Seventy years ago today Chester played in front of their largest ever league attendance when 36,167 spectators attended their Division Three North fixture at Hull. Although there have been larger crowds for cup games, most notably 47,632 for the League Cup semi-final at Aston Villa in 1975 and 45,660 for the FA Cup 3rd Round tie at Manchester United in 1965, this is a record for a Chester league game.
At the time Hull stood top of the league and were heading for promotion to Division Two while Chester were 16th although they had dropped another two places by the end of the campaign. Amazingly this was not Hull’s largest attendance of the season as they had several crowds above 40,000 with a peak of 49,655 for the Boxing Day match against promotion rivals Rotherham United.
The game itself proved to be a thriller with Chester twice taking the lead through Joe Davies and Albert Burgess before the Tigers fought back to win the game 3-2.
As for home games, the record attendance for a cup game was 20,378 for the FA Cup 3rd round replay against Chelsea in January 1952. In the league, 16,835 attended the February 1933 local derby at Sealand Road when Chester faced Wrexham in the 3rd Division North.
Hull City – Bly, Fowler, Taylor, Greenhalgh, Meens, Mellor, Harrison, Jensen, Moore, Buchan, Burbanks
Scorers: Jensen 37, Moore 66,76
Chester – Elliott, Butcher, McNeil, Beaumont, Lee, Astbury, Davies, Burgess, Foulds, Westwood, Forsyth
Scorers: Davies 35, Burgess 53
Attendance: 36,167
Copyright © http://www.chesterfootballhistory.com All Rights Reserved
Chester Football History 