could be playable at kick off time despite it being frozen first thing in the morning. The pitch at that point was okay, but at the same time, the snow was beginning to flurry.

The ice cool temperatures overnight would then throw fresh doubt onto proceedings, and a 9am pitch inspection was to take place, so waiting on the other end of the phone to find out what the outcome was whilst standing in the garden with my shorts on having just got up to let the dog out - yes I know, not a nice image.

Then the phone call telling me that a further inspection would take place at 2pm, as the League wanted us to do everything possible to get the game on, so the call for volunteers went out, whilst updating the radio, twitter, facebook, and of course the official site, whilst answering a few queries on DevaChat.

Then as soon as that was done, the phone went again, and the match was now off - so quickly into reverse, and updating everything again, so that all were aware of the game being called off. Despite the thought of having a freezing cold Exacta to attend, I still was looking forward to a game on the day, so to have it whipped away was a great shame, but I think at 2pm the decision would have been the same.

So, a quiet weekend in the end, with plenty of TV to watch, and casting an eye towards this week's game at Newcastle - would we have the same problem? Yes, probably.

Temperatures had dropped considerably since Saturday with little chance of it getting above freezing, and news that a pitch inspection at newcastle was to take place this afternoon threw the game into doubt, especially when I jumped in the car following the week off work it was minus 8, and plenty of de-icing to be done before heading back to work.

Today as well has seen another cancellation, this time the Newcastle Town game again for the second time, with the weather winning the battle.

Thankfully though, the Woodley Sports game gets the go ahead for next Wednesday, and the strong possibility of (Sir) Stuart Rimmer attending the game as the Legend of the Week, and you never know maybe just maybe he might be joined by another...