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The early years supporting Chelsea had to be done from afar via the
television and newspapers looking for all the information I could and
especially all the photographs. There was also the additional
excitement of coming home from school to find the new issue of Goal
magazine ready to be read and once read from cover to cover
stripped of all the photographs of my then Chelsea heroes, of
course other teams players that you secretly admired did also get a
place on the bedroom wall but only if they were wearing an England
shirt!

SCHOOL

Monday mornings at school were always football oriented, more so
than most, there was always the early game of football usually
played with a tennis ball, but Mondays always had the added extra
buzz with the talk of Saturdays results, you expected loads of stick
from mates who supported other teams if Chelsea had lost that
weekend more so if it had been a London Derby, throwing a 'sickie'
was even considered just to avoid having to face the winning teams
gloating supporters!
We had a good mix of teams supported with the main rivalry being
between Chelsea, West Ham, Millwall, Man.Utd and there was even a
loan QPR fan but after some persuasion his allegiance soon
changed and later on he was to stand alongside me and other fellow
Shedites in the Chelsea Shed!

As I was growing up I can't recall my Dad going to many football
matches I think mainly it was down all the work he done to keep me
and my brother and two sisters fed and watered, he always seemed
to be at work, almost permanent nights so the spare time was
scarce, on the odd occasion I can remember him throwing over a
copy of an Arsenal programme from a match he had managed to get
to, I suppose hoping I'll switch my allegiance to North London!!
I wasn't allowed to go to any matches in the early 70s due to the
increase in football violence and this was compounded when my Dad
returned from a game at Highbury where Arsenal had just played
Ajax (I think?) and violence had erupted and a bottle had just missed
my Dad and hit a friend of his, that, to my knowledge was his last
game at a professional match and he certainly wasn't going to take
me or even allow me to attend a game.
He tried to persuade me to watch our local team Redhill FC but
somehow that didn't have the same lure that Chelsea had and
anyway, if I couldn't go to football Saturdays were spent playing it, on
the local green with 'jumpers as goalposts' as they say on the Fast
Show! Mind you we had the luxury of a single tree either end so we
only needed 2 jumpers, the poor residents of the flats backing on to
the green, one in particular, who always had the ball crashing in to
her windows and in to her garden when one spotty youth imagining
himself as his hero volleyed the ball straight into her garden, with her
vocal response in a strong Welsh accent got her the nickname of
'The Dalek', kids can be so cruel!!

THE NEED FOR A PLAN

Things had to change, I was hearing tales of mates from school who
had been to football and seen the swaying mass on the Shed End
terracing or their respective teams grounds, one lad had even been
to an away game with an Uncle outside of London! Tales of how they
had seen their heroes in the flesh, how they had joined in with the
songs on the terracing, the new scarf that was purchased along the
Fulham Road and not in the local High St sports shop, I still had to
be satisfied with watching any highlights there were on the BBC's
'Match Of The Day' thats if I was allowed to stay up and watch it after
I had been pestering my Mum all week about going to a match (The
idea was to get Mum on my side first then tackle Dad!) If 'Match Of
The Day' wasn't possible there was always ITV's 'The Big Match' on
Sunday afternoon which being London based always gave you a
better chance of seeing Chelsea's match highlights, remember this
was years before SkySports and usually you only got to see
highlights of 5 or 6 games (thats both programmes) nothing else not
even goals from the other ones! A plan was needed.

