Stourport Swifts - Another Journing Into The Unknown

Stourport Swifts 0 Chester City 3
FA Umbro Trophy 3rd Round Replay – 15 January 2002

To a stranger, searching for the Walches Meadow ground proved to be a testing effort, even the local staff at the town's Esso petrol station had little idea where this Dr Marten's Western League club's ground was. "Sorry, I dunno" was the reply from behind the shop counter. Driving to the footballing outpost of Stourport-on-severn exemplifies the dramatic change in fortune Chester City Football Club find themselves in. A handful of years ago thousands of Blues fans travelled to the likes of the Stadium of Light to witness their side perform in stunning surroundings. Now journeys to the likes of Easington Colliery and Stourport Swifts seem set to be the highlight of cup football in Chester for many years to come.

An inept FA Trophy third round display at the Deva Stadium signalled the need for a replay just a few yards away from the banks of the River Severn and new manager Mark Wright was under no illusion about the tricky task that lied ahead. "It won't be easy. There will only be a small crowd there, but we must battle if we are going to achieve a positive result," the former Liverpool and England International said.

Stourport Swifts secretary Nigel Green highlighted the importance of the tie as the Chester City Team Coach rolled up outside the wooden clubhouse, "it's the biggest game in the clubs history" he said excitedly. Despite only housing little more than just a two hundred and fifty seat stand, as the players stepped off the coach they were impressed by the Dr Martens League ground. Goalkeeper Wayne Brown, once a former Dr Martens League keeper himself with Weston-Super-Mare was pleasantly surprised by the surface, "The pitch is better than ours," said Brown.

With the prospect of playing fellow Dr Marten's League club Solihull Borough in the next round, Stourport Swifts were certainly prepared and ready for the tie. "It will be a completely different game and we know what our pitch conditions are and that will work in our favour. Now that we have played them once I don't think we will be able to pass the ball around as much as they did." said Stourport player-manager Tim Langford. Much was the interest in this tie a record crowd of 630 was attracted to Walshes Meadow. With the congested crowd squeezed its way into the tiny ground the announcement of a ten-minute delay to kick off bellowed from the speaker perched on top of the clubhouse.

New boss Mark Wright was absent, rumoured to be out on a scouting mission. But his newly appointed assistant Ted McMinn took charge of the Blues as the relegation-threatened Conference side eased their way to the fourth round of the FA Umbro Trophy with a 3-0 victory. However Chester were made to work hard for the win, at several points during the game one could not tell which side were from the Conference or which were from two leagues below.

It wasn't until late on when perhaps Chester's extra fitness gave them an edge. Former Manchester United youngster David Brown gave the Blues the lead a minute before half-time with a great run down the left wing. He rounded the stranded Swifts keeper slicing the ball into the far corner. That didn't stop the bumper crowd from roaring on the home side as Stourport poured forward in search of an equaliser. The Worcestershire side created many well-worked chances, forcing keeper Wayne Brown into action on numerous occasions. The equaliser never came to warm the home fans on a frost ridden evening, and Chester wrapped up the tie with two goals in the final 5 minutes from leading scorer Mark Beesley. First, he found the net after exchanging passes with Mike Rose and then in injury-time his 20-yarder was cruelly deflected past the wrong-footed Stourport goalkeeper by defender Steve Ulfig.

Trotting off the pitch towards the changing rooms, Mark Beesley was more than happy to add another two goals to his tally. "After we initially got over the first period I enjoyed the game," said Beesley. "It was a battle. It was always going to be a battle coming here and all credit to them really. They tested us in both games. Once we got a goal in front we started to play it around and I thought we deserved it in the end. I think the fitness showed." The former Preston North End striker has enjoyed a rather prolific scoring record this season, quizzed if he had a scoring target for this season the twenty one year old modestly replied. "No tally really, I just want as many that will keep us up. That's the main thing. But I'm glad to score because I haven't scored for a few weeks so I'm glad to take two."

