Calum McIntyre hailed the efforts of his Chester young guns after they were crowned National League Under 19 Alliance Cup champions.

The Blues’ latest crop of talented teenagers swatted aside FC Halifax Town 3-0 in the showpiece final at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium, roared on by hundreds of travelling Chester fans who witnessed a polished performance and goals from Lloyd Marsh-Hughes, Cain Noble and man-of-the-match Iwan Murray.

“This is probably the biggest in terms of what we have achieved,” head coach McIntyre said.

“We've been crowned the best non-league (youth) side in the country and I thought we were good value for it, as we have been through the competition.

"It is massive. It is six or seven years in the making to get to this point and if you look at the staff, they are all still celebrating behind us and we’ve done that with volunteer coaches, a sponsored academy manager and a group of lads that just want to run around and work hard.

"I’m ecstatic for everyone involved and that is as far back as Bernard Concannon and Mark Howell, Brian Burns, Mike Day and Ian Swettenham, and my entire coaching staff. I am delighted for everyone at the football club."

It’s been a trying campaign for Chester, with the first-team suffering relegation from the National League amid a financial crisis off the pitch, but the youth team have continued to thrive and McIntyre, aged just 24, felt the whole club had united behind his starlets.

“That’s the best football game I’ve ever been involved in,” he continued.

“The 300-odd fans, they were like 3,000 with the noise they made. There’s always a nervousness in any cup final but we got a set-piece after about four minutes and our fans have gone up. Our lads felt 10 feet tall after that. I can’t thank them enough for their support, they were unbelievable.

“This cup run has been against all the odds, I know it’s a rubbish cliché, but we shouldn’t have won at Romford, getting up at 6am, we beat Boreham Wood, the best team in the country at home, and Gateshead in front of 1,000 of our own supporters.

“This competition has been a sub-plot to such a difficult season for the football club. But for the lads to have done that in tough circumstances, I couldn’t be prouder.

“Our football club will be back, with that wheel turning and the desire, it will be back. That was unbelievable, and we couldn’t have done it without them.”

It was an accomplished performance from Chester, from goalkeeper Ben Gale, defensive rocks Alex Downes and Ryan Dobson right through to forwards Marsh-Hughes and Murray.

“I read a lot that Halifax did a lot of work on us and Mark Trueman is a terrific coach and his team play a terrific brand of football,” McIntyre added.

“It was a contrast of styles but we’re hard to beat. We’re hard to break down and it was an off the ball performance we’ve put in there.

“We’ve done it to the likes of Bolton and Fleetwood last season. We were worthy of a three-goal margin and I’m delighted for Iwan Murray. What a little footballer, he contributes so much and to go and score that goal, you’ve seen what it means.”