Wrexham v Chester

Every football supporter in the land has one particular game that its supporters consider the ‘local derby’, and a game against old adversaries Chester is no exception.

The Wrexham versus Chester City fixture has gained a reputation of notoriety, which has managed to continue since the dark days when soccer hooliganism was at a height in the Eighties.  The massive security operations at games have been over-the-top…but arguably justified.

On reflection, can any Football League ‘derby’ command a police operation of around 400 officers for an all-ticket game for under 6,000 shoe-horned into Chester’s Deva Stadium?

Geographically, Chester lies only 11 miles from Wrexham town centre, although for the bitter rivalry, it might as well be one mile!  This fixture also has the extra ingredient of ‘Wales versus England’ thrown in for good measure – a sure recipe for banter!

In fairness, it must be stated that the usual local media frenzy before such games has not helped matters, and one wonders if the local press would have been disappointed if the meetings between the two clubs had passed off quietly without incident.

This ‘derby game’ has particularly more needle than others, as it contains the Wales/England banter as well. Wrexham and Chester supporters work together side by side, but divisions run deep, sometimes spilling onto the streets of Chester on a Friday and Saturday night.

The bitter rivalry between the two sets of fans started to fester in the Sixties.  In the dance halls old scores were settled mainly on the dance floor.   The Teddy Boys with their Crombie suits and drainpipe trousers were the order of the day.  The last bus home from Chester to Wrexham on a Saturday night was considered risky business.  In turn, scuffles started to break out on the terraces whenever the two club played each other.  It was business as usual in the Seventies, only a different fashion.  Mods, rockers, skinheads, whatever the fashion no excuse was needed

Wrexham got promoted to Division Two as Third Division Champions in 1977/78. Manager Arfon Griffiths’ side lost only once at home that season - to Chester 1-2.  It would be another three seasons before the two sides crossed swords again, in a decade which stamped a permanent notoriety to the fixtures.

The Eighties

Disorder at football matches both home and abroad was out of control.  The Bradford and Heysel Disasters would also be the catalyst for the introduction of all-seater stadiums in the United Kingdom.  Hardly a Monday passed without reports of hooliganism at football matches on both the back and front pages of newspapers.  The ‘casuals’ had arrived with their own uniform.  Designer labels, top of the range leisure and sporting wear, and of course Burberry.  The Eighties would also be remembered for some of the worst scenes ever witnessed at Wrexham v Chester derby games.

Relegation for Wrexham in 1982/83 meant the two sides would meet again for League action at the basement of the Football League.  Division Four.  Since Wrexham’s promotion in 1977/78 the two sides had not played each other, except in the Welsh Cup

The 1983/1984 campaign first saw a traditional Boxing Day fixture at The Racecourse.  Wrexham won 2-0 and the game passed without any major incident, mainly thanks to some robust policing.  The return fixture at Sealand Road in April saw widespread disorder in the city centre.  Troublemakers from Wrexham booked a one-way coach trip into Chester – on the pretence of going on a shopping trip.

Sealand Road was the host for the first of two league encounters in the 1984-85 season.  Isolated disturbances were reported in Chester city centre before the game but this time the Sealand Road ground was to become the epicentre of trouble surrounding the fixture.

Wrexham’s element managed to gain entry to Chester’s stand.  They stood out quite clearly as a large group wearing predominantly yellow Pringle jumpers – the order of the day.

The new stand was built behind the old wooden stand and thus left quite a gap between the viewing area and the pitch.  Half an hour before kick-off running battles broke out in the seats and a free-for-all ensued.  After the game Chester supporters invaded the pitch and tried to rip down the fence separating the two groups.

There were a few raised eyebrows when a  friendly was planned between the two sides  to take place at Sealand Road in the close season with all proceeds going to the Bradford Fire Disaster.  The event was aimed to be an annual charity event called The Duke of Westminster Cup.  It was only ever played once.  Policing of the match was unexpectedly low-key with a reported six officers on duty.  By the end of the game reinforcements had to been drafted in from neighbouring Crewe and the Wirral.

Wrexham and Chester hooligans fought running battles in the city centre before the game at a time when there was no CCTV or hand-held video.  Wrexham supporters infiltrated the Chester Stand and were escorted pitch-side to be taken to the visitors end.  It then came apparent that some Chester ‘fans’ in the Wrexham end didn’t their chances with the arrival of this group and made a dash to the adjacent paddock.  The pitch invasion which followed was only brought to control by the introduction of several police dogs which were given the freedom of Sealand Road by their handlers.

After the game Wrexham supporters were forcibly sent back Chester Railway Station by means of several trips on the Cheshire Police ‘prison bus’ which had metal bars as windows.

Whilst both clubs still languished in the basement of the Football League, Wrexham’s European exploits in the European Cup Winners’ Cup 1984/85 were nothing short of remarkable.  They caused a major upset by knocking out Portuguese giants Porto 3-4 on aggregate, before bowing out gracefully after losing 0-3 on aggregate to Roma.

The domestic campaign saw another highly charged ‘derby’ with the old enemy at Sealand Road in December 1984, with the home side winning 2-1.  There were the usual disturbances associated with the fixture, brawling in the city centre etc.  The Wrexham contingent was escorted out of the city on police commandeered Crosville double-decker buses.  The return fixture at the Racecourse is commonly referred to as the ‘Border Stand game’.  The game was briefly held up as a Wrexham fan ran the length of the pitch with a Welsh flag and attempt to reach visiting supporters by scaling a fence.  He was ‘arrested’ by the Chester goalkeeper before being led away by policemen.   Seats were later hurled from the visitors stand onto the playing surface as Wrexham ran out 2-0 winners.  Police kept Chester fans in the ground after the game whilst the streets were cleared of the masses of Wrexham fans waiting outside.

