It was yet another fantastic day in the Emirates FA Cup for Hanley Town as they held Chester from the National League North to a goalless draw at the Deva Stadium.
Both sides had chances to win the game, but in the end neither team could find a way past the respective goalkeepers meaning that the two sides will meet again in Bucknall on Tuesday night, but more importantly, they will be in the hat for Monday’s 4th qualifying round draw.
Hanley Town player-manager Carl Dickinson was forced to shuffle his pack following Tuesday night’s win at Glossop North End due to injuries and players being cup-tied, in came Kyle Blake at fullback for the ineligible Alex Morris, while Ryan Shotton was replaced by Kyle Stubbs.
Those changes probably allowed Chester to start the better of the two teams as they won two corners inside the 1st 180 seconds of the game. From the second corner, Louis Dodds had to clear the ball off the line before Adam Thomas put a shot wide of the goal as the host fired an early warning message that they were going to be right up for this game.
Matty Williams then put a diving header wide of Kieran Harrison’s goal as they looked for an early breakthrough.
Hanley weren’t overawed at playing in a ground that once hosted Football League action as they grew into the game, on 28 minutes Danny Glover had a shot from the edge of the area, but it was straight down the throat of Harry Tyrer in the Chester goal. Before the long-serving Tim Sanders had a chance, just 4 minutes later, but he didn’t hold of the effort properly and the chance went wide of the goal.
The last action of a cagey first half saw Chester’s top scorer Kurt Willoughby turn his defender before hitting a volley from around 30 yards out towards the goal. Thankfully for Hanley, it whistled past the post as Harrison was left rooted to the spot.
At the interval, Dickinson and his assistant Dave Kevan would have been delighted with what they had seen from their boys in the first half, but at the same time they must have encouraged the lads to go even better because while they performed well in the first half, they seemed to step up a gear in the second half and tried to take the game to Chester.
They should have scored on 51 minutes when a free kick from Stubbs went underneath the Chester wall and Tyrer, who is on loan from Premier League side Everton, had to get down low to make a fine save to stop Hanley from taking the lead.
Dodds then went close to opening the scoring as a long ball over the defence bounced kindly for the Hanley captain, however, Williams was hot on tail, and Dodds hit a weak first-time shot at Tyrer, who was able to gather the ball.
Chester then started to turn the screw on the Hanley defence, but it was well marshalled by Harrison. The former Kidsgrove Athletic keeper had to be alert to push an effort from Joe Lynch wide of the goal before denying Willoughby towards the end of the game.
In a bid to stop the game from going to a replay, Chester brought on former Morecambe man Alex Kenyon, former Salford City striker Anthony Dudley and Iwan Murray, the former Runcorn Linnets man who was part of the Linnets front three who impressed in the playoff semi-final at Leek Town earlier this year.
The hosts thought they had won the game in the second minute of injury time when a strike by Kevin Roberts from the edge of the area deflected off Dickinson and looped up into the air, Harrison was able to lean back and get just enough on it to tip it over the crossbar and out for a corner. An outstanding save from one of the best goalkeepers in the Northern Premier League.
Every one of the 13 players who appeared for Hanley at the Deva Stadium deserves praise for how they performed whether they were mentioned in the match report or not, from Blake filling in at fullback to James Lawrie and Jake Avery constantly looking to get the visitors on the front foot all the time. They all played their part in this cup tie and left the field of play at fulltime to a standing ovation from both the Hanley and Chester fans.
The draw means that Hanley have equalled their best run in the competition and, will be hoping that they can extend their run in this season’s competition with a victory on Tuesday.
After the game, I spoke with Hanley Town player-manager Carl Dickinson.
You can also hear the reaction of goalkeeper Kieran Harrison following the game.
Chester FC: Tryer, Morgan, Coulton, Burke (Kenyon, 75), Roberts, Williams, Lynch (Murray, 86), Devine, Stephenson, Willoughby and Thomas (Dudley, 64).
Unused subs: Beswick, Weeks, McHugh and Edwards
Hanley Town: Harrison, Blake, Stubbs, Sanders (Twyford, 75), Cotterill, Dickinson, Avery (Jones, 73), Dagnall, Glover, Dodds and Lawrie.
Unused sub: Chapman
Attendance: 1,074
