Chester have already done the double over Macclesfield in the National League North this season. If they want to set up a play-off semi-final on Saturday, they’ll need to do the treble.

A 0-0 draw at home to King’s Lynn Town on Saturday was enough for the Blues to take seventh spot in the division, and set up a trip this evening (7.45pm kick off) to Moss Rose to take on the Silkmen, who had the benefit of knowing where they would finish in the division before the final day.

Managed by former Chester player John Rooney, Macclesfield were defeated 1-0 at Radcliffe on the final day, but it was a game where the Silkmen chose to rest some bodies ahead of an eliminator test where they didn’t know the opponent until the very last kick of the season.

For Chester, 2-0 winners at home to Macclesfield in December, and 2-0 winners away at Moss Rose on Easter Bank Holiday Monday, where goals from Dylan Mottley-Henry and Jack Bainbridge sealed the three points, they have been able to get the best of the opposition this evening.

But these are the play-offs. There is the notion that form goes out of the window, although one could challenge that idea by looking at the teams who have won promotion over the past seven years from the National League North, where those who have finished the season the strongest have historically done well and gone all the way.

In terms of the form guide, over the past 10 games of interim manager Connell Rawlinson’s tenure, the Blues have the second best form, a record of seven wins, two draws and a defeat, with a points haul of 23. Only Buxton, winners in their eliminator at home to Scarborough Athletic on Tuesday evening, have done better, with 25 points accumulated.

Macclesfield have a record of six wins and four defeats over the same period. Quite which Silkmen side turns up has been something of an unknown, but Rooney, who made 128 appearances in all competitions for Chester before committing the sin of leaving to join Wrexham, is in the camp of form meaning little.

Speaking to Silkmen TV, Rooney said: “I can’t wait, it’s a massive game, we’ve had quite a few big games this season but as we’ve touched on, your next game is your biggest one and it’s a game I’m really looking forward to.

“I think it’s going to be an unbelievable atmosphere again. It’s one the players are looking forward to as well.

“But we’re fully prepared, you know what it’s going to take to get the job done, so another game we’re really looking forward to.

“For the playoffs we was (sic) always in a sticky situation where we knew where we’d finish in the league table and then you’ve got players who were on a certain amount of yellow cards and if we got another one we’d lose them for the playoffs so we’d have to look after that, and then you’re into players not wanting to get injured and all that.

“I think it’s a game we’re massively looking forward to and I’m sure Chester are as

well, so yeah form I think once you go into the playoffs your form can go out the window.

While he may have been able to get the better of Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace in the FA Cup earlier this season, getting one over Chester has proven to be a more challenging nut to crack.

The Blues defeated Macclesfield on a chilly December evening at the Deva Stadium just before the Silkmen went on to record one of the most famous giant killings in FA Cup history.

The 2-0 win at Moss Rose earlier this month was a thoroughly professional affair, where the Blues dug deep to see out the game in front of a vocal away support.

Said Rooney: “I think we played Chester just before we won on our run after Christmas and you know we wasn’t at the races then and you know we’ve played them a couple weeks ago here as well.

“I didn’t think we was at the races and thought it was probably a game of two halves we thought we were probably the better team second half I think they was the better team first half and this one we lost the game there was no excuses after the game I think they probably did deserve the win but listen tomorrow’s a total different game that’ll give our lads that little bit more to go on to go and put them performances right.”

Chester are without Jack Bainbridge for the trip to Moss Rose this evening, while Hayden Carson is highly doubtful after coming off injured in the first half of the King’s Lynn Town draw at the weekend. Connor Woods could come in at right wing back.

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At 28, having been in the professional game for 12 years, and having played for 15 different clubs, Dylan Mottley-Henry knows that nothing is a given in football.

Having arrived at Chester in October of 2024, the former Bradford City, Barnsley and Tranmere Rovers man has seen his role change, from being a bit-part wide player, loaned out to FC United of Manchester in the division below in January of 2025, to becoming the Blues’ most potent attacking weapon up front this season, Mottley-Henry has had to adapt.

Training to be an electrician alongside his football, Mottley-Henry is acutely aware that while playing the best football of his career, where he is enjoying the longest run in a first-team, netting 12 goals from 43 National League North games this season, 31 of those from the start, he is a player out of contract in the summer, where a new incumbent of the Deva Stadium managerial hotseat will be making the decisions on who stays and who goes.

