A 1-1 home draw against Alfreton Town saw Chester FC make it 17 games unbeaten in the Vanarama National League North, their longest streak in 10 years.
Ten years ago, in the 2012/13 season, Chester went on a 30-game unbeaten run, losing only three times all season. They finished the season as champions with 107 points and a 16-point gap between them and second placed Guiseley.
This granted them automatic promotion to the National League, where Chester spent the next four seasons until eventually getting relegated in the 2017/18 season. This came down to poor performances and the club almost being dissolved due to financial, reasons which resulted in numerous fundraisers to help save the club.
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Their recent result also makes it six consecutive draws for the Seals, they currently sit sixth and in a playoff spot. In what has been a successful season so far for Chester, the side have dipped in form recently, where not taking advantage in key attacking moments has cost them.
Manager, Calum McIntyre, shared his frustrations after his team’s performance against Alfreton. He said: “There is clearly a problem with our home games, our home performances and certainly our home results. I’ve talked about an unbeaten run and character, that still all applies, but we’ve got six points from the last six games.
“Some things are working for us, some things aren’t. For me, there’s got to be a ruthlessness in front of goal, because I look at the last two home performances and we’ve created chances and we’ve lacked technical intensity in those key moments. But in the same way, we’re not really keeping clean sheets the way we were earlier in the season. We cannot keep constantly chasing goals in games.”
Despite this, the side are still in a good spot and will have their eyes set on making the playoffs, with the aim of gaining promotion to the National League. McIntrye added: “There is an expectation and a pressure that I’m well aware of, largely because of what we have created, because it wasn’t there in August. It is on the back of a really good run in November and December to put a football club that was 16th last season in a fantastic position.
"I believe we are one point away from equalling last seasons points tally, with 18 games to go. But we’ve created that expectation, we’ve created that pressure about where we should be finishing the season. We need to do everything we can to follow it through, and that starts with me.”
Chester have the chance to improve their home performances on Saturday 4th February and extend their unbeaten run as they face an in-form Spennymoor Town FC. They lie 13th in the league and will be visiting with confidence as they have won three out of their last four.
