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While the current Chester FC squad prepare to round off their pre-season schedule at home to Cheshire neighbours Crewe Alexandra on Saturday, the build-up to the club's 1981/1982 season was a slightly different affair.

There were no visits from Premier League sides blooding their next crop of talent and no trips to local teams from the lower echelons of the regional footballing pyramid. This particular season was a competitive affair.

The Blues warmed up for their Third Division campaign by taking part in the inaugural Football League Group Cup, where 32 teams were split into eight regional groups of four teams each, with three round-robin games played by each side.

The eight group winners qualified for the quarter finals, and the knockout stages were played as a single leg, with the game going to extra time and penalties if necessary. The final was played on the home ground of one of the two teams.

Chester, then under the stewardship of player-manager Alan Oakes, opened their campaign in solid fashion, registering a 2-1 success at Fourth Division Bury, with Gary Simpson and Brynley Jones on target at Gigg Lane.

A narrow 1-0 defeat at Gay Meadow by Shrewsbury Town followed, meaning the Blues required a win against the Second Division Trotters in the final game in order to progress to the knockout stages.

Alas, it was not to be. A goal from David Burns wasn't enough to take the spoils for Oakes' men as the visiting Lancastrians ran out 2-1 winners in front of a crowd of 1,291 at Sealand Road.

The Chronicle has unearthed some images from the game which you take view in the above gallery.

The inaugural Football League Group Cup was won by Grimsby Town, who emerged 3-2 victors over Wimbledon at Blundell Park. But it was to last just one more season under its initial guise and was abandoned following the 1982/1983 season. The competition did, however, serve as a precursor to what is currently known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

The 1981/1982 season was to prove a miserable one on the whole for Chester fans, culminating in their relegation to the Fourth Division following an abysmal campaign which saw them finish rock-bottom with a points haul of 32 after registering just seven wins. A run of two draws and 15 defeats from mid-March to the end of the season in May only served to compound the misery for the Blues faithful.