Here's the staggering mileage Chester FC will be doing in the National League next season

By the time the 2017/18 Vanarama National League season comes to a close next April, Chester FC will have clocked up a staggering 7,524 miles on their travels.

Next season’s National League looks set to be one of the most gruelling for the Blues and their fans with the 24 teams spread far and wide across the country, clocking more miles than it would take to travel from Chester to Timbuktu and back again.

For northern sides in particular, the volume of southern clubs who will compete in the division next season means that the M1 and M4 motorways are likely to become all too familiar and Oxford and Watford Gap services are bound to see a fair number of blue and white shirts during the campaign.

Of the 23 other teams in the National League, 10 of them break the 200 mile barrier - and that’s just heading one way.

Sixteen clubs will see Blues fans have to travel well over 100 miles in each direction, with only Macclesfield Town Tranmere Rovers and Wrexham coming under the 50-mile mark one way.

Expectedly, Dover Athletic remain top of the list of long journeys with the trip to the Crabble from the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium racking up 542 miles on a round trip.

A round trip to Maidstone United’s Gallagher Stadium will see the Blues travel 502 miles while a round trip to Torquay comes in at 500 miles.

North Ferriby United, Southport, York City and Braintree Town all dropped out of the division at the end of the last campaign and they have been replaced by Ebbsfleet United, Maidenhead United, AFC Fylde and FC Halifax Town.

Of those who came up from the National League South, Ebbsfleet is 221 miles each way from Chester while Maidenhead is slightly more kind, coming in at 182 miles each way.

It’s going to be a long haul.