THE PLAN

I've no recollection of how we came up with this plan, all I know was if
it went wrong I had the idea of blaming my friend and co-planner Tim
Wright (sorry mate.)
The match was chosen Nottingham Forest Sept.6th 1975 (although
strangely enough I still have trouble being 100% about this! I look at
previous matches and think was that the one?...I think I need to
confer which is bad I must admit..Tim where are you?) and on that
Saturday morning I got up early so as not to face my parents, as I
knew I couldn't lie to them face to face, I was a terrible liar! My Dad
had been on a night shift so he was still out for the count, Mum was
stirring so I left a note saying I was to be at a mates house all day
(brilliant hey?)left the house and legged it as fast as I could. 50yards
down the road and safely out of sight, there I could remove my well
concealed scarves get suitably ready for my first game at the home
of my heroes Chelsea F.C.
It wasn't one of the Worlds greatest plans but even so I was pleased
with it, simple but effective (at the time it seemed to be very involved
and had a lot of planning, perhaps it was just youthful imagination
making that way?) it did however have serious flaws, how was I to get
back into the house undetected to avoid what I would deem as the
third degree but would only be normal questions parents would ask
their young teenage son who had been out all day?.....This didn't
matter, that was hours away before I needed to worry about that, I
was off to see The Blues and excitement and adrenalin was pumping
through me like no tomorrow, I wasn't worried about anything
else.....Come On You Blues!!!!!

TRAVELLING TO THE MATCH

I met up with Tim, who was also suitably adorned in as many scarves
as possible (It was not unknown for the regular football fan to be
wearing 4 or 5 scarves around various parts of his body in the mid
1970s....how fashions change!) and we made our way across
Earlswood Common towards the station. Earlswood was chosen as
the departure point as it was not as busy as the mainline station
Redhill and therefore less likely hood of getting spotted by someone
I knew or more importantly my parents knew, the fact that we stood
out like a pair of sore thumbs never really occurred to us!
The downside to catching the train from Earlswood was that the
trains were not as frequent and they were the slow ones to London,
stopping at a multitude of stations on route, not that time was not on
our side, we were looking to catch the 09:30 for a game that kicked
off at 3pm and travelling(even slowly) would only take 90 minutes
including any Underground train we needed to catch!

Earlswood station like many provincial stations back in the 1970s
seemed to be manned by a skeleton staff, in fact it always amazed
me that the same guy was always on duty, one moment selling
tickets, the next collecting them and then somehow or other out on
the platform sweeping up certainly a man with many hats!
Now in the early days due to the fact we had little money fare
dodging was the order of the day and dodging the multi talented
Station Master became a sport in itself.
I can remember waiting in the waiting room and saying we were
waiting for mates arriving on the next train (we waited in there to
avoid having to pay for a platform ticket) as the train arrived and he
(the Station Master) collected tickets we made a last minute dash for
the train, we never thought that there would be no passengers
getting off or if the train wasn't allowed to leave, as I said not well
thought through and I'm sure we must have ended up paying for
more times than we actually got away with but you only tend to
remember the times you didn't pay! Even on occasions when we did
pay a usual ploy was to buy the cheapest single ticket, normally the
next stop and travel on that.
I would like to imagine that the infamous Station Master used to look
forward to our games of Cat and Mouse as much as we did and
arranged his working pattern around Chelsea home games!!!
A few years later at a family celebration held by my parents I could
have died as I spotted one of the guests arriving at the function hall
it was none other than the Station Master, who turned out to be a
good friend of my Dads and I learnt in later years that my Dad knew
of my attendance at football matches long before I had the courage
to tell him, it's a small world?

STAMFORD BRIDGE HOME OF THE
                          BLUES

Once arriving at Fulham Broadway the first thought was to track
down one of the first programme sellers to get hold of the match day
programme, the first few trips we could only afford perhaps only a
hot dog to eat so more often than not we used to end up first in the
queue at the Shed End terraces, sitting on a cold damp concrete
floor reading the programme trying to leave something unread for
half time.
As time progressed and more money was saved either through more
pocket money or some money making scam at school the luxury of a
cooked breakfast in the cafe just outside Fulham Broadway became
the order of the day, the cafe itself was painted blue and white and
owned by an Italian family who had a large poster of the Italian
national team along with loads of Chelsea ones, once breakfast was
done with a quick trip across the road to the programme shop run by
the Chelsea Independent Supporters Club to buy last weeks away
programme or a few other back issues, it was then along the Fulham
Road to look at the badge sellers wares and pop into the club shop, I
use the term 'shop' loosely as it was only two 'Porta Cabins' joined
together,a far cry from todays multi million pound Megastore, space
was at a premium and with when more than 15 or so people got in
there you just had to go with the flow and wait until the people in
front of you were ready to leave!!
That was to be in the future this was today, my first visit to the home
of The Blues, when the gates opened and I paid my money (later on
we would strike a deal with the turnstile operators...2 for 1 etc!!)I
pushed myself through those old turnstile gates with the mechanism
clunking and banging away as it totted up the total number of people
passing through its gates, I eagerly ran up the large concrete steps
leading to the famous Shed End, we had made it. We chose a point
towards the front thinking that would be a good spot, little did we
know that a better view was to be obtained higher up the terracing
once it had filled up.
As the crowd gathered and the songs began a cold shiver went
down my spine, as the noise and the swaying of the mass that was
the Shed End increased I knew where I wanted to be at the next
home match....right bang in the middle of it!!!

