Chester City 0 Exeter City 0.

Saturday 6 February 1999.

Attendance 2243

Referee: G Singh

Soul destroying!

CHESTER CITY Match Report 

By IAN BEDFORD

Chester City 0 Exeter City O

DEFENDERS bailed out Chester's shot-shy attackers by keeping a clean sheet in by far the worst of City's 10 third division draws at the Deva Stadium this season. If Exeter City guest Uri Geller was trying to lift the game out of the doldrums his celebrated psychic powers failed to extend beyond the front row of the main stand as the game groaned to an almost inevitable result after 90 minutes of tedium. The strong wind didn't do the teams any favours, a fact City manager Kevin Hatcliffe pointed out.
"Both teams coped well with the awful conditions," he said. I was happy with a clean sheet. When we got down the sides we created chances. It was only when Andy Shelton and Luke Beckett were sent on for Matt Words and Mike Conroy that City began to look capable of snatching an unlikely victory, but before that they looked pedestrian up front and only rarely threatened Ashley Bayes's goal. Exeter, trying to prevent Chester from clinching a third division double, were marginally the better side for most of the game and could have held an interval lead. Jason Rees should have scored after Neil Cutler had lost the ball to the dangerous Steve Flack and just before the break Jon Richardson had the ball in the net, only to be ruled offside. Chester, on the other hand, managed only one shot on goal in the first half. but there was more promise at the start of the second half when Julian Alsford was close to celebrating his Deva Stadium return by sending in a header from David Flitcroft's cross which was cleared off the line and then John Murphy put a header wide from a cross by Conroy. Bayes was busier in this second period and soon after the double substitution he had to make saves in rapid succession from Andy Crosby, who had pushed forward to meet Flitcroft's free-kick. The chances of either side scoring seemed remote, a fact emphaised when Steve Flack chipped a good opportunity wide for Exeter before Bayes foiled Shelton's bid to to get on the scoresheet.

CHESTER (0) 0 EXETER (0) 0

Attendance 2,243

CHESTER Cutler, Davidson, Crosby, Al- ford, Woods (Beckett 70), Flitcroft, Reid, Richardson, Smith, Murphy, Conroy (Shelton 70). Subs not used: Jones.

EXETER Bayes, Richardson, Baddeley, Gittens, Gale, Fry (Wilkinson 72), Rees (Curran 89), Holloway, Gardner, Quailey (Rowbotham 72), Flack.

Referee: G Singh (Wolverhampton).