A New Era....

Hmmm, my first blog here at Surreal Football...... What do I write, where do I start? Passionate about football, passionate about my football team.... I'll give you the lowdown, yeah thats right!

Were you ever dragged to your first ever football match? I was! My family was a strange one, my Grandad was a Crewe Alex supporter, whereas my dad was a Chester City supporter! For some reason even though I had never been to a football match in my life, I sided with Crewe Alex. Still to this day I still dont know why, much to my old mans annoyance. At the time Chester were in Division 2 (what we know now as nPower League One) and Crewe were a division below! My dad said to me "Son, next weekend I'm taking you to watch Chester....", "But Dad.........", I replied.... "No buts, you are coming, you mum is out with your little sister next weekend, you are coming!" Reluctantly I agreed to go, the following Saturday, the big day arrived, my first football match! October 1992, a game against Stoke City! Can't remember much from then, apart from Darren Ryan scored for Chester and the game finished 1-1..... But, even from that young age, I was hooked! Hundreds and Hundreds of games followed!
There have been highs and a lot of lows supporting Chester. 1990, the old Sealand Road stadium was sold behind the fans backs. Chester were forced to play there home games in Macclesfield, a town 45 miles from Chester. After playing there for 2 years, Chester returned to the City, with the 6,000 capacity Deva Stadium completed in time for the 1992/93 season.
The place is cursed I tell ya. Sure, we have been promoted twice since moving there (in 1993/94 and in 2003/2004 when we won the Conference Championship), but there have been many a bad time. The worst coming in March 2010 when Chester City FC died.
For years and years, us Chester fans have suffered through terrible owners. Mark Guterman, Terry Smith and Stephen Vaughan using our club as a toy.
The story of Vaughan is a strange one. The mad yank Terry Smith had taken us from Mid Table in Division 3, to bottom of the Conference in just 2 years. Fans boycotted until a Liverpool based boxing Promoter, Stephen Vaughan bought the Club off Smith. Rejoice, we had been saved!
It all started so well, 2001/02 saw Vaughan appoint Mark Wright as manager and this was the start of exciting times for the Club. Wright guided us to safety in the Conference in 2001/02. A huge rebuiliding took place of the squad and in 2002/03 we made the play-offs! We lost the semi-finals though to Doncaster Rovers in a penalty Shoot-out (and look where they are now....)
The following season though, we were Champions! Daryl Clare and Darryn Stamp were our heroes as they chipped in with over 50 goals between themselves as we won the title! Memories of that 1-0 win against Scarborough which saw us win the League still make me smile....
But what changed? We were back in the Football League, the good days were back at CCFC, or so we thought.
The eve of our return to the Football League, Mark Wright resigned as manager. The reason? He was sleeping with one of the wifes of a player, Wayne Hatswell. Shook the club this did... This started in a real managerial merry go round, and we struggled and struggled....... Wright left, in came Ray Matthias, then Ian Rush, he was sacked, in came Keith Curle, then Wright came back oddly, then he left again, in came Bobby Williamson, he left, and then Wright was back in charge again. Mark Wright, the same bloke who got us promoted back into the League, then guided us to relegation back to where we were..... Oh, it got a lot worse!
Remember Luton being deducted 30 points??? We were deducted 25 when we were relegated due to financial irregularities. Then came the news that the players were not getting paid. We hadnt reached 0 points by February, the fans boycotted and then the players, in a show of protest failed to travel for a League game against Forest Green. This resulted in Chester being suspended from the League for breaking several rules. A EGM was called at Nene Park in February to try and sort the crisis out, but our Caring Chairman didnt even bother to turn up. The Conference officials had no other option but to expel us from the League. So, with no income and a Chairman that didn't seem to care less, with mounting debts, we were wound up in March 2010. It took just 30 seconds for the judge is kill the 125 year old club. A very, very sad day.
But in all bad times, there is always a positive and the next 4 months saw an amazing change.
The fans set up there own group, The CFU (City Fans United) and set about creating a phoenix Club. The first hurdle would be to secure the Deva Stadium, to enable us to play our home games, if the council said no, the project is a non-starter. A Danish consortium also wanted to form a club, much to the fans dismay. The CFU got the keys to the Deva in May, and now the hard work could really begin! A new name for the club was announced. Simply known as Chester FC! Then came the new Club Crest, a smart update of the old Fox design. Then came the appointment of the management team and then the assembling of a sqaud!
Chester FC were accepted into the Northern League Division One (North Section) and the City was buzzing again, Chester were back!
A long pre-season followed with some memorable results, including a 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic and a 3-3 draw against FC United (another Fans Owned Club, set up by Supporters of Manchester United who were angry by the Glazers take over of the club)
Then the first League game arrived! A 1-1 draw against Warrington Town! An amazing night that was had by all Chester fans, who outnumbered the home fans by 12 to 1!
It's been all change, an amazing rollercoaster ride, just think, if I hadn't been dragged to that first game in 1992, I wouldn't have given two hoots! Cheers Dad!