That was were I ended up for the next 15 years or so whenever I
watched a Chelsea home game, OK I watched a few from the other
stands, especially the East as I got complimentary tickets for
becoming a lottery ticket seller, but I always thought that something
was missing from my match day experience if I wasn't in the midst of
all that energy that was The Shed, I spent many years in 'The
Middle' and only moved to the 'Tea Bar' for the last few years of The
Shed's life.

I once read a quote from the infamous Mr Ken Bates when replying
to a supporters argument about all seater stadia that he missed the
whole experience of the terraces, Mr Bates as quick as ever replied
'I'll get two security staff to p**s in your pockets then beat you up if
you miss it so much!!!' More about Mr Bates later on as this site is
constructed.

MEETING UP

As time went by and you ended up standing in almost the exact
same spot for every home match you began to recognise the same
old faces and be on a nodding acquaintance with some people,
others would become great friends and to this day I can say because
of Chelsea and The Shed I have some good friendships.
Groups began to arrange to meet before the games and travel up
together, I still see some of the old faces around the ground today,
names slip my memory but even though time has taken its toll on
some (me included!!) it still brings a smile to my face to think of the
banter that occurred whilst standing on those terraces all those
years ago, in fact going back to Mr Ken Bates comment previously I
can often remember having to get up off the floor rather rapidly
during half time as some older supporter who had been in the pub
beforehand couldn't make it to the gents in time and relieved himself
there and then, pity the poor sod who didn't move! Once finished
more often than not the poor guy was subjected to a chorus of 'Is
that all you got?' followed by a quick 'Knees up Mother Brown'

OLD FACES

It is times like this that I wish I had the foresight to take a camera with
me to record events and faces back in those early days, but sadly I
didn't so I need to ask around and get photos like the one of Bob
above, always in an upbeat mood and a great character home and
away. Bob was a lottery ticket seller who always stood outside the
EastStand/Shed End entrance dressed in his home made outfit of
scarves stitched together, this 'suit' was always worn away as well.
Top man with a great sense of humour, he certainly needed it with
the stick a mate called Peter gave him. Many a time you heard a
deep bellowing voice shouting PETER!!! Then see the
aforementioned Peter running for his life up the carriage with Bob in
hot pursuit baying for his blood...all in good humour of course!...this
was to be later on in the early 1980's.

Once I had got hold of a couple of 'old' programmes from the games
the 'bug' took a stronger hold, if that was possible? I needed to
watch Chelsea, gather information, if fact anything to do with
Chelsea.
The above picture was before my times at The Bridge but I came
across this photograph recently and it reminded me of a similar
photograph from a programme (it may even be this one?)that I
bought from the programme shop as additional reading for a home
game...how things do change, I can't remember how many times I
have had to pay full price for my boys!!

