Recently by Chester City Exiles

AT an open meeting held on Monday in central London, Chester City Exiles agreed the following open letter to club owner Stephen Vaughan, other supporters and potential investors in the future of professional football in Chester:

Football is a passionate business. It is unique in the way it can unite people and bring pleasure. It is because it has the power to evoke such passion that it can also divide. It is not surprising that, as Chester City has undergone one of its worst ever seasons and has slumped to its lowest ever position since entry into the Football League in 1931, opinions are mixed about the way forward and spirits are low.

Chester City Exiles believe that at this time it is imperative to adopt a measured approach to the way forward.

WITH a temporary lull in the bizarre off-field activities at the club over the Christmas period, it's been nice to concentrate on just watching the football with the games coming thick and fast.

And in a reversal of fortune when compared with recent seasons, it has been successful football on Chester's part - or at least it was until yesterday's defeat at Macclesfield. The change in management appears to be paying dividends and, all of a sudden, the team looks highly motivated and competitive.

Watching a vibrant Bradford City side kept at bay in front of 12,000 of their own fans was refreshing, especially on the back of the early season capitulations at Dagenham and Rotherham.

It's important for Chester to produce some of their own players through youth development, so to see Kelly and Roberts prove themselves in this game (with a bit of help from Danby and Linwood!) was a joy to behold for the 200-odd in the away end.

The victory over Accrington Stanley was by no means a perfect performance, but it was a vast improvement on earlier in the season when you feel City would have contrived to draw or even lose the game.

Mark Wright insisted in his programme notes that he is already looking forward to next season. A few more wins and he will have the luxury of mid-table security, an achievement within touching distance now but which appeared a million miles away not long ago.

The win at Darlington was as welcome as it was surprising.

After a game against Aldershot where it appeared as though City could have played all day and night without scoring, an early Darlo goal seemed to signal inevitable defeat.

But for the 50 Chester fans who made the midweek trip to the North East, an unforeseen comeback was around the corner. It's probably too early too judge whether the new manager was truly behind this change in fortune. Could Chester have come from one down to lead, and then hold that lead for 40 minutes under Simon Davies?

Possibly, in a one off game. The upcoming fixtures against fellow strugglers Bournemouth, Notts County and Accrington will give a clearer picture of the extent to which Wright's formula, which brought mostly good results across his first two spells at the club, is being successfully implemented this time around.

Certainly in these games, Chester won't want to be conceding any last minute winners, as the Chester City darts team managed to do in losing 6-5 to Bolton this week. Just like the football team, the darts team have been eliminated from the cup and are now left to concentrate on the league for the rest of the season.

Travelling to Chester on the National Express from London to watch the Blues play Millwall was a new 'exile' experience for me.

In the build up to FA Cup First Round day, even being stuck at Birmingham coach station for half an hour on a Friday evening seemed worth it.

The hope of creating a cup shock in beating Millwall's highly rated young side was always there, especially given City's two home victories over London clubs already this season.

Sadly, reality bit during the game itself. Despite unquestionable effort from the side, City never looked to be a threat and the collapse after the opening goal was alarming.

Davies' ineptitude as a manager was there for all to see, apparently deliberating over a substitution for over ten minutes, and finally making it when it was far too late.

Four victories in thirty-one games as Chester manager tells its own story. Such a record was also entirely predictable from a man woefully inequipped to manage a football league side.

These stats look good when compared with my own personal record of watching Chester this calendar year - 13 games attended, 0 wins seen.

It may be good for 'The Chief' Wayne Allison that I won't be in the crowd for Morecambe on Saturday.

I CANNOT believe it is 11 years since I last visited Exeter.

Back in the 1996/97 season, we witnessed one of the most memorable matches in our history, beating Exeter 5-1 after going a goal down before half time.

My wax jacket was never the same again after the torrential rain throughout the match, but when you win 5-1 away, who really cares?

So it was with these fond memories I agreed to meet up with other Exiles, travelling Chester City supporters and family for a B&B weekend in the Devon town in the hope that history may repeat itself.

The writing was on the wall, of course, after Exeter received a very uncharacteristic 6-1 drubbing by Chesterfield at home on the previous Tuesday, the same night Chester also caused some raised eyebrows by the 3-0 "thrashing" (quote Setanta Sports News) of high flying Brentford. Something had to give and as past experience tells us that is usually Chester - and it was!