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If ever there was need for a visible sign of just how much this run to the play-offs means to Chester players, it was midway through the first half on Saturday.

Hayden Carson has become a hugely important player for interim boss Connell Rawlinson down the stretch of this National League North campaign, and while he has had to have a hip flexor issue managed by the Blues and his parent club Salford City, requiring him to be withdrawn in recent games at the break, such is the level of his impact, it is a condition that Chester have been willing to meet.

Carson, 20, who returned to the Deva Stadium for a second loan stint in March, has been working his way back to full fitness, but still able to make a more than positive impact for the Blues despite the game management being required.

On Saturday, 20 minutes into the final game of the regular season at home to King’s Lynn Town, where a 0-0 draw proved to be enough for the Blues to secure seventh and a place in the play-offs, with an eliminator game away at Macclesfield on Wednesday, Carson was replaced by Connor Woods after being clattered by a heavy challenge some minutes earlier.

His distress was clear. Hiding his face under his blue and white shirt as he limped off, Carson was embraced by Rawlinson and assistant Colin Woodthorpe, but his upset was visible, and he made his way down the tunnel.

Carson is a player who wants to play, and in high-stakes games like Saturday’s, being forced to withdraw early, something that could potentially alter the trajectory of the game, can be a bitter pill to swallow.

“I think he was more visibly distressed because he wanted to play,” explained Rawlinson to The Seal post match.

“It was quite an early substitution, so he was disappointed he couldn’t continue. We’ll assess the damage, whether it’s major or minor, but Hayden Carson has run through brick walls for me since he came back in. I’ve got nothing but praise for him.”

Like a number of his teammates, Carson is a temporary addition to the Blues squad.

Tom Davies, Michael Kelly, Phil Croker and Fin Roberts are all part of the loan contingent at Chester. In the case of Carson, Davies, Kelly and Croker, that is four of the back five who are somebody else’s guys.

Loan contracts run to the end of the season, and don’t always automatically include the caveats of being able to play in the post season, but it is often the case that they are. After all, the players will want to play, and having additional weeks pay picked up by a loaning club is of benefit to the parent clubs.

Speaking on Chester’s own loan situation, Rawlinson said: “We had conversations before the game this week. These things can’t be left until the last minute, they have to be sorted before we go into the playoffs, or don’t.

“Parent clubs will already have been informed that we were looking to extend a lot of players, so we’ll just see what happens over the next few days.”

No issues are anticipated for any of the loan players on Chester’s books when it comes to play-off availability, but the injury sustained to Carson could be problematic with a short turnaround time to Wednesday evening.

Midfielder Jack Bainbridge, who scored the second in the Blues’ 2-0 win at Macclesfield on Easter Bank Holiday Monday, is side-lined after a training ground injury.

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When Connell Rawlinson agreed to take on the role of interim boss of Chester FC, he knew it would be a temporary gig.

The mountain seemed too large to scale at the time. After the Blues had beaten Spennymoor Town back on February 28, the club sat 10th in the table, but the amount of games in hand teams around them had made it seem an almighty ask, and one that would require Chester to put together a run of form that wasn’t just play-off form, but title form.

Ten games, seven wins, two draws and one defeat is his record. The 0-0 draw with King’s Lynn Town on the final day of the season at a packed, sun-kissed Deva Stadium was enough to secure the Blues seventh spot. And while disappointed not to have bagged fifth, the 34-year-old former Chester City academy graduate, whose playing career took in spells at The New Saints, Port Vale and Notts County, knows he has already done enough to potentially pique the interest of some chairmen who may be looking for a new approach in the summer.

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Play-offs it is then!

In the end a goalless draw at home to a relegation-threatened King’s Lynn Town was enough to see Chester into the top seven, and for their Norfolk visitors to secure survival on the final day.

That interim boss Connell Rawlinson described the feeling as “bittersweet” in his post-match analysis told the story of where this Chester side is at right now, and how not to finish fifth was seen as some kind of disappointment.

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That Chester are in this position is quite something.

Only once this season have the Blues been higher than the sixth place they find themselves heading into the final game of a turbulent National League North campaign tomorrow.

