TREBLE title-winning manager Neil Young has spoken of the pride and honour he will feel at being inducted into the City Fans United Hall of Fame before today's Chester FC match at home to Lincoln City (3pm kick-off).
Young led the reborn Blues up from the Evo-Stik League First Division North to the top flight of non-league football in the space of three memorable and glory-laden seasons after his appointment in May 2010.
He left the club in January 2014 but he will return to the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium this afternoon to take his place alongside fellow Chester greats like Grenville Millington, Stuart Rimmer and Ken Roberts in the Hall of Fame.
Young, who also won three cups as Chester boss, told The Chronicle: "It will be a proud moment for me and my family, who will be there with me.
"I'm really looking forward to going back as, for one, it will give me the opportunity to say thank you to the supporters. I wasn't able to do that when I left but I will on Saturday.
"We had three-and-a-half unbelievable years together - and I'm proud of what we achieved together. I sometimes think it gets underestimated what we actually achieved.
"Who would have said that six years on from the day we took over, when we literally had nothing, we didn't even have the keys to the ground, and when we were getting ready to play in the Vodkat League, that Chester Football Club would be playing Tranmere Rovers, and Wrexham, and, on Saturday, Lincoln City. It just shows you how far the club has come in what is still a short space of time.
"Jon McCarthy is doing a great job and hopefully the club will keep striving on."
Young is following in the footsteps of Millington, Rimmer, Roberts, Gary Talbot, Daryl Clare, Peter Jackson, Trevor Storton, Derek Draper, Iain Jenkins, Mike Metcalf, Elfed Morris, Ronnie Hughes, Milton Graham and two of his best signings, George Horan and Michael Wilde.
Graham Barrow and the late, great Harry McNally will also enter the Hall of Fame later this season.
And Young said: "Chester is my club. I know I wasn't a supporter when I first came but you know the amount of effort and work I put in, not just on the pitch, but off it too, and I did that because I cared.
"To be mentioned in the same breath as some of the legends, and with Harry McNally and Graham Barrow to come, is just unbelievable. These were people, when I was growing up, that when you were talking about Chester Football Club, you would always relate to.
"While I was at the club I got to know many of its legends, whether it be Grenville, Gary Talbot or Ken Roberts. Great people.
"I was well accepted. I did try and embed myself as much as I could into the club and into the community - and I think that was taken well by everybody. When I got the job I threw myself into it.
"But I couldn't have done it without the people around me. Whether it was Gary Jones, Gary Powell, Jimmy Soul, and the staff I had, or whether it was any of the volunteers. It wouldn't have been possible without them and without the momentum we generated from everybody pulling together in the same direction."
And when he looks back at his tenure, what were the stand-out moments?
"It's difficult," said Young. "I think one was definitely the Northwich Victoria game at home when Matty McGinn scored that goal to win us the league. Just the goal itself, the timing of it, and the fact that there were 5,000 people there, for what was only our second season, was just phenomenal.
"Then there was the Conference North season, when we broke all those records, which still stand today, and then there was the win at Wrexham.
"From the minute I walked through the door I was getting told by people how important it was to beat Wrexham. I do think, though, that some may have realised it may have been a pipe dream to do it so soon.
"So to go there and to win 2-0, and for me to become the first Chester manager to do that in 30-odd years, was special. I'll always remember the reception we got when we went home. After all, it was only our first win of the season after five defeats. But it meant something.
"But there were some great moments. We won six trophies, sold a player for six figures (Antoni Sarcevic), and I got an honorary degree from the University of Chester.
"We achieved a lot together in a short space of time."
