EVERYONE who was living at the time can remember where they were when President Kennedy was shot. Now also ingrained in my memory is the place where I learned of Chester's distressing fate.

I was covering a Premiership game at Middlesbrough - or at least attempting to - while being kept updated on the progress of the third division relegation games.

Suddenly, when news of Chester's drop into the Conference was confirmed, my mind was consumed by despair and anger. There was agony over the loss of our League status and a searing pain in the realisation that much of it had been undermined from within.

Most summers in the early years of my allegiance to Chester were spent agonising over whether the old pal's act would come to our rescue - in those days the bottom four of the old Fourth Division had to apply for re-election.

Some of my schoolmates supported Ellesmere Port, then of the Cheshire League, and I always used to think 'how can anyone follow a non-league club?'

At around 4.50pm on that fateful Saturday four years ago, I suddenly discovered I was supporting a non-league club. Don't let anyone kid you the Conference is really, in effect, an extra division of the Football League - it's really just one step away from footballing oblivion - a fate that nearly befell us as the UniBond League loomed into view soon after.

It had been bad enough witnessing the memories of Sealand Road - famous victories over Leeds United and Newcastle United, plus images of that free-scoring forward line of Jimmy Humes, Mick Metcalf, Gary Talbot, Hugh Ryden and Elfed Morris - being literally bulldozed to make way for an anaemic shopping complex, but to lose our League status was simply gutwrenching.

The Conference talks a good game, but the brutal reality is that you feel distinctly second class. Who really wants to mix with the likes of Dover, Dagenham & Redbridge and poor old Northwich?

Then, when you are abroad, trying to catch up with the Conference results is a case for Sherlock Holmes. Nobody wants to know.

So, it's with great joy and much relief that I salute the efforts of owner Stephen Vaughan and manager Mark Wright in bringing the sunken vessel back to life from the equivalent of 20,000 leagues under the sea.

It must never be allowed to happen again and you have the feeling that this is the Second Coming, a revitalised club who aren't prepared to simply stand still in the third division.

I know it's being a bit greedy in the light of Chester finding themselves back on the Football League map, but can we have a ground to match - money being spent on improving the Deva Stadium which Vinnie Jones once rightly remarked reminded him of a Subbuteo ground?

And as fans, let's rally round and make sure that even in its present basic state it still bubbles with large supportive crowds.

It's often said you only appreciate things when they have gone. Thankfully, as Chester fans, we have been given a second chance.

Let's not waste it. We are living again.