Chester travel to Barrow in FA Cup draw

Chester City have again attracted one of the harder draws in the FA Cup, this time facing a difficult away trip to AFC Barrow.

Barrow of course, were previously owned by Stephen Vaughan, and taken into liquidation by the current Chester owner, thanks to a shortfall of £200,000 which is a lot less than the projected loss of £660,000 that appeared on the profit & loss forecast of the Blues last week.

Barrow were removed from the Football Conference following Vaughan taking the step to liquidate them, and the history appears to be on the verge of repeating itself with Chester City.

It's not the first time of course that Chester have met Barrow in the FA Cup, the other occasion being after vaughan had bought Chester but still had shares in Barrow, and soon followed a quick transfer to a close friend, and local painter & decorator to avoid a conflict of interests.

Following the game, the shares were transferred back, showing what a dodgy character Vaughan actually was. However, a few days later following this controversial move, the new Barrow chairman Brian Keen bought back the shares off Vaughan, and the Holker Street outfit were finally rid of Vaughan.

So, the Blues must travel to Barrow once again, and will be perhaps more confident of getting a result away from home, where they have drawn their last six games, rather than at home where they have now lost six this season.

One thing is for sure, the majority of Holker Street will be against the Chester City owner.

Oxford United 4 Chester City 0

Life just got a step worse at the Kassam Stadium tonight, as the Blues went down to another heavy defeat, this time being thumped 4-0 away to Oxford United.

For the second successive game, a forward on the opposing side notched a hat trick against a City defence which has now shipped 8 goals in its first two matches.

James Constable was the major difference between the sides tonight, as City crumbled to a second half hat trick from the United striker, whilst Matt Green scored the other goal, as Chester's hopes of taking anything out of this game disappeared 12 minutes after half time.

The Blues managed to frustrate Oxford United in the opening 45 minutes, and hopes were high amongst the City faithful that maybe a point, or even more, could be gained from the game.

But, just after half time those hopes were dashed as James Constable opened the scoring, and despite the introduction of midfielder James Owen (on for centre half Lloyd Ellams), Matt Green made it 2-0 just 10 minutes later. Constable then struck his second goal 6 minutes from time, and crowned his night by grabbing the hat trick on 90 minutes.

So, that was that as far as City's night was concerned - a big well done to the 131 Chester fans that braved the trip to Oxfordshire tonight - they deserve some credit for that!

Next up for City, it's Luton away, one look at the table shows that they are joint leaders, it just doesn't get any better does it??

After that, Mansfield Town at home, and the return of Daryl Clare, who scored twice tonight in their home game against Barrow.