Tuesday 4 December 2007

Wrexham Derbies

There are many derby games around the nation, take the likes of the ferocious City battles between Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers. Not forgetting the passion and pride on Merseyside when Everton and Liverpool take each other on. Those are just a few I could mention, but no derby match in the UK is more unique than the cross border spirit and rivalry fought between two nations, that's what the followers of Chester City and Wrexham have to enjoy. These Anglo Welsh derby clashes bring with them an exclusive romantic aura around the twelve miles distance that separates the two clubs straddling the borderlands of England and Wales.

For a Chester supporter, few fixtures set the pulse racing as much as those contended between Wrexham and Chester. This unique clash between two countries cannot be matched anywhere else in the football world. A gladiatorial contest proudly acclaimed by both sets of combatants has matured into one of the most interesting derby fixtures around. Like Russell Crowe in the hit movie Gladiator of 1999 the players make their way down the tunnel into the daylight and a world of earsplitting sound hits them. Who remembers watching the 1997 FA Cup clash at the Deva Stadium on satellite television? The cameraman hadn't been drinking perched on the scaffolding over the Deva Stadium's West Stand, that was the stadium shaking. Like the glass of water on the dashboard in Jurassic Park. On derby day, every one of the supporters packs into either clubs stadia and is ready and willing to add their own page to the history of the fixture.

The stage was set for the first League derby between the teams, which took place at

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