No Chester Derby Next Season?

So were we premature anticipating a renewal of hostilities with our chums from over the border?

There's a real chance Chester could be offered a reprieve after they were relegated to The Conference; in fact, reading between the lines it seems a very likely outcome.

The issue is the financial disaster which has overcome Darlington. It's sounding horribly like The Quakers will go under, or at the very least won't be able to satisfy the Football League that they have a route out of administration planned in time to be included in League Two next season.

Their meltdown perhaps isn't an immense surprise considering the way they were catapulted outside their comfort zone by former owner George Reynolds, with their pursuit of Faustino Asprilla and Paul Gascoigne and the building of their white elephant of a stadium. It now looks like they'll pay the ultimate price.

Should they go out of business the highest level a phoenix club woud be allowed to start in would be the Conference North; should they survive, time is running short to avoid demotion anyway, as the Football League will be keen to avoid starting the season with another basket case on their hands after starting the last season with three sides suffering a massive handicap.

Mind you, two of those sides still managed to finish above Chester, who suffered the most abject of campaigns. As they might well have to start next season ten points behind the rest of the field anyway, the Football League would be saddled with an uncompetitive team anyway!

Of course, no story involving Stephen Vaughan would be complete without a bizarre plot twist. I'm not sure what to say about the possibility of Vaughan buying The Quakers. Suffice to say it would be a shock if something as odd as that didn't happen at some point.