After playing East Stirlingshire on the Saturday, Chester paid a visit to Vale of Athol for an informal game against a team organised by Morrisons, the Scottish company that built the Deva Stadium. The team, largely comprised of youngsters, was notable for an appearance by manager Harry McNally at right back.

Only a handful of supporters attended the match, which Chester won 5-0. I’m grateful to Dave Wright for his photos of the game and the team line-up which estimates the crowd as between 25 and 30.

Chester played in the rarely seen red shirt and the match proved memorable for an injury sustained by McNally early in the second half. At first it was believed he had twisted his ankle but this turned out to be a broken leg and supporters may remember him hobbling around at the start of the first season at the new ground.

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Dave has these memories of the Vale of Athol game:

“I remember we got a taxi to the ground/pitch and wondered how we would get back. As luck would have it the people from Morrison’s offered us a lift back into town, but that changed to the hotel where the team were having post match food. We then had to rush for our train back to Edinburgh. When stepping on to the train I slipped and my right leg went between the train and the platform edge, it hurt and I still have the scar on my leg.“

Another fan who attended the game with Dave was Howard Jolley. He remembers that the game was meant to be played at Pitlochry but when they arrived they found a fairground on the pitch and discovered that the match had been moved a couple of miles down the road to a Sunday League pitch at Vale of Athol. There were four Chester fans at the ground and Howard recalls that Sunderland were on tour in Scotland at the same time and quite a few fans had gone to see them play instead.

Like Dave he also remembers waiting in the car park and being taken by Morrisons staff back to the hotel where they were given food and drink with the players.

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