That was at 5pm on the opening day of the season back on August 9 when they defeated Peterborough Sports 3-2 to sit fifth. After that, they sank to as low as 18th in November after a 1-1 home draw with Marine.

Patchy form raised them to mid-table, and while they always remained in touch with the top seven, even if the gap looked to be widening, the notion of a play-off push was seen to be too far fetched, for Chester hadn’t shown enough to suggest that they would put together a run of form that would propel them into the post-season shootout.

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This is the biggest weekend of the season, with Chester heading into a huge clash against King’s Lynn Town and everything still on the line, for both teams. Do we extend our season for at least another week or is this where one era ends and another begins? The mood around the squad, the detail going into preparation, the bodies being patched up, those who could return, the belief building, it all feels like a moment. We’ve been here before, but the nerves are no less fraught. It’s times like this we crave for.

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Here’s the latest issue.

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Connell Rawlinson’s managerial career will be 10 games old this weekend.

Should Chester get the job done with victory over King’s Lynn Town at the Deva Stadium in front of what is expected to be a bumper crowd, then the Blues will have booked a spot in the National League North play-offs.

Last weekend’s 2-1 win at Oxford City pushed Chester to the brink of qualification for a top-seven berth, a feat that had seemed unthinkable at the turn of the year given the club’s struggles to get a consistent run of good form going.

Former boss Calum McIntyre won three of his final four games in charge before his departure, and Rawlinson’s record since taking up the mantle as interim manager has been seven wins, one draw and one defeat. Over the past 15 games, Chester have taken 35 points, three more than the next best in the division, Kidderminster Harriers, a side already assured of the play-offs.

Fan sentiment has swung back into the positive, and there is a sense that maybe, having had their chances written off for much of the campaign, even after the late loss to Southport, which is Rawlinson’s only blemish, that the head of steam that has been built up in this moment, with this group of players, makes them the most dangerous team in the top seven.

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Chester interim boss Connell Rawlinson will be sweating on the fitness of some of his key players ahead of the Blues’ final game of the season on Saturday.

Rawlinson’s charges head into the clash with relegation-threatened King’s Lynn Town at the Deva Stadium (12.30pm kick off) knowing that three points will secure a play-off berth, potentially seeing them finish as high as fifth.

A gritty display at Oxford City on Saturday earned Chester a vital 2-1 win, one that sets up a huge clash with the Linnets, where the Blues have their destiny in their own hands. But it will be a week of assessing the physical damage incurred by the efforts at Marsh Lane, where Fin Shrimpton, Hayden Carson and Jack Bainbridge all were left with injury concerns.

Shrimpton, whose goal in the first half set Chester on their way, has become a huge part of this Blues side’s revival, moving from an advanced midfield role to pretty much being Dylan Mottley-Henry’s strike partner in recent weeks.

But he was replaced on 51 minutes by Tom Peers at the weekend after picking up a hamstring injury, although the severity of it hadn’t been determined.

Carson, like he has been in recent games, was substituted at half time, with Connor Woods replacing him. The reason being, Rawlinson explained, was that the Blues are managing a hip-flexor injury with him, and he is in contention again for the weekend.

Bainbridge, who was back in the starting line up as a replacement for the suspended Lewis Leigh, who will be available for the visit of King’s Lynn, picked up a knock in the dying embers of the game, with Dion Kelly-Evans having been readied to replace him, but managed to see out the additional eight minutes of added time.

Rawlinson explained: “It’s too early for me to say (on Shrimpton).

“He’s going to have to be assessed. It doesn’t look too bad, to be completely honest with you, but he’s still going to need to be assessed because we need him available for next Saturday.

“Bambo (Bainbridge) was a little bit cramped towards the end. There was a bit of confusion getting him on or off the pitch, but other than that the lads have worked really hard there. They’re going to be tired. They’ve got to use the next few days now to really recover properly. Then we’ll be back in on Tuesday and looking to prepare for the game on Saturday.

“Hayden Carson came off at half‑time because we were managing something with him. He should be OK. He just needs to get back into Salford (from where he is on loan) through the week now and be reassessed.”

Rawlinson opted to make another change midway through the second half at Oxford, bringing off former Hoops defender Phil Croker and replacing him with Tom Leak.