THE FIRST SEASON

The first season actually following The Blues was a mediocre
one with attendances being fairly low, the initial thought of an
automatic return to First Division football soon became
apparent was not going to happen. The League Cup bought an
embarrassing exit to lowly Crewe which led to more stick at
school, even a promising Cup run was bought to a sudden halt
by Crystal Palace of all teams, even after we had clawed our
way back to draw level, this, again, was not to be our year. I
had to miss this game for one reason or another and to this
day take great satisfaction in watching Palace lose, even as
much, maybe more than Tottenham!
I managed to save enough money to go to the last four home
games I only saw us score once! I still enjoyed bragging rights
over any team that we did beat and other lads who hadn't yet
been to a live game, Dad still continued to try and persuade
me that I should stop wasting my time (and little did he know my
money as well!) supporting Chelsea but I was as far as I was
concerned Born a Blue. We finished exactly mid table, surely
next season would be better?

COME ALONG,COME ALONG AND SING THIS
SONG,WE'RE THE BOYS IN BLUE FROM DIVISION TWO..

'Eddie McCreadies Blue and White Army, Eddie McCreadies Blue
and White Army' rings out from the Shed End, a new season, new
hopes, we are as always optimistic about the coming season.
Chelsea Football Club announced they were as skint as I was, no
money for transfers was available again this year. We had to rely on
the players we already had and the product of our youth policy.
At school I was no longer Osgood flying into the box to score a goal I
was Finnieston, Swain or Britton knocking that ball in, I was Bonnetti
in goal. We were returning to top flight football, the crowds began to
return and by the end of the season we were unbeaten at home in
the league the first time since before World War One!
With a bit of spare cash from a recent Birthday burning a hole in my
pocket I purchased the commemorative medal (shown above) from
the Club shop, unsure if I ever had intentions of wearing it, I couldn't
see the image of a spotty youth playing medallion man going down
well at the local Youth Club in Reigate, it has stayed in it's
presentation box (except for the scan of course!) to this very day.

FACE TO FACE WITH REALITY

Although by this time I had been going to football for nearly two and
a half seasons, not to all the matches I hasten to add as the funds
still didn't allow it but I had been to enough to know the score so to
speak, I had seen skirmishes, I had cheered the North Stand on
when they greeted the visiting fans but today was to be different.
I can remember when the words of my Dad were ringing in my ears
'You can't go to watch Chelsea because of all the trouble and
fighting, my final word on the subject'....these weren't the only things
ringing in my ears they were joined with the sounds of bells and stars
in my eyes as I had my first encounter of football violence (face to
face). It was West Ham at home and as usual I took up my spot in the
Shed, word spread that West Ham were to try a pincher movement,
attacking the Shed from the Bovril entrance and the Shed End, well
here I was and here I was to stay (I told myself) two twins well known
to the Shed boys were issuing orders (their names escape me...old
age again!)
'STAND,CHELSEA STAND' As far as I was concerned the majority
did but within minutes confusion ruled and fighting broke out
everywhere, well at least it seemed to! I stood my ground (more
petrified than brave...me thinks!!) Shouted out a few chants of
'CHELSEA, CHELSEA' then whack a West Ham fan wearing a full
face claret and blue Balaclava decides to see if my head will make a
suitable punch bag!
Before I had any chance to retaliate, gather my senses, see what
was happening a large burly PC grabbed hold of me and dragged
me out of the melee, escorted me along the rear of the Shed down
by the White Wall back down the steps to the turnstiles where I was
advised that......' if I caused anymore trouble I would be nicked, so
bugger off home!!!'
The justice of it, well with a few other 'ejectees' we trooped around to
the Bovril entrance paid our money(again) and watched the match, I
did spend most of the match looking at all the police that were in the
vicinity thinking he was the one...he'll nick me soon and then what
will I say at home!!! We won the game with goals from Tommy
Langley & Bill Garner in front of a crowd of 44,093, four days later as
Chelsea were beating Birmingham 5-4 away (with a Tommy Langley
hatrick and Bill Garner and Clive Walker adding to the total) I was
trying to convince the family that the black eye I had was from
walking into a door at school the fact I hadn't been to school for over
a week or so never crossed my mind!...it was New Years Eve 1977

WE'RE GOING TO WEMBLEY, YOU'RE NOT!

