THE Football Conference have instructed Chester City to be prepared to stage their scheduled match against Oxford United on Saturday, if tomorrow’s vote of member clubs doesn’t sanction the management committee’s recommendation to kick the Deva Stadium outfit out of the Blue Square Premier League.

The league’s rulers need three quarters of the clubs who attend the crunch meeting in Northamptonshire to vote in favour of expulsion, less than that figure would lead to a temporary reprieve for City.

The Conference bigwigs voted to expel Chester from their league after the club pleaded guilty to breaching 5 separate rules.

A spokesman for the Conference said last night: “Basically Chester need to have everything in place to stage the game against Oxford, if the clubs don’t give the committee their required mandate.”

Logistically this scenario would be a nightmare for the club, whose unpaid players haven’t trained as a group for nearly a fortnight, and added complications would be policing, plus everything else that goes into staging a Conference league match.

Nobody from Chester would comment on the situation last night when approached by the Daily Post.

In order to placate the leagues management somewhat, City’s owners also need to find around £200,000 prior to tomorrow’s meeting at Nene Park, the monies owed to football creditors and HM Revenue and Customs.

Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting, City’s scheduled game next Tuesday against Barrow has been postponed because of the Cumbrians’ continued involvement in the FA Trophy.

Meanwhile, any purchase of Chester City from the Vaughan family looks like it wouldn’t be completed within the stated seven to 21-day timescale as prospective Danish buyers Chesterprojekt.dk aren’t convening a meeting of their members until Saturday, March 6.