Leigh RMI Preview
By John Newsome December 30 2003
Nationwide Conference: Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute vs Chester City. New Year's Day 2004. Hilton Park, Lancashire. Kick Off 15:00.
Nationwide Conference: Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute vs Chester City. New Year's Day 2004. Hilton Park, Lancashire. Kick Off 15:00.
The second part of City’s dual encounter with Leigh RMI takes place on New Year’s Day, with the Blues high on confidence and hopeful of kicking off 2004 with another valuable three points. The prequel to this Hilton Park encounter ended in an emphatic 5-0 Chester victory, including a hat-trick from a Blues forward for the second consecutive game. However, both historical and current indicators suggest that all City supporters and staff will be satisfied to take away any sort of victory from Lancashire on Thursday evening.
One of these very factors is that Chester are notoriously poor at the start of the calendar year. All three of their New Year games in the Conference have ended in defeat. On the first day of 2001 they were outplayed at Hereford United and beaten 2-0. A year later, newly appointed Mark Wright watched with horror from the stands as a disorganised and unfit City XI fell to Northwich Victoria at the Deva. And despite vast improvements in the squad, the same was true last year, when the Vics came from 2-0 behind to grab a dramatic win. Wright’s plan to keep the players in hotel accommodation overnight is therefore well founded as every angle is covered in the attempt to buck this alarming trend.
Further to this is Leigh’s ability to take points off the top sides in the league, despite their own lowly position. Last month, Shrewsbury Town only just managed to scrape a 2-2 draw at Hilton Park, and the Railwaymen took three points away from Hereford’s Edgar Street earlier in the season. They have also completed a fantastic double over Dagenham and Redbridge. Their capacity to spring a surprise should therefore not be underestimated, despite their comparatively weak resources and their poor showing on Boxing Day. Their attacking play is their strength – they carved out one clear cut chance last week which was headed wide from six yards and rattled the crossbar from 25 yards late on. They will hope that this can compensate for their shaky back line, which was ruthlessly exploited by City last week. Chester old boy Martyn Lancaster will, as captain, have a big responsibility in tightening up the defence and disrupting the service to the two in form striker, Daryl Clare and Darryn Stamp.
In the Chester line up, Phil Bolland, Ben Davies, Kevin Rapley and Michael Twiss will all be hopeful of a reintroduction to the starting XI. Each could conceivably benefit from a possible alteration of formation as Wright may wish to prepare for Kevin McIntyre’s looming suspension, although he will be reluctant to deviate from the 3-5-2 option that has brought so much success so far in this campaign. Nonetheless, further changes will be likely with a game against Gravesend and Northfleet following just two days later. Ian McCaldon will continue between the sticks as Wayne Brown is still recovering from a foot injury.
One of these very factors is that Chester are notoriously poor at the start of the calendar year. All three of their New Year games in the Conference have ended in defeat. On the first day of 2001 they were outplayed at Hereford United and beaten 2-0. A year later, newly appointed Mark Wright watched with horror from the stands as a disorganised and unfit City XI fell to Northwich Victoria at the Deva. And despite vast improvements in the squad, the same was true last year, when the Vics came from 2-0 behind to grab a dramatic win. Wright’s plan to keep the players in hotel accommodation overnight is therefore well founded as every angle is covered in the attempt to buck this alarming trend.
Further to this is Leigh’s ability to take points off the top sides in the league, despite their own lowly position. Last month, Shrewsbury Town only just managed to scrape a 2-2 draw at Hilton Park, and the Railwaymen took three points away from Hereford’s Edgar Street earlier in the season. They have also completed a fantastic double over Dagenham and Redbridge. Their capacity to spring a surprise should therefore not be underestimated, despite their comparatively weak resources and their poor showing on Boxing Day. Their attacking play is their strength – they carved out one clear cut chance last week which was headed wide from six yards and rattled the crossbar from 25 yards late on. They will hope that this can compensate for their shaky back line, which was ruthlessly exploited by City last week. Chester old boy Martyn Lancaster will, as captain, have a big responsibility in tightening up the defence and disrupting the service to the two in form striker, Daryl Clare and Darryn Stamp.
In the Chester line up, Phil Bolland, Ben Davies, Kevin Rapley and Michael Twiss will all be hopeful of a reintroduction to the starting XI. Each could conceivably benefit from a possible alteration of formation as Wright may wish to prepare for Kevin McIntyre’s looming suspension, although he will be reluctant to deviate from the 3-5-2 option that has brought so much success so far in this campaign. Nonetheless, further changes will be likely with a game against Gravesend and Northfleet following just two days later. Ian McCaldon will continue between the sticks as Wayne Brown is still recovering from a foot injury.
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