Chester City 0 Exeter City 3.  

Saturday 27 March 1993.

Referee: PW Harrison (Haywood)

Attendance  2047

Match Report by IAN BEDFORD

CHESTER'S second-half performance convinced the Deva Stadium faithful that City's relegation battle must be all over bar the shouting. Against an Exeter team which was little more than mediocre, Chester capitulated, leaving the mathematicians to calculate when the trapdoor will finally open. Chester City's bright start when Graham Abel hit the bar and Stuart Rimmer had a header saved, faded all to quickly and it was only the fine goalkeepeing of Billy Stewart which kept them in the game. Alan Ball's Exeter, who had lost their previous three away matches, put City's brittle confi. dence to the test when Eamon Dolan headed the visitors ahead three minutes before the interval and to the surprise of no-one Chester could not hit back. When James MacIntyre increased Exeter lead in 53 minutes the outcome was inevitable and it was no surprise when Stuart Storer flicked in the third Exeter goal with just four minutes left. Between the last two Exeter goals, Chester looked a team resigned to relegation, lacking enthusiasm and ideas and it was a disheartened Graham Barrow who left the action near the end to be replaced by John Kelly. The victory at Wigan a few days earlier had promised better things, but the fans are still wait- ing for City to put consecutive wins together for the first time thisseason. Sadly, the present squad seems to have lost the will to hang on to Division 2 status and their fate will surely be sealed sooner rather than later.

Match Statistics 

Chester 
SCORERS: None
CORNERS: 5
SHOTS ON TARGET: 7
SHOTS OFF TARGET: 2
FOULS: 10
SAVES: 5
BOOKINGS: None

CHESTER CITY: Stewart, Limbert, Albiston, Came, Abel, Comative, Barrow (Kelly), Butler Thompson), Rimmer, Morton, Pugh.

Exeter City 
SCORERS:
Dolan (42), Macintyre (53), Storer (86)
CORNERS: 14
SHOTS ON TARGET: 8
SHOTS OFF TARGET: 2
FOULS: 8
SAVES: 6
BOOKINGS: Storer

EXETER CITY: Miller, White, Cook, Balley, Deniels, Brown, Minett, Macintyre, Storer, Dolan, Hodge (Phillips). Sub: Redwood.