CHESTER FC’s preparations for their first season have been hit by events off the field – but that has only made Neil Young even more determined to deliver success on it.

The Blues manager’s plans were dealt a blow this week when North Wales Police forced the cancellation of the club’s next two friendlies at Rhyl and Airbus UK Broughton following crowd trouble at their maiden match at Colwyn Bay.

But Young is adamant Chester will overcome this latest ‘obstacle’ – and go on to enjoy a debut campaign to remember.

“We’re preparing meticulously for the new season so to go 14 days without a game at this stage is not ideal, but we will recover,” said Young, whose side’s next scheduled friendly is on Saturday week at home to Aberystwyth Town.

“This club has had to overcome so many obstacles, including many in my eight weeks here, and we will overcome this. It’s unfortunate what’s happened, but we cannot forget the feeling everyone had leading up to the Colwyn Bay game and on the day itself before the incident.

“We’ve got to get on with it and stay positive because we can’t let anything get in the way of our end goal – and that’s getting promoted.”

A group of 15 to 20 Blues supporters clashed with police and security working on behalf of Colwyn Bay in last Saturday’s pre-season opener, leading to one arrest.

Chester officials condemned the trouble, promising to ban any fan found guilty of an offence, and are now working with Cheshire Police to remove any future risk.

But both Saturday’s match at Rhyl and Tuesday’s short trip to Airbus, who were willing to share 50% of the gate receipts with their neighbours, have been called off after North Wales Police said they received intelligence suggesting that further problems would have arisen at the games.

Superintendent Rob Kirman said: “Our first duty is to protect the wider public and until we are satisfied that these matches will go ahead peacefully, we will continue to take whatever we consider to be the appropriate action.”

The Chronicle understands Airbus would have had to shell out a five-figure fee in policing costs for the game to go ahead.

Faced with an unexpected blank week, Young will instead put his players through three intensive training sessions – as well as attempting to add to his squad.

Young is in for a striker with Football League experience who he believes can help fire Chester to Evo-Stik League First Division North glory.