Chronicle Article 7 April 2000

After the euphoria of Saturday, it has been difficult to keep from permanently smiling (although Tuesday and Wednesday night's teletext viewing tested the facial muscles, see below). We got a penalty, they hit the bar, and we seem to have been adopted by a stray parrot. If that wasn't surreal enough, we had final whistle celebrations of Cup semi-final magnitude. Fans with mobiles were regularly getting updates from armchair teletext sufferers and when the Carlisle and Shrewsbury scores filtered through, there was unbridled joy, with little sympathy for our last manager but one.

A massive effort from all the City supporters who made the trip and really supported the players for the whole ninety-two minutes with home support rendered non-existent. Thanks to Barry Hipkiss for organising six coaches due to the 50% ISA subsidy. Hopefully he will have additional work for the subsidised Leyton Orient and Cheltenham Great Escape tour venues. Make them a success.

Coming home we were passed by smug Manchester United supporters coaches, from Oswestry and Aberystwyth. Did they get as much enjoyment from thrashing West Ham as we got from our solitary goal at Halifax? Why weren't they watching local Welsh sides anyway?

We also played ducks and drakes with an Eddie Stobart wagon driver. The second time we overtook him, he was holding sheet of card on which "Shrewsbury" had been hastily scribbled, followed by an arrow pointing vertically downward. Now that is what I call solidarity.

But it might be slightly less solid on Saturday when Eddie Stobart United (i.e. Carlisle) are expected to visit the Deva in numbers, coach travel sponsored by the club and local businesses. We need to once again get behind Ian Atkins and the players from start to finish. The ISA are organising a Blue Flag Day to provide visible support which we hope will be captured by Granada TV for this weekend's Soccer Sunday programme. Make a show of strength, not just for Chester City, but for all "little" clubs.

Ian Atkins has done an unbelievable job since his three-game baptism of fire. He has melded together of out of favour Nationwide and non-league professionals with the likes of Woodsy, Luke, Mossy, Fish, Wayne etc to create a team that is currently doing us proud. One defeat and five clean sheets in seven games speaks for itself but we still have a lot to do and Carlisle and Shrewsbury are not exactly following our script.

But back to teletext tension. No thanks Cheltenham (Carlisle equalised on eighty-nine). Big thanks Darlo, eventually. Two goals in the last four minutes rescued a draw from the jaws of certain defeat and saved Shrewsbury going a further three points up on us. I don't care if our wagon driver friend was right, so long as it's not our name on the card in the final analysis. And there's still five hundred and forty minutes tension to suffer plus teletext. I never want to go through a season like this again. Ever.

Les Smith ISA chairman

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