Looking back to that season there was certainly some great
highlights none more so than the FA Cup 3rd round tie against the
then European Champions Liverpool, over 45,000 were crammed
into Stamford Bridge to see the underdogs Chelsea win 4-2 with
goals from Tommy Langley, Clive Walker(2) & Steve Finnieston, the
Shed that day was incredible, a mass of swaying bodies and the
noise was unbelievable. I can remember it being a bitterly cold day
but on that terrace amongst the faithful it was sweltering.
The Cup was being good to us with another glut of goals in the next
round when we hammered Burnley 6-2, an away draw at Orient
didn't dampen my spirits as I was confident we could easily beat
them at home going on the previous rounds experience, I mean the
European Champions beaten, six past Burnley, surely Orient had no
chance?
A midweek replay (I always did and still do have a great liking to an
evening Cup game...why I don't know) with a healthy expectant
crowd (36,379) eager for us to progress into the next round. I
couldn't believe the outcome as we went down 1-2 to our lowly
London neighbours, we had scored 10 goals in two previous rounds
and here we were loosing not even having scored our goal, that
came courtesy of Orient's Roffey as an own goal.
I had been giving all the usual 'We're going to Wembley you're not'
at school for weeks to anyone who wanted to listen and quite a few
who didn't, and now I had to face the humiliation of loosing to a lower
division team at home, I got so much stick from fans of other teams
the one and only saving grace was I didn't know an Orient supporter!
A general consensus amongst the group of us at school, other fans
included was that if the footballers had to face as much stick when
they lost as we did, then performances and therefore results would
be much better, there you go simple this managing lark!

RELEGATION ONCE AGAIN

The following season didn't start too well Eddie McCreadie resigned
and we lost a pre-season friendly away to Gillingham, things could
only get better or I hoped they would.
The first league game saw us at home and a expectant crowd of
over 31,000 watched our 63rd season open against Everton, we lost
0-1. I don't have too many memories of the actual game, was it a
dour affair I just don't re-call what I do remember was the amount of
trouble there was in and outside the ground. The North Stand
carried out its normal welcome and charged at the incoming
Scousers, after the game I can remember waiting for a change of
underground trains at Earls Court when an express train carrying the
Everton fans back across London pulled into Earls Court, I'm not
sure if an emergency cord was pulled or if the train just slowed down,
now at the time the station was going through some major
improvements, possibly the link to Olympia? I don't know but all I do
know is at that moment a Chelsea fan launched a section of scaffold
pole like a javelin straight at the train, it went straight through the
window and then all hell broke out, the train doors were forced open
by the Scousers and a few of them tried to rush the platform full of
Chelsea fans intermingled with a few dozen of the Metropolitan and
London Transports finest and some semi rabid dogs.....I wish I had a
camera with me then!
Things didn't get any better as we lost to Leeds in our next home
game, I saw a little trouble but nothing as close to hand as the
Everton game but stories were abound of the two mobs meeting.
This again is another match that I can't re-call too much the result
possibly didn't help or was it the excitement of arranging the first
away game and buying the ticket?

   THE FIRST AWAY GAME

Once again I cannot remember why it took so long to arrange my
first away game, I knew I wanted it to be a 'proper' one outside of
London. I had looked to arrange this the previous season but I had
to allow for the extra time spent away from home, as my parents still
didn't realise I was going to football, not that I thought I was too
concerned as I had turned 16 by the end of last season but I felt
some form of guilt by keeping this from them for all this time!! (I was
to find out later that they did know before I told them) there was also
the extra expense, so I had to calculate a lot of factors and all these
had to work together to finally get this game booked.
Coventry City September 9th 1978 was the match chosen, I used the
excuse that I was to do some college work associated with my
apprenticeship at a friends house and would stay late to get the
project done, I think my parents had a night out planned so it all
fitted in perfectly, hopefully by the time I returned they would still be
out....what a considerate teenager I was!!! Come on You Blues

