Chester 2-0 Scunthorpe United

    Chester made it six wins from seven, putting in a superb performance to defeat promotion favourites Scunthorpe United.

    It was the same scoring combination as seven days ago, with Charlie Caton and Elliott Whitehouse securing a fantastic victory.

    Calum McIntyre made two changes from the FA Cup success at Hartlepool United.

    Tom Sparrow and Adam Thomas moved up from the bench to start, replacing Harrison Burke and the injured Kieran Coates. New signing Tom Peers was named amongst the substitutes.

    It was a quiet start in front of a big attendance at the Leap76 Stadium – a half chance came on 18 minutes when Declan Weeks almost released Thomas with a through pass – but Will Evans was back to cut it out.

    Scunthorpe then started to seriously threaten and were denied the opener by the offside flag as skipper Andrew Boyce nodded in Jacob Butterfield’s delivery.

    Moments later, Butterfield’s left footed free kick crashed off the bar with Stanway beaten, before the Blues’ top scorer Caton opened the scoring after half an hour.

    The forward intercepted a backpass from Jack Jenkins, rounded up Ross Fitzsimons and squeezed home his seventh of the season from the tightest of angles.

    Fitzsimons was then forced into two saves in quick succession from George Glendon and Joel Taylor, before Stanway saved from a Danny Whitehall shot on the spin.

    Chester should have made it two on 58 minutes when Thomas dispossessed a Scunthorpe player, enabling Peers to drive into the box after shrugging off Will Evans – but he scuffed his effort wide.

    Peers then had a goal ruled out on 65 minutes, pouncing on a rebound after Thomas was denied by Fitzsimons, but the flag went up for an offside.

    But the second did arrive moments later and Peers was the provider, feeding Whitehouse to smash the ball into the top of the net against his former club.

    A 13-minute delay followed due to an injury to the Referee, which ended any real flow in the game and enabled the Blues to see out a fantastic victory.

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    Chester: Stanway, Sparrow, Edwards, Williams, Taylor (Burke 90+5), Roberts, Glendon, Weeks, Whitehouse, Caton (Peers 45+3), Thomas.

    Subs Not Used: Evans, Murray, Maguire.

    Scorers: Caton 31, Whitehouse 68.

    Attendance: 2,676 (363 away).

    Photo: Luke Reynolds Photography.