Chester fall to miserable defeat at Peterborough Sports as issues back in focus

The Blues were well beaten by the Turbines after Coulthirst hat-trick

Chester were beaten 3-0 at Peterborough Sports (PICTURE BY TOM GREEN)

A hat-trick from Shaq Coulthirst condemned Chester to a miserable 3-0 defeat at relegation battlers Peterborough Sports.

The Blues, who came into the contest looking to build on the 2-1 win at Spennymoor Town in midweek, were undone in the 17th minute when goalkeeper George Murray-Jones mishandled a Sam McLintock cross, with former Tottenham Hotspur youngster Coulthirst turning home.

In a game that was thin on quality, the Blues were second best from minute one, with their hosts, who hadn’t won a National League North game since November, showing better application as they kept a limited Chester side at arms length.

Chasing the game in the second half, Chester manager Calum McIntyre opting for a back three in the second half, taking off Dion Kelly-Evans and bringing on Dylan Mottley-Henry. But it didn’t bring about a change of fortune and the hosts continued to be first to every ball, exposing a Blues side whose fragile confidence had been shaken by the nature of the opening goal.

Coulthirst added a second and then a third on 72 and 79 minutes to end the game as a contest, although the fact that it took until the 91st minute for Chester to register an effort on target demonstrated that, in reality, it hadn’t been one for much of the 90 minutes.

It was a result that saw any of the goodwill and positivity that had emerged from Tuesday in the North East dissipate and left McIntyre with plenty of problems to solve, with another away day test to come next week when the Blues head to Marine on Tuesday night.

WHAT CAN WE READ INTO THE DEFEAT?

It’s never easy to take emotion out of a defeat, that’s why the comments under the posts on Twitter around a defeat are often full of ire, because the immediacy of the result aligned with the ability to instantly respond means that it usually catches us at our boiling point.

But there are reasons that Chester fans will be angry tonight. We’ve talked on these (digital) pages these past few weeks about what is needed to make the play-offs, and how it only takes moments to turn a season.

This wasn’t it, though. Chester are three points off the play-offs still, with 18 games left, so this season isn’t a write-off, despite what recent form might suggest. But more of this, where they were outclassed by a team that is scrapping to avoid the drop, is going to render the play-off chatter completely irrelevant very quickly.

There are issues around the pitch that need resolving, not least the lack of a clinical threat in the final third. But there is also going to be a limited amount of patience behind the scenes for repeated mistakes that are costing the club regularly.

This isn’t centred on just George Murray-Jones in the Chester goal, either, but his clanger against Peterborough set the tone, and changed the scoreline which meant that the Blues were chasing the game and changing shape. Against the backdrop of other errors, most significantly to hand Chorley a leveller in injury time last weekend, Murray-Jones has come under plenty of scrutiny.

He is a young goalkeeper, but also one who will come under a bigger spotlight if he progresses in the game how he wants through his time at Nottingham Forest. It is expected that mistakes happen, and goalkeepers are the ones to bear the brunt of the flak when they do as the last line of defence. But to happen with such regularity is not acceptable, regardless of the lack of experience.

NO FIN ROBERTS START

On Friday, a piece in The Seal outlined why Roberts hadn’t featured much, and why, even after his winner at Spennymoor on Tuesday, he wasn’t down to feature heavily at Peterborough Sports.

Injuries throughout the season have been limiting his ability to feature, but while coming back to fitness with the Blues right now, the nature of him being a loan player means that his parent club, Crewe Alexandra, have the right to dictate what his return to action looks like and the timeline it should follow.

He was allowed 30 minutes against Chorley and Spennymoor, and his limited minutes programme continues until the end of the month, meaning that, as laid out by Crewe, Chester may have to be mindful of how many minutes he plays against Marine on Tuesday.

Roberts emerged as a second-half substitute at Peterborough Sports.

You can read the full piece HERE.

TOM PEERS SELECTION

When Tom Peers’ name appeared in the starting line-up for the Peterborough Sports game, there was some anger and bemusement among some supporters given the lean spell in front of goal that the Chester striker is having, and how his form has been below par this term.

Speaking to The Seal last week on Peers and his continued selection, McIntyre said: “The games that we’ve not scored in this year, the team, not whether Tom Peers has scored, very rarely has he started them.”