Croker, who has been in excellent form for the Blues alongside Tom Davies, Carson, Michael Kelly and Nathan Woodthorpe during Chester’s fine run of form, exited proceedings as part of a tactical shake-up designed to cut of the supply from wide areas for the hosts, who had dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half and had looked more than capable of levelling the contest during some jittery Chester moments.

“We brought Tom Leak on and went to a back four,” said Rawlinson.

“Leakey’s a bit more used to that position and, as you saw at the end, he was absolutely outstanding. One‑v‑one in wide areas, really forcing the ball down the line to limit what they could do with the cross. They were just tactical changes.”

Chester have Leigh back in contention for the weekend after he served his one-match ban for his second yellow card against AFC Fylde saw him see red last week, while Kelly-Evans is fit enough to be part of the squad again after nursing a long-term injury back to health. Iwan Murray remains a doubt.

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Connell Rawlinson is usually pretty swift when it comes to speaking to the media post match.

A debrief of the troops in the dressing room and he’s up to lay out his thoughts to the press. The form of recent weeks has made it a pretty easy task for the interim Chester manager, who has led this Blues side to the cusp of a play-off berth that had seemed unfathomable at the turn of the year.

Even after the late defeat to Southport last month, that was enough to sound the death knell for Chester’s play-off hopes in the minds of some. But the games kept coming, and Chester kept winning. AFC Telford United, Macclesfield, AFC Fylde all came and were conquered, the latest victim being an Oxford City who are far better than their lowly position suggested.
“Had to compose myself,” quipped Rawlinson. “I’m pretty emotional after that.” The battling nature of the players had struck a chord for an interim boss who had built a strong playing career, the kind of player to push further to get the job done. It was the mentality that he had wanted to see reflected in his players.

Oxford had a record of three wins and two draws coming into the contest, with just one defeat in 10 games. But first-half goals from Fin Shrimpton and a Tom Davies blockbuster ensured Rawlinson’s charges made it five wins on the spin.

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After speaking with Kieran Maguire earlier this week for The Breakdown podcast, I started to stew on some of the things he brought to light.

We live in an era where football has been taken away from the working classes. It has happened by stealth over a number of years, where the blue touchpaper was set alight when the First Division, it was felt, was in need of a rebrand in the early. That heralded the arrival of the Premier League back in 1992.

Now, not everybody might agree with the sentiment here, but the Premier League, in my view at least, was a good thing to happen to English football, and it was something that happened when it needed to, with the game in this country coming out of the darkness of the 1980s, where hooliganism defined the national sport, where stadiums were not fit for purpose, and where we endured some of the bleakest moments of the game.

KIERAN MAGUIRE JOINS THE BREAKDOWN

The tragedy of the Hillsborough Disaster had a profound effect on football in this country. The loss of 97 lives at a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was a dark moment for not only the game or the sport, but the nation as a whole. The fallout that came after, where the lies and smears from the tabloid press and law enforcement caused families to seek justice for more than 30 years, was shameful.

The ramifications for football in this country were significant. A 31-day inquiry led by Lord Justice Taylor led to the publication of the Taylor Report in 1990. It was effectively a blueprint for what the future of the English game should be. Safer stadiums for fans.

The first new stadium to comply with all the regulations set forth by the Taylor Report? The Deva Stadium. One of the numerous firsts this football club has achieved. First foreign manager? Chester. First club with an American owner? Chester.

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On the pitch right now, things seem to be going pretty swimmingly under interim boss Connell Rawlinson, with the 1-0 win over league leaders AFC Fylde on Saturday catapulting Chester into the play-off places in the National League North with two games to go.

This episode is taking a look away from matters on the pitch, with football finance guru Kieran Maguire, the author of The Price of Football and co-host of the hugely popular podcast of the same name, joining us to talk about the Blues, the state of finances in the lower leagues, and what the future might hold.

Back in November, Chester published their financial accounts for the year ending May 2025, the headline figures being a £53,000 profit, revenues of more than £1.6m, matchday revenue up £154,000 to £811,000, commercial income coming in £23,000 above budget at £258,000, and club reserves sitting at £268,000.

Chester have to exist in the black as a fan-owned football club, and there isn’t a credit facility there to support them if they should falter, nor a willing benefactor ready to pump in millions upon millions for little to no (emphasis on the no) financial gain.

