Chester le Street went down 3-1 in their local derby away to  Birtley Town on Friday night in front of an excellent 302 crowd

Birtley took the lead after 12 mins when Danny Hepplewhite was challenged by Joe Barwick  and when he went to ground the referee allowed play to continue enabling Barwick to  cross for Jackie Honour to fire Birtley in front. A further setback for the Cestrians happened on 27 mins when Craig Marron received a red card following a skirmish with a Birtley player who only received a yellow. The Cestrians battled away pushing for an equaliser and were unfortunate that two efforts from Ward and Liam Dixon were cleared when goals looked a possibility but good defending by Birtley cleared both efforts. Late goals by Substitute Andrew Clarkson and Alex Morland all put the game beyond Chester ‘s reach – a late consolation goal by Fraser Colling rewarded his fine performance on the night

Playing 63 minutes with 10 men was just too much for the Cestrians and one can only wonder what the outcome may have been if they had been on equal terms with the same number of players

Onwards to our next match Washington at Home Saturday 14 August ko 3.00 Moor Park