The hair may be shorter and greyer and the moustache has long gone but seeing Graham Barrow back at Chester last week brought a whole host of much-cherished Blues memories flooding back.
Like many, I find the word legend vastly overused. It is a word that should be reserved for the very select few, those who go beyond just being good footballers. The kind of individual who embody the spirit of a football club, a person who can relate to the fans and fans can relate to.
For me, names such as Harry McNally, Stuart Rimmer and Gary Talbot. Those guys are club legends. There are others too and all deserving of their own special recognition of their contribution to the Blues over the years.
Barrow was back in the dugout last week at a ground where he achieved such success in the 1990s, assisting Gary Caldwell as Championship side Wigan Athletic were held to a 0-0 draw at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium .
He remains someone who still hasn't really been recognised for his contribution to the club over the years and, surely, the testimonial which he was promised in 2007 but never given must come to pass sooner rather than later.
A midfield general who few matched before or since, Barrow delivered week in, week out on McNally's calls to leave everything on the pitch, to put it all on the line in pursuit of victory. As brave as a lion, Barrow had the stomach for any fight and for fans privileged enough to watch him in his 80s pomp for the Blues, was everything you would want in your captain. A leader of men.
It's 30 years since Barrow first arrived at Sealand Road, signed by McNally from Wigan Athletic. In that time he clocked up 248 Football League appearances and had two spells in the Chester manager's hot seat as well as a stint as assistant manager.
He led the club to promotion from Division Three in 1994, a season which ranks as one of the most memorable in the Blues' history as they defied the odds to return to the third tier of English football.
If ever a measure of the man was needed, Barrow's decision to step away from his beloved Blues at the end of that promotion season to make a stand against what was going on behind the scenes spoke volumes about his character. A man of principle who fans felt was always on their side.
In the summer of 1994, owing to frustrations with the Blues board under Morrison Shand over their sale of key players such as Chris Lightfoot and lack of funds being made available, Barrow quit.
"I am a man of principle and I felt that I needed to make a stand to show people what was going on," said Barrow in an interview with the Chronicle earlier this year .
"I had great support from the likes of Joe Hinnigan, Alan Oakes and Ray Crofts early on but there was a new chairman after Mr Crofts left and it was difficult.
"If I had my sensible head on, I had a family that I had to support and it would have been easier for me just to carry on for the next season and continue to pick up my wage. But I couldn't do it.
"I didn't like the direction that the club was heading and I had a duty to let the fans know. It wasn't a move done because I wanted to go somewhere else, I loved Chester and wanted to make the club a success, which I thought could have happened given the right support."
There are few who would take such a principled stance nowadays.
Barrow was promised a testimonial following his departure as assistant manager to Mark Wright at the Blues in 2007. That, along with many other promises made by chairman Stephen Vaughan, failed to materialise.
Barrow retains his affinity and love for the club to this day and his qualities as a coach and a football man have shone through and seen him become a key cog in the Latics backroom staff in recent years.
There are generations of fans who never witnessed a crunching Barrow tackle, who never watched him lead us to Division Two on the back of a stunning season on the pitch. There are those who never watched him make us competitive in our first year in non-league football under the chairmanship of Terry Smith, where he led us, against all odds, to eighth in the league, the FA Cup third round (what a day at Blackburn that was!) and to the FA Trophy semi-final.
He was that consistency we so needed during the dark days of the late 1980s, when Sealand Road was sold from under us. He was and still remains a true blue, a man who went through the mill with all of us and understood our pain. And it's no surprise that when fans needed a lift then the hierarchy would call on Barrow, a man who fans trusted and who never let them down.
I sincerely hope that we see the day that Barrow can have his day. A good crowd you could almost guarantee, for there are few in football that remain like Barrow. It's high time we make official our recognition for all that he did. The epitome of all that was and is good about Chester FC. I for one would be happy to help with making this happen and I'm sure many Blues fans would feel the same.
