Chester City 1, Morecambe 0

Feb 1 2001

THE referee felt the brunt of Graham Barrow's anger as League football returned to the Deva Stadium for the first time this year, writes David Bergin. The Blues boss was fuming as both sides left the pitch with 10 men following a dismal affair.

He said: "This sort of performance doesn't do the Conference any credit, the refereeing in this league is something that needs to be addressed by the top officials. Both sides suffered as a result today."

City opened the scoring on 13 minutes. A Neil Fisher corner from the right was met by Steve Whitehall who forced the keeper into a point-blank save, the rebound falling to Martyn Lancaster, who easily registered his first goal of the season.

And that was about as good as it got. The first of the two dismissals arrived in the second half with Chester's Paul Carden received his marching orders following two yellow cards in quick succession.

The referee had clearly lost control and, with two minutes remaining, substitute Ryan Zico Black - named after the Brazilian legend - produced a number of shocking challenges to also collect two yellows. The one ray of hope for City fans from an uninspiring game was the brief second-half appearence of new signing Jimmy Haarhoff. With City in need of inspiration in attack, Barrow threw the 19-year-old into the fray and his tireless runs and attacking flair proved to be an instant hit with the City faithful.

After the game Haarhoff said: "At Birmingham I wasn't getting the opportunities. They are not looking for the youngsters and it was going to be difficult for me to get into the first team.

"I just hope to do well until the end of the season. I"ve got to take each game at a time and hope to impress the manager and the chairman."