The 1985/86 season would see the last time the two sides would face each other in the league for nearly a decade.   The first game at The Racecourse was a 1-1 draw while Chester edged the second game with a home 2-1 victory over their rivals.  Chester enjoyed a rare promotion to the Third Division.

Wrexham fans would not have to wait long though for another derby game.  The two sides met again the next season in the FA Cup at a snowbound Racecourse (1987).  Amidst a heavy police presence on a day when hardly a single punch was thrown in anger, Chester snatched a late second half winner to run out 1-2 winners. In 1987 the rival fans clashed again - this time at the cup final of a Sunday league.  Wrexham's Cambrian Vaults played Chester's Saughall Institute at Gresford.  The disturbances were pre-organised and the match was abandoned before half time.  

By another simple twist of fate the two sides were to be drawn together the following season in another cup competition, The Sherpa Van Trophy.  This was the very last fixture between the arch-rivals at Sealand Road in 1988.  Chester would later move to a new stadium a stone’s throw away from the old one.

After the infamous ‘Border Stand’ game, Wrexham fans were refused entry to the stand at Chester as it was feared that seats would be ripped out by hooligans in reprisal.  Wrexham won the fixture 1-2 with goals from Roger Preece, and Jon Bowden.  Chester replied through Joe Hinnigan. Preece and Hinnigan played for both sides in their careers.  The match passed without any major off-field incident. After the final whistle the Wrexham ‘risk’ contingent travelling by train (estimated by some as between 600-700) were escorted back to Chester railway station. The duel carriageway past the Northgate Arena was closed down by the police due to the large amount of Wrexham fans in the escort.

The Nineties

The two teams next played each other in the league in the 1994/95 season.  The Safety Committee stipulated the game at Chester’s Deva Stadium be an all-ticket affair played at 12 noon.  Wrexham fans were given an allocation of 2,000 tickets.  This allocation would be slowly be whittled down to a meagre 1,400 in recent times.  The game ended a draw (1-1) and passed largely without incident amidst tight security.  The return fixture at the Racecourse was played on a Tuesday evening February 14^th 1995.  Fans clashed outside the ground before the game and the action on the pitch was equally bad tempered with Chester being losing 0-2 by half time and having two players sent off.  The match miraculously ended up a 2-2 draw and Chester fans today still celebrate collecting a rare point at the Racecourse.  Previously since 1977/78 Chester had only picked up a single point from The Racecourse in the 1984/85 season.

Both clubs were now separated by divisions in the football pyramid, although this did nothing to dampen the intense rivalry between the two clubs and their supporters.  So when the two clubs were drawn together in the F.A Cup in 1997 the anticipation reached fever pitch.  SKY Sports chose the game for coverage and the game was scheduled for an evening kick-off much to the reluctance of Cheshire Police who had previously publicly stated that they would not police a Wrexham game in the dark.  Their concerns were justified.  Fuelled by all day drinking, the fans clashed in the city centre on Watergate Street and on Bumpers Lane leading to the ground.  More than twenty people appeared before Chester Crown Court and received custodial sentences.  Wrexham won the game 0-2 and reached the quarter-finals of the F.A Cup.

With the recent general resurgence of soccer hooliganism, the rivalry between the two sets of fans who are prepared to risk hefty fines and custodial sentences continues.  The mobile phone and Net has produced a more organised, and some might say more violent, football hooligan.

If newspaper reports are accurate, it seems that it was no accident that the two warring factions ‘bumped’ into each other at a social club opposite Chester railway station one Saturday evening during 2004.  CCTV footage of the fracas has already seen large numbers of arrests and custodial sentences.

The sides were paired against each other again at Chester in the LDV Trophy in 2004/2005.  Determined that there would be no repeat of the scenes witnessed the last time the two sides met the game was subject to a huge police presence, the match was all-ticket, and pubs were asked to close their doors.  The only incident of the day was on the outskirts of the city at the White Horse pub in Handbridge.  Some of the Wrexham ‘risk element’ had met up at the pub and were escorted to the ground on a double-decker bus.  After the game around 400 Wrexham fans were marched two miles under close scrutiny to the railway station.    BBC Look North West covered the police operation.

Wrexham were relegated to the basement of the Football League after off-field problems and a 10-point deduction for going into administration.  This meant the first league meeting of the two sides for nearly a decade.

Both games became subject to controversial restrictions by the clubs’ safety committees. The game at Chester’s Deva Stadium, which was postponed due to frost, was rescheduled for an unprecedented noon kick-off on a normal working day with also all-ticket restrictions.  The return fixture at crisis-torn Wrexham at 12 noon on a Sunday lunchtime  saw Chester’s away allocation whittled down to just 1900 from a possible 3,000.  Both games produced only five arrests due to robust and efficient policing.  Four-Four-Two magazine followed the games as part of their ‘more than a game’ series.  Here is the article which has been kept for posterity.

The two clubs played each other in the league right up to the 2009/10 season.  Games were subject to all0ticket restrictions, and Sunday noon kick-offs. The Blues, troubled by nightmare owner Stephen Vaughan, liquidated the club and became a phoenix club.  Chester F.C currently play in the Evostik Northern Premier league.

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