HIGHFIELD ROAD HERE WE COME

The week before had been spent excited about the weekends
coming match, there was the usual abuse from the then work
colleagues about my support towards The Blues but I can't recall if
this was at the college where I was taking my apprenticeship or at
the place of work, I think the former is more likely as it had a greater
mix of fans especially two....a Brighton and a Palace fan, great mates
and excellent centres for verbal abuse and if I didn't start it they did
amongst themselves....Peter Ward or Dave Swindlehurst!
Saturday morning was an early start but we didn't mind, we got ready
and made our way to the station to get to Euston and upon reaching
there we met up with a few other Chelsea fans that we knew plus
what it seemed like as hundreds more, there were groups, like ours
travelling with the club and there were others travelling
independently, via the InterCity....way, way above our price range!!!
Once we were ushered through the gates the usual faces tried to get
hold of a decent card table near the buffet, Breda Lee came through
all the carriages to get us to buy some raffle tickets and I can
remember Brian Gear being the steward on our train, a great bloke
with a lovely sense of humour, it was only to be a few years later
when there was a memorial match for him played out between the
stewards, a sad loss.
The banter started almost immediately the train got under way,
stories of the last away game, how the team should look, players in
favour, players out of favour, this was a whole new experience but
somehow or another it wasn't an alien one, I was at ease, at home
with these guys, whatever our roles in life were we were here to
support Chelsea and that was all that mattered...Carefree where
ever you may be.....
We arrived at Coventry ready and raring to go (I was also a few quid
lighter due to the cards school!) As the police ushered us to the
outside of the station trying to keep us in one large group there was
a number of Coventry fans on the park outside the station (is there
one?I'm sure there was some grass!) giving us the 'who are you'
treatment, the usual abuse was thrown back at them and then after a
few minutes a great roar from the front of our group rang out and the
next moment as one we were charging across this park, a police
horse escort on either side, from a spectators point of view I can
imagine it looked rather strange a group of 100-150 Chelsea fans
complete with a mounted police escort charging across the local
park after 30 or so Coventry fans, I think we just stopped out of
breath and looked at each other and laughed, it was truly one of
those 'spur of the moment things!!' Christ I thought...'need to get fit
for these away games!'
The match from a neutrals point of view was a good one, 5 goals,
from a Chelsea point of view it was another defeat. Things looked
good when Duncan McKenzie scored on his debut, after all we had
actually managed to sign a player to start with and he could score
goals, he put us into the lead for the second time in the game,
perhaps the previous games from the start of the season were just a
blip? Unfortunately not, Tommy Langley had opened the scoring but
we went down 2-3, even though we did equalise but it was deemed
to be after the final whistle!!
The journey home was one of mixed emotions, the whole day had
been a great experience but it had been tainted by the score, we
deserved a point at least.

THE HIGHS AND LOWS

My next away game wasn't to be much better either we lost to Derby
0-1, a missed penalty and an own goal, there were terrible scenes of
carnage to the rear of the Baseball Ground as we were lead through
what seemed like a bomb site, a few missiles were launched towards
us from a group of Derby fans situated to the far side of this waste
ground, the missiles consisting mainly of half bricks and assorted
stones were returned with our compliments! As this trouble stretched
onto the habitable areas I can remember a taxi driving into the
middle of this 'battle' and soon wishing he hadn't as ventilation was
added free of charge to the rear of his taxi (I hasten to add that the
first strike was from the Derby contingent!)
When order was restored the whole incident hadn't really lasted for
more than 2 or 3 minutes, I was glad to escape this unscathed, I was
beginning to see why Chelsea's travelling fans reputation went
before them and the home team needed to add their own ' welcome '
to the days proceedings.

