Heading into pre-season there was plenty of optimism and excitement about just what the Phil Parkinson era at Chester might deliver.
Here was a manager who had been there and done it, having taken Altrincham to the National League and then into the play-offs, and one who had overseen a major overhaul in the football club from part-time to full-time on the football side.
Lots of lessons had been learned along the way, and his time in the National League North, and the league above and below had provided him with the requisite experience to put together what he felt would be a competitive team at Chester on a budget that will certainly fall short of the club’s main title rivals.
Concessions had to be made, though. Those oven-ready players of 26, 27 and 28 who are believed to have a higher chance of an immediate impact, or at least a less risky, more predictable one, cost good money at any level, and it they aren’t cheap down here in Division Six of the English pyramid.
