The five groups (The Official Supporters Club, The Independent Supporters Association, the Exiles, the Executive club and the Disabled Supporters Association) are forming an Industrial and Provident Society enabling public subscription, and which will be launched at a public meeting at Chester Town Hall on the 30th November.

The Working Party have been working on the IPS plan for several weeks with a view, initially, to acquiring a minority interest in the club. However, in view of the fact that the club is now up for sale, the aim is now to make a bid for control. These plans are to be revealed to the full City Council meeting on Wednesday the 25th October.

The new Society is being formed with the support, and under the guidance of, the Government sponsored agency Supporters Direct, set up to ensure greater supporter representation in the running of football clubs.

Chairman of the Working Party, Wirral solicitor Graham Ross, says:-

"Community ownership is the new future for many smaller clubs. Football at this level can rarely give the returns businesses, and their financial backers, seek. As a result, the future of clubs is heavily dictated by the personal financial acumen and worth of particular individuals. This leaves too much to chance.

Chester City has been through a painful period in the hands of two individual owners in recent years. It is time to stop allowing the club to be used as a 'toy' to satisfy entrepreneurial dreams. The only way to gain the full support of the community, is to make the whole club accountable to that very community. The public are no fools. If they see their club in the wrong hands they lose interest, gates reduce, funds become unavailable and the club fails. It is time to reverse that trend."

The Working Party have confidence in being able to raise the necessary investment from a combination of public subscription and private investment.

"It is our wish to involve the whole City in the fortunes of Chester City Football Club." says Ross "After all, a successful club contributes to the promotion of the city bringing visitors and media coverage. But importantly we want supporters to feel a true sense of belonging and involvement. Under the Society's ownership, members will be able to attend general meetings to discuss issues and make comment and also acquire voting rights as to the make-up of the Society's Board. No longer will there be confusion as to events at the club."

Smith said: “I have tried to do my best for the club at all times, but I have overworked myself in the process. I have had such a strong desire that I have given everything else up in my life for the past 15 months to keep the supporters happy and to make Chester City FC successful. My 100 hours a week at the club has meant I have not been with my four very young children as much as I should have.

Chester City have been drawn away to Easington Colliery FC in the fourth round qualifier of the FA Cup. Easington, based in Peterlee, County Durham, (on the coast halfway between Hartlepool and Sunderland) play in the Northern League Division One. On Saturday Easington beat Whitby Town (two divisions higher) 1-0 in the third round. The game takes place on Saturday 28 October. Easington are hoping to be able to stage the match at their Welfare Ground which has a capacity of 2,500, however Durham Police may switch the tie to possibly Durham City or Hartlepool United.

Well, it appears that Steve Whitehall hasn't yet signed for City. According to the Chronicle he has things to tie up at Oldham before putting pen to paper, though hopefully this will be today. Whitehall trained with Oldham yesterday whilst things were ironed out between the clubs. Both Halifax Town and Shrewsbury Town are also believed to be interested in the striker. Meanwhile Paul Carden has passed a fitness test and should be available for tomorrows game at Forest Green Rovers, while midfielder Scott Ruscoe travels to Gloucestershire with the team but is not expected to feature.

2000-1 season include to date Doncaster, Northwich, Nuneaton and Kettering, with more to come as the season progresses. All games have a full commentary and cover the complete game, and this season most will have comments from Graham Barrow.

We are also producing a video fanzine which we are calling 'Blues, News and Views' in which we will hopefully be bringing interesting topics about Chester City and football in general. The first will include an interview with former Sealand Road hero Graham Turner who visits City in December with Hereford.

These videos are professionally produced by a group of dedicated City fans, who hope that City will be back in Division Three as soon as possible. If anyone has any suggestions for inclusion in the fanzine please contact us, or if anyone wishes to purchase the videos from us directly, please add £1.00 p&p.

Whitehall's loan spell from Oldham has coincided with City winning four from five game, he’s also hit the back of the net five times for the Blues, including a brace against Kettering Town yesterday.

Speaking in the Evening Leader Whitehall said: “I'm now asking questions about my future at Chester City. I’d like to think I’ve done enough at Chester to stay and I'm obviously pleased with the way things have been going at the club. Chester is a good location for me and they are a great set of lads, and I get to play games which is the main thing, so I'm quite happy, but I'll have to sit down this week because my loan deal runs out on Friday.

“There’s no point in another loan deal. The reason I came on loan was to get some games which I hadn't had this season in hopeful anticipation of going back to Oldham and being in with a chance of getting back in the side there, but Andy Ritchie has got no plans for me, he's got the forwards he wants, so there's no real point of going back there – I'm not looking for a loan deal.”

“I’ve now got to sit down with him and the chairman and work on a deal because Steve has got a proven goalscoring record.' Chairman Terry Smith said: “When I initially approached Oldham to sign Steve Whitehall, Graham Barrow preferred to sign him on loan, and Graham and I have had on-going discussions about the player ever since. "It's too early to say what will happen but I think we can all expect a decision within the next couple of days.”

Great news for City fans as midfielder Scott Ruscoe (left) has made a quick recovery from his knee surgery and may feature in next Tuesday's home Nationwide Trophy game against Hednesford Town. Ruscoe injured his knee in the pre-season match with Bristol City and has been out of action since. Manager Graham Barrow will be fielding his strongest possible City side for a match which kick's-off at 19:45. The winners of the tie will be away at either Southport or Doncaster Rovers in round 3.

Rod Buxton today issued the following statement:

"Despite running the commercial department and building relationships, which are very strained between Chester FC and the business fraternity, I cannot continue.

I joined the Club in July when there was effectively no commercial operation with no main sponsor or season tickets. I have managed in this short time to build bridges which, however difficult to maintain, are done as I have Chester City FC at heart and indeed this was my aim when I joined the Club originally to help.

I would like to thank all the various organisations who have helped in the interests of Chester City FC – Executive club (Richard Lynes), ISA, Chester Exiles, Paul Murray, the office staff and the social club staff who have all been 100 per cent behind me.