Chester suffered an agonising immediate return back to the Conference North as their upwards trajectory in recent years was abruptly pegged back. There were genuine expectations that the Seals will be going for yet another promotion during the close season having walked the division below while being newcomers again in the previous campaign. Neil Young signed some seasoned campaigners like Danny Harrison, Kevin McIntyre and Gareth Seddon to boost his squad but the losses of Danny Williams and Anthony Sarcevic proved too big to overcome and the squad looked unbalanced and lacking genuine quality right from the start. Chester had an awful start of the season and lost each of their first five games in the league. That run was ended with a sweet win away arch rivals Wrexham but the issues with the squad remained and the team was just not looking settled and prepared for the rigours of the league. They suffered badly at home all season and actually won just once in front of their fans until mid-January. Young constantly chopped and changed, both personnel and formations, but the main result of that was the increasing instability in the team. Results failed to improve as the season reached its halfway stage and Chester remained in the bottom four almost constantly. They did become a bit more stable and hard to beat towards the end of 2013 but the knives were out for Young and he was eventually sacked in early January. The club acted after it became clear that one of the most respected managers at this level, Steve Burr, had become available after leaving Kidderminster. He was lured to take over the relegation-battlers and enjoyed a very good start. Wins in his opening two games in charge lifted the mood immediately and this did not dissipate depute the following three losses. There was immediately more purpose and clarity about the outlook of the team and Burr also brought in some decent players on loan to provide more balance. The team secured some massive wins against direct rivals in March to give themselves a great chance of beating the drop and they looked to be on course to do so after a superb win at Cambridge in their penultimate game of the season. They had their fate in their hands ahead of the home clash with Salisbury on the last day and twice took the lead on the day. However, a dramatic late equaliser pegged them back to a 2:2 draw and a similarly late winner for Hereford meant that Chester are going down. The outcome was harsh on the team if taken into account their improvement under Burr. Yet, over the course of the season, they seemed a bit too dysfunctional and lacking in inspiration and attacking quality. The club has the resources to bounce straight back up and can hardly have a better man in charge too. Thus, they will be soon back at this level and will be certainly better prepared after what happened to them in this campaign.
