Chester City 1, Boston United 2
AS the off-the-field uncertainty regarding Chester City's ownership continues to rumbles on, on the field the team blunders from being mediocre to positively awful.
City have now played five games in September and have failed to record a victory, despite their best efforts.
The heart of former manager Graham Barrow's Trophywinning team that performed so well last season have left the Deva Stadium, and the harsh reality is that the replacements cannot fill the void at this level of football.
Defensively the side lacks a dominant personality and is always prone to lapses, while in midfield, Andy Porter excepted, they seem to lack a cohesive shape and tactical discipline.
On Saturday against a mediocre Boston United, Chester started the game with a quartet of central defenders making up their back four, and against a more attackminded side than the Lincolnshire outfit they would have gone in at the break trailing by more than the 23rd- minute strike by Simon Weatherstone.
The goal came after Mick Brown embarked on a run down the right, before delivering a cross that was allowed to go right across the face of the City goal, enabling Weatherstone a simple job to tap the ball home from close range.
Chester's best spell came at the beginning of the second period, with new signing David McNiven and Mark Beesley linking well and causing problems for the visitors' defence.
Chester hit their equaliser on the hour. McNiven was the orchestrator, setting Beesley free, and the ex-Preston striker shot low from 15 yards.
But Chester sat back and subsequently Boston pounced. A mistake by Hill led to a corner, from which the ball was half-cleared.
However, the respite was brief as the ball found the unmarked Boston playmaker Mike Marsh who sweetly struck an effort from 20 yards that fizzed into the net past the despairing dive of Brown.
City's director of football Gordon Hill said: "We had too many players who were happy to go through the motions.
"They didn't beat us, we beat us."
But despite bright spots like Porter's performance in midfield, it is still another defeat for City.
They were playing in the Football League just 16 months ago, it seems that if there isn't a change in playing personnel quickly, the chilling reality is that they could be playing
at an even lower level of football in 11 months.
CHESTER CITY: Brown, Lancaster, Lininghan, Porter, (Blackburn 75), Ruffer, Spink, (S Rose 68), Hill, Kilgannon, McNiven, Beesley, M Rose. Subs: Roberts, Kerr, Hopword.
BOSTON UNITED: Bastock, Costello, Lodge, R Weatherstone, Monnington, Ellender, Marsh, Charlerey (Town 86), Clare, (Murphy 65), S Weatherstone, Brown, (Cook 90). Subs: Conroy, Gould.
