How Chester’s Season Went Down To The Wire: It Couldn’t Have Been Closer

A Title on Goal Difference

With minutes remaining of the season, Chester FC were losing 2-1 away to Garforth Town while Skelmersdale United were leading 7-1 at home against Ossett Albion. At that moment, Skelmersdale were champions of the Evostik Northern Premier League Division One North. They were just one goal away from overturning the eight-goal difference that had separated the two clubs at the start of the day. Then, at the Skelmersdale & Ormskirk College Stadium, Ossett’s Danny Toronczak scored to make it 7-2. Chester held on to their 2-1 defeat, and the title was theirs. The margin: two goals.

It was a frantic end to a season defined by fine margins. Chester had seen a double-digit lead collapse to just three points coming into the final day. Supporters who had taken comfort in their superior goal difference were faced with a nerve-shredding scenario. Chester needed just a point at Garforth, but Skelmersdale’s opponents were the already-relegated Ossett Albion, a team that had conceded 127 goals all season. Skelmersdale themselves had scored 110. A huge win for the Lancashire side was not just possible, but probable.

Skelmersdale delivered on that probability, racing into an early two-goal lead. News of their progress filtered through to the remarkable crowd of 2,428 at Garforth, a crowd in which Chester supporters made up an estimated ninety per cent. Michael Powell’s goal for the visitors should have settled matters, giving Chester a half-time lead while Skelmersdale were 3-1 up. But this is the story of Chester FC’s first season, and nothing has been straightforward.

Within twenty minutes of the restart, Garforth had scored twice to turn the match on its head. As Chester trailed 2-1, Skelmersdale piled on the goals, scoring four more to reach a 7-1 lead. It was at this point that reports from the grounds began to diverge, with smartphones and social media replacing the old transistor radio as a source of often-incorrect information. But the crucial facts held: Toronczak’s second goal for Ossett proved decisive. Skelmersdale pushed for the two more goals they then needed, but the scorelines remained fixed until the final whistle. Chester were champions.

A Club Reborn

The scenes of celebration were about more than a trophy in the eighth tier of English football. They were a vindication for a model of ownership born from crisis. Almost exactly a year ago, as the old Chester City collapsed, the hope for the new phoenix club was that “the thrill and the adventure will come from the journey of getting back to where they belong”. The first step of that journey is now complete.

Had the zombified Chester City somehow survived to the end of last season, it is entirely possible the club would have been expelled from the Football Conference and placed in the Evostik League’s Premier Division anyway. In that sense, one could argue Chester FC are already back where their predecessor would have been.

But that misses the most significant achievement.

The success is off the pitch as much as on it. City Fans United, the supporters trust that took control of football in the city, now boasts almost 2,800 members. Average home attendances this season have surpassed anything imaginable during the final years of mismanagement that brought the old club down. The sight of thousands of Chester supporters consumed by events on the pitch, checking scores on their phones in a state of pure sporting anxiety, is proof of what has been built.

The Next Chapter

That a club called Chester Football Club exists is no surprise, given the will shown by supporters for a clean break a year ago. That it is thriving, with a league championship secured in its first season, speaks to the foresight of those who decided that enough was enough. While London was being draped in Union Jacks for a royal wedding, pockets of the north were transfixed by a drama of their own making. The adventure for this fan-owned club will resume in August.