It's sixth versus seventh on Saturday, when The Spireites travel for what was once memorably described as a "local derby" by the BBC, by making the 80 mile trip to Chester. Eleven players versus one mouse - how much easier could it be?

I suppose we should thank the fixture computer for giving us an interesting opener to our first season back on the midden since 2001. Chester City, you see, were the side that were defrauded by the actions of the convicted criminal Darren Brown when we were last promoted from this division.

There will be some fans reading who weren't around at the time, so here's a summary of what happened: Brown and his equivalent at Chester, the American Terry Smith, hated eachother. They had fallen out over their rival "Sports Empires" (which, added together, were rather less significant than the Eckington Bar Billiards League) and Brown wanted to put one over on Smith. So he signed his star player, Luke Beckett, using two contracts to defraud a football transfer tribunal and Chester City.

By the time Brown cleared off Chesterfield had been deducted some points, but not enough to cost us promotion, while Chester had been denied a good wedge of desperately-needed money for much of the season by a succession of empty promises from Brown. Having just been relegated to the Conference as we came down into the fourth tier of English football, Chester took several seasons to recover. That was almost entirely down to their madcap chairman at the time, but I sometimes wonder whether they'd have recovered any quicker if Brown had been honest with them.

Chester finally got rid of Smith after determined protests and a sustained match boycott, and their current Chairman, Stephen Vaughan, stepped in. Find your way into the archive here and have a read - I think we were fortunate that we got Brown and they got Smith!!

Promotion back to the Football League took until 2003-4 and the club have patiently consolidated their place in League Two. They've suffered a slight hiatus in the last couple of weeks after inadvertently breaching the divisional salary cap when signing a player to cover for a long-term injury to midfielder Glenn Cronin, but new manager Bobby Williamson, the former Killie and Plymouth boss, has been able to bring in several new faces.

Nozzer - the last man to score for us in the League at their place

Historically, we've never done particularly well in Chester. We've won only six out of 32 League games there, while they've won nineteen. Some right old tonkings in the 1960s have pushed the average goals scored per game to 3-1 in their favour, which has been the result on our last two league visits. A 2-0 win in 1983-4, with a brace of goals from Brian Scrimgeour, was our last success there. Perhaps our efforts since have been blighted by the comparative absence of Scots players from our side, which is something Lee Richardson has been addressing over the summer. Chester have done the "double" over us in our last two sets of fixtures.

Mike Astbury

Twenty-three men have played League football for both clubs; that figure is likely to increase by one on Saturday, following their signing of Mark Hughes, the greatest footballer who never played for Thurrock. Goalie Billy Stewart very nearly left Saltergate wearing the crossbar for a hat after making "going down" gestures to home fans in 1989, but came back to claim hero status as part of the side that beat Mansfield 5-2 in the 1995 play-offs. While we might have diddled them over Beckett, we could claim it as revenge for Mike Astbury. Tony Brien tried to resurrect a career there before his hip injury forced him out of the game, while Tom Curtis had a season there in '05-6. A fair number of ex-Chesterfield hopefuls and non-contract merchants have turned up at the Deva in the last ten years or so, including the likes of Tony Hemmings, Craig Gaunt, Jason Burnham and "Kwik" Ajet, who, with a name like that, should have retired from football to become a budget airline.

Chester have just put seats on the away end terrace but away fans are also accommodated in one wing of the West Stand, which is to the left of the away end. It costs £16 to sit in the West Stand, and I'd expect a similar charge for the away end. It costs £3 to use their car park. The offer decent-looking concessions for children. The Deva is a non-smoking stadium. More details here.

Have fun, and be patient. Last time we started a season in the basement we were a goal down to York after 40 seconds, but still got promoted!

SB