5 October, 2001
After a brisk start these two evenly matched sides settled down to what was to be a fairly uneventful match until the closing minutes. Nearly fifteen minutes had gone before either side had a scoring chance, the first going to Chester, but Newbrook in the Altrincham goal saved comfortably. Altrincham's first serious attempt on goal did not come until the 40th minute when a long range shot from Simon McMain was gathered by the Chester Keeper, who was happy to see a shot from Anthony Hargreaves shave the outside of the post when he was well beaten. Recent ex-Altrincham player Eric Seekie was leading the Chester attack and he was having a real battle with Pat Claffey the Altrincham centre back, with the honours coming out even on the night.
Five minutes into the second half Peter Lee was replaced by Melvin Pampila in the Altrincham attack and he immediately started to worry the Chester defence and with his speed down the right wing he was involved with what should have been an opening goal for Altrincham. Altrincham's centre forward Jason Anthony received a through ball and thundered into the Chester area with only the keeper to beat. He decided to go round the keeper rather than shoot, but to his dismay, the keeper managed to grab the ball from under his feet at the last moment. With 10 minutes to go Hargreaves had a great chance to score but his tame shot was comfortably held by the Chester keeper. Then at the other end Altrincham full back Robert Taberner stopped a point blank shot after a goalmouth scramble from a Chester corner. Promising Irish newcomer Mike Green replaced Taberner with 6 minutes to go and was soon in the thick of things, Chester were throwing everything at Altrincham but the defence held solid. Well into injury time Chester claimed what was probably a penalty when Newbrook in the Altrincham goal seemed to bring down the Chester number 9 but much to everyone's relief the referee waved play on. Danny Smith came on to replace Gary Shelton with just seconds to go.
