Chester City FC

Chester City FC was a football club formed in 1885, originally as Chester FC. The club eventually folded in 2010 after a very eventful history of successful cup runs and atrocious ownership in their latter years.

Chester’s first competitive football came in 1890 as founder members of The Combination. The club lifted the Welsh Cup in 1908 and the league title the season after, before joining the Lancashire Combination in 1910. They remained there until the outbreak of World War One, but once peace was retained they became founder members of the Cheshire League.

After being crowned as champions three times as well as also finishing runners up on one occasion, ‘The Seals’ to use one of their nicknames were invited to join the Football League Division Three North for the 1931-32 season. They celebrated by winning their second Welsh Cup the season after.

After World War Two a third Welsh Cup was lifted in 1946-47, but there was nothing outstanding of note in league performances. Indeed, Chester were placed in Division Four following League restructuring in 1958. The 1964-65 and 1970-71 seasons saw narrow misses for promotion, but their moment in the headlines was just around the corner.

The 1974-75 season saw Chester go all the way to the semi final of the League Cup after Walsall, Blackpool, Preston North End, Leeds United and Newcastle United were all defeated. Aston Villa were held 2-2 at Sealand Road in the first leg of the semi final, before Villa won the second leg 3-2. Consolation came by the way of promotion to Division Three.

The cup competitions obviously suited ‘The Blues’ as 1976-77 saw them reach the fifth round of the FA Cup, where Wolverhampton Wanderers went through by a solitary goal at Molineux. In 1979-80 under the stewardship of former Manchester City star Alan Oakes, Chester reached the same stage once more. This time Ipswich Town ended their run at Portman Road. Starlet striker Ian Rush scored goals for the club around this period.

In 1982 Chester found themselves in the League basement once more, changing their name to Chester City the following year. Astute manager Harry McNally along with the goals of Stuart Rimmer sent City back to Division Three at the culmination of the 1985-86 season. On a limited budget McNally nearly led the side to the play offs, but hard times were about to hit the club.

An Edinburgh based consortium took over the financially troubled club and announced that they would be selling Sealand Road for retail development at the end of the 1989-90 campaign. A groundshare was arranged at Moss Rose Macclesfield until a new stadium was built in the city.

Graham Barrow performed wonders keeping his side up in the renamed Division Two, before the club returned to Chester into their new Deva Stadium home in August 1992. Unfortunately, the move home also resulted in relegation, although the team went straight back up at the first attempt.

In 1995 City once again found themselves in Division Three. They reached the play offs in 1996-97, but Swansea City defeated them in the semi finals. Mark Guteman was the owner around this time, as the club entered into Administration in October 1998 as Kevin Ratcliffe tried to steady things on the pitch.

American Terry Smith bought the club in July 1999, with many unconventional ideas from his time in American Football. Ratcliffe resigned, so Smith made himself boss. After a woeful start in his role Ian Atkins was appointed to oversee team affairs. However, the team were relegated from the League at the end of the season down to the Conference.

In the summer of 2001 Gordon Hill became the new manager in an unpopular move as City were close to going out of business as the loyal fans despaired. They rejoiced in September 2011 as the club were sold to a new owner, but how little they knew what was to come.

Stephen Vaughan, a boxing promoter from Liverpool who had once owned Barrow FC and taken them to the brink of closure bought the club and appointed former England centre back Mark Wright as manager. In 2002-03 City missed out on a return to the Football league as Doncaster Rovers denied them after a penalty shoot out in the Play Off Final.

The following season saw Chester City win the Conference and return to the League, but Wright resigned before the start of the next campaign. Ian Rush took over, but his spell only lasted until April 2005, when Keith Curle took over. Curle’s spell ended when Wright returned for a second spell at the helm. In April 2007 Bobby Williamson became the latest boss to enter through what must have felt like a revolving door.

Williamson lasted eleven months. During his spell, Vaughan arranged for a minutes silence to be held before a game for a man who had been murdered and had links to criminal activity in Liverpool, The Scots manager was replaced by coach Simon Davies and then Wright, who was taking his third bight of the cherry. This time Wright’s spell ended in disaster as City were relegated back to the Conference in May 2009. By now the supporters were more than a little upset with the goings on at the Deva Stadium, which included news of Vaughan appearing in court on fraud and deception charges.

This was exacerbated in the summer of 2009 when Vaughan put the club into Administration with staggering debts of £7 million, which included £5.5 million owed to Vaughan’s investments. By then the clubs shares had been transferred to Stephen Vaughan Junior, the ex owners son and a player at the club.