Pleased about the new management team appointment, Mark Beesley now hopes the club have turned the corner. Beesley continued: "They've only just come in and hopefully they'll stamp their authority on the squad and the club and hopefully get us out of the trouble that we're in. We need to start picking up results and we need to start as soon as possible really because we don't won't to be leaving it as long as we can." Meanwhile, in the absence of his former Derby County team-mate and long-time friend Mark Wright, McMinn took time to pledge his loyalty to the former England International. "I had the chance to continue at Oxford United after Mark left, but my loyalty is with him and we will do all we can to bring in some more player's and make a concerted effort to kick-start the season at Chester, but we will have to bring them in quickly" explained McMinn.

Player Profile : Trevor Storton

Mention Chester to Trevor Storton and you can see a sparkle in his eyes. The former Seals striker is remembered by many city fans as a local hero. During his spell at Sealand Road he notched up an impressive 400 appearances over a period of seven years that included the famous league cup run of 74-75. To some, his commitment to the club has labelled Trevor as being possibly the all time best defender to serve the club.

And those memories came flooding back when he reminisced after watching his club, Bradford Park Avenue, suffer a 3-1 home defeat against Vauxhall Motors in a UniBond League Premier Division match. Keighley-born Storton has returned to his Yorkshire grassroots as Avenue's team manager, but he always has time to talk about his playing career at Sealand Road.

The former Liverpool player, Storton told the Chester Evening Leader: "Chester is always dear to my heart, because obviously the first season I went there from Liverpool we got promotion, and we got to the semi-final of the league cup – I've had some fantastic times at Chester, and I'll always look upon those as some of the best times I've had in football"

"We had one of those teams at Chester that didn't have any great stars in it, but we were quite good together, and I think things went from strength to strength for us. We had the confidence, and to be fair we went to Newcastle and got a draw, fetched them back and beat them 1-0; we beat Leeds United 3-0; and then drew with Aston Villa 2-2 in the semi-final at home, and got beat 3-2 away from home. "

"I'll always remember to this day the lad called Norman Whitehead who missed one from the corner of the six-yard box to put us level, and which would have probably put us through, but Brian Little sort of finished us off in extra-time."

Storton still holds the Chester club record for the most FA Cup appearances – 23, and he made 396 Football League appearances for the club to become the third most loyal player ever to represent Chester.

Storton refused to rule out a return to his old hunting ground. "Ken Roberts for me was a smashing manager, everybody wanted to play for Ken. And Reg Rowlands, the chairman, was also a smashing fellow, and it was a great little club, and it would be nice to go back and try to manage Chester one day. I know Chester have gone through a torrid time lately, and it's always disappointing when I see that they've gone downhill a little bit, but I still look out for their results. I have read a little bit about the things that have taken place at Chester, but without getting too involved in it I do feel sorry for the spectators because from my point of view I had a great relationship with them and they were always fabulous to me."

"All the lads at Chester during my time there were very good – Derek Draper, who was nicknamed the old cunning fox, Reg Matthewson the centre back, Nigel Edwards, and Grenville Millington who did fantastic for us. I remember one time we played at Barnsley and I've never seen a keeper get 10 out of 10 before, but Grenville did that day. "He made one save from one post to another and I couldn't believe it, and I just turned around to him and said: 'It's about time you did something!' But that's the sort of spirit there was with the lads there at that time. I had some fantastic times at Chester, and I always look back and feel I was happy there, which is great because there can be so many bad times in football too. "

"I couldn't tell you if I held any records at Chester but I know I didn't miss many games. I was lucky I seemed to be injury-free. I think I was only out for a fortnight, and I had only ever been sent off once in my career and that was against Burnley, and I told the ref he'd made a mistake that day. I don't really stay in touch with any former Chester players, but when I go across to my brother, Stan, in Ellesmere Port, I certainly try and get in touch with Trevor Phillips, Derek Draper, and Nigel Edwards who live around the area still."

Storton is now attempting to push the once great Bradford Park Avenue, through the non-league pyramid and back into the Football League, where Storton believes is where the sleeping giants should be. He added: "As a manager of a part-time team it's so difficult – and just when I think I've got a team together I start to get injuries. I can never seem to pull the players in with the same ability as what have been injured, and it's very frustrating – we only train twice a week, and only once a week sometimes because of games. "It's so difficult to get the team into a rhythm and into a way of thinking. I've thought over the years that football is a mental thing, and if you get that right you have a chance.