Lithuania 0-0 Scotland

Well the scoreline certainly tells a story, Scotland failing to score in 8 consecutive games away from home. And if I'm honest, a goal was the only thing missing from the performance in Kaunas. The two central defenders I pointed out as weaknesses prior to the game played well and were solid for the 93 minutes, even McCulloch who sat in front of them broke up play well. The Lithuanians never really created much, with two decent chances the whole match, one of which was only created from Weir being thrown to the ground off the ball. You will get the usual calls of poor tactical choice by Levein, however without the 5-man midfield we wouldn't have been as likely to have controlled the match as well as we did. The change with 20 minutes to go, shortly after McFadden was brought on was the correct move again when McCulloch moved into centre midfield, Morrison came on to the right and McFadden went up in behind Miller. The only thing missing here for my money was bringing Boyd on instead of Miller, we need a goal and since I named him Kenny Misser, I didn't feel confident. Again, I can't fault Levein here as Whittaker had taken a knock and he obviously knew he was struggling and had to keep the last substitution for him. However, I do feel we would have coped with a half-fit Whittaker as the Lithuanian ventures forward weren't to often.

We don't like to see unnecessary bookings, but the Lithuanians tactics were plain to see from the get-go and the foul count was there to match it, I think a yellow card or two early on may have stamped it out and made for a better game. There were long periods of the game where it would be stop-start, which really affected Scotland's rhythm. This is the one complaint I would have of the Turkish referee. The known Cesnauskas wasn't on the pitch, however his brother was and he showed similar diving attributes, it really was laughable. The guy came shoulder to shoulder with the Scottish defender about a meter and a half away from the box, rode the challenge, then made the dash into the box and he jumped into the air and fell, nobody within half a meter of him. Well done to the ref for not falling for it, but where was the simulation booking, it really was a ridiculous dive. Anyway next up is Liechtenstein at Hampden, where we would expect at least two up front, and one of them being Boyd. A few goals and another clean sheet would be a great way of washing away the disappointment of tonight's goalless draw.

Lithuania Vs Scotland Preview

Craig Levein enters his first competitive match as Scotland Manager in Kaunas, Lithuania. The nation has strong links with Scotland with a Lithuanian owner at Heart of Midlothian, plus a few players and staff passing through the club. Scotland's record in Lithuania only holds 3 matches containing one win, however four of tonight's starting line-up played a part in Rangers embarrassing defeat to FBK Kaunas in 2008. Scotland line up as a 4-1-4-1 or simplified 4-5-1 as follows:

McGregor

Hutton Weir McManus Whittaker

McCulloch

Naismith Brown Fletcher Robson

Miller

The problem area for Scotland without looking at the home team's line-up is defence, mainly the central, with 40-year old Weir and McManus who certainly does not fill the Tartan Army faithful with confidence. This line-up primarily sets up to be safe and not necessarily for a win tonight with Miller leading the line by himself, I would like to see Naismith get up and support as often as possible, as a Kilmarnock fan I know his threat all too well. The one bonus is having Alan Hutton back at right-back, he may be only 80% fit, but he would jump in front of Broadfoot in my team as well, however I think he has improved vastly over the past 3 years, but he should stay away from those eggs.

Now a quick look at the Lithuanian squad, as I don't know their line-up as yet, or much about their squad but here goes. In defence the name that sticks out is Zaliukas, the Hearts defender is solid if not immense, the other is centre-back Skerla formerly of Dunfermline, who wasn't the best at that time if I remember correctly. In midfield we know a couple of the players from Hearts and diving exploits in the SPL and against Scotland, here's hoping for a strong referee. The annoying thing, from my point of view anyway is that they can play some great football but decide to cheat instead. These players being Mikoliunas and Cesnauskis, if they play, they will have to be watched carefully, and I imagine it will be Whittaker's job on at least one of them. I believe that Velicka will start up front, having just signed for Aberdeen on loan from Rangers he would like to get some game time, I estimate him being 7th choice at Ibrox, not being helped by injuries recently however he can prove to be a dangerous striker. The only other forward I know anything of is another ex-Hearts player Beniusis, who is a tall bloke remembered affectionately by Gorgie faithful as Beniuseless.

Not that I place much stock into world rankings, but Scotland are 11 places higher than Lithuania, and that is after Burley's recent dismal reign at Scotland. I would probably take a draw tonight and expect a win at Hampden against this lot however I will predict a 2-1 away win for Scotland.