The Conference imposed a ten point penalty on City, which was soon increased to twenty five after further financial irregularities came to light. Mick Wadsworth was appointed as team manager. Creditors agreed to a package put forward by the Vaughan family. It was thought that new owners had been found in early 2009, but the deal fell through.

A new buyer was found in May 2009, when the Vaughan family formed a new company to buy out City. The FA initially blocked the deal, which put the Conference in a very awkward position. Eventually City started their season after everyone else. After a poor start Wadsworth was replaced by Jim Harvey.

Dwindling attendances and pitch protests led to a cutting of the squad after Harvey had made an initial promising start. Harvey was dismissed in January 2010 to be replaced by the new Director of Football; Morrell Maison. A gate of just 518 saw City go out of the FA Trophy to Fleetwood Town. The final game was a 2-1 home defeat to Ebbsfleet United.

The team were scheduled to play away to Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday 9th February. There was confusion whether the coach company or the players refused to go to the game. Neither had been paid, and the fixture was not fulfilled. The Conference initially suspended them to offer an opportunity for the owners to answer the offences that were gathering and to sort out the finances.

City were expelled following a general meeting of all member clubs on the 26th February 2010. The club were wound up in court on the 10th March 2010.

Fortunately for football fans in the city, the supporters group City Fans United formed a new Chester FC and convinced the local council that they should be given use of the Deva Stadium for the 2010-11 season to compete in the Northern Premier League Division One North

My visits

Chester City 0 Walsall 0 (Saturday 1st November 1986) Division Three (att: 2,872)

My visit to Sealand Road came courtesy of my Cardiff City supporting mate Gary Griffiths. We had been to Halifax Town v Cardiff they previous evening and had spent the evening in Levenshulme in Manchester at some former student friends of his. An enjoyable ride to Deeside via Stockport and then Northwich ensued before we parked up near to the ground by the greyhound stadium, which was awaiting demolition.

It is fair to say that they ground was no thing of beauty. The Main Stand towered over the ground with its raised seating deck and large wall in front. A large detached area of flat standing stood in front of it, which is where the old wooden stand once stood. 

We were in the Sealand End behind the goal, which was a smallish sized covered terracing with a low roof. The Popular Side was to our right. It was not dissimilar to where we were stood. Finally the scruffy looking open Spion Kop at the far end contained the visitors from the Black Country.

We’d taken a poor option in hindsight as the view wasn’t the best, but transfers weren’t allowed once we’d entered the ground. The match in the third tier wasn’t too action packed from memory, but a young David Kelly stood out for Walsall.

Chester City 4 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 12th March 1994) Division Three (att: 2,822)

 It was in the good old days of mini bus travel as I got on board with Bunner and the older boys before my role of organiser. Scarborough weren’t a fantastic team at the time even though Steve Wicks had then turning on the style at times, but City were destined for promotion.

We stopped for beers in a pub dominated by older blokes watching racing on TV who only allowed the juke box a bit louder between races. As ever we cut it fine as the alcohol seemed more appealing than the match. We eventually made our way through the Saturday traffic and down Bumpers Lane to the ground at bang on kick off time.

It turned out to be a bit of a waste of time rushing as it transpired. Boro were blown away by a very competent Chester outfit. Deva Stadium was neat enough but lacking atmosphere with its open corners and small stands. All were covered. Each end had terracing, the Main Stand was to our right, with the smaller West Stand opposite.

An unusual feature of the Deva Stadium was that the pitch was actually in Wales, but the Main Stand in England. We had fun reminding the home fans of that. References to Subbuteo stadiums were also made.

The highlight of the ninety minutes, apart from Jason White's consolation goal, came when a Seadog must have been pushed to the limit by some gobby kids and Boro’s hapless showing. He piled into them and started brawling before walking round the pitch with a steward to await ejection.

As was the norm, the match was only a by product of a day with a mini bus crew. We went first to Pontefract for a couple of beers and food, before heading to the former mining town of Normanton. It really was in a sorry state, but the locals were always welcoming to us, hence it becoming a bit of a regular stop.

We got home, tired, weary and ready for bed just after midnight.

The images of Sealand Road on this page have been taken from the internet, as has the photo of the outside of the Deva Stadium. The photos inside are courtesy of Dave 'Bunner' Hunter, taken on a visit in the away end with Scarborough.