Blues Match Report: Chester 0 - 1 Hednesford Town

A game centred around incidents narrowly before and after the break saw Chester fall to a narrow defeat against Hednesford Town at the Deva Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The opening period saw limited goalmouth action at either end with the decisive moment arriving on the stroke of half-time.

Phil Parkinson’s men were on top for the majority, a first opportunity falling to Nathan Woodthorpe who dragged his effort wide following a dangerous, driving run into midfield from Sam Reed.

Connor Murphy saw the next chance fly narrowly over the crossbar, before Jefferson Abreu’s close-range effort was blocked inside the six-yard box after great work from Kofi Moore.

The path of the contest changed dramatically as the Pitmen netted their only major first-half chance on the stroke of half-time, when a cross from the right-hand side found Aaron Jarvis who headed past Luke Hewitson in the Blues’ goal.

The pivotal moment in the second period arrived within the first 30 seconds as Murphy was handed a harsh second yellow card for a challenge by the referee.

Parkinson’s 10 men battled hard throughout the remainder of the second-half, but a first chance fell to Will Merry whose shot was straight at Hewitson, before a second effort from the visitors’ number 30 was cleared off the line brilliantly by Woodthorpe.

Sam Foley had the Blues’ opening chance of the second-half but his well-struck volley dropped narrowly wide, before Woodthorpe came close to levelling the clash when he snuck in at the back-post but his effort sailed the wrong side of the post.

Declan Weeks then struck over from just outside the box, before Joe Boggan nodded over from close-range following his substitution.

Despite the man disadvantage, the Blues continued to search for an equaliser but they couldn’t quite force one, and had to settle for a narrow defeat after Jarvis’ well-directed headed opener proved to be the solitary goal at the Deva.

Starting XI: Hewitson, Burroughs, Woodthorpe, Weeks, Griffin, McHale, Murphy, Foley, Abreu, Moore, Reed.

Substitutes: Brown, Burgess, Woods, Campbell, Boggan, Jones-Mellor, Frimpong.

Scorers: Jarvis 45+2.

You can watch the post-match interview with Blues Boss Phil Parkinson here...

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