Chester Season 2012-2013 Last Episode
Hello folks, here’s the last part of our first season in the Premier League! After 35 games we were in 8th place with a chance to snatch the 7th spot by the end of the League. And that 7th place could mean that we would qualify for the Europe League, a remarkable thing for a small club like ours. We were 2 points behind Newcastle with three games to go. Let’s see how it went.
Matchday 36: Chester — Portsmouth 2-0
Maybe you remember the game we played away at Portsmouth, it was a complete disaster. They defeated us 7 goals to 3, a nightmare. Now we had to win and to get revenge for that shameful defeat, and the lads understood that perfectly. We were 2-0 up right after 15 minutes, so we controlled the rest of the game quietly. Unfortunately Newcastle won their home game against Reading, so they were still in 7th place, having two points more than we did. But their next game was away at… Portsmouth and I really hope they could lose that one ar at least get a draw.
Matchday 37: West Brom — Chester 1-3
West Brom were already relegated, but that made them play with more enthusiasm, each and every player wanting to prove himself. We had many chances to score but the game was’t so easy as the numbers might suggest it, mainly because West Brom managed to score an early goal. Fortunately we won and we received very good news from Portsmouth too: Newcastle were beaten 1-0. We were in 7th place, having 1 point more than Newcastle in 8th place and 2 points less than Aston Villa who were in 6th place. And guess waht, the last game of the season was to be Aston Villa — Newcastle! We had our own game to worry about though, at home against Manchester United…
Matchday 38: Chester — Manchester United 2-1
We managed to snatch an unlikely victory last year at the Old Trafford, a 1-0 glory for tiny Chester… Now Manchester United were in 2nd place, battling hard with Arsenal for the title. Both teams had 81 points, so Manchester United wanted to win the game at all costs. But so did we… We were 1-0 up at the break, then Carlos Tevez squeezed in the equalizer and then the drama reached its peak right during the last seconds of the game. We had a corner kick, our Italian defender Ciro Lazzari jumped higher than everybody in the box and headed home the most important goal of the season! Aston Villa — Newcastle finished 3-3 so we managed to get that 7th place and the Europa League qualification! (Manchester City won the Carling Cup, Aston Villa won the Europa League and the F.A. Cup final was still to be played)
Our squad was the youngest in the whole Premier League, with an average age of just 21! No wonder that two of my players placed first and second in the Young Player of The Year competition: striker Michael Harper was first and right winger Fabian Cisneros was second.
The last moment hero of our season, Italian defender Ciro Lazzari was picked in the Premier League Team of The Season, right along huge defender Kolo Touré. He’s already a world class player.
Here is our own team of the season, with the youngsters that made us proud (8 out of the first 11 are young regens!)
What can we expect from the next season? First of all I expect a lot of offers for my players from the big teams in Europe, I’m pretty sure that will happen. I’m determined not to sell any of the already established young players, but things might happen otherwise. I will continue to buy young players for the future and maybe one more established attacking midfielder… The first target is Wijnaldum, his contract will expire in July. As for the rest, I’ll be happy to play in the Europa League and maybe get through to the final stages of the competition.