For Chester FC supporters the 1990s and 2000s was an emotional rollercoaster at the Deva Stadium, often pushing the boundaries of what it meant to be a football fan.
Threatened with extinction several times, winding up orders galore, irresponsible ownership, not to mention a few promotions and relegations mixed in, it's fair to say that Chester fans experienced more than most.
And while for many Chester players of that era the experience was often brief, for one stalwart the pain and the ecstasy of being a part of the club was all very real for a decade.
It's almost 20 years since Wayne Brown arrived at Chester City, a low-key acquisition from Weston-Super-Mare following a spell at Bristol City, he was brought in by manager Kevin Ratcliffe to provide some much-needed cover for veteran Scottish keeper and regular Blues number one, Ronnie Sinclair.
Over the next 10 years Brown would see relegations, promotions, three club owners and a host of managerial changes as he went on to establish himself as the club's first choice custodian and a firm fans favourite, earning himself a testimonial for his service to the club in 2004 with 298 Blues appearances to his name.
"I never expected to go on and have such a long association with the club but I think I saw pretty much everything and experienced all you can emotionally during my time at Chester," said Brown, who now heads up the goalkeeper coaching set-up at League One side Oxford United.
"It was often difficult at Chester with off the field problems happening a lot but I had a lot of friends there, which I still do, and I developed an affinity with the club, as you would expect after spending 10 years there."
Brown made his Blues debut in November 1996 in a 1-0 loss at home to Cardiff City in Division Three and wouldn't play again for the Blues until the final home game of the season against Leyton Orient, again on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline.
But with Sinclair struggling for injury during the following campaign, Brown made 13 appearances in the Football League during the 1997/98 season as he began to make his mark at Chester, playing in the final five games of the season after Sinclair had been dropped by Ratcliffe following a 5-0 mauling at Exeter City.
Off-field issues
But it didn't take long for the off-field issues to affect Brown and the rest of the Blues squad, though, as the club entered administration in August 1998.
"I'd ended the season as number two to Ronnie but he left at the end of that season and Neil Cutler came in and it was me and him battling it out for the number one spot," said Brown, who made 23 appearances during the 98/99 campaign, the same as Cutler, who departed at the end of the season for Aston Villa.
"I was offered a two-year contract at Chester at the end of the 97/98 season but it was only a day or so after that the club went into administration with Mark Guterman as the owner. I didn't know what to think or do. One minute I had a this new deal and then we were being told that the club might not even survive. It was tough on everyone."
Chester managed to consolidate during the 98/99 season and were eventually bought by American maverick owner Terry Smith in July 1999. But, as history shows, the road was anything but smooth.
The Terry Smith era
"The stories about Terry could go on forever and most of them are true," said Brown.
"We stopped off at McDonalds's on the way to an away match for a pre-match meal, which any professional athlete knows isn't the right preparation. But that was just one of a host of things. The whole season was crazy.
"When we were training on the Deva pitch he just walked on and brought an American football and we just started playing that. The lads couldn't believe it. A professional football club in the Football League and here we were playing American football instead of doing actual training.
"There was one instance before a game at Mansfield Town, I had made my own way there but had got stuck in traffic so turned up a little bit late.
"I walked into the changing room before the match and made my apologies to the lads and then Terry said he wanted a word with me outside. I thought he was going to give me a talking to about being late, but what he actually wanted was to know what team he should pick!
"I was only 23 or 24 at the time and was really freaked out by it. He asked me to pretty much pick the team for the game. We ended up losing (2-1) but I couldn't focus throughout the whole thing because I was feeling like it was somehow my responsibility. It was so bizarre.
"But I must say that through all the strange goings on and the problems, Terry wasn't a bad person when I was there and his family couldn't have been nicer.
"He was more a man who was hopelessly out of his depth and didn't know what to do and how to go about running a football club. He came with good intentions but he just got found out and unravelled as a result of that."
Lowest point
The lowest point of Brown's Chester career was still to come, though.
May 6, 1999 is a day that many Blues fans won't forget for all the wrong reasons as a 1-0 defeat at home to Peterborough United ended their 69-year stay in the Football League as they fell through the relegation trap door and into non-league football.
