Blues earn point at Luton in 0-0 draw

It's great to report tonight that Chester City are off the mark, and now sit on -24 points in the Blue Square Premier League table following their 0-0 draw at Luton Town, who before the game were joint leaders of the League.

City included defender Chris Lynch & midfielder Adam Kay in their line up after signing from Burnley yesterday.

The Blues almost snatched the lead when Nick Chadwick headed against the cross bar in the first half, but withstood pressure in the second half to take a point at Kenilworth Road.

Ben Wilkinson & Chris Lynch were both booked for the Blues, but other than that a good day for the City, which sees us get off the mark, hopefully we can now put in a strong performance next Saturday at home to Mansfield Town, who will include Chester legend, Daryl Clare.

Chester fans to show they care

Tonight at the Deva Stadium, Chester City fans are expected to show up in their numbers in a bid to show the national media that they want the FA to give Chester City the chance to play football.

Currently the club has not been granted affiliation to the FA, and time is desperately against the club now if they are to avoid being thrown out of the Conference, and even worse..folding.

Blues fans will be making their case heard tonight at the Deva in front of several media men that have been invited to the ground by a Chester City fan, who like others, is desperate to see her club given the all important go ahead from the FA, who are due to meet with the Football Conference tomorrow.

It's a big week for Blues fans, and some of which kicked off their protests last night at the Deva Stadium, in a bid to make their feelings about current owner Stephen Vaughan known.

Hopefully tonight, the media will take note of City's plight, and try to influence the FA to allow the Blues to take part in this season's Blue Square Premier League.

Now Gateshead game is off

The Football Association have now forced Chester City to cancel their game at home to Gateshead Town tomorrow night.

The Football Conference were also under orders to ensure that the game was postponed, as the FA have yet to grant the Blues affiliation to their organisation.

Earlier in the day, the Football Conference clubs had voted unanimously in favour of letting Chester City take part in the Blues Square Premier League, but this seems to have been just a flimsy exercise that the FA hoped one club would say "No" and the matter would be settled, Chester City would not be allowed in.

Thankfully not one BSP club wants to kill off Chester City, and the FA are beginning to come in for more criticism as they constantly refuse to say exactly what the stumbling blocks are.

So, the saga rumbles on again, and now Chester must wait until Thursday for the Conference & the FA to meet in what is scheduled to be the meeting to end the issue.

City's next game is at home to Cambridge on Saturday.

The club have issued a rather large statement, with Stephen Vaughan building himself up to be something he'snot - a hero. The statement is here.

Conference Clubs now vote on Chester's future

In the last few days, Chester City fans have seen their emotions literally go on a roller coaster ride, at the beginning of last week, the Club were relying on Solicitors & Refresh Recovery to get the Club's paperwork in order with the Football Association to get their licence to play football.

This was not achieved.

Then on Thursday, a deal was struck where Chester would accept a 25 point penalty to begin the season with. So football was the subject of fans talk once again, and who would be playing in the first game at Grays.

A deal was struck - or so we thought.

On Friday, it was then revealed that the FA had ordered the conference to postpone the game or face being in breach of the rules, and so the Conference bowed to the demands, and called off Chester's opener.

Over the weekend, we have now heard that the Conference have been asked by the FA to canvass each Blue Square Premier League club to see if they want Chester City to take part, and have demanded that anything but a unanimous vote will see the Blues kicked out of the BSP.

Early indications show that Chester have the support of the Conference clubs, and hopefully this will be confirmed by the Conference tomorrow morning, after the 10am deadline.

It also looks likely that the Gateshead match will be called off tomorrow, unless the FA seem happy to grant City with that much needed licence to play the game of football.

The saga continues into another week then.

The 40% were right then!

Following the poll that asked if Chester City would start the Blue Square Premier League season on August 8th, showed that 60% believed they would, with the other 40% saying they wouldn't.

Unfortunately it was the 40% who were correct in assuming that the Blues wouldn't make their second bow in the Conference on August 8th, thanks to the lack of ratification from the FA.

The season starts tomorrow at Grays

Now that Chester have finally been given permission to start the season in the Blue Square Premier League tomorrow at Grays, it's all eyes on the squad, to see what Chester can offer in their match against their opponents.

To be honest, there isn't a great deal of depth to the squad right now, but City are expected to include Michael Lea, the former Man Utd defender, who did well at Scunthorpe, and Tim Ryan, the former Doncaster Rovers defender who is the son of chairman John Ryan.

It looks as though the Blues will be without new Uruguayan signing Fabian Yantorno, and Gregg Blundell, who is back at Chester following his transfer from Darlington.

John Danby will start in goal for City, it was a major surprise to see Danby stay at the Deva following his excellent League performances, but it was a relief for Chester fans when he committed to a new deal at the club.

One signing that is expected to excite the fans is Lewis Alessandra, who has bagged two goals in his two pre-season games in a City shirt, so hopefully he can continue that kind of form, following the news today that he has signed on a month's loan from Oldham Athletic.

Hopefully City can get off to a winning start, and see themselves as -22 points come Saturday night!

Blues in 25 point deduction

It's now confirmed that Chester City will start next season with a 25 point deduction.

Sky Sports News first reported the details close to 6pm, and now the Football Conference have released a statement stating the same.

This enables the club to start the Blue Square Premier League season at Grays Athletic on Saturday.

Stay of Execution for City

Chester City have been given a 2 day stay of execution by the FA & Football Conference.

According to Stephen Vaughan, the club have submitted a new proposal as to how they will manage the financial commitments in the forthcoming season, however the licence has still not been granted whilst the FA cast their eyes over the proposal.

It's a body blow to us Blues who really want to see the lads in action on Saturday in the Blue Square Premier League, and another 2 days of worry are ahead, whilst we await the ratification or rejection from the footballing authorities.

I feel physically sick at the prospect of losing my club in the next 48 hours, so hope and pray that the decision is in favour of the Blues.