FRUSTRATED Chester City manager Simon Davies berated his side’s first half defending, following their fourth consecutive defeat of the new campaign.
City have shipped 16 goals in their three Coca-Cola League Two matches and a Carling Cup tie in just over a fortnight, and their first half defensive horror show on Saturday was arguably the poorest of the season so far.
“I laid into them at half-time because they weren’t doing what we have been working on all week” rapped Davies.
“They have to remember that they are professional footballers, and some of the defending in the first half was far from professional.”
Davies added: “We changed things are halftime but it was always going to be a difficult task to come back.”
Rotherham started this season on minus 17 points because of a breach of Football League financial regulations, but they have already clawed that figure back to minus eight following a trio of consecutive wins.
If the respective clubs continue in their current vein of form, it is highly likely that the Yorkshire men will have leap-frogged woeful Chester by the end of September.
City are a club with problems at the moment, they are leaking goals with monotonous regularity, and at the other end of the park they are rarely “troubling the scorer” as they say in cricket.
All four goals on Saturday were scored in the opening half hour of the game.
Chester were still wiping the sleep from their eyes when former Tranmere Rovers defender Ian Sharps took advantage of poor marking to register Rotherham’s first goal after 58 seconds.
A free-kick on the right from Rhodes was headed across the area by Drewe Broughton, Sharps reacted quickest and scored from close range.
A mistake by Lawrence Wilson gifted Reuben Reid a goal after 14 minutes, the ex- Everton defender reacting much too slowly to an innocuous cross from the left.
Kevin Elison pulled a goal back for City after 18 minutes, but normal service was restored after 27.
The City defence was pulled all over the place before Alex Rhodes shot sweetly past Danby from 10 yards.
A combination of Rotherham taking their foot off the pedal and Chester changing their formation meant that there weren’t any further goals in the second half.
City are to give a trial this week to 23- year-old French player Jean Louis Akpro. The 6ft 2in striker has previously played for Championat club Toulouse – hopefully the name of the player’s previous club doesn’t have any bearing on the future fortunes of the club he is hoping to join.
ROTHERHAM : Warrington, Lynch, Fenton, Sharps, Green, Harrison, Cummins, Hudson, Reid, Broughton (Burchill 66), Rhodes (Yates 70). Subs: Cann, Haggerty, Holmes.
CHESTER CITY: Danby, J Vaughan, Linwood, Kelly, Wilson, Barry, Roberts (Hughes 61), Mozika, Harris (Taylor 46), Lowe, Ellison. Subs: Butler, Dinning, Partridge.
REFEREE: David Webb (County Durham).
ATT: 3,462.
