Two Years On...The Dream Is Still Alive

March 10^th, 2010, was a horrible day for Chester City fans – make no mistake about that. The end of the Club they had supported for years, decades, many heading towards a century, but in one fell swoop the Club they had followed collectively since 1885 was shut down, thanks to one unpaid tax bill hearing at the High Court.

The problems of course had surfaced long before that unpaid tax bill, with a whole plethora of problems at the football club we had put so many years of effort and support into.

It was a black day in the history of the Club.

It was however, also the dawn of a brand new and brighter era for the fans. Knowing that the support was out there from not just our own fans, but fans from other clubs up and down the country gave hope and inspiration to those who dared to dream of a better future for football in Chester.

Who would have thought that the days of being embarrassed to wear the blue and white striped shirts around the City would turn completely on its head and become a ‘cool’ trend amongst kids and adults alike to be seen in their tops around the historic City of ours.

Who would have thought that the fans who met in ‘Bingo halls’ as some said, would go on to deliver a Club that actually embraced the Community, and gaining supporters – some who had never been down to the Deva Stadium before – and many who returned for the new era, convinced that this was a new dawn for the Club.

Who would have believed that we would see such a great standard of football at the level we were faced with playing, and enjoyable trips to grounds around the North West of England, and some beyond that perimeter.

Who would have thought that we’d be appearing on national radio as proof that a club can prosper despite being effectively knifed through the heart by its previous owners in its previous form?

Who would have believed that a Club could be pulled together in just 12 weeks and that the Club would win silverware in its first season as a reformed club.

The fact is that the fans did believe that this was possible, and this is only the start of the journey to get to the Promised Land… the Football League.

Those fans, the 2000 odd owners of Chester Football Club, the 500 Junior Blues, the 3500 that turned up for the Nantwich game in 2012, the 4000 Twitter followers, the 5000 weekly visitors to the Club’s Facebook page, and the 20,000 monthly unique visitors to the Club’s website, believe that Chester FC is part of their lives, and how right they are.

Chester FC is now in our hearts and in our soul (apologies Everton fans!), but then again, it always was, and that is why it was worth fighting for in the first place. The Club was on its knees, desperate, looking for a lifeline, but cruelly denied it by one family in particular.

The Family that is the Chester Family stood up and were counted, and now that family is spreading the word throughout the Community, that their Club is alive and kicking, and on the way back – and how.

We have a Manager that is totally dedicated to winning trophies and driving the Club forward, the board is totally dedicated to that too, and are doing things the right way, to ensure that nothing, I repeat nothing, puts the club’s future at risk.

It has been a challenging two years alright, but look at how far we have come – from that first friendly at Colwyn Bay, where 1500 fans travelled to herald a new era, to the away match at Garforth last season where 2300 fans made the journey to Yorkshire to go through what can be described as a ‘unique’ experience to win a League at it’s first attempt.

This season has seen no let up in the ambitions to get back to the first milestone, which is Conference football, and with five or six more wins, may actually leave the Evo-Stik League for the Conference League – where the old girl Chester City died.

Two years ago, we felt numb, gutted that it had come to losing our club, and yes we were a bunch of romantics who believed that we could do something about it, and thankfully we weren’t the only ones with the backing received at the Guild Hall in February & May 2010, and also at that very first home match against Trafford in September 2010. Then we knew that this was a dream that could come true.

The best thing in the two years for me, has been the smiles of the faces inside the ground, yes there are always debates about whether that player or this player should be in the starting eleven, or why we didn’t score 3 goals rather than 2, but isn’t it great to be talking about that rather than worrying where the next winding up order was coming from, or how much the next unpaid tax bill would be for?

Football in Chester has changed forever, and if we keep doing what we’re doing, then it can only bode well for the Club’s future – especially with all the kids that are coming down to the ground now.

If you haven’t got your little one signed up to the Junior Blues yet, then do it today, it’s a fantastic way to get our younger fans hooked on to Chester FC the way you were. If you haven’t joined or renewed your CFU membership yet, then do it today, this is YOUR club, and who else can claim to be owners of their football club for just a fiver??

The nightmare of March 10^th, 2010 happened, but so did the rising of the Phoenix on the same day, and the fire is still breathing now amongst every Chester fan, and long may it continue. We need to keep that fire alive, and everyone can play their part in doing so, so please keep it going, and help us prove to everyone that Chester FC are well and truly on their way back.

Chester Forever.

Chester FC on Radio 1 - Who would've thought it?

Yes, I never really thought I'd see Chester FC & Radio 1 in the same sentence, but yesterday that actually happened, when an out of the blue (no pun intended) call came through from the Radio 1 Newsbeat team, who were looking to do a feature about the situation in football at present, notably at Portsmouth & Rangers, and wanted to see how a club can cope with going under, and if there is any way back.

We have displayed at Chester FC that there is life after death, and that hope is never lost, despite having to go through what was a cruel, cruel death thanks to to one family's work, some may say we're better for it now, to be where we are now, although I would never agree with the sentiment 'It's the best thing to ever happen to us' - as I don't believe it was, if a person dies having been in pain, you wouldn't often say that it was 'the bets thing that ever happened to them' - you'd probably say that they were now in a better place - and that's the way I see things.

March 10th 2010, was one of the hardest days to bear, knowing that our club would be wound up in the High Court, left a very bitter taste in the mouth with how Chester City FC had been destroyed, without any chance of saving it. Some fans from 12 miles up the road say how we let the club die unlike them when they put their money in to save the club - well it was a completely different situation.

At Chester, the fact was that Vaughan wanted £750,000 - a little different than the £150k raised by Wrexham fans - there was no way he was going to see that back, no way at all. I even remember the argument I had with him over the phone at work on my lunch - stood up at my desk, for a solid hour, with him telling me that he deserved this money and that we could have the club as long as we took on the debt, which was mainly a claim of loans from himself.

The Club was in a mess, and as we know, one that it would fail to recover from in the form of Chester City, and on March 10th, the message came through that it had gone, and for a moment a pause then the thought of 'this is it, this is where it all begins for real' and the process of building the club up again would start that very day, that Wednesday, in March.

Of course a lot of work had already been done in the background, with the thought 'Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst' in mind - it had served us well to do just that, and from that moment on we never looked back, and have always tried to do the right thing - I say tried, as not everyone agrees with key decisions that are made, that's just human nature, if we all agreed it would be boring. One thing is for sure though, whatever steps we have taken to move the club forward have done just that, and we plough on trying to get back to the promised land of the football league.

A good debate is where we'll think we have got back to where the club was when CCFC died that painful death. Is it when we get back to the Blue Square Prem, where the Club was sitting in minus points whilst the wreckage ensued all round it?

Would it be when we get to the Blue Square North, as CCFC would obviously have been relegated in that final season had it lasted, or would it be the league we're now fighting to escape from as the Conference would have more than likely kicked CCFC out of both of their leagues given the issues they were presented with, so it could have been that the league we're in now is where CCFC would be today had it continued, so it could be argued that we're now at where the Club left off.