"I think the spirit of the players is something I'd like to inject into Bradford Park Avenue from my Chester days. The big thing I learnt from Ken Roberts was that he let you get on with things, but just sort of told you when things weren't going right, but he told you in the right manner. He didn't try and destroy people, and I think that's why the players worked hard for him. "

"We won promotion at Park Avenue last season, but this season I've got players injured that were key players, and they missed pre-season games. Then we get them back, and after a few weeks they went down with an injury again with the same injuries – I had two lads carried off at Worksop who were my main centre halfs within the first quarter of an hour, and they take some replacing because everyone has got the players they want at that stage of the season.

"We've also had problems with a little bit of confidence, because once we'd lost one or two games early on it's very difficult to pick that confidence back up again, and I've come to the conclusion that's it's all down to commitment and believing in ourselves."

Storton, who was voted player of the season during 1974/75 still reflects on his playing days with Chester, and admits the club still has great potential. He said: "I was gutted when Chester dropped out of the Football League. It's a club that is always going to be dear to my heart"

Player Profile : Billy Stewart

The words "It has got to be Wales!" comically echoed from the voice of one Llansaintffraid supporter. In the midst of a serious torrential downpour thirty minutes before kick off just three supporters had braved the inclement elements of the borderland village to take up their spots in the one hundred and eight seater centre stand. With the prospect of a table-topping encounter against Rhyl, the home side, including recent Deva acquisition Scott Ruscoe, embraced the sludge-coated mud bath of a pitch for their pre-match warm up.

Surprisingly there were just ten minutes to go before kick off when the Rhyl team coach trundled its way into the club car park, allowing the visiting players to only enter onto the pitch with just two minutes to prepare. The rain and wind continued to hammer down on Llansaintffraid's compact Recreation Ground, giving the former Blues favourite Billy Stuart just enough time to fit his gloves, having recently signed for League of Wales title challengers. Three players were sent off as the linets dredged up three important points from the storm-swept match and that left Billy Stewart, now a full time coach with Liverpool Football Club, with a large smile on his face as he propped up the TNS bar with his team-mates. "It was certainly interesting at Chester City!" he said when I asked him about his Sealand Road days around a pint. "Especially after coming from Liverpool where everything is run the way it is and then meeting Harry McNally at Wigan Athletic. For one or two things that get said about him, he was a great disciplinarian and man manager. Tactically he built some great teams. The things that have come out of it, as you move back down the leagues and move around make you think Harry's policies were some of the best that you've ever played with."

Stewart continued, "We always had a great team spirit, battling performances and a bit of height in the team, a bit of pace and every lad battled for Harry. Looking back, It was a pleasure playing for Chester. Being at three different grounds made it feel like I had been at three different clubs! Coming from where we were most of us travelled to Chester anyway, so in that respect it was no different. The only things is, I know that the sign thirteen miles to Macc was the longest thirteen miles in the world once you come off the Motorway, it seemed like about fifty miles. It could take you an hour and half to do thirteen miles if you got stuck behind a tractor!"

Joking apart, Stewart remembers the difficult period at Macclesfield quite well. In his opinion the financial windfalls from the big cup clashes against the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal went a long way towards keeping the club in business during those tough seasons. "We played Arsenal when they were league champions, we lost one nil at Macclesfield and then we went to Highbury and they just gave us a footballing lesson. To be fair to Arsenal they were fantastic to us, there was no big headed types, no big time Charlie's. They were very down to Earth."

Spending such a long time with Chester City brought with it the ups and downs of a club with limited resources. Now Stewart reflects upon those years with found memories. "Personally, I have loads of great memories from Chester, but I think possibly our away win at Bolton one year in the early rounds of the Autowindscreens Shield goes down as one of my favourites. I saved a penalty and we won that game two-one. We played so many big clubs, we went to Middlesbrough and beat them. But the time that sticks out more than anything for me was when we needed to win about four games on the run to avoid relegation in our last season at Macclesfield. We went to Stoke City and beat them and we put a run together. We were dead and buried, we never picked a bonus up all season and we got out of the bottom four on the last game of the season. That was just down to the standard, it wasn't down to us being bad players. It was down to us being a club with very limited funds and we were playing some really big clubs. At Macclesfield, three quarters of the ground were for the opposition, that made a heck of a difference to the team."

