Tranmere Rovers 0 Chester FC 0
Alex Lynch says he had a feeling it would take something special to beat him after his heroics between the sticks earned Chester FC a hard-earned point at Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.
A valiant and determined performance from the Blues was backed up by a string of world-class saves from Lynch, who saved point-blank from James Norwood and Gerry McDonagh while producing stunning saves to keep out an early Norwood volley and a late Dylan Mottley-Henry header as the visitors dug deep to grind out a 0-0 draw at Prenton Park.
Such was the calibre of Lynch’s performance it is hard to recall a more complete performance from a Chester in recent times and it was certainly on a par with Jon Worsnop’s superb showing in the FA Cup clash at Barnsley in 2014.
But the 22-year-old North Walian, who was dropped in favour of loanee Conor Mitchell at the start of the season, thought it was going to be his day as soon as he tipped a Norwood effort around the post inside 10 minutes and declared his display his best since signing for the Blues.
Said Lynch, signed from Bala Town in October last year: “After I made the save off the first one, the one off Jennings (sic) off the volley, I thought it was a good confidence builder. When I started making a couple I start thinking in my own head that I’m going to be in one of them days where I am on form and it is going to take something special to beat me. Doing something positive early doors helps for the rest of the game.
“That’s the thing with goalkeepers, if you do something wrong then people jump on you but if you do something right then you should be doing it, that’s just part of being a goalkeeper.
“I think it was my best performance (for Chester).”
While Lynch rightly received the plaudits there were impressive displays from Ryan Astles, John McCombe and Lucas Dawson among others in a game where guts and determination were the order of the day for Marcus Bignot’s Blues side, who were roared on by 1,198 Chester fans at Prenton Park .
Said Lynch: “It was a hard-earned point, they built a lot of momentum and created quite a few chances but it was good to keep a clean sheet and get a point away. I thought everyone did well, we didn’t create too many chances but we stuck together.
“It’s about results but I thought we came here and did dig deep. For large parts we were under the cosh but it shows character to come here and get a point on the board.”
