Turn the clock back to January 25 of this year and the picture painted at the City Fans United (CFU) members meeting was a bleak one indeed.

Board members of the supporters group that owns the football club revealed that Chester FC needed £50,000 in the short term in order to reach the end of March and to keep the club going in the short term as the full extent of a financial crisis that was born from mismanagement was revealed.

That night over £1,200 was raised from donations alone and the following days and weeks saw Blues fans and the wider football community rally around the football club in its time of need.

A youth team game that raised over £12,500, an all-star game featuring the likes of Michael Owen and Ian Rush raised £25,000, a walk from Wrexham FC's ground to Chester's home by Grenville Millington and Ed Jones brought over £7,000 and even former midfielder Antoni Sarcevic's kind donation of his Conference North winners medal raised over £550.

The £50,000 target was soon passed and on Monday that total was doubled as fundraising burst through the £100,000 mark.

But that cannot be the end of it.

Chester remain in the midst of a financial crisis and what looks an inevitable relegation to the National League North at the end of this season.

The CFU have now set a target of £150,000 for their fundraising drive as they look to safeguard the football club's future for the longer term, with liabilities on the playing budget for next season likely to make the next 12 months the most difficult since the club reformed from the ashes of Chester City back in 2010.

The Blues have been boosted in the past week by the return of legendary former manager Neil Young in an advisory capacity , a move initiated by current Chester boss Marcus Bignot.

And Young made no bones about the challenges Chester are facing.

He said: "We have had a difficult three months with the finances but the next 12 months is going to be the most difficult since the reformation of the football club. I don’t know the numbers yet but I have got a rough idea in terms of liabilities (on the playing budget) for next year.

"There is going to be an expectation, and rightly so from the Chester fans and we have got to make that expectation a reality as best we can with what we have got. There is a lot of hard work going on and hopefully I can assist with that over the next seven or eight weeks because it is not just about getting us on a firm footing for this season, more importantly going forward we give ourselves the best chance whatever league we are in next year."