Stuart Rimmer is hoping that his testimonial match postponed from the end of last season can be re-arranged for next May. The striker, who has been with Chester 10 years, was hoping to play Everton but the game had to be shelved following the sacking of Joe Royle at Goodison Park and City’s own involvement with the end-of-season play-off’s. Now with Howard Kendall back in charge negotiations are starting again for the match at either the end of the coming season or the start of the next.

Shaun Reid is recovering following his operation at the Chester Grosvenor Nuffield Hospital for snapped cruciate knee ligaments. The operation went as well as could be expected but the influential midfielder will miss the whole of the coming season. Neil Fisher, who had a poor season last time round, is doing his best to fill Reid’s boots with his third pre-season goal and an all-round good performance in last night’s 2-3 defeat at Aberystwyth Town. Gary Bennett scored the first goal in his third spell with the club, with rather a little help from the home goalkeeper who dropped Benno’s speculative free kick into the net!

• The captain winning the toss can only decide which way to kick.
• The keeper can’t pick the ball up from a throw in.
• The keeper has to release the ball after six seconds.
• The keeper can now score from a goal kick.
• And teams can score direct from the kick off.

Gary Shelton could become a Chester City record breaker next season.The veteran midfielder will go down in history as the oldest player to play in a league match for the Blues – if he plays at Lincoln on Janaury 10 1998.

Shelton, now 39, will break Graham Barrow’s record on 39 years and 293 days – set on April 2 1994 against Preston. “It will be a great honour if I do break the record,” said City’s player coach. Someone did tell me I’ll break the record next season but somebody else said that Alan Oakes holds the record.”

But Football League records state that Barrow definitely holds the record. And with City only have a small squad, Shelton, who played 25 times last season, has more than a chance of making the record books. And Shelton, who will be 40 in March, wants to continue playing.

“I enjoyed playing last season and if called upon I’ll play again,” said Shelton, who has made more than 500 league appearances in a career spanning 20 years. Shelton played for Walsall, Aston Villa, Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford, Bristol City and Rochdale before moving to The Deva three years ago.

He arrived as a player when Mike Pejic was manager and has since become Kevin Ratcliffe’s right hand man.
They almost led City to promotion last season – and the play off failure has made them more determined to get it right next time around.

City have now been in training for a week and play their first friendly at Bangor City on Saturday. Ratcliffe will take a first team squad to the League of Wales side, who are now managed by Ratcliffe’s ex-Everton team-mate Graham Sharp. City’s other friendlies are: July 15 – Preston (H) 7.30ko; July 19 – Newtown (A) 3.00; July 21 Newport (A) 7.30; July 23 – Aberystwyth (A) 7.30; July 25 – Caernarfon (A) 7.30; July 29 – WBA (H) 7.30; August 2 – Leek (A) 3.00.

Nick Richardson has been given the all clear for a playing return. Out for almost a year after snapping his cruciate knee ligaments, Richardson, is now back in full training and eyeing up a first team return.

“Nick’s looked good since he’s come back,” said Chester City assistant manager Gary Shelton. “He had a week’s training at Lilleshall before he returned for pre-season training with the lads and he looks sharp. He has been given the all clear but we won’t be rushing him back to play. We’ll settle him in gradually.”

That means Richardson may have to sit it out in next Tuesday’s friendly at home to Preston North End. It will be the first friendly for both clubs – and that could see a decent gate at The Deva, Preston always travel well and Gary Peters has again spent money during the summer. Prices for the game are £5 for adults and £2 concessions.

City’s only injury worry is Shaun Reid. The all action midfielder, signed from Bury last season, has ricked his neck. “It’s nothing serious,” added Shelton. “It’s just a reaction to training.” City have penciled in their final pre-season friendly – at Leek Town on August 2. Leek were promoted to the Vauxhall Conference and will give City a stern test. And the Staffordshire side will have a familiar face in goal. They have just signed former City keeper Ray Newland from Torquay United.

City’s other friendlies include a mini-tour of Wales with stop-offs at Newtown, Newport, Aberystwyth and Caernarfon. They then take on first division West Brom at The Deva on July 29 – a game that marks the return of former Blues cult hero Cyrille Regis.

Chester City new boy Rod Thomas will make his Blues bow next week. Thomas – City’s only summer signing – will play in a pre-season friendly at home to Preston North End on July 15.

