Got a little time to spare before tomorrow’s match at home to Aldershot Town (3pm kick-off)? Fancy doing your bit to help Chester FC 's future?

Well, why not take part in the annual ‘Blues on the March’ sponsored walk that begins at the Swansway Chester Stadium?

Every single penny raised from the three-mile walk, which starts at 12noon, will go to the Chester FC Academy.

And the academy is certainly deserving of every bit of support it receives.

The success it has achieved is well documented: from the recruitment, development and subsequent sale of Sam Hughes to Leicester City, to famous FA Youth Cup wins, and to the present day and the progression of James Jones and Tom Crawford into first-team regulars.

But, in case you needed reminding of just how much the academy continues to punch above its weight, then two examples have come in the past 10 days.

Firstly, the club’s new scholars side, which was introduced this season, sealed the National League Under-19 Alliance Division K title with an emphatic 8-0 victory at Stockport County.

Chester FC celebrate winning the National League Under-19 Alliance Division K title at Stockport County

Sion Jones (3), Lloyd Marsh-Hughes (2), Nick Lynch, Cain Noble and Leighton Kendrick got the goals for the highly promising U17s team, who then followed that up with a 3-0 win at Romford on Wednesday that booked their place in the National League U19 Alliance Cup semi-finals.

The win, secured by strikes from Iwan Murray, James Cottrell and Louis Hayes, was impressive enough.

But even more impressive were the lengths that the team, led by academy head coach Calum McIntyre, and supported by an army of volunteers, had to go to get to the quarter-final tie in the place.

It is a story that sums up everything that is good about the club – and is a compelling argument for why you should you get your walking boots on tomorrow... or at least sponsor someone who is taking part.

McIntyre, speaking on our latest True Blue Podcast, said: “Nobody gave us a chance, if you look at the logistics for that fixture (which kicked-off at 2pm).

“We left Chester at 6.45 in the morning – I think our boys discovered there were hours before 7am that they can get out of bed! – and it was a really long day.

“We were grateful to our sponsors, Marion and John Needham, who paid for our team bus, and Alan Case, who paid for our pre-match meal, and Rainbow Slush, who sponsored our kit, which we needed because Romford play in blue and yellow, and to our volunteers, who took a day off work.

“So for us to be in the last four in a competition for teams from all across the country is a great achievement. We had to do it our own way and I was delighted for everyone involved.

“We’re a huge football club, and you saw that in the support we had in deepest, darkest East London (on Wednesday), but it’s about resources.

“So who are we competing with in terms of a production line? We’re competing with some huge clubs in the north west on our doorstep and, more than anything else, financially we’re punching well above our weight.

"The academy is 87% self-funded, through sponsorship, subscription fees, sponsored walks. We punch well above our weight.

“Our resources compared to what traditionally you would call smaller football clubs... we shouldn’t compete with them; we shouldn’t be in the last four in the country of a knock-out competition.

“It’s our maiden year of combining a full-time training programme with an education programme; we shouldn’t be doing what we are doing, but it’s testament to the quality of the players.

“Why should Football League sides be any stronger than us? I look at the players, I look at the recruitment, and I look at the development and I go away really confident about what we can achieve.

Sam Hughes is the greatest success story from the Chester FC academy

“The income that was generated through the sale of Sam Hughes would have funded the cost of the academy for about 10 years. That is the level of resource we are working with – and I embrace that.

“There is no other academy head coach job at this level of football probably like this one at Chester in terms of the way we go about business and the way we have to do it.

“But there probably isn’t a club elsewhere that has the pathway which we have, which is now backed up statistically.

“The aim is to have more (academy) players in the first team next season and to see how the existing academy graduates that are already in the first-team group continue.

“But I’m excited at the quality of the players from the older age groups, from the U15s up, who are moving into youth team football, and I am confident we will do something exciting, profitable and special to the football club, and now it is the time for it to become a focal point of what we do.”

Registration for the walk opens at 11am tomorrow. For more information see HERE.