Chester 20 Lymm 11

CHESTER’S largest crowd of the season witnessed yet another victory on Saturday which kept the team on top of the table.

In difficult weather conditions the home side showed both the positive and the negative sides of their play.

Coach Rob Foden was pleased with the win but less than happy with the performance.

“This team is misfiring at present, we are relying on the individual talents of players to get us through games instead of working together as a team,” he said.

“However there were occasions during the game when the team came together and we scored three very good tries.”

The first came after 15 minutes when Ross White created a ruck. The ball was fed to Tom Foden who made a break and with a good offload found Matt Bellamy who stormed to the line for the try.

The only other score of the half was a penalty to Lymm which left the score 5-3 to Chester at the break.

The second half began with both sides giving away penalties, Lymm scoring one to take the lead when Chester were caught offside.

Going behind gave the Chester forwards the motivation they needed and within minutes they had forced Lymm back to their own try-line where they were penalised on three separate occasions.

Eventually the referee reached for the yellow card and sin-binned a Lymm forward for continually killing the ball. This proved decisive as from the ensuing lineout as Matt Bellamy forced his way over the line for his second try of the game.

Tom Foden, who had made a number of telling contributions in the game, kicked the conversion to give Chester a six-point lead going into the final quarter of the game.

Chester now began to dominate and were awarded another penalty after man of the match Foden had made another break, only to be stopped by a stray elbow when chasing his kick. He kicked the penalty to give Chester a nine-point lead.

With time running out for Lymm and Chester now firmly in control, Matt Sheen scored the try of the day when Foden started a move deep in his own half sending Morne Barnardo on his way up the right wing.

Barnardo was tackled but before going to ground fed the ball to Sheen who finished the move off.

Captain Sean Green, playing his 100th first-team game for the club, was pleased with the result which kept Chester at the top of North West Two.

Tomorrow, Foden’s men host Broughton Park in the third round of the EDF Intermediate Cup.