Chester FC: Neil Young reflects on painful Hednesford Town defeat

A NEEDLESS first defeat of the season and the prospect of being without his best midfielder for three months – little wonder Neil Young cut a frustrated figure after a miserable afternoon at Keys Park yesterday.

After Ashley Williams was stretchered off with a torn shoulder tendon, insult was added to injury when substitute Jamey Osborne struck late on to ensure Hednesford Town maintained their 100% winning start to the campaign.
It was a 1-0 victory which Young felt was undeserved. Although he admitted Chester FC did not do enough to win, he thought his side were destined for a point until Osborne took advantage of slack defending to settle what was a hard-fought affair.
Blues boss Young, whose weekend of woe was compounded when defender Rob Marsh-Evans announced he would be leaving the club because of work commitments, said: “Apart from their set-pieces, I thought we were the better team as we were the ones trying to play. But our final ball wasn’t great and once again we’ve got punished for a mistake.

“If you come to places like this and can’t win the game, you make sure you go home with something, so I am very disappointed as we put in a lot of effort.
"We didn’t create a great deal of chances, but we got on it and we passed it and overall I don’t think they deserved to win the game.

“They were celebrating as if they had won the league because I don’t think they can believe they’ve won. They weren’t causing us any problems but we have a tendency to switch off and unfortunately it’s come in the 88th minute.

"I would have been very happy going away with a point, but a defensive slip has cost us and because of that your mindset changes.”
Young must pick his players up for Wednesday’s home clash against FC United of Manchester (7.45pm) – like Hednesford, one of the teams  tipped to battle it out with Chester for promotion to the Blue Square North.
Definitely missing will be Williams. The 23-year-old – one of the first names on Young’s team sheet – was knocked unconscious 13 minutes into yesterday's match after a typically combative challenge.

Williams spent most of the night in hospital and while he is expected to have surgery on his injured shoulder tomorrow morning, he is unlikely to play again before December.