The Trust made it one of their objectives at recent Special and Annual General Meetings and, strangely enough, it's the fans' great disappointment and sense of loss following relegation out of the league which looks like making it happen!

This alone was the bright spark of the entire campaign and was the one thing that gave me hope that the club was moving into an era of stability on the field with a squad of players that included a significant number of home-grown talent.

However, the last first few games have left a number of questions in my mind, not least the question of what has happened to those young players that broke into the team last season?

The most puzzling thing that I still can't get my head round, is why Kevin Roberts, a midfield star in the making that attracted the attention of clubs at a higher level, has only made one appearance so far this season - and that at centre half! Given Chester's obvious inability to create goal-scoring opportunities to date this season and the fact the team is shipping goals at a rate of knots at the back, the omission of Roberts is even stranger to work out.

As runner-up in the Chester City Supporters' Trust player of the season (narrowly pipped by Paul Linwood), Roberts was tipped by many as having a big future in the game, albeit that in the long run this will sadly take him away from Chester City. For me it is madness to ignore a lad whose talent is not in question and could be the quick fix that is needed to stabilise our season before we go into a tailspin.

Of the youngsters who broke into the first team last year, Roberts has been the one that has truly impressed and I was looking forward to seeing him build on the reputation he forged in that midfield role last season.

The games against Dagenham and Leeds were extremely poor performances as in both cases the defence was exposed, while the midfield, Mozika being the exception, looked totally dazed as the opposition over ran them time and time again. Clearly there are issues to be resolved and with the transfer window and salary cap to contend with it is going to a difficult job for Simon Davies to turn it around.

The manager says he will search high and low to find a solution but is this a case of not seeing the wood for the trees? The answer maybe right in front of his face - Kevin Roberts.

At a time when money seems to be the be-all and end-all at the top end of football, the long-term future of the majority of Football League clubs, particularly those in Leagues One and Two, may depend on their ability to find and develop their own conveyor belt of talent.

Crewe Alexandra, over the years, has been a magnificent example of how a club can build and maintain its status using players they have nurtured through their youth development programme. At Chester City, the players that have made the breakthrough to the first team in what has been season of ups and downs will undoubtedly have learnt an awful lot about the harsh realities of life in League Two.

Going forward, this education will stand them and Chester City Football Club in good stead. The development programme at Chester City has continued to thrive under the stewardship of, firstly, Jim Hackett and now Simon Davies. With the youth team performing well in the FA Youth Cup in the past two seasons, there is a hope that there will be further names next season to add to those already mentioned when the team sheets are handed in.