The Debrief: Alfreton draw shows Chester's biggest flaws, while apathy becomes apparent

The Blues were held to a share of the spoils at the Deva Stadium on Tuesday night

Nathan Woodthorpe in action for Chester against Alfreton Town on Tuesday evening (TOM GREEN)

Having seen morale get a bump at the weekend with the late drama at Bedford Town, Chester couldn’t back it up.

The Blues had to be content with a 2-2 home draw against a limited third-from-bottom Alfreton Town side, where goals from Fin Shrimpton and a Connor Woods penalty were cancelled out by a Josh Ayres opener and Jo Cumming’s leveller two minutes after the break.

For embattled Chester boss Calum McIntyre, it did little to remove the scrutiny or criticism that has come his way this term, and a starting line-up that didn’t feature a recognised striker, while four forwards occupied spots on the bench, did little to appease the ire of some. The rationale behind that particular decision was to enable the Blues to get more of their better players on the pitch and reduce the risk of transition. That in itself is a signal about where the real issues lie at present.

It was a game where Chester’s defensive frailties were on show once more, something that has dogged them so badly this campaign. Any kind of ball in the box causes panic and there is a sense of impending doom whenever opposition sides manage to get close to the 18-yard box. Really, it is the deficiencies at both ends of the pitch that have been the root cause of failure this season.

The Blues are currently in the middle of a run of games against sides in the lower reaches of the National League North, and a couple more positive results will all but put to bed any lingering concerns of looking over their shoulders at the bottom four. That hasn’t really been an issue, there has long been a buffer that is likely insurmountable for the teams battling relegation now, but the fact that it has had to be considered as a possibility probably says all that is needed to be known about how this season has panned out.

APATHY AMONG THE WEARY

A crowd of 1,374 watched the draw with the Reds, the lowest home gate of the season for Chester across all competitions, including an FA Trophy second round loss to Clitheroe.

Rainy Tuesday evenings are a hard sell, and that sale becomes even harder when there is little to be excited about.

We can talk about the play-off places and how Chester are six points off them, but recent form has done little to turn doubters into believers. The games in hand, while many above the Blues have to play each other still, and the form that has been shown over the past two months gives little for encouragement, even if a couple of positive results could change the narrative.

That, allied with there being no real jeopardy at the other end of the table, because the Blues will have more than enough to get over the line in that respect, means that mid-table mediocrity is what many believe will occur.

Apathy can be financially damaging. Chester have had low crowds in the past, and we will have them in the future. The revisionism that goes on sometimes about the 1980s and Sealand Road often forgets the crowds of barely over 1,000 for games against established Football League clubs.

Is there a crisis at the club right now? Some would argue so, but these rather seem like grey days as opposed to dark days. They offer little motivation, little hope. The club is in a good position off the field, but on it, less so, and that feeling makes it challenging to bring about enthusing a fan base that came so close to being able to celebrate promotion last year.

We are in the midst of a very peculiar uncoupling, one that isn’t the norm. McIntyre wants his side to remain competitive, and any manager who would give up the ghost of a shot at play-off football with six points the gap and 14 games remaining is probably in the wrong profession.

But to make a fist to try and achieve such things would require deploying financial resources to fix the problem.

The club will have its own stance, and McIntyre as a manager who wants to bring in players of greater quality to improve his side, not wanting to give up on a season, will have his. Time will tell whether they align or not. There may well be an element of capital preservation on behalf of the football club given that they are looking for a new manager for next season and will be conscious of providing a budget for the new boss that can bring about a better competitive outcome for the 2026/27 campaign, although this current one still has 30% still remaining, and as a business that effectively operates in the entertainment industry, they will need to keep supporters entertained as best they can.

Chester aren’t in the market for players who would contribute beyond the end of this season, so that leaves room for free agents who haven’t been picked up already, and there will be a reason why they haven’t, and loan deals for either inexperienced or out of favour players. Any players of seniority will require a chunk of their wages to be paid.

What we then have is this brief period of football purgatory, where the past, present and future have to find a way to co-exist without incurring the wrath of a fan base who have become apathetic to a campaign.

It isn’t apathy towards the football club, although defeats tend to manifest themselves into questions about whether the model itself works (a question for another time, and one that still has merit to be at least discussed as to what the future looks like with a plan). It doesn’t spell doom and meltdown for the longer term and show some kind of trend can never be broken. It is apathy for a period in time, where it is hard to be enthused because there is the feeling that there is no dream to be sold, or at least not one the fans at the moment believe to be achievable, and no real goal, or at least that would be the pervading narrative.

