Ex-Liverpool star Ian Rush mourns the closure of Chester City

Ian Rush was in mourning for Chester City last night after the nursery club who primed him for greatness was wound up in the High Court.

As fans defiantly pledged to rebuild the club, Liverpool legend Rush - still Chester’s costliest export 30 years after he moved to the Kop for £300,000 - was a helpless bystander as 126 years of history was extinguished without a fight.

After Bob Paisley made him British football’s most expensive teenager in 1980, Rush went on to score 346 goals for the Mersey giants and would later return to Chester as manager.

But owing £26,125 in unpaid taxes, it took barely 30 minutes for the club to be wound up yesterday, and before the axe fell Rush said: “I feel very sorry for the way things have gone because Chester is a club with great tradition and we would all love to see them back in the League once more.”

Chester’s fate had already been sealed when they were kicked out of the Conference on February 26 after the players’ wages were unpaid and they went on strike by refusing to board the team coach to an away game at Forest Green.

Now supporters group Chester City Fans United, who have the backing of the local council, will apply to the Football Association for a licence to launch a ’phoenix’ club in the Unibond League next season.

Former owner Stephen Vaughan is believed to have applied to join the Welsh League, in a last-ditch bid to maintain control of the club, but his position had become untenable following a fans’ boycott which slashed attendances to an all-time low.

Chief executive Bob Gray hopes the group can ensure Chester continues to be represented by a club - but admitted the boycott of matches was among “a multitude" of factors contributing to the club’s demise.

Gray said: “Poor performances on the pitch when we needed to win games would possibly have turned the corner for us, the boycott never helped - when you’re staging a football game and you’re losing money and can’t afford to pay the players, it’s difficult.

“It’s a very difficult dividing line to find between being successful and unsuccessful, and unfortunately we have gone down the unsuccessful route.

“I’m upset for the guys that work here, they’re a loyal staff and, unfortunately, I now have to go and tell them the situation that we’re in and that will be upsetting.

“But I think the football club can come back. If the CFU want to form a phoenix club, AFC Chester, and a football club continues to play here at the Deva, that’s all the staff at this football club ever wanted.”

Significantly, an FA spokesperson said last night: “The FA notes today’s decision of the High Court in relation to Chester City. The winding up of any club is a loss to the game and in particular to the supporters of that club.

“In order to maintain a senior football club in the city of Chester, the FA will welcome applications if the club wishes to reform. Any such applications will be considered by the FA’s Leagues Committee.”

City Fans United spokesman Jeff Banks said: “We understand that was a last-ditch effort by our former owner Stephen Vaughan to keep hold of the club, but we would have had to start at the very bottom.

“And it would have been rejected out of hand in any case by our local council, who say we are an English club and should be playing in an English league.

“We’ve already had several meetings with Cheshire West & Chester Council, which have been very positive. We’ve shown them a business plan, they’ve been extremely helpful and we hope we might be allowed to start again at Unibond level.”

The CFU had already withdrawn their support, having organised a boycott of home games in protest at the way the club had been run by the owners, the Vaughan family.

A paltry 425 fans, the lowest league attendance in the club’s history, turned up for the Salisbury game on 19 January.

And, for what proved to be Chester City’s last-ever game at the Deva Stadium in their then existing form on February 6, there were only 460 on to see a 2-1 home defeat by Ebbsfleet.

With so little money coming in at the turnstiles, the club being denied discretionary parachute payments by the Football League and their overall reported debts understood to run to close to £200,000, the Chester players went unpaid.

And after two previous threats of strike action, the players opted not to board the team bus to Forest Green on February 9, effectively triggering the beginning of the end for City.

Former Chester managing director Rob Gray, who has stayed on at the club in an unpaid capacity over the last two months, said: “It’s a sad day for the club. And a very emotional one.”