Chasetown 0 - 1 City

With Robbie’s men on the hunt for back-to-back league wins for the first time this season, City took the long trip to Chasetown FC, still without long term casualties Scott Bridges and Mikey Davies.

The match got underway and it took just 5 minutes for Striker Dan Cotton to make an impact. His shot from 20 yards hit Chasetown defender, Alex Melbourne’s raised arm and the referee had no hesitation in awarding the spot kick. Cotton stepped up himself and coolly sent keeper Curtis Pond the wrong way for his third goal in 3 matches. What a signing he is proving to be.

With only 9 minutes on the clock, it began to look like it would be a long afternoon for the City Defence. The home side pressed hard with plenty of dangerous crosses but thankfully, Lilywhites shot-stopper, Joe Welch was in fine form to thwart the danger. As Chasetown took control territorially, Jack Langston volleyed over the crossbar and then headed narrowly off target from 8 yards out.

It wasn’t all one way traffic though, and 5 minutes before the interval, Jake Battersby had a speculative shot turned round the post by the keeper.

Half-time approached and a dangerous cross was well cleared off the line by Taylor Parry that deprived Chasetown of an almost certain equaliser.

The second half began with City happy to sit back and frustrate the hosts, who had a penalty appeal waved away before Joe Welch made a superb save to deny Joey Butlin from close range just after the hour mark.

On 69 minutes, Ryan Igrey made way for Ed Rolph, who made an immediate impact and almost got on the end of a couple of excellent crosses but was beaten on both occasions by the Scholars keeper, who did well to punch away.

In front of a bumper crowd of 409, this proved to be a real battling performance, against a very well organised Chasetown side. City rode their luck on occasions but showed resilience and character to come away with all 3 points.