If I had been experiencing the lows following Chelsea recently then
the next home match has certainly got to be a high, in fact I would
have to rate it as one of my all time great matches, not because of
the classy football shown by the team but their pure 'never give up'
attitude coupled with Clive Walker, this match and another one later
on in his career always meant that I would always hold him in high
esteem.
We had played 9 previous matches not won one and scored only 8
goals and here we were 3 nil down at home at half time, things
looked and felt bad.
The second half started as much as the first had finished, we were a
beaten team, as the match progressed and some of the crowd
began to make their way home with 20 minutes left, Ken Shellito the
then Chelsea manager made a substitute bringing on Clive Walker.
Almost immediately he had an impact on the game and on 75
minutes a cross supplied by Walker is converted by Tommy 'Lungs'
Langley, 82 minutes and Kenny Swain makes it 2-3, could we save
the game? On 87 minutes Walker picks up the ball and as far as I
was and still am concerned ran from the half way line, dribbled his
way into the box and with a low shot past the 'keeper equalises. The
whole ground erupts (apart from the travelling Bolton fans who must
have been pig sick!) unbelievable, but Chelsea had not finished,
Walker again down the wing with a hard struck cross into the box
finds a certain Sam Allardyce attempting to clear it, unfortunately he
slices it into his own net.... 89 minutes and 4-3!!!!! I danced up and
down with anybody and everybody in the vicinity, my voice was harsh
with shouting. At the end of the match the celebrations were
incredible, for a while we had forgotten how much of a poor season
we were having, as far as the celebrations of the fans and players
were concerned it was like winning The Cup and gaining promotion
all in one. An unbelievable day and what a come back 4 goals in 14
minutes, to this day I still remember turning to Tim my mate and
saying at half time 'never mind mate will beat 'em 4-3' although Tim
has said that I dreamt that bit! All I know is that I never dreamt
watching that match. (If any one who is reading this knows of or
has a copy of the highlights or goals on tape please get in
contact)

After watching that game we all hoped that would be the turning
point to our season, that result was to be the starting block we
needed in this tough division, alas no, with some very humiliating
defeats which included 2-7 at Middlesbrough, 1-5 at Ipswich, 0-6 at
Forest and 2-5 at Arsenal we finished bottom of the league with an
atrocious record: P42 W5 D10 L27 F44 A92 Pnts 20 and I got
even more stick from lads at work, even with the return of my
childhood hero Osgood in December it was a dour season and at
the end of it Second Division football once again beckoned

1979-80 Chelseas' 64th Season starts in the 2nd Division

I have many memories from this season, but it is mainly the
beginning and the end stick out more than most, strange you may
say but the reason behind this is because the start was missed due
to a family holiday and the end finished on what was such a high
only to miss out on promotion because of goal difference between us
and Birmingham...3 goals over a 42 game season, I couldn't believe
it and all because poxy West Ham couldn't beat Sunderland in the
last game of the season, personally I think they knew not to worry
about turning up, the game was played 9 days after Chelsea had
finished their season, due to West Hams involvement in the FA Cup
and eventually winning it, they had nothing to play for (except to
keep Chelsea in Division Two!!)
Our Cup runs were nothing to write home about, in fact they were
rather embarrassing losing to Wigan in the FAC and Plymouth in the
League Cup both at home.
One away game that was worth the entrance fee was Orient where
winger Lee Frost scored a hat-trick to help us win 3-7, I thought
scores like that only happened on the school playing fields!
Although the actual start of the League season was missed I can
re-call the pre -season friendlies against Wimbledon (away) and
China at home the latter being Ray Wilkins last ever game for
Chelsea before being transferred to Manchester United, I was gutted
that we had sold such a talented player and to be honest I didn't
hold much faith in a certain M.Fillery filling his boots, but by the end
of the season I think I could safely say I was proved wrong as he
played 40 games for us and scored 13 goals. It was also a sad
occasion to see Ossie play for the last time that season. I was also
dealt a cruel blow by Fate just to add insult to injury that season, I
missed out on many games especially so some aways that I had
hoped to make by a severe case of German Measles and I mean
severe...I was known as the 'Zit Boy' for weeks (parents, they can be
so cruel!!)

To be continued..with items added in no chronological order!!!......

Highfield Road

THE EARLY YEARS

BIG BAD BOB....any information to this mans whereabouts
gratefully received!

Photograph taken from Liverpool at home 1972/3 season, do you
recognise anyone?...Is the Milky Bar Kid guilty of forcing
admission charges up at Stamford Bridge?

NOSTALGIA!