The way I see it is that we just remain focused and get on with it, it won't feel like the first part of the job is done until we get to the BSP, which will hopefully be just around the corner, and I keep looking at the table to see just how tough the Conference North is, and Halifax, despite picking up recently, have started to endure a bit of a blip, now we all know about those of course, but I really hope that Halifax get promoted this year, as they are definitely one of the stronger teams in the Conference North, and it would be great for them to get back to the Conference too, given their history.

Jim Harvey's Stalybridge seem to have hit a stumbling block too, for a while it looked like it would be them & Hyde who would be fighting it out for promotion, but Hyde appear to have it half in the bag now/ I do fancy our chances in the Conference North though I have to say, but let's just get there first, hopefully we won't see a repeat of last season where it went down to the last day - we have taken a really strong step forward recently, with results also going our way, so with an 8 point lead and a game in hand in the bag, hopefully we're in a stronger position this year, it certainly feels like it. We just need to see Northwich play a few games, and drop points along the way!!

Oh yes, back to Radio 1, never would I have thought that I'd be getting a call off them, we'll be on the Top 40 next - maybe The Jestrian's Neil Young rap will make it to the top of the charts!!

It's all good coverage though for the club, and hopefully it won't end there, I'm sure Football Focus will be getting an invite to come back to the Exacta again 12 months on from their last visit here, and I'll keep on trying, but hopefully one day Sky Sports Soccer Saturday will take a trip down here too, it seems ages ago since I did an interview by the river with them, so think I'll give them another reminder that we're still here - and doing well!

So, onto Saturday we go then and Frickley away, we were all cheering that equalizer on Saturday in their game against Hednesford, and they won't be easy either considering they took a point off us at the Exacta earlier on in the season, but hopefully the lads will give it their all and come back with 3 points!

Come on you Blues!!!

Back on the Promotion trail

I must admit, I've only just realised that I've not blogged since before Christmas, so to anyone reading this, hope you enjoyed your festive celebrations, and had a great New Year, seeing the Blues top of the League at Christmas and going into 2012 was all we wanted, and got!

Form has been a bit patchy for the Blues since that win at Marine, but the fact remains we are now three points clear of Hednesford, with 2 games in hand, and with the implosion at Northwich, Chorley & Marine seem as though they could be the challengers to the current top 2.

Powell gets a late Christmas card

That Northwich game was extremely frustrating, with the early goal and sending off meaning we should have won that match at a canter, but we failed to take our chances, and let Northwich back in it, and if we're being truthful the ref could and should perhaps of given Vics a penalty in the last minute - although it wasn't the first mistake of the day by him, having decided to let himself be overruled by an official who was furthest from the Michael Powell and John Disney incident - purely ridiculous that.

The turn of the year saw us then take on Nantwich at home, and revenge was in the air following the 4-1 defeat back in August, but Nantwich proved very stubborn, and a succession of missed chances meant that our first home game of the new year ended in a draw, just like it did back in 2011 against Warrington! The most amazing thing from the Nantwich game was the attendance, over 3500 were inside the Exacta, and I'd popped in to the Safety Room to ask if we were anywhere near the 3000 mark at about 2.50pm and was staggered to be told we were already over 3200 and people were still queueing outside!

The thoughts then turned to Rushall, where we all wondered how we'd fare against a team that have taken points from most of the teams at the top of the table this season, but those fears were dispelled as we set out on a major 4-0 win over our West Midland counterparts, and that was great to see, restoring some confidence perhaps lost in the Nantwich draw.

Maybe next year, Wembley.

Attentions then turned to the FA Trophy, and I think it's fair to say we were all gutted that we didn't get at least a draw against Ebbsfleet, as our performance certainly deserved that outcome, having had to travel so far, the lads pulled out the stops to try and get the replay, but that 3rd goal just wouldn't come, and the Wembley dream was left behind, with a possible envious glance back at Wembley Stadium by those travelling back on the train.

I definitely think we missed Powelly in the middle, and who knows maybe we would have got something had he not been missing that game.

Then the big game at home to Hednesford, and another great crowd, only 91 fans travelled from the Midlands, which was maybe disappointing, but seeing over 3200 Chester fans inside again was superb. As for the match, well that was another day of frustration, with rare slip ups at the back costing us the game, but I did feel that if we could have got back to 2-2 in that game then we would have gone on to win, but alas we didn't and we had to surrender our superb home run of 27 games without defeat.

eerily dark on a sunny day

Perhaps the most disappointing thing to deal with was the smashing of a window on the away supporters coach - there is no place for that kind of act at our Club, we have built Chester FC up with a family reputation, and that will continue. These people just don't realise the effect that this has on the Club, think back to the Colwyn Bay mess. We were trying to get various sponsorship deals for the Club, and they then see that there is trouble at our first friendly - that had so much impact on what we were trying to do, as potential sponsors will think that they do not want to be involved with bad news, and rightly so. But thanks to a great effort to pull sponsors back in, we succeeded in convincing them that Chester FC were a forward thinking club, with a strong community ethos, and I think the proof is in the pudding, but these idiots certainly don't think about the fact they are hurting the Club they claim to support.

Anyway, back to the football, and we were all left disappointed by the fact the Liverpool v Man Utd reserves match had fallen foul of the weather a couple of weeks ago, and there was an argument that the pitch covers should have been deployed, but in the end it really made no difference as the temperature plummeted once the sun disappeared beneath the West Stand, and ice started to appear on the pitch and by 6pm it was clear that the game would have been a ice-nightmare for the players involved, and we could have talking of the likes of Berbatov causing themselves a great injury, something which we would have not wanted, and clearly the ref decided the same. Who knows what kind of action these clubs could take if such an incident occurred.

That game will hopefully be replayed in April, and certainly Liverpool understood that we were beaten by the weather, and hopefully come April, we'll have better weather and a potentially bigger crowd.

The fact that we had another home game on the Saturday meant that we would take no chances on the Friday night, and we put the call out for fans to come down and help lay the pitch covers, and I think that it was the right decision to make as the cold snap certainly happened on the Friday night, and a quick call to arms again meant that the game went ahead, and what a start - 2 goals in the first 20 minutes, and I think its fair to say we were all expecting an avalanche of goals, but it really didn't happen, and after Mickleover scored their goal we sort of went into our shell a bit.

The plus point was the introduction of Stefan Cox who certainly had a lively looking debut, when he eventually got the ball, he then made life a misery for the full back, and when he swapped to the right wing, with Howard on the left, we looked to have a bit more balance, and Cox looked electric down the right, despite being a left winger!

My favourite shot from a cold crisp day at the Exacta

I recently took the opportunity to get some snaps of the Exacta Stadium, on a cold crisp day, and hopefully anyone reading this (is there anyone reading this bar me??) will like those photos, which I've included on here today.

On the media side recently, there has been plenty going on, just the other week myself & Pat visited the new BBC set up at Salford Quays, to meet one of Colin Murray's production team, and the place was very impressive, a very 'open' feel to it, with all staff having a decent view out of the windows, but also where people walking past can see in to their office, so you're pretty much on view here to anyone!

We're working together with Colin's team for something that we had hoped to announce this season, but things have just dragged on a little bit longer than what we'd hoped, but we will still definitely be doing something with Colin & co in the near future - the major plus is that he has been coming to our home games whenever possible, showing his support for the Blues.

The Jestrian has to be one of my favourite reads each day, even though I'm the butt of some of those made up names, Jar Jar Banks, Army Tanks, and Jaffie Bracks being some of those names, but I do love the humour of it, and its all a welcome break from the busy life that this 'media junkie' seems to have, even though I'm officially out of work at the moment!!

Looking ahead to today, well there is a stack of CFU stuff to be getting on with, so time to put a bit of man power to that, will blog again soon, and will attempt to not leave it over a month this time!

Come On You Blues!
 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well it's been a while since I blogged - it's just been crazily busy recently so not really had the chance to do much, so 2012 will be different on that score that's for sure - it's been a brilliant 12 months with the Championship win and the team currently top of the Evo-Stik Premier League - what an amazing feat that the lads have achieved.
It's been a very busy time off the pitch too, with much work being done behind the scenes too, and special praise must go out to all the volunteers who are each doing their own bit to help drive the club forward - I'm sure each and every one of those volunteers really enjoy what they are doing to help, and that is how we all feel too, so again together as one.

One of my favourite moments of 2011

Being a Chester fan has never been easy, and its definitely been challenging at times, but the 10's (as in the 80s, 90s etc) has certainly got off to a great start, and that 40 year cycle of Chester FC continues to trend, in the 1930's the club entered the football league, in the 1970's the Club enjoyed it's best ever spell, and now in the 2010's we are enjoying the Club being reborn, and treating us all to some great away days, and results to go with them.

Next week of course it's the Boxing Day match at Northwich, and I can't remember getting this excited since that Boxing Day trip to Preston North End when we were chasing promotion from the old Division 3 (the one after it used to be Division 4 of course!), and that day we took 2500 fans to Deepdale, with the home stewards and police shocked that we'd brought so many. I think only the trip to Blackburn could put that one in the shade, and what an atmosphere that turned out to be, and I'm sure the one at Northwich will be a cracker (no pun intended), and the sound of 'Yellows Yellows' will be ringing away arund the ground.

Much has been made of the Northwich chairman, and their interesting way of ticketing arrangements, and we will only know on Boxing Day if what they decided on was a mistake or not, certainly their 'poke' at Chester was unwarranted, and every other Club has agreed to the commission rate on tickets sold from the Exacta - it's just standard practice - but for some it obviously isn't. They want slave labour.

This last week has been interesting too on the media side of things, with a request for me to do an interview with the Ebbsfleet Podcast to help preview the big game in the FA Trophy in January. The podcast is I think aimed at those exiled from Ebbsfleet, or those who have bought a piece of 'My Football Club' that live in the US - either way, it was a nice little interview and I tried to push home just what Chester fans had been through in the last few years, well decades I should say!

That interview is due to air sometime next week I believe.

9 Gold Rings - Classic Ash!

Last night was the Chester FC Christmas Party, and it was a really good night once again at Chester Racecourse, and a chance to take the mickey out of a few of the players via the Christmas Quiz - seeing them attempting to guess the Christmas song titles via a Give Us a Clue type game was classic!

Well that's about it today, I could go on, but it's my last day at work and I now have to get ready before 12 years at MBNA comes to an end, so to all Chetser fans, have a brilliant Christmas & New Year, and let's get those singing voices ready for Northwich on Boxing Day - COYB!

By the way The Jestrian, what a top blog, and amazingly one of my favourite Christmas bites is a box of Jaffa Cakes!

Merry Christmas!

Away Days are great aren't they...apart from Plymouth

What an amazing day last Saturday was.


One of the best I would say since following the Blues, and we’ve had some crackers too, but there is nothing like coming behind after the referee has gifted the opponents two goals, meaning you think you’re playing against twelve, thirteen or fourteen men – let me check, yes they were all male officials – to then turn it around and grab a winning goal right at the end, that was special.

The celebrations probably seemed over the top to FCUM fans, but hey, we’ve put up with so much shit over the years, that we’re entitled to celebrate like we’d won the world cup at the end of the match – how many times have we seen late goals going in that have cost us a game, many I would think, so we’ll enjoy this one thank you very much.

The actual game reminded me of my first match memory, all the way back in 1982 I think it was, eek 30 year anniversary to come next year, but if I remember it correctly, we were playing Portsmouth at the time, yes, really.

Tervor Morley - season wrecker

We ended up taking the lead in that game, before we were 2-1 down, only then to come storming back to win 3-2, and that is where my love affair with Sealand Road and Chester FC started, I wish it was all as good as that – christ knows I’ve seen some shockers over the years, the worst at Sealand Road was probably the 5-0 defeat at home to Northampton on the first game of the season, a lovely summer’s day, everyone singing songs with high spirits, and then the referee’s whistle sounded and Trevor Morley went on to wreck our first game with a hat trick against us. I clearly remember this match as I’d won free tickets to sit in the Main Stand (only ever did this three times, the other two were the 1-0 win in the Fright Rover Trophy against Mansfield, when we were so so close to getting to Wembley, and the other being our fine 2-1 win over Wrexham in 86 – ‘Mean, Mean, Mean Machine’ – come on Stevie Johnson!).

Anyway, where was I? Oh that’s right, free tickets. I’d won them in a competition on Marcher Sound, as it was then, I couldn’t believe it, a freebie to watch my beloved Blues, and then they go and do that – I wrote back asking for a refund even though it’d had not cost me a penny!

Hmmm, not like the old away end then? Bastards.

Talking of worst games, there are a few that stand out in memory following Chester. The 1-0 defeat to Plymouth in the FA Cup, it pissed down all day, the coach journey back was possibly the most miserable of trips ever, remember sitting there in my boxers as the jeans had come off they were that soaked – I sincerely hope that would be on the only time someone would sit on the Hipkiss Express in their boxer shorts!

That day really annoyed me, the rain was one thing, but they even told us Blues that there were no seats available in the covered stand, only to then pay at the turnstile for the open terrace, and look up and see loads of empty seats. Bastards.

They then proceeded to keep us in for 20 minutes after the game, by this point we’d all be doing impressions of a human sponge, and just as we thought we’d nick a replay, they scored a late winner, 5 minutes before the end if I remember correctly. Bastards.

They then marched us through a covered stand – why did they do that, did they just want to rub it in even more? – then on what seemed a circular journey to go back to our coaches, we’d have been closer to the coaches if we’d just gone through the turnstiles we came through in. Bastards. Magic of the FA Cup my arse.

The other crap games I remember, well until the mid 90’s Mansfield away was always crap, we always seemed to get beat 2-0 there. Hartlepool was quite possibly the coldest place on earth – apart from winter in Macclesfield 1990-91.

We did have some crap home games too, I seem to remember Crewe stuffing us 6-0 at the Deva in the mickey mouse tournament (that had been devalued since we were so close to Wembley). I remember that match for two reasons, one for the result, and the second for the fact it was the first match for my now ex-girlfriend, she never came again, bad omen she turned out to be!

The 5-1 defeat at home to Leyton Orient was a shitter too, that turned out to be the day that I bumped into Terry Smith in the corridor at the back of the club, told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of it, and him, and next thing he was stepping down. Good.

Pejic...crap.

In fact I had made a habit of that, as when we got beat 4-0 at home to Birmingham at the Deva, I was doing the commentary for the blind in those days, and when Mick Pejic came up, I had a pop at him, and he said ‘Do you think you could do better yourself?’, “Yes” I told him, and also said I’d love to have the chance to prove it. He got sacked a few days later!

I better watch what I say with Youngy ha ha!

Drifted off a bit there, so back to it – amazing support at FC United, non stop singing was absolutely superb. What a load of rubbish when we were told by FCUM that they couldn’t hear us – did we hear them? No, not really, we were too busy singing!

Apologies to all who I may have jumped on in that melee after the second goal, it was just a case of dancing a jig of delight, and then I managed to compose myself somehow for the winner! Great day out, it’s not often you win 30-2 away from home!

More of the same tomorrow lads!!!

Back on Track!

It's been an eventful week at Chester FC.

Following the Nantwich Nightmare, so much was said, and vented, but we all just wanted to get back to winning ways on Saturday at home to North Ferriby, and the lads were clearly of the same mindset, whipping United 6-0 in front of a decent gate of over 2100.

It was the perfect response. Iain Howard & Chris Simm recalled to the team that they'd been dropped from a few days earlier due to their lateness, and I'm sure people now realise why that had to happen, and when I saw them on the pitch before the game as I walked in, I gave them a bit of banter about the fact that they were here on time this week!

In my blog for The Cestrian last time out I was writing about big wins, but I didn't actually think we'd get such a big win on Saturday as the team we were playing were half decent themselves, but when I saw that they'd only been able to name 3 subs, hopes were lifted.

It was fairly even early doors, and North Ferriby were looking like a team who had done well the past few seasons, having been involved in the Play offs, but as soon as Simmo scored their was only going to be one winner.

Then, step up Iain Howard - a beautiful step over and drag back of the ball led to a pass for Simmo to run on to and collect his second of the match, when he slid the ball under the keeper, Simmo admitted after the game he was knackered by the time he got to the penalty area - well at least he didn't get his feet all tangled up again like the FC United game ha ha!

It was then Iain's turn though to put the ball in the net, and how, a special scissor-cum-overhead kick that found its way into the corner of the net to put the Blues 3 up - this was the icing on the cake, but the cherry would follow later!

Think Brad & the Harry Mac enjoyed that one!

In a week when many have demanded Bradley Barnes gets a look in, Neil decided to introduce him to the match, and what a great reception he got too - and in just a few minutes he had everyone cheering after blasting home in front of the Harry Mac - he couldn't have been better placed!

Barnesy didn't get long to celebrate his though as Robbie Booth let fly from the edge of the area, and with the aid of a deflection made it 5-0, a great goal, and well deserved for Boothy who has been working extremely hard to get where he is now.

The scoring wasn't over then either, as Matty McGinn - quite possibly one of Chester's best ever loan signings, was upended in the penalty area, and he got up dusted himself down, and blasted home another spot kick, 6-0!

So, a great day for The Blues, and everyone feeling much better thank you than the previous Monday, and that's what we all needed, confidence back again - well done boys!

It was a football dominated few days, probably didn't go down too well at home, what with the England match on Friday night, the Chester match on Saturday, board meeting on Monday night, England match again on Tuesday night, followed by the Chester game at Ashton on Wednesday - wall to wall? You betcha.

So, to Ashton, and I still can't believe the weather the other night, I bet the subs were pleased to be sitting on that bench, as it couldn't have been much fun out there in that torrential rain, it was bad enough watching from the sides!

Iain Howard - great at pens apparently

I did a bit of Boardroom duty at Ashton, and I have to say that we were looked after superbly by the Ashton officials, had a good chat about Iain Howard, being a previous player of theirs and they informed us that he is deadly from the penalty spot, so we'll be looking for that in future Cup games if needed!

What a start we got off to though,and Simmo was the hero again, he really is on fire at the moment, and long may it continue - he's been running his plums off recently and now he is getting the rewards with the goals, but I don't think anyone was expecting such a quick start the other night in that rain, but we pretty much dominated that game, and deserved the second goal, although for some reason watching the match, you never feel comfy until we get a third.

That didn't come, but the rain did, and fair play to Pat Cluskey, who was taking the kit bag home, his car must have weighed a ton going back, and Jimmy would need more than Daz Ultra to get that crap off the kits!

We're back to Friday again, and another away day at Worksop tomorrow, let's hope the boys bring the points home again, and we can push on in our quest for the title!

Tyre Pressure & the Power of Twitter!

Not my actual car!

Last night, I was hoping for a nice quaint trip to Stalybridge for the game against 'Celtic' and so after finishing work a little later than planned, I still managed to make an early start from Chester, looking forward to the game and catching up with Jim Harvey.

All had been going well, listening to Talk Sport on the way, with the usual controversial subject of the day being very entertaining, and then time to make a few phone calls - hands free of course - and whilst on the phone to one just heading past the M6 junction, an almighty bang, then the worst case of vibrations experienced since the Ann Summers shop opened up in Chester!

Luckily I was in the slow lane, as I had to pull on to the hard shoulder, and with every bang you do of course think that your car has given up the will to live - especially when it's a 10 year old Saxo, but hey it's only done 30k miles (hence the reason why I bought it!), but when something goes wrong with a car I always fear the worst.

So, stepped out to assess the damage and thankfully the engine hadn't gone - always my first concern, and then looked down to a sorry looking front wheel which had pretty much exploded!

So, being the car mechanic that I am certainly not, I surveyed the damage and though, "shit, I may have to change this" - now I'm not the most gifted when it comes to cars, and all previous cars of mine have had a spare wheel safely stored away in the boot, but this one...underneath - hmmmm.

I got back in the car to gather my thoughts, and thought I'd send a tweet looking for assistance - out of hope more than anything else! Unfortunately in the Saxo, I'd not got breakdown cover - typical, if I'd used the other car, I would have had.

With lorries and cars breezing past me at speeds of over 70mph, and my arse twitching as each one went past, I decided to make a couple of calls, the first was unsuccessful, then the next would be using one of those emergency phones on the road that I thought I would never use!

As soon as I picked the phone up it was ringing, cool. Then answered straight away by a fella from the Highways Agency who then told me that no-one could come out to fix it, but they would tow me to a garage to sort it out tomorrow, with the match at Stalybridge kicking off in just 90 minutes, being towed to a garage was not on my radar - but it would have been completely off the radar if what happened next hadn't happened.

On my way back from the Highways Agency phone - who by the way told me that I had 2 hours to remove my car from the hard shoulder or it would be towed away anyway, and charged for it in the process, all this whilst seemingly standing in an infestation of ants - the kind that looked like those off I'm a Celebrity, in fact I ended up showing more footy skills than David Beckham booting them away!

So, I decided that I'd try and make a few calls to avoid being ripped off, and on the way back from the phone had a black Vauxhall Corsa blast past me tooting their horn (thanks Jay!), and then when I'd given up all hope, up popped a Blue car, and it was none other then the Whelans, and Matty had checked out his Twitter to see that I was stranded - okay, I'd had a tyre pop, but to me anyway I was stranded!

Thankfully out popped Steve from his car, and came over to help me with my problem, and ten minutes later the wheel had been replaced, he made it look so easy, and it probably was to him and any other like minded person, but to me it was a nightmare.

I managed to drive off and take my time, and thankfully get to Stalybridge in good time - thank god I'd set off early - and arrived to be offered a cuppa by one of the home officials, but instead all I wanted was a sink so I could wash!!

Being the Tweeter for the night for ChesterFC it was then time to quickly pick up the team sheet, but as Paul Wheelock from the Chron had already tweeted the team news, I decided to take the easy way out and retweet it - yep, the lazy option.

In fact the rest of the evening it became a battle of who could get the match news out the quickest, but Paul won it hands down - and I gave in due to the fact that typing on a pc is much better and quicker than typing out tweets on a HTC phone, especially one that was rather annoying on the predictive text!

So, the match was a fairly open one, and two goals in the first half did the damage, and that damage also ensured my final bodge of the night, when what was supposed to be my final tweet of the night I stated that we'd won the second half 1-0, completely forgetting that we'd actually drawn it - oh well!!

So, all in all a nice evening weather wise in Stalybridge, complete with a king sized sausage & bacon bap for £2.80, which more than made up for the result last night.

Next stop...Bangor City - thank god that's at home though!

Thanks to The Whelan's for being the (Blue and) White Knights of the Road last night!

Friday Night Football to return to the Exacta!

Superb goal by Joe Ormrod

What a week it's been, sadly I missed the FC United match due to being away in London all weekend for Mrs B's birthday weekend, but kept in touch via the Twitter feed, and was delighted to see that the lads kept up the 100% pre season record, with a 'come from behind' win - and even better to see that Joe Ormrod scored a cracker on his debut after making the step up from Chester FC Youth last week.

The weekend also saw our pre-season plans being disrupted, thanks to a couple of teams. First of all after setting up a match against Fleetwood on July 23rd - they then ended up going and setting up a match of their own on July 22nd, which made it plainly obvious that they were then only going to send their young kids, something that we were not prepared to see as a fixture, and so the fixture was pulled.

Are you Phil Thompson in disguise?

All through July there has been much discussion over the Stockport friendly, and it's fair to say that we were 'monitoring their situation' very closely indeed - we all know who was 'rumoured' to be linked to their club, but you can go changing fixtures around without knowing full facts, and Didi Hamann confirmed that despite cancelling other away friendlies, he wanted the Chester match to go ahead.

That match would have been discussed further in time, but then Stockport then advised us that they were pulling out of the game, quite insulting really knowing that it didn't leave much time to sort out another game, bear in mind that 99% of teams already have a friendly set up for that date - shame we didn't book Accrington Stanley in instead hey!

People will ask why we need to play so many games at home, it's simple, we have money to raise in our pre-season games as part of our budget, so to have pre-season messed around the way it has been is rather annoying not just to us, but to Neil Young who will have been gearing his team up for these friendlies.

It's not been easy to get friendlies booked in against the 'big' teams, with many of them sorting out their schedules well in advance, and despite us requesting 'glamour' friendlies against some big clubs, it just hasn't happened for one reason or another this year, although a large part of that is the fact that virtually every Premier League club has left the UK for a tour elsewhere, and the further they travel the longer they need to prepare & recover, hence the lack of dates available, but again it's something we'll look at for next year, and I'm confident that we'll have a friendly or two against Premier League opposition next season.

We have of course a game now against Airbus on Friday night, and one to look forward to, it will certainly be one for Ash Williams to look forward to given his move from The Wingmakers last year, and another good chance for fans to see the Chester lads who are doing well this time round as well, and it showed how much the lads want this, by their performances against Tranmere & FCUM (okay, I'm basing my thoughts on FCUM from the NATV clips, but it looked like we were up for it!).

Looking forward to getting back to it all on Friday night, and hopefully a third win in a row for the Blues!

Promotion Party & Parade draws a line under the season

What an amazing time Chester fans had last weekend, with the City Fans United Promotion Party last Friday night, followed by the Town Hall Civic Reception on Saturday which included the first open top bus tour since the 1970s featuring a winning Chester side on the top deck, complete with Championship trophy!

Friday was quite an eventful day to say the least, I'd been in touch with Daryl Clare as I'd invited him as CFU's guest for the evening together with his family. It was 12 months to the very date that Daryl had last been over for the Chester FC Re-Lanch at the Guild Hall, so what better opportunity for him to come over and see what had been achieved in that space of time.

I'd kept Daryl in the loop on how things were going as well as keeping up to date on how his career was going with Alfreton, who enjoyed promotion to the Conference this season. Daryl was certainly keen to come over and join in with our celebrations.

Oops, wrong Travelodge - nice one Jeff!

So, Daryl was booked into the hotel, and thought I'd give him the directions to the hotel, but completely forget that there were two hotels of the same chain in the City Centre, and yes, I'd given him the wrong hotel directions, so I got the call at just after 6pm on the Friday night with Daryl already walking through town from Pepper Street down past the Grosvenor Museum - the woman at Travelodge by the amphitheatre had told them it was only 10 minutes walk - what she didn't tell them was the best way to get to the Travelodge up by the Fountains roundabout!

I offered to go and pick him up, but as I was in the Saxo, it would have been a bit tricky to fit 2 adults, 3 kids, a buggy and a case in the car - Daz had already parked his car up in the car park by the other Travelodge so had decided to leave it in there overnight.

He declined the lift as he was happy for them all to have a walk up the road to the roundabout, but then I received a call back from him telling me little Courtney's CD was still in the car, so like a fireman running to his fire engine, here I was running to the Saxo - all ready for the Racecourse, but it was time for a slight diversion, so off I went picked him up and drove back to the car park, had a great chat along the way, whilst feeling a complete knob for giving him the wrong hotel directions!

Anyway, back to the hotel, dropped off, and then I made my way to the Racecourse for the do, had a good chat with Jonathan Legard who was hosting the evening, and began to relax, speaking to various supporters there on the night, and I'd decided that that's how I'd approach the evening, by catching up with many fans who I'd not had the chance to do a few weeks ago at the Club Awards evening.

It was a great night, with the CFU Player of the Year award going to Michael Wilde, the Away Travel Player of the Year going to George Horan, and the Best Dressed Award going to Gary Powell!!!

It was also great to see the Chairman of the Evo-Stik League along with the League Operations Manager attending the do to present Wildey with his Golden Boot Award, and with it a great speech by the Chairman who announced that we should never have been placed in that League, and that was greeted by an ovation by the Chester fans at the venue.

Courtney Clare - a star in the making!

Then we were tresated to a rendition of Danny Boy from the talented Courtney Clare, another reason why Daryl had brought the family over with him. Little Courtney has already wowed many with her singing, and the Pavillion Suite was certainly brought to a halt to listen to the 8 year old sing, and what a reception she got at the end of her song, a standing ovation!

Another song was to follow, and we really believe that she could go far, although I'm not sure where that voice came from, it certainly didn't come from her dad, although I joked with him the other day that he should get up and sing at the next do!

The rest of the evening saw a great quiz, where Michael Wilde showed us an impression of Iain Howard, and George Horan did the same for Carl Ruffer!

Then we had an amazing auction that saw Trevor Storton's shirt being auctioned for over £500 - amazing, and the very first yellow away kit for next season being bought for £210 - nice one Chris!

That topped off the evening, and I had to head home at that point, but the following morning was amazing too, and having got up early made my way down to the Exacta Stadium for the start of the bus tour. We were expecting the players to pack out the top of the bus, but a few late withdrawals meant that there were a few spaces left, so I took my place at the back of the bus, and when we got going from the Stadium, we passed a handful of people down Bumpers Lane, whilst the police then raced off to the traffic lights to stop the traffic, and let the bus make its way round onto Sealand Road - I think we were all rather cautious as the bus turned a corner, holding on tight!!

Mind the Bridge!

The bus eventually made its way up Canal Street which saw the first real load of fans waiting for us with flags, before we then turned on to Northgate Street to see the bridge above packed with people taking photos, and then passing that we then saw the crowds in the distance - we'd all wondered if it would be a half decent turnout, but I think its fair to say we were all left gobsmacked when we saw just how many people had made their way to the Town Hall - we felt like a Premier League team that had just won the title, or the FA Cup, as all you could see was a swarm of blue and white everywhere!

What a great sight!

The bus bypassed the Town Hall, before embarking on a trip down Werburgh Street, and one lady heading out of her workplace for an early brekky it would seem, shouted "Not being funny but who are ya?" in a big scouse accent, I shouted back "We're Chester!" with arms open wide. She then responded, "Ah, I'm not from round here", to which I sarcastically shouted back "You can tell!" given the strong accent, and lack of knowledge about the club!

Anyway, heading round Eastgate Row you could see the tourists thinking WTF?? But it was great that on Races Day we could give the City something different to celebrate, and when we made our way back up the cobbles on Northgate Street, people were hanging out of windows above shops to greet us, all that was missing was the ticker tape!!!

I'd been filming most of this as it was something I wanted to keep forever, and so glad I did, as it gave the different angle of the bus tour from the top deck, rather than the countless many videos taken from within the crowds.

The bus came to a halt and the players were quite rightly given a magnificent welcome by the crowd, and a few interviews were carried out - whilst I took the opportunity of grabbing the trophy and thrusting it in the air in celebration - have it!!!

So, in to the reception we went inside the town hall, where a couple of nice speeches were given by the Mayoress and also Mike Jones, and it really hammered home just how much we'd pleased the community with the efforts on and off the pitch this season and long may it continue.

The morning ended with the though, bugger I've got to get back to the Exacta now to pick the car up, and so I took the No 10A to Connahs Quay via Sealand Road, not quite as glamorous as being on the top of the bus, but a great chance to reflect on what had been an amazing day in the growing history of Chester Football Club!

Championes Championes Ole Ole Ole...

What an insane end to Chester FC's very first league campaign, but one that ends on a really high having secured the title following an unbelievable twist of events that no-one expected!

The build up to the big day was the feeling of confidence of going into the game at Garforth needing just a point but believing we'd get the three to make it 100 points.

The day itself started with the departing of the team bus from the Exacta Stadium at 10.15am, and many fans who were themselves jumping on the Hipkiss Express(es) were there in force already to wave the boys off!

We had a good laugh on the way, with the lads in great spirits, and every other car that went past the coach on the motorway seemed to have a Chester scarf in it, and many let us know they were Blues fans with the obligatory horn tooting!

The funniest thing on the way was watching Gary Jones engrossed in the royal wedding, apparently he's a bit of a royalist so was enjoying soaking the coverage on the tv - mind you half the team was too!

The coach then stopped for brekky at a Holiday Inn about 20 miles from Garforth where they all had a light breakfast before setting off again, and now the excitement started to begin in earnest.

We then approached the ground, and now the sight of Chester fans in their colours was there to greet us, and what a sight it was - it felt just like Cup Final Day when you see the coaches arrive at Wembley, well this was our Wembley for the day, and most probably the 44th Cup final of the season!

Straight into the ground then and time to sort out a few media duties before going outside and sampling the atmosphere - I was hoping to sample a pre match burger but that queue was too bloody long!!

So, went for a walk around the ground to speak to a few regulars, and catch up with people who I used to chat with so often, but through my role have hardly had time to do since the season started, so it was nice to catch up again.

It really was the longest wait for a match to start though, and a look at the watch showed it was only 2.15 - another 45 to go - sheesh, why is it taking so long???

Then, it was time to get into my seat in the half decent stand that a lot of the Blues fans were situated in, and get behind the lads for what we hoped would be the championship winning performance and result - well what the hell, just the result would do!

No further had we kicked off it seemed that the first 'tweet' came in from Frank Hughes at Skelmersdale telling us that they had gone 1 up - no problem I thought, was half expecting that, then came 2-0. Hmmm.

The news then came through that it was 2-1, so suddenly Ossett were producing a fightback to help us out, not that we needed it as we were doing okay, creating a few chances, but not looking in trouble.

Then just before half time Asp lobbed a nice ball through to Powelly, who turned on a sixpence (often used commentators line there!) to hammer it home and put us into the lead - his fourth goal in four games, not a bad record for a lad who seemed to be getting hammered for some of his earlier performances, a tad unfair I'd say considering he'd only played about twice!

So, in at half time 1 up, with the news that Skem had grabbed a third - no problem, we were winning and it would mean Garforth would have to score twice to stop us winning the league, it looked unlikely didn't it???

During the first half the PA announcer said that he'd keep us up to date with the score at Skem, but as soon as he blurted out the early goal for Skem, we told him to put a lid on it, as we didn't need the lads distracted by that all match - just as well really considering what followed in the 2nd half!!!

Half time, and a quick breather - glass of water, happy that we'd gone in 1 up and were just 45 minutes from glory, it was a nice feeling.

Out for the second half then, and ready to go, only the substitution for Garforth seemed to galvanise them, and soon enough tweets were coming through from Skem that it was 4-1, then 5-1, and all of a sudden Garforth drew level.

It got worse of course, when Skem knocked in a sixth goal, and the unthinkable happened...Garforth scored to put themselves 2-1 up, a great goal, but one that completely knocked the stuffing out of us.

Suddenly, we were up against it, and when the news that Skem had gone 7-1 up came in, I began fearing the worst, could our dreams be in tatters??

Up popped the news that Ossett had pulled one back, so 7-2, and so it was back to 2 goals required for Skem IF we lost our game, what we had to bear in mind though was of course that we could not afford to concede another goal AT ALL.

I took a quick look around and I don't think I've seen so many people looking at watches and mobile phones to try and get updates, then someone shouted that it was now 8-2 but all eyes were on Neil who had someone at the Skem ground, but before we could get any signal from Neil, it was then 'apparently' 8-3, the emotions were now horrendous, I felt physically sick at this point.

Peterborough 2000 - horrible

Neil then looked up and signalled that it was still 7-2, and couldn't understand where other scores were coming from, but I guess we'll just put it down to those bizarre but really unhelpful 'last day rumours' - I think we all remember what happened in 2000 when someone jumped up mistakenly believing that a goal had gone in at the Shrewsbury v Exeter game, and we were 'apparently' safe, so we HAD to find out what the real score was.

It was 2 minutes before the end of the game, and we made our way down to the tunnel, and our game was all of sudden coming to an end, and we'd fail to find that equalizer, with the lads clearly affected by what was going on at Skem.

Neil then signalled that there was 6 minutes of injury time at Skelmersdale, so we then knew our fate, if Skem scored another 2, it would mean play offs for us, this was just unbearable.

After a few minutes I walked over to Neil, to find out, my timing was great as he turned round and said 'We've done it' before the celebratory pitch invasion took place - I'm not the strongest of lads, but I just lifted Youngy in the air in sheer delight, as we had done it, clinched the title in amazing circumstances.

For you Richie!

It was all full on celebrations from that point, and after several hugging of players, and fans, it was back to the tunnel where 'calm-as-you-like' Pat Cluskey was handing out the 'We did it Rich' t-shirts, which we were desperately hoping we'd be able to wear in memory and tribute to Rich Wightman, and I swear it was Rich who played his part by getting us over the line, under a gorgeous blue sky on Friday!

The singing fan in me came out as I joined in with just about every song that was being sung, but I was absolutely shattered at the same time, with adrenalin keeping me going!

It wasn't long before the trophy was held aloft and that signalled the first achievement of our proud little club, with an amazing 2300 fans that had turned the M62 into a sea of blue and white, I don't think that estate in Garforth knew what had hit it!!

Just before getting on the coach it was time to grab a Championship winning burger, one I'd been craving for all match, but knowing if I'd have had one at half time, I probably would have been sick in that 2nd half, so now I could enjoy my favourite match food - none of this prawn sandwich stuff for me thanks!

The journey home was a quiet one personally as I just felt drained, but the lads at the back of the team bus were going for it good style, with plenty of signing going on.

One funny moment was Wildey asking if we had actually won the title as he'd heard that Skem had scored enough to win, we told him that the trophy wasn't going back now!!!

It was also broken to Wildey that he'd won the golden boot so that delighted him, and Chester's number 10 was in good form for the rest of the night!!!

Back to the ground, and time to film the homecoming, but from an inside the coach point of view rather than the fans outside seeing the bus coming in, and Big George was there with the trophy straight away to show it off to everyone - how good though, a Chester lad holding up a Chester FC championship trophy - sweet.

It was a great day, and then the official homecoming party, but I can't summon up the energy for that write up now, that will have to wait!!!

Well done you Blues!!!

How to lose respect & alienate opposing fans - Volume 2

Well, having seen it already with Chorley, we once again come across another club that end up causing a stir with Chester FC, but on this occasion, down to just one person, a programme contributor.

Last night was the latest stop on the rollercoaster that is Chester FC, at Curzon Ashton, and on paper one game that we had all been looking at for ages thinking this would be a key game in our season.


Originally of course, this game was supposed to have taken place the week before Christmas, but of course the weather saw to that and threw it straight into our run in.

Barrie's latest Hipkiss Express

I decided to get on the Hipkiss Express last night for a change, and it’ll probably be the last time too, I get superstitious at the best of times, and last night may have seen the end of my coaching-it days, as the evening turned into a miserable one, and that was just sitting next to my mate Richie ha ha!

Anyway off from the Exacta we went, in good mood, confident that we could take something from the game, and arrived at Curzon’s Tameside Stadium following a relatively stress-free journey on the roads.

All still looking good. Then off into meet the board members of Curzon Ashton, and all seemed very friendly and hospitable – especially the elderly gentleman proving the cups of tea, who saw nothing as a problem last night.

Also in the board room was the oldest surviving Manchester United player, from the 1940s, Jack Crompton, who is now the President of CAFC, and pleasantries exchanged.

A nice little walk around, saw a very decent bar full of Chester fans, then outside to see a cracking stand for this level of football, then catching up with a few friends at the ground, before taking a look at the match programme.

Then, the night took its first turn for the worse. Upon reading the “Welcome To The Tameside Stadium” and “Terrace View” all the good about the hospitality that the home side were showing, which included the board room, the bars, the food caterers, the stewards, and the police – all of that seemed to pale into insignificance when reading through the programme, and with one fell swoop Curzon Ashton hit a low.



This year's award for Spitting of the Dummy goes to...

 In what should be an “official programme” someone had taken it upon themselves to pen a piece that had a right pop at Chester FC, and slated us for being in the NPL and stated that we should start at the bottom of the football pyramid, rather than where we had ended up. The writer then went on about should Chester have finished bottom of the league, would we have been granted a stay of execution to stay up based on facilities, and that we in essence should be blamed for Leigh or Ossett – whoever finishes second to bottom – going down – well I’m sorry but if you finish second to bottom you don’t deserve to stay up anyway.

Then onto page 3 of what appeared to be a ‘fanzine’ rather than an ‘official programme’, and the total lack of respect for not just ourselves but other clubs as well, with FC United of Manchester being referred to as FC Man Ure – some of course will find it funny, but again, this is supposed to be an official programme and not a fan zine, can you imagine our reaction if our rivals up the road had something in their programme about “Jester” – we’d go mad, and rightly so.

The constant moans about the referees they’ve had was somewhat boring too, christ, we’ve seen enough to last us a lifetime both home & away – and in particular last night, but it isn’t something for go harping on about in the “official programme”.

Then followed the dig at the Exacta Stadium, labelling it a “graveyard” with 2100 fans in it, again insulting to the Chester fans if this was considered an official match report.

Then the old chestnut about the entrance fee at the Exacta, us charging £10 of course, but not that we need to justify it, but the rent for the Exacta is substantial compared to what a lot of clubs in this league will face – and we are ambitious too, a fact reflected by our fans, who have come in their thousands to watch the Blues this season, how many extra Curzon fans would have come along had it been £9 or £8, or even £7 – my guess is not a lot, given their home attendances, which for this league are average.

We are ambitious, we want to move on up the Leagues, and so the admission is part of that strategy, it’s as simple as that.

Then the problem of paying a pound to enter the Blues Bar, which again doesn’t seem to put many off when you see a full bar inside, because fans are happy that the money is being re-invested with the club.