Another disappointing time for Stewart was Chester's return to the city at the newly constructed Deva Stadium. "It was so new, you could smell the fresh paint when you played in goal that season" joked Stewart, but within months City found themselves again at the wrong end of the league table with relegation looming in just their first season back in the City. "The Deva Stadium was a nice new ground. The first season back was sad though. Harry never really brought in any new players, finance stopped all that. They had sold Sealand Road and ended up in debt. The sale was supposed to clear all the debts, I think at the time, the club were in a quarter of a million pound in debt when we moved into the new ground. It was a shame the club were in that position when they moved instead of having some money in the bank. They may have gone from strength to strength, but that's money for you isn't it?"

It wasn't always disappointing though as Stewart remembered some of the greater times during his long Chester career. Stewart recalled the infamous tale of Harry McNally breaking his leg on a Scottish football tour: "It was a friendly game just to break the tour up while we were there. So it was one of the local teams and Harry decided he wanted to play against them. He went in for the tackle and ended up with a broken leg. Joe Hinnigan was the physio, and nobody ran onto the pitch. Because it was Harry and he like being physical and liking that side of the game, nobody went on to help him and we all said get up Harry. Harry gets up to his credit, he ran around for a bit and came off. Joe just said to him, put ice on it Harry. So Harry iced it for two days. After the two days he found out it was broke! You've got to look at him and think he went through the pain barrier a few times there and practised what he preached!"

Stewart continued: ""It was great. I look back at it now and when you think of the Crazy Gang at Wimbledon, I can tell you, we were like years ahead of them! Another funny story I remember happened we we're on the coach coming home from one of the games, we'd won a game so you can imagine we were the last out of the bar. The shutters were coming down, everything, they were turning the lights off and we were just leaving the bar and one of the lads is driving the coach around the car park! The coach driver had no choice. He was tied up at the back of the coach, all the lads sitting on him as we were waiting for the directors to come out of the ground. Anyway, the lads are on the coach, when we got back home we all decided we were going out around Wigan. So there's David Glenn, Gary Bennett, Graham Barrow, Barry Butler and myself, about three cars full altogether. Gary Bennett couldn't drink to save his life at the time, so we've got all the way to Wigan, Gary is asleep in the back of the car. We went into one of the clubs in Wigan, we got out of the car, shut the door and left Gary in the back seat fast asleep. At two o'clock in the morning we went back to the car and said, right Gary come on let's go to the club now. He woke up, jumped up and said yeah I'm ready to go but everywhere was finished and closed up."

For Stewart, who was regarded with hero like status amongst the Chester City faithful, everything went wrong when he sustained a bad injury. After recovery the scouser moved on to pastures new, performing for Northampton Town at Wembley Stadium briefly before making his return. "I had an injury and then I got back into the squad and then I left. Then I came back again and when I came back, knowing the financial state Chester were in I asked Kevin Ratcliffe for a very, very small signing on fee. He said no, just ask for a testimonial instead but I thought a testimonial was separate, it's for service to the club. It wasn't a lot of money, I understood the situation being there that long and the finances the club did have and kev's hands were tied. He couldn't do it, Kev was a good manager and in the end we wen't our separate ways, I then moved on to Southport and they paid me more money than I was on at Chester."

"It was a toss up between going up to Dundee United or Southport. I went up to Dundee to have a look around and didn't really like it up there. I could have gone to Hong Kong but I thought to myself I'm not getting any younger and decided I should concentrate on the coaching side. I've ended up getting a good coaching job with the Liverpool youngsters as well as playing here part time with Rhyl in the League of Wales."

