After a whirlwind start, the goalscoring opened on the 10th minutes through "Deadly" (according to Cleggy on the Deva Tanoy) Daryl Clare. The opportunity came thanks to a howler of a back pass by Leigh defender Mike Harris. Clare saw the opportunity in the centre of the field, just outside the area he stormed forward, unarmed. Wayne Maden tried in vein to intercept Clare's shot, but Daryl Clare rifled the ball into the top left hand corner passed the goalkeeper Gary Kelly.

Seven minutes later and Chester City doubled their advantage. Carl Regan, making his home debut on loan from Hull City, broke through the Leigh RMI defence down the left channel. He had so much time he even looked up at the linesman to check he wasn't offside, before passing the ball to Darryn Stamp at the far post. Stamp had the easiest of tasks by simply tapping the ball home from close range.

The third goal wasn't far behind, as Chester continued to push forward. On 26 minutes, Alex Smith slipped a ball through to Darryn Stamp, who about thirty yards out, flipped the ball around his marker and shot left footed passed a stranded Gary Kelly.

A very sorry looking Leigh RMI were awarded a free kick on 33 minutes, Warren Peyton took the kick about 20 yards out, but it only caused Ian McCaldon to invoke a routine save.

On 39 Chester could have made it four as Daryl Clare broke into the area but shot straight at the keeper, when he could have laid it off the Stamp at the far post. Chester's superior movement was evident once again on 42 when Clare and Stamp combined again, another goal might have been forthcoming, but the left post stood in the way. Clare passed to Darryn Stamp and his shot rebounded into play off the far post, with the keeper well beaten.

Another near-miss minutes later, might have brought rich rewards, at 3-0 up the Blues clearly aren't happy about keeping the score down to 3!

I've never seen such a one sided half of football.

Ht - Chester 3 - Leigh RMI 0 - and Leigh have had no clear cut chances to talk about!

Leigh RMI had their best spell after the break, but still never managed to muster a decent shot on target. After weathering the early storm, Chester resumed normal service on the hour mark when Darryn Stamp should have completed his hat trick. Daryl Clare crossed the ball to him on the right flank around 30 yards out, he outpaced his marker, and one on one with goalkeeper, he had all the time in the world to line up his shot, but scuffed the opportunity by shooting wide of the far post.

Stamp had a further two opportunities to score, the first time he sent his shot over the crossbar, the second effort was an attempted chip over the goalkeeper from close range, Gary Kelly collected the ball with ease. The goal finally came on 73 minutes, when Darryn Stamp completed his hat trick thanks to a great ball into the area from Kevin McIntyre. McIntyre crossed from the left flank and Stamp simply smashed the ball home.

Mark Wright made a tripple substitution bringing on Rapley Davies and Twiss all came on as substitutes for Smith, Clare and Stamp on the 79th minute. Although they initially continued to cause Leigh some problems, in the dying stages the game had a pre-season friendly atmostphere to it, with neither side displaying any sense of urgency about their play.

Haing said that, Kevin Rapley proved me wrong on the 88th minute. He found himself clean through on goal after breaking through the Leigh RMI defence thanks to a pass from Michael Twiss. He then outpaced the defence and belted the ball home from close range.

FT = Chester 5 - Leigh RMI 0 - it could have been a lot more.

Stamp, Smith and Clare all did really well but the Deva TXT man of the match award goes to Darryn Stamp for his first hat-trick at the Deva Stadium