CHESTER CITY face a troubled week with players threatening strike action.
The crisis-hit club reached an all-time low after they crashed out of the FA Trophy following their 1-0 home first round defeat against part-timers Fleetwood Town on Friday night.
City, who remain anchored to the foot of the Blue Square Premier Division table, were watched by just 518 spectators for their FA Trophy loss – their lowest home crowd of the season, and a figure which included 110 visiting fans.
Cash-strapped Chester, who started the campaign on minus 25 points, continue to be owned by the Vaughan family after previous owner Stephen Vaughan bailed the club out earlier this month by loaning City £36,000 to help pay the club’s footballing debts.
Many Chester supporters have boycotted home matches and protested against Vaughan’s stranglehold of the club, which resulted in the abandonment of the home fixture against Eastbourne Borough this month.
One Chester player, who refused to be named, revealed that managing director Bob Gray spoke to the team after Friday night’s defeat.
The player said: “A number of us met Bob Gray after the game against Fleetwood Town and were told wages due at the end of November will be paid on Friday.
“This situation isn’t a one-off, it is happening regularly. We have told Mr Gray we wouldn’t turn in for training this week, and if outstanding monies weren’t forthcoming as promised, we would consider not playing against Rushden this weekend.
“We will take advice from the PFA, but the situation appears to be getting worse. The lads are fed up.”
The worrying situation underlines the enormity of the task facing Blues boss Jim Harvey who has been left to pick up his depleted squad after admitting his side had fallen short in the 1-0 home defeat against Fleetwood.
Harvey saw Fleetwood’s leading marksman, Adam Warlow, grab the winning goal 10 minutes after the interval in Friday night’s bitterly disappointing match for the Blues after City keeper John Danby had spilled a cross.
Harvey said: “I think overall the game was disappointing, and I didn’t think there were many opportunities at either end.
“John Danby dropped another cross which led to Fleetwood’s winning goal, and he’s dropped a couple of catches recently, but I don’t remember Fleetwood creating a number of really clear-cut chances.
“John probably struggled because it was a bit of an awkward cross he had to deal with which bounced in front of him. He went to pick it up but spilled it out and they were able to score from it.
“I know that John is disappointed with the effort because it was one that you would expect him to save or collect, but unfortunately he didn’t.
“I didn’t think we had anything going forward at all. We didn’t pass the ball well at all. In fact we didn’t do an awful lot right and we got what we deserved.
“I’m not saying that they (Fleetwood) were massively better, but they had a lot more experienced players than us in their team and they probably kept the ball better than we did without hurting us.
“I suppose experience told in the end and we just didn’t quite get up to the mark.”
Harvey, who is now being forced to draft teenage players into his wafer-thin first team squad, is expecting a tough campaign ahead as his inexperienced side face a daunting battle to survive.
He added: “All our games are very tough, and I would think that will be the case from now on.
“But I haven’t done an awful lot of work with some of the younger boys who have just been drafted into the squad, and I could see against Fleetwood that we were short of ideas, so we’ll do a little bit of work with them and see if we can improve things, but I do think it is going to be tough going.
“I think we were short all over the park against Fleetwood. Some of our more experienced boys tried hard, but things kept breaking down on them and I could see that they were getting frustrated with the situation.
“It’s very difficult to analyse the game afterwards because I’m obviously disappointed that we lost, but it’s not a case of laying into the boys because I know they are giving everything they’ve got.
“I know the frame of mind that they are in at the moment. They were on the floor after Friday night’s defeat and rightly so because there was no lack of effort.
“There was a lack of experience and age, and sometimes ability, but they are all good lads and they do really work hard, so it is tough going for them.
“Fleetwood had a lot of experienced players in their team and when they got their goal I don’t think they created an awful lot, but we just weren’t good enough going forward and we couldn’t keep the ball, and we didn’t really have anyone who could open up an opportunity for us.
“We threatened once or twice, but it obviously wasn’t enough and on reflection I think it was just a poor performance.”