Chester 29 Northwich 0

CHESTER were in ruthless form at Hare Lane on Saturday as they inflicted a shut-out on Northwich and maintained their lead at the top of North Two West.

Head coach Rob Foden is even eyeing the possibility of going from now until the end of the season unbeaten.

He said: “From now to the end of the season, every game is like a cup final for us and we have no intention of dropping any more points. We are upping the ante on the training field and there is a great bond between the players, who look forward to every Saturday with relish.”

Northwich arrived at Hare Lane still buzzing from a recent league victory over New Brighton, but they got no change out of in-form Chester.

It took the hosts just five minutes to get into their stride. After they set up a driving maul, Steve Roberts retained possession to open the scoring and put the home side 5-0 up.

Soon after, it became 10-0 when a clean take at the front of the lineout by Ross White enabled Chester to start a drive to the line and the same player dived over the whitewash to score.

Chester registered their third try of the afternoon on 26 minutes through Lithuania international Simon Verbickas, who overlapped out wide to make it 15-0 going into half time.

The tries kept coming after the restart and Gareth Martin got the first of the second period, finishing off good work by Verbickas, Andy Moore and Johnny Beckwith. This time Tom Foden added the conversion.

Chester’s final try of the contest came following the introduction of replacements Steve Roberts at hooker and newly-acquired flanker Aled Evans.

The fresh legs added extra impetus to the pack and, 15 minutes after the duo’s introduction, centre Liam Lawton picked a superb line and sliced through the Northwich defence for a great try.

Foden kicked the extras to bring an end to the scoring at 29-0.

Although Northwich never gave up the fight, they were unable to get any points on the board thanks in part to man of the match Nathan Sandland-Jones.

Chester aim to continue their promotion charge at Vale of Lune tomorrow.