THEY were labelled a bunch of “idiots” who met in “bingo halls”. A group of rebel fans lacking in credibility and “hell-bent” on destroying Chester City FC.

But the members of City Fans United, the supporters’ group which celebrated its first birthday last Friday, were nothing of the sort.

The “idiots” were, in fact, true supporters. The “bingo hall” was Chester’s Guildhall, one of the city’s finest buildings.

And once the debt-ridden football club they loved had been wound up in the High Court, the members of CFU were the ones who picked up the pieces and brought it back from the dead, ensuring that 125 years of proud history would not be lost forever.

As verbal attacks go, the infamous “bingo hall” rant issued by former Blues owner Stephen Vaughan in an outspoken interview with Sky Sports News back in February was as unwelcome as it was inaccurate.

It is a distant memory now – a footnote in the early history of CFU and their successful struggle to create a fan-owned phoenix club to replace the dearly departed Chester City FC.

“The fans have been put through so much, but not once did we ever give in,” said CFU board member and media officer Jeff Banks, who became the public ‘face’ of CFU in countless TV interviews as Chester’s plight became national news at the turn of the year.

He added: “The fans have stuck together all the way through and we are now seeing the pride returning to a fresh, community-driven football club.

“City Fans United members should take a bow.”

CFU have certainly come a long way in the 12 months since the organisation was formed at a meeting held in the Divas Show Bar on Station Road, exactly a year ago last Friday (October 22). Knowing that strength in numbers was required, the club’s two largest supporters groups – the ISA and the Supporters’ Trust – merged while the official supporters’ club was also brought under the CFU umbrella.

The Chester Exiles, a group for fans living outside the Chester area, also pledged their support to the CFU cause, meaning all Blues fans were united as one at a time when the future of the club they supported was looking perilous.

Exiles chair Pauline Meakins said: “I was one of the original working party which set up CFU so I would like to think that the Exiles, even though distanced from Chester, have played their part in the successful rebirth of the club.

“I think the supporters of Chester have really proved their critics wrong in working tirelessly together to create what is now one of the best-run clubs in non-league football.”

The series of events following that initial crisis meeting back in October have been well-documented in these pages – from Chester City’s horrible, seemingly-inevitable demise at the High Court in March, wound-up over unpaid debts to the taxman, to the new club’s historic relaunch at a triumphant public meeting at the Guildhall in May.

Extinction was the bitterest pill Blues fans ever had to swallow, but they rallied brilliantly. Now crowds of 2,400 are regularly turning up to watch Chester push for promotion from the fourth tier of non-league football.

Membership of CFU stands at 2,300, with 340 youngsters signed up to the Junior Blues supporters club.

Harry McNally Terrace regular Grahame Rhodes is one of the many Blues fans to be enjoying the club’s long-awaited resurgence.

Grahame, a paid-up CFU member who has followed Chester since 1969, said: “An amalgamation of all the club’s supporters organisations was well overdue and has definitely helped put Chester FC on a firm financial background.

“Hopefully the numbers will continue to grow, especially the Junior Blues, who are the lifeblood and future of the club.

“I think it is imperative for the continued success of the organisation that all members re-enrol when the times comes.”

And it is not just the fans who are happy to see the Blues back in business.

“I’m back into Chester again”, admitted Gary Talbot, one of the many former Blues players who joined with the supporters to help Chester FC get off the ground.

Talbot, a goal-scoring hero from the 1960s, is now an honorary vice-president for the new club.

He added: “What the members of the CFU have achieved in such a short space of time is incredible.

“The guys who run the club are not football ‘directors’ in the traditional sense of the word, they are football supporters who have made this idea work for Chester FC and the people of Chester.

“They’re not in it for themselves or the own gain but just simply for the love of the club. It’s owned by the people of Chester – no-one else.”