Chester City manager Jim Harvey has been dealt a big double blow by failing to extend deals for influential loan pair Michael Coulson and Johnny Flynn.

Blackburn defender Flynn and Barnsley midfielder Coulson had each been expecting to stop on for a second month after impressing at the Deva Stadium.

But cash-strapped Chester were unable to push through an extension.

That leaves Harvey, hampered by being under a transfer embargo, being forced to soldier on with what he has got.

There looks to be no immediate light at the end of City's long, dark tunnel, unless the club receive the discretionary parachute payment they are holding out for following last season's relegation from the Football League.

That would allow them to settle outstanding debts owed to neighbours Wrexham and Vauxhall Motors.

City have been threatened with expulsion from the Football Conference if they fail to pay up, but have now been given an extended deadline of 30 November.

Harvey had been hoping that Flynn and Coulson, as existing loan signings, could be kept on the books despite the current embargo.

The arrival of Flynn, in particular, had helped City embark on a run of three successive league wins to offer hope that they may somehow pull away from the bottom of the Blue Square Premier table.

We have to be careful we don't go gung-ho, playing forward football all the time without keeping an eye on the back door Chester boss Jim Harvey

But Flynn missed the last two matches of his month-long loan spell, being called way on Northern Ireland Under-21 duty. And City have shipped six goals in losing both games, at York and Tamworth.

Chester came away from York comparatively heartened as they pulled back a three-goal half-time deficit to rally in the second half and go down only 3-2.

But Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Tamworth was down to individual defensive errors in a game City should have won.

"We had so much possession," Harvey told BBC Radio Merseyside. "There was a lot of good football.

"We've opened them up and Mark Beesley slotted his goal home lovely.

"But sometimes you can get caught up in playing football and forget about your job.

"We have just got to be careful that we don't go gung-ho, playing forward football all the time without keeping an eye on the back door."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version