Fans will get their first taste of Thomas – and a refreshed City side. Manager Kevin Ratcliffe hasn’t pushed the players too hard since they returned for pre-season training last week. Tuesday’s game has come a little too soon for Ratcliffe’s liking but it gives the Blues boss a chance to see how Thomas, a free transfer signing from Carlisle, will settle in. It will also be a big night for Nick Richardson, who could pull on a City shirt for the first time in 11 months.

Richardson snapped his cruciate knee ligament at Hartlepool last September but has made an excellent recovery. The former Cardiff City and Bury midfielder saw a specialist on Friday when he hoped to be given the all clear to play again. On a week to week contract, Richardson now has to prove his fitness. He spent a week’s intensive training at Lilleshall before returning for pre-season training.

Skipper Iain Jenkins is the only other player recovering from injury. The Northern Ireland defender had a shoulder operation during the summer. Pay rebels Chris Priest and Ross Davidson have yet to re-sign. Ratcliffe hopes to have talks with the two players this week.

A sun-tanned Kevin Ratcliffe was relaxing Stateside in his Florida holiday retreat when the telephone rang. It was Mike Pejic on the line asking him if he was interested in a job.

“Mike said that was a job available and asked if I was interested,” Ratcliffe recalled. “He wouldn’t tell me what club it was but I told him I was interested.” Ratcliffe, who had already committed himself to a deal with Bury, would find out more about Pejic’s mystery offer on his return. “I’d agreed to sign for Mickey Walsh at Bury before I went away but Bury went back on certain tings when I returned,” added Ratcliffe, who then decided to take up Pejic’s offer as player coach at Chester City.

“The job appealed to me. It was only 10-15 minutes away from home although financially I was on a lot less than I would have been at Bury. But I was doing something I was interested in going into - the coaching side of the game. And I was going into the coaching side of things at the right time in my career.”

But after a few weeks, Ratcliffe – and poor old Pejic – must have been wondering what they had let themselves in for.
“Considering Chester was on the doorstep, I’d never kept in touch with who was playing for them,” said Ratcliffe.
“I think we had three players signed on – and I was one of them! We had problems signing players but that was the least of our problems. We went in cupboards looking for kit – and couldn’t find any. We couldn’t find any balls, bibs, cones and even boots. We didn’t even have a physio! We were like a Sunday League outfit.”

It didn’t get any easier. Fans were still reeling from the Graham Barrow resignation. Whoever replaced Barrow was in for a hard time.
“I think Graham could see what was coming,” added Ratcliffe. “I don’t think anyone would have saved us from relegation that year – not even God. But I’ve said all along that the club needed someone like Mike Pejic to come in and sort things out. Mike and I worked all hours and I believe the job would have killed him if he’d have carried on.”

Public enemy number one, Pejic found it difficult to deal with the pressure – Ratcliffe also cracked a few times when fans turned on him. “I found it difficult to play because I was coaching, watching games and looking at players,” he said. “Then I had to play in midweek and on a Saturday. The problem I had that I could rectify our player’s mistakes in the pitch but when I made one there was no-one there to rectify it and it probably resulted in conceding a goal. Fans did have a go at me and rightly or wrongly I had a go back. They seem to think it’s alright to have a go at you for an hour and a half – and it’s worse the lower down the leagues you go.

“You don’t notice it at the top but you do at the bottom. You know where it’s coming from, you know who’s shouting what and you remember what clothes they’re wearing! I’d just love it for some of the players to go and watch these fans at work  and slag them off for 90 minutes.”

Ratcliffe survived where Pejic didn’t but he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to stay on. Youth coach Derek Mann took over as caretaker manager - and that suited Ratcliffe. “Derek and I had a good relationship,” said Ratcliffe. “He let me coach a lot more and I enjoyed that. I was more involved and I was given the chance to organise things a lot more. Mike wanted to do everything but Derek was quite prepared to delegate.”

Ratcliffe was happy with his new hands-on role until Mann quit after illness.

Championship odds from William Hill
8-1 Peterborough United, Swansea City
10-1 Cardiff City
11-1 Notts County, Shrewsbury Town
12-1 Chester City, Colchester United
14-1 Brighton & Hove Albion, Hull City, Leyton Orient, Lincoln City, Macclesfield Town, Rotherham United
16-1 Cambridge United, Scunthorpe United
20-1 Mansfield Town
25-1 Barnet, Rochdale, Scarborough
40-1 Darlington, Doncaster Rovers, Torquay United
50-1 Exeter City, Hartlepool United