Player Profile : Dean Spink

Signed by Graham Barrow prior to Chester's first season in the Nationwide Conference, the vastly experienced Striker cum Defender has endured a spell at the Deva Stadium plagued by injury. A serious injury sustained during the pre-season build up to the 2000-2001 campaign saw Deano sit out almost the entire season. Then, when Barrow was relieved of his duties, in came new Director of Football Gordon Hill to take over first team affairs. Describing Spink as a "senior statesman" one of Gordon Hill's first moves was to appoint Dean as his assistant, a job the former Aston Villa player still holds under caretaker boss, Steve Mungall. But Deano will be the first to admit he's on a learning curve towards a future career in management, "yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I've done a lot of training sessions under Gordon Hill and now the scouting trips for Steve Mungall," said Spink.

Dean endured a nightmare start to his Chester City career, having sustained a serious injury, one that contines to rule Spinky out every now and again. "I'm just getting back now. I ran over on my ankle at Scarborough and landed on my ankle ligament. At the moment for me, things aren't really going that well with injuries. But things like that happen once you've had one big injury, little things seem to happen but hopefully now I'll be raring to go."

Despite all these injuries, Dean Spink is still intent on getting down to business on the pitch, pulling on his Chester City shirt and actually playing. "Oh definitely. I love playing football you know. There's nothing better than training all week and actually playing on the Saturday. There's a lot of talent in the team, the talent is there but I think the average age is only around 21. They're young lads and they're learning all the time, we've got three senior pros and it's good, it gives the lads a bit of experience and they look up to it. But the best thing is they'll do all the running!"

The vastly experienced player who was signed from Wrexham on a two year contract in July 2000, has been quite surprised by the speed in which improvements and changes have taken place since caretaker boss Steve Mungall arrived at the Deva Stadium. "Things have taken a turn for the better. It's almost like starting the season again but we can't get carried away. But when you're winning the confidence gets up and we plan to go on winning. There's a lot of confidence in the lads and everyone's got that winning feeling. We'll just take it day by day. There's a lot of respect for the manager at the moment. He's putting his side out, he's working hard with players, he's working for the team and these things are really paying off."

But everyone knows now that the difficult thing to do, is to keep the show on the road and hopefully build on what has been achieved. A view shared by Dean Spink, "The manager has come in, he's explained the situation with the chairman. He's here as the caretaker manager for a period and the lads are responding well to him. Fair play to the manager he's worked really really hard and I think he's getting his just rewards now."

Solihul Borough - A Journey Into The Unknown

Solihull Borough 2 Chester City 4
FA Umbro Trophy 4th Round Replay , 12 January 2002

What is it about treacherous conditions that make for interesting football? Journeying to Solihull Borough for the fourth round replay with Solihull Borough meant a gruelling squeeze through the M6 rush hour congestion to be greeted with the grand gateway entrance into Solihull's Damson Park ground. Just touching distance away from the National Exhibition Centre, Solihull's beautifully appointed clubhouse facilities were miles ahead of the wooden clubhouse of their Dr Martens Western League rivals, Stourport Swifts.

Looking at the state of the pitch though, one could easily understand why this game had already been called off. The midlands had luckily survived any downpours of rain that day but drainage at Damson Park certainly looks like being an issue, particularly if Solihull are to make progress through the non league football pyramid. In places the pitch was obviously unplayable looking more like a ploughed field rather than a surface conducive to good football and Chester certainly took their time to adapt to the conditions.

However, former Solihull player Dean Spink conjured up Chester's first hat trick since 1997 to help City overcome his old club 4-2 and move the Blues into today's fifth round clash with Hereford United. It wasn't all plain sailing for Chester though as they found themselves trailing the Dr Martens side twice.

After just three minutes Gary Brabin headed wide for the Blues when he should have at least tested Brendan Murphy in the Borough goal and in the 14th minute Brabin popped up again, but on this occasion his shot brought out a good save. Three minutes later though Chester found themselves 1-0 down, after referee Tattan awarded a dubious looking penalty for a foul by Phil Bolland.

