Chester City 3 Shrewsbury Town 1

Oct 7 2007 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

CITY'S ability to cram two completely different types of game into 90 minutes continued as they emphatically saw off visiting Shrewsbury Town.

The first half was standard derby fare, with a bit of nip and tuck and chances for both sides. As predicted Town arrived to try to upset the apple cart by flying in with late challenges and City struggled to find a rhythm.

Former Blue Stewart Drummond was the first name in the book on 15 minutes for a lunging tackle on Hughes which came just minutes after the home side's first scare when Laurence Wilson headed of the line to deny Herd.

Kevin Ellison, playing upfront with John Murphy, spurned City's best chance of the half when Murphy flicked the ball on to him in space and he fired over from six yards.

Debutant Tony Dinning went into referee Chris Foy's book after stretching to retrieve a miscontrolled ball and upending Neil Ashton.

The second half saw Bobby Williamson send his troops out to really have a go at Shrewsbury and Peters' side showed why they have lost their last three games as their defence crumbled.

First Partridge on 62 minutes received a loose ball from a Simon Marples block tackle and sprinted off on a jinking run before unleashing a 20-yard thunderbolt to make it 1-0.

However, they do say just after you score you are at your most vulnerable and City, who were trying today to get their home form on track, conceded from a corner to another one-time Chester player, Darren Moss.

But Shrewsbury never looked like they would be resilient enough to hold on and John Murphy found himself one-on-one with the keeper in the 72nd minute. The big man made no mistake and slotted the ball home.

Then a minute later substitute Simon Yeo latched onto a ball over the top of the defence to fire again past the keeper to make it 3-1 and seal victory.

It could have been four late on when lively sub Paul McManus, who only signed as a professional in the week, curled a cross in which had keeper Glynn Garner back-pedalling furiously but it drifted just over.

Chester City: Danby, Marples, Butler, Linwood, Sandwith (Yeo 62), Partridge (McManus 82), Dinning, Hughes, Wilson, Ellison, Murphy. Subs: Palethorpe, Rutherford, Holroyd.

Shrewsbury Town: Garner, Moss, Ashton, Drummond, Kempson, Hunt, Langmead, Hibbert, Symes (Nicholson 80), Herd, Murdock (Pugh 45, Ryan 75). Subs: Hall, Esson.

Attendance: 3,057.

Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside).