CLUB GUIDE: Chester City

Chester City Football Club is an English football club from Chester, currently playing in Football League Two.

The club was first elected to the Football League in 1931, having previously played in the Northern League. But it took 44 years for the club to achieve its first promotion, when it reached the Third Division and progressed to the semi finals of the League Cup. Chester’s spell in the league’s third tier did not last long, although they did make a comeback in 1986. Chester’s highest finish – eighth in the Third Division – came in 1989, but in 1993 they were relegated back to the basement division of the Football League.

Chester were promoted back to Division Two at the first attempt, but were relegated again after just one season. Financial problems towards the end of the 1990s ruined Chester’s chances of promotion, and in 2000 they were relegated to the Conference after 69 years of Football League membership.

Chester returned to the Football League in 2004 as Conference champions under the management of Mark Wright, who controversially quit just before the start of the new League Two season. The legendary Ian Rush then spent a season in charge before being replaced by Keith Curle, who didn’t last long before he was replaced by the returning Mark Wright.

Ian Rush began his career at Chester on leaving school in 1978. He was their key goalscorer until being sold to Liverpool for �300,000 in the summer of 1980. 26 years on, he is still the most expensive player to have been sold by Chester, and easily the finest talent ever to emerge from the club.

Kevin Ratcliffe, the former Everton captain, managed Chester from 1995 to 1999.

Chester played at Sealand Road until 1990, when they sold their ageing stadium and began a ground-share with Macclesfield Town. Two years later they moved into the new Deva Stadium.