Nothing beats being at the match but there are other ways for Exiles to get their Chester ‘fix’.
Peter Jones gives his take on the Halifax game, which he followed on Blues Live and the BBC, and reflects on the poor start to the season.
"Do feel apprehensive as I log on. Good chat from John Hughes & Simon Dutton. They do talk a lot of sense amongst the banter.
Damn an early goal.
Looking good, I am beginning to feel more confident.
Seddon get in!! Pleased that the curse of the returning player has hit Halifax.
Chester attacking. BBC stats tell the story - 7 shots on target 5 off. Much better than recent games. Halifax coming back into it. Bring on half time.
Half time chat from the commentators is informative. I think they want to be the Chester version of Test Match Special. Maybe we should bake some cakes for them.
Start of second half seems even. There’s a good atmosphere and Chester getting great support. 454 of them making lots of noise behind the commentary.
Oh! Horan calm down.
Come on City!
Are we taking control? Sounds like we have rediscovered how to attack.
Dangerous time - I'm beginning to believe. Now getting nervous again. Are we running out of steam? Starting to pace up and down and that’s not a good sign from me.
Halifax getting into the ascendancy.
Pacing again. 2-1. What can we do to defend set pieces? Is it merely coincidence that Horan went off and Linwood came on. We seem to run out of steam in the second half - is it a lack of fitness?
Am I confident we can back into it? Not really but that is a result of many years watching the blues.
Listening in hope.
BBC possession stats show we are right in it but commentary tells a different story.
Second half we seem to have lost the cohesion of the first half.
Game meandering. Beginning to get resigned to a loss. Team seem to have lost any will to win. Last throw of the dice. It’s all over.
I think Sarcevic was a huge influence last season and without him I think we may have not run away with the league. Post Christmas there was not the constant pressure on us that Halifax experienced. We could win without playing well. That pressure and the play offs definitely made Halifax the team they are.
So would relegation be doom and gloom? As a long term Chester supporter fighting relegation has been the norm so why should it be any different now we are again a small fish?
My view is that there is nothing wrong in being a yo-yo club whilst we get things right off the field. The West Brom model seems to prove it works. The one thing we must get right is continuity.
Sack Neil? No! He has not suddenly turned into a bad manager. He may have made mistakes but we need to give him our full backing even if we go down.
At the Exiles meeting he talked about confidence being more important than systems. I think he probably needs reminding of those words. I do believe if Neil thought he couldn't turn it around he would leave.
We are two years ahead of plan and so we are in a position where we have not put the funds together to sustain the club at this level.
At the Exiles meeting he talked about confidence being more important than systems. I think he probably needs reminding of those words. I do believe if Neil thought he couldn't turn it around he would leave.
We are two years ahead of plan and so we are in a position where we have not put the funds together to sustain the club at this level.
To go full time we need to raise at least another £200,000 a year. What is the marketing plan to get to this figure? We need time to get there.
The objective of playing success has to be linked to growing the income of the club. They can't be two separate targets for success to be sustainable."