"It was awful, so many of those fans I had got to know and to see them all like that was terrible," recalled Brown on seeing the tears of Blues fans on the pitch at the final whistle.
"We came so close to pulling off what had seemed impossible but just fell at the last hurdle. I don't think we had any right to pull it off after the season we had but we very nearly did it.
"It was a feeling that I'd never experienced before. We felt like we had let all the fans down."
Ian Atkins had been brought in as director of football by Smith owing to fan pressure and their seemingly hopeless league predicament and very nearly achieved the greatest of great escapes.
"Ian Atkins did a great job with us that season," said Brown.
"Before he came in we had a team full of young foreign players who were way off the pace. We had the lads from Trinidad, Angus Eve, and they were good players but just not what was needed at that level.
"After Ian came in the squad was pulled apart. Gone were those Smith signings and in were big grizzly bears like Stuart Hicks. It was getting those guys in that gave us a fighting chance. I think the squad that ended the season would have done well the following season but it wasn't to be."
Brown remained loyal to Chester following their relegation and was number one during Graham Barrow's 2000/2001 campaign, a season that saw the Blues reach the FA Trophy semi-final, the FA Cup third round and finish eighth in the league.
Barrow went at the end of the season as Smith's reign began to crumble in 2001/2002 before Stephen Vaughan acquired the club mid-season, a move that was met with much delight at the time by Blues fans who had no idea what the future would hold.
"Chairman came and went, managers came and went, it was always something," said Brown.
"The turnover of players at Chester, I've never seen anything like it before. I always hoped we'd have a settled side from season to season but there was always something to stop it from happening.
"Mark Wright must have been manager about 12 times! He did his best to get rid of me and then keep me, get rid of me and then keep me. We did win the Conference under him, though.
Going full circle
The elation of winning the Conference title in 2004 is one that Brown looks back on with great fondness, as a player who toughed it out through dark days and managed to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.
"It was special for me as I know how much it meant to the fans," said Brown.
"It was like going full circle for me. I'd been with the club when they dropped out of the Football League and I was able to play a part in them returning. It was a proud moment.
"The squad we had that season was superb and I still stay in touch with the likes of Phil Bolland and Shaun Carey, they're good mates and we experienced some memorable times together."
After Chester's promotion to the Football League, Brown's time at the club appeared to be nearing its conclusion as, after starting the season as number one, he had his place taken by Chris Mackenzie, a summer signing from Telford United.
Brown made 23 appearances for the Blues in 2004/2005 but was deemed surplus to requirements when Keith Curle arrived at the club in 2005, going on a season-long loan to Hereford United and helping them return to the Football League before making the move permanent in 2006.
Brown's final appearance in the Chester first team was in a 4-2 loss at Wycombe Wanderers in March 2005.
Said Brown, "Keith Curle came in and did his best to get rid of me and that stuff that went on during that time in trying to get me out of the club wasn't great. There are ways and means of doing things and I left under a cloud which was a shame after all I had been through with the club.
"But I moved on with some great memories and my time at Hereford was enjoyable and we got promoted to the Conference and then to League One in the space of about three years. It was a special time."
Brown, who earned England C honours during his Chester days, then spent two years at Bury and a season in South Africa with Supersport United before returning to the English game with Oxford United in 2011, initially as cover before becoming player/goalkeeper coach in 2012, eventually retiring in 2014.
Start of a new chapter
"Chris Wilder, the Oxford boss at the time, said that I'd been brought in to eventually take over on the goalkeeping coaching side of things at some stage in the future," said Brown, who would take over the role following the death of U's coach and former Manchester United coach Alan Hodgkinson from an illness at the age of 79.
"Alan Hodkingson, God rest his soul, was off ill and they needed someone to take over. I was proud to carry on the work that Alan had done.
"I've been doing that ever since and I'm now in charge of the goalkeepers from the age of 16 right through to the first team keepers and it's a job I really love.
"Last season was one of the most memorable in my football career. We won promotion to League One and played some of the best football I have ever seen.
"What the chairman has done here in transforming a club and getting so many more fans through the gate is unreal. It's a privilege to be part of it and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me.
"Chester still have a place in my heart and I always look out for them and want them to do well, and that will never change.
"The way the fans rallied when the club needed them was amazing. It's a wonderful club with great fans and gave me many happy times."