The Premier League, the EFL and National League clubs have seen huge losses in recent times, with hundreds of thousands haemorrhaged by clubs per week, and millions per year.

It feels like football could be hurtling towards a full-blown crisis, or is it just the way things are now? If rich people wish to lose lots of money, so let them.

Kieran and Dave Powell talk football finance.

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It’s easy, this management lark, isn’t it?

It’s a phrase that Connell Rawlinson has heard plenty in recent weeks, with his interim role at Chester having surpassed all realistic expectations when he stepped into the void following Calum McIntyre’s February exit.

A record of six wins, one draw and one defeat, a last-gasp injury-time sucker punch by Southport on March 21, has seen Rawlinson take 19 points out of a possible 24 on offer, with the 1-0 win over National League North league leaders AFC Fylde on Saturday propelling Chester into the sixth and the play-off places.

That had seemed unthinkable at the turn of the year, but Rawlinson has been able to build upon the four wins in six games that McIntyre had overseen before his departure, and Chester, when it comes to the form guide over the past 15 games in the division, sit right at the very top.

The addition of Tom Davies, whose stunning goal on Saturday sealed the points, has been transformational, but so, too, has the decision to bring back Hayden Carson, as well as bringing in midfielder Scott Burgess in from the cold after much of the season spent watching from the stands.

Rawlinson had an idea what he wanted to implement when he took charge, and that was born from previous experience of playing a similar shape as a player. But even though he had confidence in the system and the group to be able to pull it off, the way the team has responded, and the success that they have delivered, have made for a start he could only have dreamed of.

“Yeah, if you’d have asked me at the start, I’d have snapped your hand off for this type of thing,” Rawlinson told The Seal.

“I know the style, the formation. It works because I’ve done it before as a player, so I knew if we could grasp it and we could deliver it, it was going to be good.

“The only thing that’s been surprising for me is how quickly they did it. They had more or less a structure to it and the tactics to it in the Darlington game, which was my first game. So the fact that they’ve got it that quick, game on game on game, and you train it all the time, repetition, repetition, it becomes natural to you.

“You can see at the minute now, lads are doing things not by thinking, just by instinct. That’s the way to go forward.

“But it’s been an outstanding run of form and it’s something we’re looking to continue.

“The fans come on the weekend and they see the 90 minutes, but they don’t see the hours of prep and the work that goes in during the week, and how hard the lads train. So yeah, it’s hard, but it’s enjoyable.”

There will be changes that need to be enforced this weekend for the trip to Oxford City, a side who are battling at the wrong end of the division but whose recent form over the last five games, a record of three wins and two draws, is the fifth best in the National League North.

Lewis Leigh saw red for a second bookable offence for his lunge late on against Fylde, and he will sit out the trip to Marsh Lane on Saturday. His absence will be a miss given the recent form of the former Crewe Alexandra midfielder, but Jack Bainbridge has made a return to fitness in recent weeks and is likely to be the man to step up.

Carson was withdrawn through injury at the break on Saturday after aggravating his hip flexor. He will be assessed this week and a decision made closer to the time on whether or not he will be involved.

Rawlinson said: “On Monday (before the 2-0 win at Macclesfield), Cars goes, ‘Look, I want to play.’ So I’ll trust the player’s judgement. If they say they can play. You’re never 100% at this time of the season anyway. You’re always probably 85–90% even at best.

“So yeah, we’ll just have a look. We might have to settle it down this week and go from there, but we’ll have to wait and see closer to the weekend whether he’ll be available or not.

“We always had a small squad anyway, but I prefer it that way because if you have too many senior players, you can only pick 11. It’s very hard to keep a group of 24, 25, 26 players all happy.

“So this is the trade‑off, having a smaller group. When you get injuries or knocks or suspensions, you have to move things around.

“But even looking at the bench (against Fylde), Tom Peers, Conor Woods, Bambo (Bainbridge) coming off the bench. They’re all senior boys. They’ve all been playing games, they’ve played a lot of football.

“So now, when people are suspended or carrying knocks, it’s up to others to come in and keep their shirt.”

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At what point do we try and talk ourselves down from the hope?

The football gods, for now at least, appear to have forgotten that this is Chester Football Club and that they are duty bound to kick our dreams and ambitions into touch whenever the opportunity arises.

