CHESTER will entertain York City tomorrow having suffered their heaviest home defeat for more than 19 years.

The Deva Stadium side were thrashed 6-0 by new National League North leaders Stockport County on Tuesday night.

Nyal Bell (2), Sam Walker (2), Darren Stephenson and Jordan Keane were all on target in the club’s biggest loss on their own soil since February 2000.

During the club’s pre-2010 incarnation, Chester were beaten by Brighton 7-1 in front of their own fans with future England international Bobby Zamora hitting a hat-trick in the League Two contest, which saw former Bootham Crescent defender Gary Hobson and Andy Porter – who would later coach and caretaker manage the Minstermen – on the receiving end of the thumping.

Chester would end that campaign bottom of the Football League and relegated to the Conference.

This term, the Cheshire side sit tenth and four points off the play-off pace with an understandably unfavourable goal difference, considering this week’s loss surprisingly doesn’t represent the club’s largest margin of defeat in 2018/19.

That was recorded back in August when they went down 8-1 at Blyth Spartans.

Chester had gone into the Stockport clash unbeaten in four league games, which had represented their longest sequence in five months.

Furthermore, prior to the midweek humiliation, no side in the division had lost a fewer number of home games this season that Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley’s men with Altrincham and Curzon Ashton the only other teams to have left Chester with maximum points.

Ex-Bury and Macclesfield striker Anthony Dudley is the Blues’ leading marksman this term with 11 goals – all scored in league encounters – but he hasn’t found the net in any of the last eight matches since a 4-1 mid-February beating of Boston.

Chester’s cause this season has not been helped, meanwhile, by a string of long-term injuries to key performers.

Ex-Fleetwood forward Matty Hughes has been missing since October due to anterior cruciate ligament damage, with skipper Scott Burton – a summer signing from Salford – sidelined for the same length of time having also undergone knee surgery.

Burton did return to the bench in midweek and might now get his chance from the start against the Minstermen.

Fellow midfielder Gary Stopforth will not feature, though, having been ruled out since he tore his meniscus in December.

Highly-rated academy prospect Rhain Hellawell has also been absent during the whole campaign after suffering a pre-season knee injury.

With Burton and Stopforth both crocked, Chester signed former City loan midfielder Sean McAllister in January.

The 31-year-old, former Sheffield Wednesday and Scunthorpe campaigner had been without a club since the end of last season after being released by Grimsby and had not made a senior appearance since last March in a 4-0 defeat for the Mariners at Coventry.

He has subsequently played ten times for Johnson and Morley’s side and is expected to face his old club.