Ebbsfleet United (1) 3 Willock 26, Mambo 55, Shakes 64
Chester (0) 2 McNeill 61 Rainford 72
Att. 1,387
Entrance: £7 Senior Citizen
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 65/3,179
Match Report
On the first cold afternoon of the season, Ebbsfleet and Chester richly entertained an attendance of 1,387 that had been swelled by a huge and highly vocal contingent from Cheshire.It surprises me that in the five-plus years that I’ve been penning this blog I haven’t been to Stonebridge Road, given that I’ve been there many times previously. I like Stonebridge Road, formerly the home of Gravesend & Northfleet, and to old purists such as myself, will always be the home of Gravesend & Northfleet. The Chester vocalists may have sung, “Ebbsfleet’s a shithole, there’s holes in the roof”, but I prefer to refer to it as character. Since I last visited, the crumbling terrace of the Plough End has been replaced with seating, but everything else is much the same, except perhaps there are more holes in the roof of the Stonebridge Road stand.
It was an FA Trophy Round Two tie that brought the Cheshire faithful to Kent, and a boisterous, noisy lot they were! It is a strange phenomenon of modern day football that clubs fall by the wayside for mostly financial reasons and their rebirth is greeted with support of significantly greater fervour. Chester is one such club, alongside the likes of AFCs Wimbledon, Halifax and Telford.
The original club, Chester City (it was noted that their fans still sang, “Play Up City”), was beset by financial problems for 12 years before it was finally dissolved in March 2010, ironically its last match in January of that year was against Ebbsfleet. Much of their later troubles were under the stewardship of Stephen Vaughan, who failed the FA’s fit and proper person test following his involvement in a £500,000 VAT fraud at rugby league club Wigan Vikings, and was sent to prison for 15 months in 2011 for the assault of a police officer. After a failure to fulfil fixtures, Chester was expelled from the Conference and their record expunged.
From the debris, Chester were reformed as a supporter-owned club and began life at the start of the 2010-11 season in the Northern Premier League Division One North which they won at the first attempt and now lead the Northern Premier League by three points.
Ebbsfleet themselves are no strangers to financial uncertainty and whilst many would have the opinion that the MyFC template hasn’t really worked with its decreasing membership numbers, it is now in its fourth year of ownership. In its original form, MyFC had 32,000 members and paid £700,000 for its takeover but those numbers have now fallen to just 3,500 with the obvious decrease in available revenue. At the end of 2011, the club announced that it needed £50,000 to see it through to the end of the season and indeed there were bucket collections at the ground today.
In the wake of these difficulties, Liam Daish goes about his job as manager of the club, continually rebuilding sides that have to be torn apart to either provide funds or because of lack of funds. I’ve always held an admiration for the way in which Daish fronts up Radio Kent every week, win or lose with a refreshing honesty. After a year outside of the Conference, this season they are back, and whilst it continues to be a struggle as one of the lowest budgeted clubs, they are holding their own just below the mid-table mark.
As for this highly entertaining Trophy encounter, Chester made all the early running but fell behind to a sucker punch of a goal on 26 minutes. Michael West floated a corner to the near post from where Callum Willock converted with a close range header. It was far too simple and the confidence seemed to drain away from Chester almost immediately and they found themselves under pressure for the remainder of the half as Ebbsfleet held the ascendancy.
Chester’s resolve was seemingly broken early in the second half when Yado Mambo rose head and shoulders above the defence to head home West’s free kick after 55 minutes. But Chester did have more to give to the game and eight minutes later they were back in it when Matt McNeil’s diving header crept inside the post to give the Chester faithful the desire to up their own tempo.
These were frantic minutes as only three more elapsed before Ebbsfleet had restored their two goal advantage. A 20 yard shot from West was too hot to handle for John Danby and Ricky Shakes was on hand to gobble up the rebound, game safe . . . none of it.
Eighteen minutes remained when John Rainford’s shot took a deflection and wrong footed Preston Edwards to set up a barnstorming finish which featured attack and counter attack by both sides, until Ebbsfleet finally wound down the clock to earn their place in the last 16.
The match wasn’t attended strictly as a neutral, as I’m always going to show favour to the Kent side (perhaps even Maidstone!) but when you are less than committed to one team or the other a decent match is needed to make it enjoyable and this game was thoroughly enjoyable. Despite being two divisions lower, Chester gave a good account of themselves and their fans were great value, whilst Ebbsfleet deserved their win.
Hopefully it is not another five years before I return to Stonebridge Road by which time the £100,000 they “won” by having the worst loos in football would have been spent on brand new toilet facilities replacing the open air, pee against a wall box currently enjoyed(!) by the gents. Perhaps the Chester fans should have sang “Ebbsfleet’s a piss hole, they haven’t a roof”!
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