Richard Teesdale heads Chasetown into a 2-0 lead at Romulus. Pic: Dave Birt

Chasetown were victorious for the fourth consecutive game with a comfortable 2-0 win at Romulus in the League Cup.

On the 3G artificial surface at Coles Lane, there was never any doubt that the game would go ahead, despite many games nationally falling foul to waterlogged or frozen pitches.

Manager Craig Harris rotated his squad, making six changes – perhaps the most significant being that of Chris Slater, returning to the starting line up almost two months after injury forced him out of the game at Hucknall.

Richard Teesdale heads Chasetown into a 2-0 lead at Romulus. Pic: Dave Birt
Richard Teesdale heads Chasetown into a 2-0 lead at Romulus. Pic: Dave Birt

Two of the other returnees – Danny Smith and Richard Teesdale – could not have made a better start for The Scholars.

With just four minutes on the clock, Smith gave Chasetown the lead guiding the ball over Roms’ keeper Liam Roberts who had strayed off his line.

On ten minutes, Mark Branch sent over an inch-perfect free kick into the heart of the Romulus penalty area where Richard Teesdale notched his first goal of the season with a bullet header past Roberts.

Perhaps the only downside to the first half display was a first half injury to Paul Sullivan a few minutes before the interval, forcing Harris to use leading goalscorer Nick Wellecomme who had otherwise been rested on the bench for the tie.

Chasetown maintained the control of the first half without adding further goals, whilst Chasetown keeper Mariusz Kisiel was relatively untroubled bar one snap shot from Dexter Ravenhill which the Polish keeper got down well to save.

The visitors kept up the pressure in the second half, looking for the killer third goal and Danny Smith was hacked down on the edge of the area, with referee Mr Fox waving play on before Wellecomme’s follow up shot was deflected for a corner.

Romulus made two half time changes to try and alter the pattern of the game, and did force Chasetown a little more onto the back foot, forcing Kisiel into a number of confident saves in the Chasetown goal with Graham Deakin and Richard Gregory the players denied.

It was Kisiel’s second clean sheet in four starts for the first team and The Scholars’ third in the last four games.

The early scoreline never looked very likely to change from the tenth minute and Chasetown earn the right to host Northwich Victoria or Kidsgrove Athletic.

Romulus: Roberts, Evans, N Smith (Lee, HT), Stone (A Jackson, HT), Francis, Marcus Jackson, Ravenhill, Keen, Gregory, Deakin (Walker, 70 mins), Amory. Subs not used: Beckley, Campbell.
Chasetown: Kisiel, Downes, Matthew Jackson, Slater, Bate, Teesdale, Theo Robinson (Gould, 83 mins), Ashton (Westwood, 75 mins), Sullivan (Wellecomme, 42 mins), D Smith, Branch. Subs not used: Farmer, Saunders.

Click below to see more of Dave Birt’s pictures from the game: