The Debrief: Chester find a 'harsh reality' in South Shields loss
A look at the Blues defeat at the Deva and the thoughts of Calum McIntyre
For the best part of 50 minutes, any neutral without knowledge of the sixth division of English football watching Chester and South Shields would likely have provided the wrong answer as to which side is most likely to win the National League North this year.
From the opening moments, Chester displayed energy, urgency and a willingness to press and pinch the ball high up the pitch. They won their second balls and they set the tone. Those in attendance responded. When the half-time whistle sounded there was a buzz of positivity around what had been, certainly from those around the press box.
But there was also that foreboding sense of ‘we’ve not taken our chances and we’re going to have to pay the price for that’. But maybe this time was different, maybe we come out of the traps quickly and we get an early goal in the second half and then, like with the wins at King’s Lynn Town and Radcliffe, we go on to get a second and we keep the run going.
With 49 minutes on the clock, Dylan Mottley-Henry’s salmon leap is adjudged to have been the result of some foul play. Referee Kavan Hurn points to the spot and Connor Woods dispatches the penalty beyond the annoyingly safe pair of hands of Tom Watson in the Shields goal. A few somersaults later, and we’re thinking that these lads from the North East aren’t all that. After all, the Blues pretty much outdid them across the park in the first 45 in terms of build-up play.