Chester have played play-off chasers AFC Telford United, play-off certainties Macclesfield, and title favourites AFC Fylde in the last eight days. They have won every game from a run of fixtures that had looked season ending at one stage.

Quite how a team that had looked so far away from being play-off contenders a couple of months back have now managed to make their way into sixth spot, with the play-off qualification now in their hands, might be something of a mystery, but however it has been achieved, the belief and the spirit of this team is visible. You can feel it buzzing its way through the stands.

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A few weeks ago, when looking at the final run of games for Chester there was little expectation that this weekend’s game would be a high stakes game for anyone but AFC Fylde.

The Coasters, managed by former Blues hero Craig Mahon, are within touching distance of the National League North title after battling staving off a mammoth three-goal comeback to beat Radcliffe 4-3 on Monday, while title rivals South Shields suffered a hammer blow to their own aspirations with defeat against Darlington, one of Chester’s rivals for a play-off place.

Fylde came into the season with lofty expectations, and that is something that comes with the territory when the playing budget is that of a team playing a level above. Club owner David Haythornthwaite has a reputation as a man who will put his money where his mouth is, but with an expectation that results will follow. A late slip into the play-offs is not something that would be welcomed, and should results go in their favour this weekend, it isn’t one that seems likely.

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Clenched fist, Bobby Jones, egged on by his teammates, gave the Chester faithful what they had been asking for on a blissfully sunny April afternoon.

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Some 90 days ago, Chester were 17 points behind Merthyr Town in the National League North.

As I write this, late on an Easter Monday after experiencing one of those memorable kinds of away days, the ones that make it all worthwhile and make you realise that it isn’t always us who aren’t always being smited by the football gods, Chester are 90 minutes away from overtaking the South Walians in the race for a play-off berth.

One point now separates the two sides, with Chester sitting a point and a place outside of the play-off places after a superb 2-0 success at Cheshire neighbours Macclesfield FC, a side who twice this season Chester have gotten the better of, and who have twice been made to look decidedly ordinary despite their lofty position.

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Scott Burgess has been a Chester player for 16 months, yet it feels like he is a brand new signing.

Arriving at the Blues in January of 2025, the now 28-year-old central midfielder brought a wealth of experience to the middle of the park for former manager Calum McIntyre, amassing 70 games in the EFL and more than 70 games in the National League, playing an important role in Macclesfield Town’s title charge to promotion during 2017/18.

Starting his career at Bury, Burgess’ CV has also taken in stops at multiple National League North and Northern Premier League sides, while featuring in the EFL for the Shakers and Port Vale, and in the National League for Wrexham, albeit one game, as well as York City, Grimsby Town and Macc. He even spent some time in the third tier of Norwegian football with Bergsøy IL.

But for Chester, despite 16 months of being a Blue, he found himself becoming something of a forgotten man, where injury last season curtailed his ability to contribute, and being on the periphery of the squad this term saw him loaned out to Ashton United.

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Chester have no chance of reaching the National League North play-offs. It’s a silly notion that we really shouldn’t entertain at any point between now and the end of the season.

That’s pretty much word for word what I would have told anyone who had presented such fanciful nonsense to me a few weeks ago. Even after the defeat at home to Southport in injury time I pretty much dusted my hands together and did the “oh well, we tried,” charade.

When Danny Lloyd scored the winner for the Sandgrounders that day it felt very Chester. The carrot had been dangled and we kind of fell for it, daring to believe we were made of the stuff to make the top seven and extend our season, maintaining a shot at promotion to the National League. That goal felt like it had put to bed such dreams, even to the point where I was surprised that Chester didn’t announce the new manager in the days that followed.

But what do I know? Obviously very little, which is concerning given I’m writing these words for The Seal!

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Such is the life of a non-league footballer, on the days where football isn’t the focal point, there is a requirement to earn money elsewhere.

For Fin Shrimpton, while there is training to attend at the King George V Sports Hub in Blacon on Thursday morning ahead of a crunch National League North encounter for Chester against AFC Telford United at the Deva Stadium on Saturday, Wednesday is a day’s graft away from the pitch.

“I’m grafting today but hopefully on for a flyer so will be free a bit later on,” is the WhatsApp message from Shrimpton when responding to a request from The Seal to tee up an interview.

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