News from Deva Stadium May 2023

30 May 2023
JOEL TAYLOR RETURNS
Defender Joel Taylor has returned to Chester, signing a one year contract. The 27-year-old left back ended last season playing three matches for Wealdstone having been released by Notts County in March. Taylor first signed for Chester in May 2019 from Kidderminster Harriers and went on to make 45+3 appearances (including null and void games) before joining Chesterfield in December 2020.

• 2023/24 signings

27 May 2023
CHARLIE CATON SIGNS
Chester fans will be delighted to hear that the club have signed 20-year-old forward Charlie Caton on a two deal. Caton was recently released by Shrewsbury Town after spending much of last season on loan at Deva Stadium where he made 24+5 appearances in a Blues shirt, scoring 7 goals.

26 May 2023
RETAINED LIST
The club have issued their end of season retained list that sees several players leaving Deva Stadium. The following players all have contracts for the forthcoming 2023/14 season:

UNDER CONTRACT
Harrison Burke, Kieran Coates, Zack Clarke, Reece Daly, Lewis Earl, Liam Edwards, George Glendon, Kole Hall, Ollie Heywood, Iwan Murray, Kevin Roberts, Wyll Stanway, Adam Thomas, Declan Weeks, Matty Williams.

OFFERED CONTRACT NOT YET SIGNED
Alex Kenyon
Kurt Willoughby.

PLAYERS RELEASED
Alex Brown, Danny Devine, Anthony Dudley, Joe Lynch, Jamie Morgan, Darren Stephenson, Sam Turner.

Of the players released both Anthony Dudley and Jamie Morgan have joined former managers Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley at Radcliffe. After signing from Salford City, Dudley spent five seasons at Chester and made 126+44 appearances, scoring 35 goals he is second in the club’s highest appearance table behind Craig Mahon.

25 May 2023
DARREN DEPARTS
Striker Darren Stephenson has left Chester and signed for fellow National League North side Farsley Celtic. In his two season’s with the Blues Stephenson made 39+32 appearances, scoring 10 goals.

FOUR MORE SIGN UP
Chester have signed three more players from last season’s team for the up and coming season. Kevin Roberts, who has made 119+10 appearances, scoring 7 goals has signed on for a fifth season. Roberts also previously played of course for Chester City (105+10 appearances and 9 goals). Also signing new one year deal’s are striker Zack Clarke (1+4 appearances), defender Ollie Heywood (26+6 appearances, 1 goal), and winger Adam Thomas (16+19 appearances, 7 goals).

24 May 2023
TRIO SIGN NEW DEALS
Chester have announced that three of last season’s players have signed new one-year deals at Deva Stadium. Defender Kieran Coates who made 32+4 appearances last season has re-signed. Joining him is fellow defender Liam Edwards (25+4 appearances), and forward Kole Hall who made 22+10 appearances scoring 7 goals.

23 May 2023
PRE-SEASON
The Marine FC website lists a pre-season friendly with Chester at Rossett Park on Saturday 29 July, kick-off 15.00hrs.

22 May 2023
SEASON TICKETS
The deadline for reduced price ‘Early Bird’ season tickets has now passed with the club announcing they have already sold 1,500 season tickets for next season. The club are expected to announce their 2023/24 Boost The Budget campaign today with the target set at £100,000.

21 May 2023
END OF SEASON AWARDS
The club hosted their end of season awards night last Friday night at the Doubletree by Hilton Chester. Several awards were handed out with Declan Weeks being voted CFU Player of the Season, Matty Williams picked up the Away Travel Player of the Season award. The full list of winners on the night was as follows:

Women’s Development Player of the season – Kaitlyn Emery
Women’s Player of the season – Molly Wood
Academy Player of the season – Reece Daly
Chester FC Community Trust Community Award – Harrison Burke
Away Travel Player of the season – Matty Williams
Gary Talbot Golden Boot Award – Kurt Willoughby
Young Player of the season – Harry Tyrer
Player’s Player of the season – Declan Weeks
Club person of the Year – Nick Phillipson
Goal of the season – Kurt Willoughby (at Southport)
CFU Player of the season – Declan Weeks

15 May 2023
NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH
The Football Association has released the National League North line-up for season 2023/24 following the recent promotion’s and relegation’s. The teams are subject to FA Council ratification and any subsequent appeals.

Alfreton Town
Banbury United
Bishop’s Stortford
Blyth Spartans
Boston United
Brackley Town
Buxton
Chester
Chorley
Curzon Ashton
Darlington
Farsley Celtic
Gloucester City
Hereford
King’s Lynn Town
Peterborough Sports
Rushall Olympic
Scarborough Athletic
Scunthorpe United
South Shields
Southport
Spennymoor Town
Tamworth
Warrington Town

SEASON TICKETS
The club have announced that they’ve already sold a fantastic 1,000 season tickets in the first 15 days of sales. Supporters have until this Sunday to take advantage of Early Bird discount prices for next season, also allowing existing season ticket holders to renew their selected seat. Take advantage of the Early Bird offer to receive the following benefits:

• Up to seven matches free for adults
• Up to eight matches free for concessions
• 18-21’s pay only £3.04 per game on the Harry McNally Terrace
• Just £1.52 per match across the ground for 12-17’s

Full details of the season ticket options are available here.

