CLUB GUIDE: Chester City

Full name Chester City Football Club

Nickname(s) The Blues

Founded 1885

Ground Saunders Honda Stadium, Chester

Capacity 6,012

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 ï¿½300,000 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.

Starting Out

The club was founded as Chester FC by the merger of Chester Rovers and Old King’s Scholars in 1885 and initially played their home games at Faulkner Street. After a few years of playing only friendly matches, they joined the Combination League in 1890. In 1898 the club moved to The Old Showground, but were forced to leave a year later when the ground was destroyed to make way for housing (leaving the club unable to regularly compete). In 1901, however, they moved to Whipcord Lane. Again their stay was only brief, as they moved out in 1906. Their new stadium on Sealand Road, called simply The Stadium became their first long-term home and provided them with their first league success, as they won the Combination League in 1909. In 1910, Chester moved to the Lancashire Combination League and stayed there until after World War I, when they became founder members of the Cheshire County League (which they won many times in the 1920s).

Moving Up

But in 1931, Chester achieved their goal of being elected to The Football League – then the best football league in all of England and Wales. They played in one of the two parallel lowest divisions of the League, the Third Division (North). When the two third divisions were unified into national third and fourth divisions in 1958, Chester found themselves in the lower Fourth Division. In 1975, the Club had one of it’s most successful seasons, reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup (beating League Champions Leeds United on the way) and achieved their first ever promotion to move up to the Third Division. However, after failing to consolidate their position in the Third Division they were eventually relegated back to the Fourth Division in 1982.

In 1983, they changed their name to Chester City FC and proceeded to return to the Third Division in 1986. In 1990, they moved out of their The Stadium and temporarily shared Macclesfield’s Moss Rose ground before moving to the brand new Deva Stadium (now the Saunders Honda Stadium) in 1992 (the stadium is notable for crossing the England-Wales border: while the pitch is in Wales, the main stand and offices are in England). The creation of the FA Premier League that same year meant that The Football League’s three remaining divisions were renamed and the Third Division became known as the Second Division.

Return Ticket

After just one year under the new division names and in their new home, they were relegated to the Third Division. Things got worse in 2000, when they finished bottom of the division (and the entire Football League) and were relegated to the Football Conference. Life in the Conference was hard and Chester were almost relegated to the regional Northern Premier League in 2002. However, they survived and steadily improved, especially after the arrival of manager Mark Wright in January 2002. In 2003, they finished fourth in the Conference, but failed to win the playoffs and therefore missed out on promotion.

They began the 2003-04 season as favourites to win the Football Conference. They were declared champions on 17 April after a 1-0 victory over Scarborough. As a result they gained promotion back to The Football League’s League Two (formerly the Third Division), following a four year absence.

Life In League 2

On August 8, 2004, Chester were left managerless after Mark Wright left the day before the new season began. Assistant manager Dave Moss (who only joined the club after the end of the last season in May) also left, along with the rest of the management team. Ray Mathias immediately became caretaker manager, but was soon replaced by ex-player Ian Rush, who in turn resigned on 5 April 2005 after his assistant manager was sacked without Rush being consulted. David Bell was made caretaker manager and managed to secure the side’s league survival for another year.

Keith Curle took over as manager late on in the 2004/05 season. Curle, former manager of Mansfield, assembled a team that performed beyond all expectations during the first half of 2005/06 campaign. Chester had begun the season as favorites to get relegated to the Football Conference but under Curle’s leadership they were rarely outside the top five for the first half of the season, and promotion to Football League One looked possible for Chester. However, following a surprise 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the F. A. Cup the team suddenly lost form and endured a disastrous run of results. Keith Curle’s contract was terminated on 18 February 2006, after the club suffered its 11th defeat in 12 games.

On Tuesday 21 February 2006 it was announced that Mark Wright had returned on a temporary contract. This appointment was highly unexpected, particularly due to the rumoured rift between Wright and Vaughan, which had led to the departure of Wright only days before the start of Chester’s return to the Football League in 2004. Wright’s second period in charge did not start well, and continuing poor results saw Chester slip to the bottom of the League. But in a remarkable turnaround, a late season run of 5 wins and 2 draws enabled the Club to escape relegation.