From Madowl Blue: Paying the penalty?

In a weekend where I've watched Chester City take a draw from what should have been a win, and Formula One star Lewis Hamilton demoted to third in a race marred by a highly controversial stewards' decision, most of my time recently has been seething and occasionally blurting: "That was NEVER a penalty!"

City's increasingly solid course of improvement has continued with the home match against Bury, and it shows how far the club has come along in the past few weeks that the eventual score draw was viewed as something of a disappointment.

Especially when the first half had produced a performance worthy of a win. Mozika showed why a certain Championship club was taking interest in him when he deservedly bagged his first goal for City, with a well-aimed strike into the bottom corner of the net. Thankfully, the unnamed club's request to take the player on loan with a view to a transfer was soundly rejected, ensuring City will at least hang on to this star for a few months yet.

Unfortunately, Chester couldn't manage to hang on to their lead, as Bury player Andy Morrell theatrically tumbled to the ground in the City penalty area early in the second half. Despite the referee having a brilliant view of the situation, he still pointed to the penalty spot for what quite clearly seemed to be a dive. Or at the very least, this was the opinion of the vast majority of the City fans...

Several more 'debatable' judgements later, and City fans were pretty vexed, with manager Simon Davies later commenting the referee "spoiled" the game with "ludicrous" decisions.

The successful Bury spot-kick has meant Chester only earned a share of the spoils, but can at least take heart from a side looking visibly more confident and a world away from the messy start to the season. This is traditionally Chester's good form patch, where plenty of points are taken in the run-up to Christmas, so perhaps City can continue their form and grab something against Grimsby next time out.