Borough's Derek Hall saw his spot-kick saved by Wayne Brown, but he was quick to the rebound and made it 1-0 placing the ball left footed into the right side of goal. In the 23rd minute Chris Smith, who was lively throughout for the hosts found himself clean through but was denied by Wayne Brown, who flew out of his goal. After the shock of going behind Chester rallied and the tireless Chris Blackburn should have levelled matters after some nice build up play by Bolland, Spink and Stuart Whittaker.

Chester's best chance to level matters came in the 34th minute after Spink was pushed to the ground by Matt Smith. Mark Beesley stepped up to take the penalty, but he was lucky his effort didn't hit on the passing planes taking off from nearby Birmingham International Airport as he blasted his kick well over the bar. In the 45th minute Mark Wright must have thought it was going to be one of those nights when Blackburn again fired wide. However in the second minute of injury time Spink found the back of the net with a header to make to draw the scores level at the interval.

Eight minutes after the re-start Chester found themselves behind again when Chris Smith latched onto a Gary Hallet cross and fired home. That lead didn't last long though, In the 62nd minute Chester were back on level terms, Phil Bolland got his head to a Whittaker cross to score his first goal for the club.

Not long afterwards Dean Spink doubled his tally, bundling the ball across the Solihull line to give his side the lead for the first time. Then Spink completed his hat-trick in the 92nd minute in bizarre circumstances-the referee played the advantage after substitute David Brown was caught off-side but Simon Hollis passed the ball directly into the path of Spink, who raced clear from the half-way line to make it 4-2.

A relieved Mark Wright said: "I'm happy that we are through, but we made it hard for ourselves, we could have been four or five up at half-time." But the Blues bos paid tribute to Spink, returning to his old stamping ground. "Spink ran his socks off, he couldn't lift his feet up in the dressing room after that." Spink started his career at Solihull and was more than pleased to return home, he said: "It's always nice to go back to an old club, it has changed since I was there, they are at a different ground now and there was a lot of new faces, but there were some I recognised. No insult intended but considering the league that Solihull are in their ground was excellent, of a very high standard."

Spink was more than pleased with his performance and said: "To score a hat-trick in any game is great, but it is always nice to get one at an old club, I took a bit of stick early on, but I just got on with it. The whole team played well and as the boss said at the break we could have already been three or four up."

The veteran striker, who became the first player to score a hat-trick since Andy Milner's four goal show against Doncaster in February 1997 is now looking forward to helping Chester make it all the way to the final: "We are in the last 16 now and we've got Hereford at home in the next round, it would be nice to make it to the final and play at Villa Park."

Sealand Road - The Final Farewell - Chester City 2 Rotherham United 0

On the 28th April 1990, 84 years of football at the Stadium on Sealand Road came to an end as City ensured their Third Division status was assured with a 2-0 win over Rotherham United. Although the win sealed Third Division survival it was the survival of the club itself that was on the lips of all City supporters as the club's future looked so uncertain with no-one knowing where the club would be playing the following season.

The game was watched by a bumper crowd of 3,827 who had gone along to watch the last ever league game at Sealand Road. City started off the game like a house on fire with Brian Croft, Chris Lightfoot and Gary Bennett all going close at the Sealand Road end. After 16 minutes City's pressure was rewarded when Gary Bennett rose to head Brian Croft's free kick into the back of the net giving Rotherham keeper O'Hanlon no chance. Nine minutes later City increased their lead when Brian Croft's corner was met by Graham Abel to head home the last league goal to be scored at Sealand Road.

Although Rotherham tried to fight back and get something out of the game, City keeper Billy Stewart kept them at bay with a sterling performance between the sticks to see City go in at the interval with a 2-0 scoreline. The second half begun with Carl Dale shooting wide before Rotherham started to hit back with Mendonca, whose shot was superbly saved at full stretch by Billy Stewart. Brian Croft went close on another couple of occasions with a couple of weak shots. By this time though the police were cordoning off the faithfull "Sealand End" fans as they waited for Referee Michael Peek to blow his whistle and end the game.

As the whistle blew the pitch was invaded with supporters streaming in front of the main stand chanting for their heroes. They were rewarded when the players appeared in the Directors Box and threw their shirts to the crowd. Emotion seemed to follow as the fans stayd in the ground to take a last look at City's home for the past 84 years and just hoping that the club would survive the turmoil of the years to come.

