Chester FC director Jeff Banks admitted his frustration at the kick off time for the friendly with Liverpool FC on Saturday being unable to be moved.

The all-ticket encounter, a sell out, had been set to bring a crowd of around 4,500 to the Swansway Chester Stadium on Saturday for the visit of Jurgen Klopp's Premier League giants, but with England's penalty shootout success over Colombia on Tuesday booking the Three Lions a quarter final date with Sweden on Saturday, fans have been left torn between the two with both games kicking off at 3pm.

When the fixture was first planned Chester had requested the kick off time to be brought forward to noon owing to the fact that it could have clashed with England at the World Cup. That request wasn't accepted with the Reds wanting to keep their initial plans for pre-season.

But following England's victory in Moscow on Tuesday fans had asked if the kick off time could be moved to allow them to watch both.

And the Blues were locked in discussion with Liverpool throughout Wednesday but given the logistical challenges facing the moving of kick off so late in the day for an all-ticket clash where around 4,500 were expected proved too difficult to overcome.

"It is frustrating to be honest but we have done everything we can from the start to move the game but it wasn't to be," said Banks.

"As part of our Fan Engagement Group we wanted to try and make sure that supporters could enjoy the best of both worlds and we as a club did what we could.

"We initially asked for the kick off to be brought forward to noon as we realised pretty early on that this could happen. But that wasn't accepted at the time and given the fact we only had a couple of days before the game itself meant that any late change could cause real problems.

"Changing the kick off time leaves you open to having to refund tickets and people have already made travel arrangements and things like that. Then there is the catering and corporate side of things, then there is liaising with the authorities, then there is stewarding arrangements. It wasn't as simple as just kicking off a little bit earlier."

Chester announced that the kick off time would be remaining 3pm last night. Shortly after, Liverpool announced that their clash with Tranmere Rovers had been switched to avoid a potential England semi-final clash, something that has not gone down well with some Blues fans.

"I think Liverpool have seen the appetite from fans to watch the England game and the reality is that moving the Tranmere game means that Tranmere have the appropriate time to rearrange things," said Banks.

"We have tried at our end but the challenges were too great at such short notice. Nothing has really changed since we first announced the friendly and this was always a possibility. Now it has become a reality I think it hits home a bit but we are still expecting a great day here with the visit of a strong Liverpool side who have been kind enough to donate all the gate receipts to us.

"Hopefully we can have an England win and a great performance from the Blues."