On cue, the rains came again as we huddled together in what seemed like no more than a 10ft wide visitors' terrace behind the goal, hoping that any shot would be on target for fear of being knocked unconscious, if not. Things didn't look good when the teams changed ends after the toss which meant that the Blues were shooting towards us in the first half. You know it is going to be a long match when this happens, and it was. In truth, Chester matched Exeter reasonably well for most of the game except for the all important lapses of concentration which led to Exeter's two goals. They didn't really deserve the three points but I suppose Chester didn't really deserve to win either.

More of concern was that John Danby was obviously carrying an injury and in pain for the whole of the match. While it may not make economic sense to be paying an experienced goal keeper when you don't have a reserve team to play him in, surely it is playing Russian Roulette every match without one?

I know it is hard running a club like Chester on a shoestring and in a football rich area such as the north west but I do wonder if we have things right at Chester? Should we be concentrating and trying to attract investment into building a decent team to get the success that will bring the crowds back (I am seriously worried at the steep decline in our support and the loss of our future generation of fans)?

Still it is easy to judge from a distance and maybe, just maybe, this could be our year in the FA Cup. Exeter City seemed to have done well out of their Cup exploits against Manchester United, judging by their very fine stand at the home end.

So bring on the Lions - perhaps this will be OUR YEAR!

Sorry, but the Exiles failed to get revenge on Gillingham for last Saturday's 2-0 home victory at the Priestfield Stadium.

The venue for the latest Gills v Chester clash was the oche of the City Retreat pub in the City of London and it was our opening Exiles darts game of the season. Gillingham were the obvious favourites, after being relegated from Division Two last season and having chalked up a 10-1 result in their first match of the 2008-9 campaign.

The Exiles darters went on to mirror the performance of the City team at Priestfield, with a scoreline that belied their workrate. The result of the match was 9-2 - but it was a score that flattered the Gills.

Actually, although we did our best to concentrate on our arrows, some of us were paying way too much attention to our mobile phones as our darts tie coincided with the Chester v Brentford match.

So the night was not without some cheer for the Exiles - especially as we heard Gillingham were losing 2-0 to Lincoln by the time we were celebrating Ryan Lowe's first goal.

I don't know if it was this news that gave the Gills darts players the inspiration they needed to secure their win. But by the time we heard Chester were 3-0 up and (hallelujah!) Wrexham were out of the FA Cup, our darts game was already lost.

As we looked out on the snow that was sticking on the central London streets for the first October day in 74 years we started planning our Exiles outing to Exeter on Saturday. It's funny how one result can suddenly make people feel like embarking on 400-mile round trips. Count me in!

"I never felt more like singing the Blues, when Chester win, and Wrexham lose" was always one of my favourite terrace chants and occasionally I make a point of cheering on the team playing our cross-border rivals.

It's not that I'm an obsessive anti-Wrexham fan, but as I'm usually nearly three hours away from Chester, I keep an eye-out for Wrexham fixtures on my doorstep when City games are a journey too far.

Last Saturday was one of those days, when I went to the New Lawn to give my support to Forest Green Rovers against Wrexham, while listening out for bleeps from my phone to indicate a goal at the Deva Stadium.

I was actually at the last meeting between Forest Green and Wrexham - back in 1991 when they were many leagues apart and they met each other in the Welsh Cup. With Wrexham then featuring the like of Chris Armstrong and easily beating their Southern League opponents (then called Stroud FC), I'd never have believed that the two teams would meet each other at the same level nearly 20 years later.

This time, FGR deserved a draw and despite being ahead twice in the game, somehow succumbed to a last minute Wrexham winner. While the BSP teams battled it out in the driving rain, my bleeping phone was not bringing me pleasant news.

Somehow a Chester side that remained unbeaten in September and put in a storming performance at Luton, were overwhelmed 2-0 by Lincoln City. So it was not a good day all round to be a Chester fan and I rather had my nose rubbed in it when I had to put up with watching jubilant Wrexham fans mark an away win.

My next Chester match is set to be a trip to Gillingham, when perhaps I will be able to celebrate a win away from home. It's something I've not witnessed since Macclesfield Town, more than a year ago, so surely it's my turn now?

