Chester City 0 Mansfield Town 1

Chester City remain rooted to the table on minus 24 points after they went down to an early goal at home to Mansfield Town today.

Rob Duffy's 2nd minute strike was enough to give the Stags the win that puts them into 2nd place in the Blue Square Premier League.

City's closest effort came from Lewis Alessandra, who smashed a shot against the post as the woodwork got in City's way for the second week running.

In truth, City could not find a way past Mansfield's stubborn, and strong defence, and despite the introduction of Gregg Blundell, could not get level.

There were also bookings for Nick Chadwick & Chris Lynch for City today.

It's four games now, and three defeats, with just the solitary point at Luton to show for the efforts, however the early fixtures have not been kind to the Blues, and many including myself will see the start of the season for real on Monday, when City make the short distance to Altrincham.

If the Blues can get a win from that game, they will then take on Histon & Gateshead at the Deva in successive games, and maybe, just maybe, they can get some kind of run going.

So defeat again then for the Blues, let's hope our fortunes change on Monday.

Oldham's Lewis Alessandra to rejoin Chester

Lewis Alessandra looks set to join Chester City once again on a month's loan from Oldham Athletic.

The Latics 20 year old striker initially joined City during the much fabled pre season campaign, and banged in two quality goals against Droylsden, and the behind closed doors friendly against Premier League newcomers Burnley, however Alessandra returned to Boundary Park following the unrest at the Deva Stadium.

The striker is expected to re-join City today and will more than likely partner Nick Chadwick up front for Chester's daunting trip to Luton on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Mick Wadsworth has failed in his attempts to land Australian midfielder Erik Paartalu, who has decided to remain at his current club Greenock Morton, which just highlights the problem that Wadsworth has in luring players to a club that has been deducted 25 points and lost its first two games.

The addition of Alessandra though is an exciting one however, and hopefully if things work out, the loan period can be extended.

It will be interesting to see if the Football Association class this as their second loan of the season, or whether it falls into the same as the first as Oldham originally pulled back the striker.

The season starts tomorrow at Grays

Now that Chester have finally been given permission to start the season in the Blue Square Premier League tomorrow at Grays, it's all eyes on the squad, to see what Chester can offer in their match against their opponents.

To be honest, there isn't a great deal of depth to the squad right now, but City are expected to include Michael Lea, the former Man Utd defender, who did well at Scunthorpe, and Tim Ryan, the former Doncaster Rovers defender who is the son of chairman John Ryan.

It looks as though the Blues will be without new Uruguayan signing Fabian Yantorno, and Gregg Blundell, who is back at Chester following his transfer from Darlington.

John Danby will start in goal for City, it was a major surprise to see Danby stay at the Deva following his excellent League performances, but it was a relief for Chester fans when he committed to a new deal at the club.

One signing that is expected to excite the fans is Lewis Alessandra, who has bagged two goals in his two pre-season games in a City shirt, so hopefully he can continue that kind of form, following the news today that he has signed on a month's loan from Oldham Athletic.

Hopefully City can get off to a winning start, and see themselves as -22 points come Saturday night!