New Chairman, New Manager, New Players, New Kit, New Start!! After years of misery and frustration, relegation and financial trouble Chester City Football Club are back on track and will be realistic contenders for the Conference title this season and a return to the Football league.

With all the other Changes at the club put to one side, what really has been evident at the Deva Stadium this season (and indeed near the end of last season) is the re-born spirit at the club. The spitet we had in the glory days of the mid 90’s when we were promoted to division 2.

Things really are looking up for us under the guidance of Steven Vaughan and Mark Wright. In the final third of last season’s campaign we looked strong and never looked like being defeated by anyone. The squad looked well organised and gelled together. 13 signing’s, the departure of Gary Brabin, red shirts, and a lot of speculation later, Chester are in 2nd place and are yet to lose a game in their promotion pushing season.

In the pre season Mark Wright released a number of player’s including Scott Ruscoe, Brian McGorry and fans favourite Dean Spink (couldn’t resist). No less than 13 players were brought in to strengthen the squad. The main talking point for fans was the discussion over Gary Brabin. Will he or wont he sign a new contract?. Gary now plays in the League of Wales for Total Network Solutions along side ex City team mate Scott Ruscoe.

Below is the list of all Mark Wright’s summer signings…..

Goalkeeper - John Worsnop

Defenders - Wayne Hatswell, Scott Guyett, Steve Harkness

Midfielders - Kevin McIntyre, Jimmy Kelly, Michael Brown, Steve Brodie, Ben Davies

Strikers – Dave Cameron, Ryan Sugden, Micheal Twiss

Chester had a fairly successful pre season friendly campaign. City’s statistics were…..

Played 9, Won 4, Drew 2, Lost 3, Scored 22, Against 9

When the start of the new Conference season finally came, Chester faced new boys Kettering Town at the Deva Stadium. The game was a scrappy affair and ended in a 0-0 draw with the visitors content with sitting back and taking a point back to Kettering.

Our first away fixture was a trip to Telford and a visit to a stadium which will be division 2 quality when finished. City were much more attack minded and even with the dismissal of Dave Cameron midway through the first half, Chester went on to record their first victory of the season thanks to a Ryan Sugden goal and man of the match Michael Twiss.

Next up was The Blues first visit to London for a tie against highly rated Barnet. City dominated the game, squandering a host of chances in the first half. Early in the second Barnet went down to 10 men and the game opened up. Sugden, Twiss and Beesley all netted in a 3-0 win for the Seals.

Chester wanted to get the opening days home draw out of their minds when Scarborough came to town. It wasn’t to be as Scarborough like Kettering Town sat back and made it difficult for City to break them down. The game resulted in another home scoreless draw.

Forest Green Rovers were Chester’s 5th opponents of the season and were brushed aside as Mark Beesley scored a twice to lift city up to third in the Nationwide Conference and give Forest Green boss Nigel Spink the sack.

City needed 2 wins from their next two home ties to lift themselves to the top of the Conference for 19 hours at least. The first came last Tuesday night as Chester beat a negative Morecambe side who equalised minutes after Michael Twiss put City ahead and notched up our first home goal of the season. The blues refused to accept a point and Ryan Sugden got on the end of a Micky Brown cross.

Next was Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute. The extremely long named club took the lead in the first half when Wayne Brown and Scott Guyett got in each others way and Guyett unluckily put the ball in his own goal. Chester were much more creative in the second half and pressured Leigh. Micky Brown was very impressive and his cross was met by Sugden who converted his 4th of the season and put city level. With plenty of time remaining Chester continued to push forward and were awarded a penalty when Carden was brought down. Bessley saw his penalty saved but made up for it by converting the winner with 4 minutes remaining.

The attendances at the Deva are yet to be lower than 2,000 at the Deva and it should increase if they continue to perform at this level.

A review of all Mark Wright’s signings will be online soon.

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