Although Chester have been out of the Football League for three and a half seasons there are still an number of ex-City players playing at a higher level.

Carl Regan has returned to Hull City after four games for Chester including the high scoring games against Tamworth and Leigh RMI. Having previously played 33+5 games for Hull he will no doubt be hoping to regain his place in a side pushing strongly for promotion from Division Three.

Wayne Hatswell (pictured left) is now at Kidderminster Harriers having left Chester in September. Wayne played 35+2 games for City and is now a regular in the Harriers side. He recently featured prominently in the Harriers FA Cup games against Premiership Wolves.

Adam Griffin made a brief appearance for Chester, on loan from Oldham Athletic, against Barnet last January. The youngster had previously only made a handful of appearances for the Latics but after breaking back into the first team at the end of October 2003 he has been a regular ever since.

Chris Tate spent two separate spells on loan with Chester in 2001/02 and 2002/03 scoring 1 goal in 4+2 Conference appearances. Perhaps his best moment was scoring the winning goal in City’s 1-0 FA Cup victory over Colchester United last season. When his loan spell ended Chris returned to Leyton Orient and was a regular in the team for the rest of the season. He is still with the London club at the time of writing.

Goalkeeper Neil Cutler (pictured right) spent two loan periods at the Deva before signing permanently, from Crewe Alexandra, in summer 1998. During the 1998/99 season Neil shared the goalkeeping duties with Wayne Brown and then made a surprise move to Premiership Aston Villa in November 1999. Neil made one extremely brief substitute appearance for Villa, against Middlesbrough, before spending some time on loan with Oxford United. At the start of the 2001/02 season Neil was on the move again to Stoke City where he finally achieved some sustained first team action. During his first season Stoke were promoted from Division Two and Neil not only featured in nearly every game but also played in the Play-Off Final in Cardiff where Stoke beat Brentford 2-0. Neil remained as first choice until November 2002 when the Staffordshire side brought in Steve Banks on loan from Bolton. In February 2003 Neil joined Swansea City on loan and helped them avoid relegation to the Conference. This year he has been battling for the goalkeeper’s jersey with Ed de Goey with his most recent appearances coming in the FA Cup against Wimbledon.