Stadium Memories - Sealand Road

You either loved it or loathed the place, but for well over half a century, Sealand Road was the home where Chester played their football, for better or for worse. Anybody who'd watched football at The Stadium will have their own personal highs and lows, but for me personally the day I led Chester out as an eleven year old mascot against Cardiff City will always stick with me. As a youngster, the memories of witnessing my first minutes silence, remembering those who lost their lives at the Hilsborough disaster will never be forgotten. The silence around the ground was truly deafening.

When Chester were elected to the Football League in place of Nelson in 1931, Sealand Road and its surroundings were very different from the ground we sold to property developers in 1990. There were fields all around which are now covered by retail outlets, light industry and residential housing and the ground was covered on two sides only. The Main Stand, which survived until 1979 was a small, wooden construction, made distinctive by vertical blue and white stripes on the paddock rear wall, and along Sealand Road was the standing cover known as The Barn.

It has been claimed by historians that Sealand Road was one of the first Football League grounds to have a public address system installed, at least as far back as August 1931 when the club began its League programme. It is said that for many years the announcer would begin with the words "Hello Spion Kop, Hello Albert!" apparently addressing a long standing supporter in the crowd. Like Brunton Park, one of Sealand Road's major problems in those early years was flooding from the nearby River Dee, which flows through the town centre, at every high spring tide. This was solved in 1936 when the club installed proper drainage at a cost of £400.

One of the most unusual events at the ground came on 5 January 1935, when the Football Association organised an experimental game using two referees for a match between two amateur international trial teams. A similar experiment was tried at The Hawthorns in March of that year, before the idea was dropped completely.

Sealand Road's highest attendance, 20,500, came in January 1952 for Chester's 3rd round cup replay tie against Chelsea, won by the visitors. The club's first floodlit game at the ground was on 12 October 1960; a League Cup match against Leyton Orient. The lights were later updated in 1974 before the Stadium played host to Chester's most famous League Cup run, taking on teams like Leeds United and Aston Villa.

In 1968 the popular side opposite the Main Stand was covered, then in December 1979 the old wooden stand was replaced with a new main stand at a cost of £556,000. It had been built directly behind the old one, and in consequence there was an awkward flat space behind the front wall and the touchline. The development raised the number of seats at Sealand Road to 2,874 in a total capacity of around 20,000.

Ground Description

The Entrance lead you behind the Main Stand, which despite its youth, looked remarkably tired. It was of similar design as that at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, with a flat roof pitched slightly upwards, supported by pillars along the front. The most prominent feature is the high, breeze block wall at the front, broken only by staircases leading up to the seats. If there was a terrace in front, or a few large advertisements to cover up the grey wall, the stand might have looked quite smart. As it was I remember the wall looking bare, and in front is a 30 foot gap before reaching the touchline.

Apparently the regular supporters had complained for years about the old wooden Main Stand, but when the new concrete and steel structure was finished they pined for the warmth, friendliness and community feel of the old one. To the left of the main stand, which at least provided a reasonable view, was the open Spion Kop. Although overgrown at the top, it had good terracing, formed unusually out of paving stones. The barriers are extremely thin.

To the right of the main stand was the Barn, a decaying barrel roofed cover over the Sealand Road End terrace, with 16 uprights (not that I have counted, just been told!) along the front. At the back were some very warn, uneven, but quite solid wooden terraces, with an ancient sign above from the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company Limited warning that dropping lighted matches is dangerous, does anybody remember that sign? Between here and the Main Stand is a modern block overlooking the pitch housing social facilities, offices and the old club shop.

Opposite the Main Stand was the all covered Popular Side, a simple covered over space of terracing. Behind is an overgrown pathway along the side of some old wasteland and beyond is the impressively titled Stadium Way, another drab road that lead to the site of Chester's old ground in Whipcord Lane. But the floodlights at the old Sealand Road held an interest of their own; on a scottish pattern, having the lamp holders leaning down towards the pitch. Unlike most systems, the lamps are mounted on open ended bars, rather than on a box frame.