It was a real shame that the programme team saw fit to allow this piece of disrespectful writing into their programme, and when challenged about it, the Curzon Ashton board could only offer a feeble sorry, as they didn’t know who had wrote it, and hadn’t even seen it. I made my feelings known about the article, and advised them that their whole club which had given us a professional image, had now been let down by one person’s contribution, which was purely insulting to the people who would end up buying it, ie 800 people from Chester.

Our programme...professional

We at Chester have a team of people who scrutinise everything about our match day programme, looking for any kind of typos whilst coming up with content, and we wouldn’t dream of allowing anything that insulted the team we were hosting that day into it.

As mentioned, opinions like this belong in a fanzine rather than an “official programme”, and Curzon Ashton should look at that as to why people were left annoyed at their club. Take that element out, and I’m sure there wouldn’t have been a complaint in the house about their club, apart from beating us 3-1 of course.

Then followed the journey home on the Hipkiss Express constantly venting my thoughts on the world of Twitter & Facebook, before finally getting home and struggling to drift off to sleep after witnessing a rare thing, an away defeat.

Right, that’s enough from me now, I’ve said my piece, I’m not even going to refer to the game, we all know the result, we know where we now stand, and we’re all new members of the Lancaster City supporters club for the next week or so!

Come on the Dolly Blues!!!

Squeaky Bum Time

Yes, the phrase that's on everyone's lips at the moment, it really is squeaky bum time as the end of the season draws ever nearer, and Skelmersdale - our closest rivals in the Promotion hunt - are suddenly just 3 points behind us with a game in hand.

Skem - doing a "Hereford"

Now a lot has been said in various quarters about why the lead is now only 3 points instead of 13 - but let's just remember that Skem always had at least a couple of games in hand on us and have done a "Hereford" so far in winning 8 games on the bounce, but when you see the games they've played they have had a nice run of fixtures, granted they still needed to go out there and win them, but now is the time we'll see what they're made of - the next 4 games are tricky.

We of course simply have to get back to form, a few more wins and we're there, in the Premier League - what has gone largely unnoticed of course is the fact that we've actually qualified for the Play Offs, and that should be celebrated in itself - but it shows how far we've come as a club in the last 12 months that we're actually viewing that as a disappointment if we end up in the Play Offs.

If it happens then we'll deal with it - right now it looks like the lowest we'll fall to in the League would be 2nd place, which still ensures you home matches in both the Play Off Semi Final (against 5th place) and the Play Off Final, so we'd still be in pole position, but let's hope we don't even have talk of the play offs come April 29th at Garforth!

I've been doing my predictions all the way through the season, and originally I had us to win the League whilst Witton were playing Chorley at home in a few weeks time, but they have shockingly fallen away recently, but like every other Chester fans, hopes they get back to winning ways at home to Skem tomorrow.

I've now got us to clinch the title with a point at Garforth - this with us going into that game 3 points ahead of Skem, who are unlikely to slip up against Ossett in their last game.

Don;t you just hate tickly coughs?

It's been a while since I blogged on here and that has to do with me feeling lousy, a touch of man flu - have done a previous blog about that here, with a cracking video - but I really have felt so crap that the PC was just a distant thought, and annoyingly its dragged itself out still now, with one those dead annoying tickly chesty coughs, so lots of Covonia being sunk at the mo!

It's been another busy week or so, with all those recent home games taking place, and lots to deal with - the curzon Ashton game saw us entertain Graham Abel - one of Harry's Boys from the 80s, and on the same day I received a call from Ryan Lowe who wanted to come and see us in action, so I invited him to do a half time interview - knowing that he'd love the reception. Some obviously see Ryan as one of SV's friends - having spoken to Ryan on a few occasions, I know that he viewed the situation at Chester City as disastrous, but is more than delighted that we have come back the way we have, and will continue to support Chester FC in the future.

Whilst trying to sort out the half time interviews in that game, I got called to the ref's room as it was made known to us that the Assistant Referee had pulled up injured in the first half and a change was needed, but as no fourth official is at games at this level, we were left with going out over the PA system with trying to find a replacement, someone who was qualified to do the job.

Naturally, you start to think that 99% of people on our ground are Chester fans, and is it such a good idea for someone to put themselves forward for the role, imagine if a controversial decision was made, they could be victimised for life!

Thankfully the person who stepped in didn't put a foot wrong all the second half (for both teams), and the incident passed, but a shame that we couldn't win that game.

Saturday, back to winning ways at Mossley, and an important cleareance off the line from Michael Aspin who has been brilliant recently, and deserving of his man of the match awards that he's netted. Skem of course kept up their challenge with another win, you kind of expect it now!

We then went to Woodley on Tuesday night, in a place that felt about -2 having left Chester in sunshine - what's going on there???

Oi! Mind the roof!

We were also on the flight path to Manchester Airport, so every time the ball went in the air you'd catch sight of an incoming plane probably returning from a warmer climate, and after originally venting my jealousy towards them, realised that they'd be flying back in to a colder one!

What about the game then? Well most of it was spent watching high clearances coming back at the player who launched it - a bit like those days on the beach when you smack one of those lightweight balls in the air and then with gust of wind it flies back over your own head for a goal kick, or even worse a goal!

It wasn't the best of games that's for sure, and I think relief was all around the place when Simmo came on to level the match up, but disbelief a few minutes later when he blasted over from close range - that should have been the winner, but it wasn't - we have to deal with it and move on - oh and Skem won again!

On the media side of things, I had a phone call from Al Jazeera TV the other day, who are doing a programme on English Football, and they want to see the impact the fans have on their clubs, and are doing a piece on Liverpool, Plymouth, and Chester - when the call came through I was curious to see why they had chosen us, but the producer that I'm actually dealing with is from Chester, so it's a good story for him to cover!

The good news was is that he rang me back after I originally called him to return a left voicemail, as he went on to say that he was calling from Qatar, so my bill would have been huge had he not called me back!

We may see something on the Radcliffe game for the above feature, so will keep posting about that with the latest developments with it.

A delighted Michael Owen

This week has also been dominated by getting the press release ready for the Manor House Stables, and Steve Ashton has done a lot of work on this one and deserves great credit for pulling it together, it's also great to see Michael Owen wanting to help his home town club out too, and along with fellow owner Andrew Black, and the help of Mike Foster at Deva Racing, has given Chester fans the chance to 'own' a racehorse that will run in Chester FC colours and will hopefully net some prize money - it is of course £50 per month for 6 months, and that may be too much for some, but I'm sure there will be 50 people out there - especially in the business world that follow Chester and fancy a bit of a punt on this one!

So, onto tomorrow then, and the home game against Cammell Laird, and a chance to put things right again, and we've hopefully got a stack of former players attending the game tomorrow, and we're hoping that they'll be able to walk round the pitch to applaud the supporters before taking their seats - we've got plans for players from the 50s through to the 90s attending tomorrow which should be great to see.

It's also Grand National Day tomorrow, and I'm sure the usual lengthy queues in the bookies with first timers in there with their slips, who are you going for? I'm going for Balabriggs - hopefully it will end up a worthy winner!

So, fingers crossed tomorrow then, and let's hope we can net another 3 points in our pursuit of the title - COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!