Chester City 1885-2010

11 March 2010 22:00
Following Chester being wound up yesterday in the high court in London. We look back at some of the 33 meetings over the years, starting with the first game in 1970. Although Chester City joined the Football Lleague in 1931 it wasn’t until 21 November 1970 when the clubs first met in the FA Cup First Round. This was the first time PNE had played in Round One and over 15,000 saw a 1-1 draw at Deepdale with goals from Ricky Heppolette for Preston and Alan Tarbuck for Chester, Tarbuck later signed for PNE in September 1971. Four days after the first tie Chester won the replay 1-0, scored by Eddie Loyden.   The next meeting was on 9 October 1974 in the League Cup as Bobby Charlton’s Preston visited Sealand Road.  A crowd of 11,262 strained the turnstiles so much that two broke down and two were closed for safety reasons. Some fans only got into the ground at half time and missed the only goal as Dave Lennard scored the goal in the 33rd minute. Having beaten Walsall and Blackpool in the earlier rounds they had victories over Leeds and Newcastle, before losing 5-4 over two legged semi-final against Aston Villas   It took the eighth match before PNE registered their first win over Chester on 29 October 1977 with Alex Bruce scoring a brace in a 2-1 home win. The Lilywhites managed a double in that 1977/78 season with goals from Bruce and Elwiss in another 2-1 win at Chester.   The heaviest Preston defeat at home was in the re-election season of 1985/86 as North End lost 6-3, whilst the heaviest defeat was 5-1 in the League Cup in 1990/91. Almost a year earlier PNE had seen the biggest victory over Chester as Brian Mooney scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 victory on 23 September 1989.       The 1992/93 season saw Preston score four in both league matches with a 4-3 win at Deepdale and a 4-2 win in Chester.   The last match between the two clubs was a 1-1 draw at the Deva Stadium on 16 December 1995 with a Steve Wilkinson goal.   Preston has come off second best as in the 33 meetings Preston have just won 9, Chester 13 with 11 draws.   A total of 34 players have worn the colours of PNE and Chester in league matches. They are: Gary Bennett; Michael Brown; Peter Bulmer; Ted Common; Mike Conroy; Paul Crossley; Jim Dickie; Stephen Finney; Dave Flitcroft; Shaun Garnett; Colin Greenall; Phil Harrington; Stuart Hicks; Ronnie Hildersley; Joe Hinnigan; Peter Houghton; Jimmy Humes; Harry Jackson; John Kelly; Graham Lancashire; Mark Leonard; John Lowey; Joe O’ Neill; Shaun Reid; Stuart Rimmer; Peter Sayer; Barry Siddall; Mike Stowell; George Summerbee; Alan Tarbuck; John Thomas; Dave Thompson; Gavin Ward and Peter Zelem.                                                                     

Source: FOOTYMAD