APOLOGIES from the Exiles that our part of the Deva Fever blog dried up for a few weeks - the shock of witnessing the 6-0 drubbing at Dagenham and Redbridge has taken a lot of getting over.

But Sunday's thrilling high noon encounter against our Shropshire rivals has inspired us again, especially with Saturday's visit to Luton's Kenilworth Road to look forward to.

The contrast between the performances against Dagenham and Shrewsbury couldn't have been greater and I'm sure the arrival of "The Chief" must have something to do with it. His bellows from the touchline certainly can't be ignored and his obvious will to win must have rubbed off on the players.

Sunday's game also reminded me of the fun of being a League Two follower. Where else would the opposition subs have a 'friendly' banter with the home fans after wrongly chucking the ball back in play?

There was also the moment when the matchday announcer told away fans they had free bus back to the station, only for a home fan to quip loudly: "Can I have a lift as well?". And I had the personal thrill of having my photo taken with goal scorer Paul McManus when I bumped into him in the shop. Yes, the League Two matchday experience is one that can't be rivalled by the higher divisions.

So, let's hope for an equally fun day out at Luton. The Exiles will be certainly out in force and are confident of a better footballing display than we saw at Daggers.

I'm sure Simon Davies, returning to a ground where he had relatively poor fortunes as a footballer, will be up for a battle. Who knows, Chester could finish up being unbeaten in September? Come on you Blues!

MY name is Stan, and I am a Chester City supporter.

I use as often as I can although I am thankful that I live 200 miles from the supply. I would like to think that I am a recovering Chester City supporter but like all addicts I know in my heart of hearts I am deluding myself. I just have to take it a day at a time.

Yes, it has damaged my work and personal life and friends and family have been affected too. There are a few highs, but far, far more lows. Often when people try to get me to talk about it I can be resentful and aggressive.

It sounds shocking, but I was introduced to the addiction by my father - and talking to fellow sufferers this is quite common. It started slowly - initially just by limited exposure to The Chester Chronicle that was delivered each week - sent by a 'so-called friend', under plain wrapper, down to us in London. In those days this was the only way of getting tempting sense of the hard stuff - match reports, team news and speculation about the latest imminent new wonder signing.

There is a wonderful organisation that I would recommend to any fellow addicts out there - the Chester City Exiles meet regularly for self help and mutual support. It makes it much easier to know that you are not the only one.

It is sometimes said that almost everyone can remember where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot, or the death of Diana, or that Barry Butler had been converted into a free-scoring emergency centre forward.

Cestrians all over the world can now add the events of Thursday June 12, 2008 to that list of epoch-defining moments. At 9.50pm, Robert Evans threw - inevitably - a double one to ensure a fifth consecutive victory for the Chester City Exiles darts team and to guarantee a third place league finish.

It is difficult to explain events in the APFSCIL 6-a-side darts League Division Three since Christmas, other than to say it was the greatest comeback since Andy Milner decided that defeat against Wrexham was no way to celebrate St Valentine's Day.

In short, the Exiles' abysmal league form - we hadn't won a game for almost two seasons - was transformed. Our rise up the table was almost as dramatic as Bobby Williamson's slump. Nobody had seen anything like it before. We began to approach matches with unusual feelings of optimism.

Thursday's 7-4 away win against Southampton was thus no real surprise, coming hot on the heels of identical scorelines against Exeter (A); Bolton (H) and (A) as well as a 6-5 win in the home fixture against the Saints.

On reflection the reasons for our amazing success since Christmas included finding ourselves with a full complement of six players most weeks. For the last match, we were even able to make some substitutions leaving some of our thirstier players out for the last games of the evening.

All the team also finally found their finishing form, including a memorable 180 throw by Steve Catherall. Most of all, the Exiles squad has stood together and stared into the abyss - 11-0 defeats, winning the beer leg only to find the bar has closed, having to drink Caffrey's at £3.50 a pint - on more occasions than any of us would care to admit. Has triumph finally started to come from such adversity?

We are planning to arrange some friendly matches over the summer to keep our form going, including a glamour tie at the Palace of Westminster (assuming we can get our darts through security).

It only remains to thank Manager and Chairman Rick Goby for his time and effort in arranging the bookings, fixtures and teams so successfully. We all know the best way to show our appreciation - just get it pulled into one of those glasses with a handle.