Shawe View – Trafford FC

Trafford FC – 0

Chester FC – 2

Evostick Northern League Division 1 North – 8th January, 2011

I was rudely awoken on January 8th by a car alarm. It was 7am, I was ridiculously hungover & grumpy at being woken up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go back to sleep, so instead I got up. It was my first football match of 2011, and also the first game for absolutely ages. With weather that can only be described as absolute bobbins, my break in football was running into the months. Not any more, as today I was off with my mate to watch his team, Chester, against Trafford at Shawe View.

Chester FC...not Chester City, Trafford

I’ll be honest, Chester have manifested themselves as rivals of Colwyn Bay to some members of the Colwyn Bay fraternity. It’s largely because of the Chester FC manager & a few players were previously on Colwyn Bay’s books. Furthermore there was a little bit of grief at the friendly, which was the first game between them (and the first game of the new Chester), trouble that was found to be caused by outside interference. Behind the scenes though, it does appear to be a good working relationship.

Traitors!

In any rate, we made the short leap from Chorlton to Trafford to Shawe View. Despite the abundance of football clubs in the south Manchester area (including Manchester United), Trafford – one of the newer clubs (starting I believe in 1990) – still pulls in a crowd.

Most picturesque approach to a football ground? Probably

The ground is located in the leafy suburb of Flixton in Manchester, and is down a country lane, next to a golf club. Despite getting the team name wrong (Chester FC, not Chester City FC), we headed into the ground to the clubhouse, which was a quaint Portacabin. Beer was fine though. They were expecting an abundance of Chester fans, so a burger van that sold cans of beer as well as hot dogs was hurriedly erected in one end of the ground.

The ground itself is small but perfectly formed. Small stands occupy three ends of the grounds, but the stands themselves on two of the sides are large grassy mounds. Odd to see that at a club.

Traffords infamous Grassy Knoll's

The game kicked off a few minutes after 3, 51 seconds later, Chester took the lead. A long throw by Chester’s James McCarthy was headed in by Iain Howard. Chester pressed like leaders for most of the first half, and were rewarded with another goal after 19 minutes, with a headed goal by captain George Horan. Standing with the Chester fans was a must – they dominated the small ground – so for most of the first half we stood behind the goal, blinded by the sun. Chester dominated the half, but didn’t get any further breakthrough. Half time Trafford 0, Chester 2.

Chester dominated the possession & much of the play.

The second half we stood on one of the grassy knolls behind the home team goal, which was backbreaking & calf stretching. Alas the action on the pitch was limited – Chester didn’t create chances & Trafford didn’t threaten. Instead we were treated to one of the young fans exuberantly dumped over the hoardings onto the pitch, a keeper with tourettes, and the poncification of the Trafford bench with their blankets.

Ponces.

Big girls.

The final score, Trafford 0, Chester 2.