The All Stars Match - How it came about...

After that meeting of City Fans United members on that infamous Thursday night, I decided that I'd have to do something to help. It turns out that I'd return to the board to try and do something, just days later.

But before that, I asked myself what could I do to help to bring funds in. Various ideas went through my head and then I decided to call our Chester FC friend, Colin Murray, to see what we could come up to try and pull something out of the bag to raise money.

We had a chat on the Sunday morning whilst Sunday Brunch played on in the background, and whilst typically Alfie and Harry were at their loudest and I struggled to really hear myself think let alone what Colin was saying.

Anyway, we had a good chat, bounced some ideas between us, and then decided to catch up 24 hours later when Colin then informed me we were going to go for the All-stars game at the Deva. So then, the task began to get the game on in just 17 days!!

He told me Michael Owen was keen to help and would be playing, along with a number of ex pro's, amongst them was Chris Iwelumo. I did actually wonder if he would turn up for it given last season!!

Then it was about who they would face, so I thought the perfect team in opposition would be one managed by Neil Young, given what he achieved as our manager in the early years, and of course the first team would be in action just 2 days later so wouldn't have dreamed of asking Marcus Bignot to have this to deal with at the same time!.

What it did do of course was to allow fans the chance to say a final thanks to those players that excited us in our early years as I was sure Youngy would bring many of them.

What I did not realise was everything else needed to get the game on in such a short space of time. I have major big thanks to offer to Steve Povey, who spoke quickly to the police and council, to get us a green light to stage the game at the Deva.

Then next once that was sorted, was printing of tickets and before that of course is the designing of the tickets, and for that I've had tremendous help from Martin Huxley. I'm sure you know Martin well, he designed the club badge back in 2010, and how we all loved that badge when we saw it.

The printing of tickets was something I had no idea of how long the process would take but we really wanted to be able to sell them and so we made a decision to get them online to buy.

We didn't really have a clue how things would go, but we saw a steady start with about 50 tickets per day being sold to start with, then when we had them delivered to the club it changed to about 100 per day.

Colin always called each day to see how many had been sold, One day he thought he'd give my phone a break at ringing the club instead but guess what..I was at the club when he rang!!

We spent about a week trying to confirm more and more players, and most were coming back with a Yes, well the ex Chester lads were. I know Colin had asked the likes of Robbie Savage and Jimmy Bullard amongst many others but were unavailable for one reason or another.

Then, it was a case of arranging radio interviews as the big day got closer, and many late night conversations with Colin to see where we were up to and what we could do to take things to the next level.

Another major thing to take place in amongst all this was a call from Chester Racecourse who wanted to be involved in the game which was just fantastic. MBNA also wanted to get involved too, and the best thing was they wanted to work with each other as well as Chester FC, so it was good news all round.

So, thoughts turned to kits and how we could arrange something, and both Chester Racecourse and MBNA wanted to help on this, and a few days later we had kits for both sides. Big thanks to Jim Green of the Chester FC Community Trust for helping manage that side of things whilst I was stuck in work!

Every day leading up to the match I'd be on the phone to Jackie Olorenshaw at Chester FC who was looking after hospitality and I was delighted when 3 sponsors came forward to get involved too. Just brilliant. Things were falling into place.

Next up, officials for the match and big thanks to Calvin Hughes for his help with this.

I did receive a blow however that Neil Young wouldn't be able to make it for the full game due to the situation at Halifax and so we needed a plan b. I needn't have worried...

Reason being, on one of my many phone calls with Colin, this one took place as soon as I'd walked through the door at home just in from work when he called, and said we, meaning Chester Select, had got a new manager in Kevin Ratcliffe!

Almost in the same breath, he told me that Ian Rush had confirmed, and that Kev had decided he couldn't manage a team with Rush and Owen in, so decided he wanted to be part of the Chester management set up instead!

Colin was going to do a piece on radio Merseyside about the game and would reveal the news about Rush on there too, so a bit of twitter work needed to build it all up!!

I then sent over a press release to the TV media about the inclusion of Rush and it's amazing to see how much pull he still has after all these years!

BBC, Granada, and Sky Sports all wanted to come down on the night of the game on the back of that press release, and with the help of Michelle Owen from Sky Sports - who would go on to play in the all stars match, helped with this too!

So, the night before the game, I spent many hours making sure everything was covered for the Big night. Think it was 2.30am when the pc was shut down, lots to sort. .

I'll leave it there for now, and will talk about matchday on the next blog!

What a difference a week makes!

Well that was certainly an interesting week in the life of a Chester fan wasn't it?!?

The City Fans United meeting at the club a week ago Thursday was surely one of the most uncomfortable to sit through and listen to where we were right now.

An immediate target of £50k was set to help the club stay afloat as under current projections the club would run out of cash by March, which was of course the month back in 2010 that the former club went into liquidation in the High Court.

The alarm bells were certainly ringing louder than ever. The first half of that meeting was all about what had happened, and how it had happened. The inquest.

The second half of that meeting was how things could be put right, and that was the most important part of the meeting as if we couldn't identify that, then there would be club in the very near future.

The feeling inside the Blues Bar come the end of the night was a feeling of shock at what had come out in that meeting, but also of the will to come together and fight as one for our club to survive.

3 nights later and a meeting at the ground with the existing board members, and by the end of it I had rejoined the board. Reason being I couldn't stand back and let my club go through the most critical phase of its last 8 years, without trying to do my bit for it again.

Biggest challenge for me is to ensure my family life do not suffer from my rejoining of the board. Football has to come second sometimes!! I stepped down from the board 4 years ago as the first of my two boys were born, now I have two 3 and 2 year old boys who demand all the time in the world from both me and especially my wife. Every family will know the demands kids of young ages possess and we're no different.

So, with that in mind, the first few weeks are going to be very hard, but this time the club now has a great media team that we set up previously where as 8 years ago everything needed doing on that side of the club!

Since rejoining last Monday night, we've tried to have a positive impact as possible out there and we're certainly seeing everyone pulling together. The youth match was something special, where else would you have seen this happen!? The Chester family came together and raised nearly double the money that would've come through from the first two home now league games of the season. Amazing.

The challenge of course now is to keep that intensity up and not just raise the £50k required immediately, but also to look at building the reserve of £100k up again whilst the club looks after itself. It feels very different this time, the will is out there to ensure that we do not end up in this situation again.

Last time we knew what we were up against, it was one family hurting us, but we battled that and delivered a club we could all be proud of. Along the way we've lost what that club was all about, but we've been given a chance to restore all that we believed in, so we WILL turn this around.

We just need everyone to be with us every step of the way, and I thank everyone now for their help that they have shown so far but also in advance as your help and support, and involvement is needed right from the off.

Thanks, Jeff