“When we go to South Shields away, he’s injured. He doesn’t start the game against Clitheroe and, you know, how poor were we in the first half? I describe that as the worst 45 minutes of my time in charge.”

“When we weren’t scoring just before Christmas, I took Peersie out of the team. He doesn’t start the Worksop game; he comes on and has an opportunity to score, but he has a lot fewer minutes than other players in that game.”

“He comes on at Scarborough, nils, games that we’re not scoring in. He doesn’t start against Curzon Ashton. I would argue that in the second period of both of those games we created enough chances to win them.”

“And that’s the frustration. And if you think Peersy is frustrated that the ball’s not going in the net, you don’t know the lad. Honest, hard‑working, big personality in the changing room, has done really well for the club, and the lads are right with him and right behind him. That’s the reality.

“That’s why I’m picking him. And the numbers show he isn’t the only one who hasn’t converted chances. You’ll quite rightly say, ‘But he’s a forward player.’ OK, but my point stands.

“The chances we’ve created, there were actually two on Tuesday night, I used the word ‘inexplicable’ that the ball’s not going in the net. It isn’t just him. We aren’t creating chance after chance after chance and the ball’s rolled to Tom Peers in the box every single time.”

“I can think of Spennymoor, the ball’s got to be a goal. He knows that. Surely it’s got to be a goal. But I can level that at many others, and I’m not going to name names, you know my style.

“Tom Peers has made a massive contribution, and when he plays, the team usually scores. He’s difficult to play against because he’s so physical, and what does he create?”

“So many of our players are good inside the pitch, so when the ball goes into Peers, in those moments he makes it very difficult for defenders to deal with, whether it’s direct play, balls on top, or balls in behind, because he’s a physical presence, and his build‑up play is good.”

“The problem is when his build‑up play’s not, and his goal return’s not, we look disjointed.”

WHAT THE MANAGER SAID

Speaking to Chester FC TV, McIntyre reflected: “Unacceptable. A very disappointing afternoon, an extremely disappointing result, and an equally disappointing performance.

“Very disappointed with everything about us. Coming here, this is a place where you can come unstuck if levels of application aren’t right, levels of commitment, and if you don’t show a side of the game. I’m really, really surprised by that. Didn’t see that type of performance coming.”

“I saw aspects of our performance, of our team, of us, us collectively, no them, no they, us. Those shortcomings that were exposed, perhaps exposed again, and it’s a disappointing afternoon.

“There have been too many occasions where we’ve come on the road and things haven’t gone to plan, and we compound that with things going from bad to worse, and it feels like a similar story.

“Like I say, this can be a tough place to come, but it’s a place that, for our aspirations, we need to be coming and taking more from the game — but not producing that level of performance, for sure.

“After a hard Tuesday night, how can you explain the drop‑off in performance today? I find it really difficult to explain. I want to try and feel like there is support as an explanation.

“We looked like a team that had put in a big effort on Tuesday night, and that’s on me, perhaps going with an unchanged XI isn’t something that, in hindsight, we’d have done. We maybe needed fresh legs and players who hadn’t been involved in the exertions on Tuesday, the travelling and the nature of that.

“I feel as a group there’s a fragility. When things go against us, we struggle in those moments, and that’s difficult.

“I don’t think that’s something I would have said consistently over my time here. When difficult moments come, when something goes against us, by the way, not because of what the opposition are doing, we didn’t show the resilience I talked about in the week.

“I thought we started the game pretty well today. We were in and around the opposition half, and the goal against is what it is, you’ll see it for yourself. There’s nothing I can say other than it is exactly how it looks.

“The reaction to that is like the wind has been taken out of our sails, and we’re struggling to react to it, and that’s happened too many times.

“For us, we are so reliant on our best players to deliver the level of performance they’re capable of. And when they don’t, our shortcomings in the team and in the group get exposed, and that’s what happened today.

“There are players you might turn to and be really reliant on, and I have to own that. One thing you’ll never get from me is putting things onto other people.

“My message is the same as Tuesday night: we’re going to be in a scrap. A scrap that twice we’ve outperformed and been in a place where we haven’t had to scrap.

“We’re going to have to fight for a place in the play‑offs, to play for promotion, to the last minute of the final game of the season. We aren’t out of it, but performances and results like today can make us feel a lot further away than we are.

“We have to own that collectively, and I’ll certainly own it as the leader of that group.”