Chester City

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The new club spent the first five years of its existence playing friendly matches before joining the Combination in 1890.

In 1898, Chester FC was forced to disband when their ground was sold for housing, but, in 1901, the club was reformed.

They joined the Lancashire League in 1920, and after the First World War became founder members of the Cheshire County League, winning the championship in 1922, 1926 and 1927, before being elected to Division Three (North) in 1931.

After a promising start to their league career, the club struggled and when the regional divisions were scrapped in 1958, they were placed in Division Four.

Their results at the lower level remained poor and they had to apply for re-election three times in succession between 1960 and 1963.

In 1975, the club achieved promotion for the first time in their history, and spent seven years in Division Three before relegation in 1982.

The following year Chester was granted city status, and the club marked the occasion by changing their name to Chester City.

In 1984 the club were forced to seek re-election for the seventh time, but just two years later they achieved promotion to Division Three.

They would remain until 1983 and in the interim moved to the new 6,000 capacity Deva Stadium.

In 1994, The Seals won promotion back to what was now Division Two (old Third Division), but they lasted only a single season.

Five years later, Chester narrowly avoided closure due to financial problems, and were bought by controversial American Terry Smith.

At the end of the 1999/2000 season, in which Smith appointed himself manager, the club finished bottom of Division Three and were relegated to the Conference.

In October 2001, with Chester struggling near the bottom of the Conference, Smith sold the club to Stephen Vaughan.

In 2004 Chester won the Conference championship and returned to the Football League.