Chester wound up in High Court hearing

City were liquidated over debts owed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in a brief hearing on Wednesday morning.

But David Evans of Chester City Fans United (CFU) said: "125 years of history have been extinguished today, but that's just the body of the club - its soul lives on."

A new club along the lines of AFC Wimbledon is the group's goal and "today is the day to say to everybody that our club will be run in a professional way and be a credit to our city and to football.

"Our model is AFC Wimbledon or AFC Telford, where a new club has been run on a very prudent basis.

"We want to atone for the way the club has been run - we see this as our responsibility even though it wasn't our fault."

City chief executive Bob Gray said that he hoped the group could ensure Chester continued to be represented by a club, but he blamed their boycott of matches as one of "a multitude" of factors that contributed to the decline of the club.

Attendances at the Deva Stadium hit an all-time record low as CFU called on fans to stay away from home games to protest against the club's owners, the Vaughan family.

Gray said: "(There were) a multitude of things. Poor performances on the pitch when we needed to win games that would possibly have turned the corner for us.

"The boycott never helped. When you're staging a football game and you're losing money and can't afford to pay the players, it's difficult.

"It's a very difficult dividing line to find between being successful and unsuccessful and unfortunately we have gone down the unsuccessful route.

"I'm upset for the guys that work here, they're a loyal staff and unfortunately, I now have to go and tell them the situation that we're in and that will be upsetting.

"I think the football club can (come back). It's not going to be easy, but, if they want to take a phoenix club in an AFC Chester and a football club continues to play here, that's all the staff at this football club ever wanted."

Meanwhile, Cardiff have been given until May 5 to settle a tax debt to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in order to avoid following Chester into liquidation.

The Bluebirds appeared at a High Court hearing on Wednesday with HMRC seeking to have the club wound up over unpaid bills.

Matthew Smith representing HMRC told Mrs Registrar Derrett that the club owed around £1.9 million and were "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in order to stay afloat.