A lot has changed since but it is 15 years to the day since Chester City returned to the Football League.
A solitary goal from striker Darryn Stamp sealed the three points for Chester in a 1-0 win at home to Scarborough in front of a packed Deva Stadium, a crowd of over 5,000 cramming in to witness a slice of Blues history as they claimed their first ever national title. It was a lockout.
The win meant that Chester could not be caught by their nearest rivals for the title, Hereford United, and sealed the Blues' place back among the elite 92 of the Football League.
It came four years on from one of the darkest days in the club's history when they dropped out of the Football League on a heartbreaking afternoon at the Deva, where Barry Fry's Peterborough United claimed a 1-0 win and condemned Chester to Non-League football, ending their 69-year stay in the Football League.
But Mark Wright's Chester side, aided by the goals of Stamp and his lethal strike partner Daryl Clare, the class and guile of the likes of Ben Davies and Paul Carden in the centre of midfield and the defensive muscle of Scott Guyett, Phil Bolland and Danny Collins meant that the Blues were deserved winners of a division which they dominated from start to finish.
The game itself was poor spectacle and Stamp's 19th-minute goal, where he capitalised on a mistake from Scarborough's Glen Downey, was all that separated the sides, and it was all that mattered.
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Tony Hackworth struck a post for the visitors and there were three nerve-jangling minutes of added time but the final whistle brought scenes of jubilation to the Deva where four years previous there had been despair.
The joy wasn't to last but for one afternoon in April all was right with the world if you were a Chester fan.
CHESTER TEAM V SCARBOROUGH
Turner, Collins (Elam), McIntyre, Carden, Bolland, Guyett, Heard, Davies, Stamp, Clare (Rapley), Twiss (Harris).