The goal is to make it to the end of the season and do the best we can, but the reality is that supporters know that the squad they are currently watching will be decimated and wholesale changes made, and there will be a new managerial team in the dugout.

That brings about intrigue and removes apathy when it happens. There will be an enormous amount of changes this summer, but we are approaching mid-February and have a here and now to contend with.

There is the question that is posed around whose job is it to get motivated. Is it the fans’ role to get the team to believe, or is it the job of the players to provide supporters with reason to do so?

One of the biggest things that Chester have had in the past couple of seasons has been the greater connection between players and fans. That hasn’t been able to foster this campaign to the same level, and when major squad changes take place that is hard to do. Fans have shown up in great numbers at home and away this season, but there just haven’t been enough moments to make them smile.

The low crowd should be viewed through the lens of all the current uncertainty and weariness that exists around the football club. It is also worth noting that there are two home games in the space of a week for people to have to contend with.

But it will have been concerning for club chiefs and cannot just continue without any kind of action being taken. It makes building some positive momentum in the coming games even more important, although the lack of a goalscorer coming through the door after more than a month of trying to find someone who would be impactful, has also given rise to the notion that there aren’t the tools in the toolbox to get the job done satisfactorily.

WHAT THE MANAGER SAID

McIntyre told Chester FC TV: “ We can’t concede the goals that we conceded. The set piece, restarts, dead ball column for goals against is scandalous. In our defence as a coaching staff, because naturally we’re looked at and we’re criticised, and I get that, it comes with the territory, our teams have never done that. It’s a reflection on where we’re at at the moment. We do a lot of work on our team, on preparing the team, on the opposition.

“We’ve watched every single one of Alfreton’s set pieces. The players have, you know, what corner’s coming in and when, what it’s going to look like. You match markers up, we’ve said it a lot around, we spend a lot of time doing that. And I think someone shouted it from the crowd, same goal as Saturday night. Yeah, I know.

“There’s an imbalance to us that creates goals like the first one, a fighting ball nodded back across, a scrap under the bar, and then the second one is like a free kick, it’s on the edge of their box. A ball forwards and nobody, there’s a ball bounce twice before it gets put in. You set up in a certain way and you set up and you recreate the situations. It’s where we’re at as a group and the team that we put on the pitch. We struggle in those moments, we struggle for a bit of physicality, we struggle for big, powerful central defenders, full backs, holding midfielders. We’ve got Bambo (Jack Bainbridge), hopefully he’s ready to go over the next few games. You concede goals like that and what do you do?

“But at the same time, score two goals, create opportunities. We can’t have to score twos and threes to win a game. The goals we are conceding are scandalous. We desperately need a central defender, desperately need a forward. We had one last season, the best one in the division, we sold him. We had a forward 12 months ago, 18 months ago, we sell him to score 14 goals by January. They’re so hard to find when you’re losing them, and that’s why we produce performances and get results like we do tonight.

“Tuesday night games at this level are what they are. There’s a lot of mistakes, crazy results happen. If you look at some of the results that happen on Tuesday nights as opposed to Saturdays, it’s really odd the way some teams are better. I was worried we were going to start a bit slowly tonight against a side that haven’t played at the weekend. We obviously have big exertions, but don’t concede the goal the way we do from a set piece. But we just get beaten up.

“We cannot put a team out, if I had to put a team out with just six markers to defend against Alfreton’s two big centre forwards, two big centre halves, (Adam) Lund goes up as well, big centre midfield player but obviously takes the throw in, big powerful units. We wouldn’t have any shape, we wouldn’t do anything in possession because we haven’t got the balance. It’s so difficult to do.

“So we come through some stuff, the goal almost did us good to go behind, as ridiculous as that sounds. Put our foot on the ball, we create some opportunities, and score two goals. We talk at half time around how we’re going to get on the front foot, assert ourselves. We actually got into their penalty area in the opening 45 seconds of the half. It’s just a ball forward, the goalkeeper has taken the free kick. We don’t deal with those moments, aerial, combative moments in games.

“Now that’s on me, because I’m signing the players. Set the team up, yeah, we can do all that over and over again. But it is a recurring theme and I can’t come up to you here after this game and say anything different. Frustrating is the word, infuriated is how I feel.”