13 May 2023
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
Chester have announced their first pre-season friendly for 2023/24 which will see them travel to play Hanley Town on Saturday 8 July, kick-off 15.00hrs. The two sides met in the FA Cup last season.

11 May 2023
NATIONAL LEAGUE AWARDS
Congratulations go to Calum McIntyre who has been named Vanarama National League North Manager of the Season for 2022/23. A well deserved honour for Calum who took a side that finished 16th last season to third place and a play-off semi final. Not to mention a club record away campaign that saw just one defeat and an unbeaten run of 21 matches away from the Deva. There was success in the FA Cup also which culminated in a narrow defeat to Oldham Athletic on penalties in the Fourth Round Qualifying following a draw at Oldham.

Picture © Rick Matthews

Three players were also named in the National North League Team of the Season. Goalkeeper Harry Tyrer, on loan from Everton, was an ever present and kept 21 clean sheets during the season pulling off a number of great saves throughout the campaign. In his third season with the club, midfielder Declan Weeks scored 8 goals in 44+1 appearances, and assisted for 14 goals. Striker ’King Kurt’ Willoughby was a summer signing and made 51+1 appearances for the Blues scoring a fantastic 27 goals.

The Vanarama National North League Team of the Season?
GK – Harry Tyrer (Chester)
RB – Aaron Jones (King’s Lynn Town)
LB – Danny Preston (Alfreton Town)
CB – Alex Whitmore (AFC Fylde)
CB – Josh Coulson (King’s Lynn Town)
CM – Michael Clunan (King’s Lynn Town)
CM – Declan Weeks (Chester)
CM – Nick Haughton (AFC Fylde)
CF – Kurt Willoughby (Chester)
CF – Glen Taylor (Spennymoor Town)
CF – Gold Omotayo (King’s Lynn Town)

ON THE BORDERLINE UPDATE PAGES
Club historian Chas Sumner has produced three more update pages to cover the 2022/23 season. These can be downloaded as PDF files from the update library here.

AWARDS NIGHT
The club have announced that the end of season Awards Night at the Doubletree by Hilton Chester on Friday 19 May has now sold out. The evening begins at 19.00hrs and up to eleven awards will be given out on hte night. CFU members can expect an email the week before asking them to cast their vote for their Player of the Season.

9 May 2023
HEARTBREAK AS BLUES LOSE SEMI
Chester’s dreams of a return to the National League were ended as they were beaten 1-0 by Brackley Town in their play-off semi final at Deva Stadium in front of a crowd of 4,479 on Sunday. There were few chances throughout the game, with only goal coming ten minutes from time through a long range effort from defender George Carline. Brackley will now host Kidderminster Harriers, who won their semi 4-1 at King’s Lynn Town, in the play-off final next Sunday.

The end of the game was marred by unforgivable crowd scenes as around 100 people crossed the pitch to attack Brackley supporters in their corner of the ground, with several people injured, before order was eventually restored by the police and stewards.

CLUB STATEMENT
Following on from the crowd trouble on Sunday, the club yesterday issued the following statement:

“Chester Football Club is appalled at the violence and criminal damage caused at the end of our National League North play-off semi-final with Brackley Town on Sunday.

We utterly condemn the actions of those responsible and apologise to Brackley Town and supporters of both clubs.

Our Club is ashamed to be associated with anyone involved in the crowd disorder and angry that the actions of a minority have completely overshadowed the occasion.

Such behaviour not only tarnishes our reputation, but also has a financial cost and places the football club at risk of fines, points deductions or playing behind closed doors. The impact is also felt by our staff, volunteers, and the players and management, who were prevented from returning to the pitch to thank our genuine fans for their support this season.

We have extensive CCTV footage which will be shared with the authorities and will work with Cheshire Police to ensure the perpetrators are identified and face the strongest action.

Anyone with any information should contact Cheshire Police on 101, or visit www.cheshire.police.uk/tell-us, quoting IML 1539302.”

4 May 2023
SEMI FINAL SOLD OUT
All 4,000 home tickets for Sunday’s play-off semi final against Brackley Town have sold out. The club are currently looking into being able to release more tickets for the match which will kick-off at Deva Stadium at 15.30hrs. Should the club be able to release more tickets then they will publish details on their website and via Twitter.

The Saints secured their trip to the Deva with a dramatic 5-3 penalty shoot-out win over Gloucester City last night after their eliminator match had ended 2-2 after extra time. The other semi final on Sunday will see King’s Lynn Town host Kidderminster Harriers (12.30hrs) after Harriers secured a 1-0 victory over Alfreton Town in their eliminator match on Tuesday night.

VOTE FOR YOUR GOAL OF THE SEASON
Voting is now open for Chester fans to select their Goal of the Season. There are ten goals to choose from, and you can view all the contenders on the official website here. Just pick your favourite (it's not easy!) and email your choice to media@chesterfc.com. The winning goal will be announced at the forthcoming end of season awards night.

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