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Your Chelsea History Lesson
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Good Days and Bad Games
Apr 9th 60: W 1-4...Goalscorers: Sillett, Brabrook 2, Brooks
Nov 12th 60: W 1-4...Goalscorers: Mortimore, Greaves, Tindall,
Tambling
Jan 7th 70: W 0-3...Goalscorers: Hollins, Baldwin, Hutchinson
Mar 14th 64: W 2-4...Goalscorer: Tambling 4
Sept 24th 66: W 1-3...Goalscorers: Osgood, Tambling 2
Mar 8th 58: L 5-4...Goalscorers: Tindall, Greaves 2, Block
Apr 16th 79: L 5-2...Goalscorers: Langley, Walker
Sept 15th 90: L 4-1...Goalscorer: K Wilson
Dec 26th 77: L 3-0
Apr 3rd 71: L 2-0
On This Day:
It’s March 8th 1958 and with minimum wage finally breaking the
dollar mark and William Faulkner moaning that US schools are nothing more
than a babysitting service. Chelsea was making the trip over to North London
to play Arsenal. It wasn’t a very good day for the boys in blue, as we
managed to score four cracking goals against them but we let in five sloppy
goals, sending us too one of our heaviest defeat at Highbury. Our team that
day was...Matthews, P Sillett, MacFarlane, Mortimore, Livingston, Casey,
Brabrook, Cliss, Tindall, Greaves, Block.
Manager Profile:
After Sexton left the board decided to put our trust in the hands of Ron
Suart, who had previously been the coach for both Sexton and Docherty. Ron
will go down as our shortest serving manager ever*. Few people envied the
job in hand as the golden years of the early 70’s had long gone. Suart took
charge in Oct 74, we actually started off really well, infact we didn’t lost
a game in his first month in charge. But results were getting worse as the
season went on. Suart concentrated more on the off field affairs, leaving
the training to Eddie McCreadie. Money was very hard to come by, mainly
because of the cost of the East Stand, but he did bring in David Hay and
John Sissions, unfortunately these two signings didn’t work out. As the
season was coming to a close, so was Chelsea’s time in the first division,
so with just 5 fixtures left, his reign, albeit a brief one was over. Ron
Suart managed Chelsea for 32 games of which our WDL’S were 8, 12, 12, a win
percentage of just 25%.
Unsung
Hero:
Bjarne Goldbaek was bought from FC Copenhagen in the deal that took Michael
Laudrup the other way. Goldbaek was one of those players who was never going
to command a regular spot but when called into action he gave nothing but
100%. He was a right sided midfielder who could also fill in at right back,
with a cannon ball of a shot, who can forget that goal at Tottenham! Bjarne
played just one season with us making 41 appearances, he also bagged 5
goals.
Flashback:
It’s the start of the 1985-86 season and after last year’s top 6 finish
things were looking bright at the Bridge. And we start up north at Sheff
Weds in the middle of August, with a new manager in charge, John Hollins.
Holly has us playing some good footy in August, and coming into the start of
September we hadn’t lost. That was about to change as we went up to Alan
Sugar plc…sorry Spurs. We got a bit of a mauling there, losing 4-1 with
Dixon getting our only goal. The rest of September saw us win a couple and
drop points at Luton and Watford. But the start of October was to see us go
on a run 6 wins and just 2 defeats. Our last game in November and our first
game in December saw us grab 2 draws at Liverpool and at Coventry, and again
we went on a decent run, this time through the Christmas period, as we went
on a run of 5 consecutive wins. January and February saw us play just four
league games, two of which were from the run of 5 wins, but we lost our way
slightly in Feb, losing to Oxford and drawing with Leicester. March saw us
with a bit of a fixture pile up, having to play 6 games in 23 days. March
was not a kind month for us and probably
did the most damage in keeping us out the top 3,we only won two, drew two
and lost the rest, including two consecutive losses of 4-0 at home to West
Ham and a close 6-0 defeat at the hands of QPR. Apr wasn’t much better,
fixture wise or results wise. Firstly we had to play 7 games in 24 games and
out of them games it was a case, for the first four games of
draw one, win one. Our last two games
of April and our final two games of the season in May all ended in defeats,
the last a 1-5 home thrashing by Watford. We ended up finishing 6th
again, which would have been a lot better if we hadn’t of lost 6 of the last
11 games. Our leading appearance maker was Joe McLaughlin with 40 starts
from 42, our leading scorers were Dixon and Speedie, both with 14 league
goals. Our player of the year was Eddie Niedzwiecki. Our average attendance
was 21,985 with our best being Vs Liverpool, 43,900.
Route to the Final:
League Cup 1965
Rd 2: Sept 23rd: Birmingham (A) W 0-3...Goalscorers: Tambling 2,
Graham
Rd 3: Oct 26th: Notts County (H) W 4-0...Goalscorers: Tambling 2,
A Harris, McCalliog
Rd 4 Nov 11th: Swansea (H) W 3-2...Goalscorers: Graham 2, Brown
Rd 5 Nov 25th Workington (A) D 2-2...Goalscorer: Bridges 2
Rd 5 rep Dec 16th Workington (H) W 2-0...Goalscorer: Osgood 2
Semi final: Jan 20th: Aston Villa (A) W 2-3...Goalscorers:
Tambling, Bridges, Boyle
Semi Final: Feb 10: Aston Villa (H) D 1-1...Goalscorer: Graham
League Cup Final: Mar 15th: Vs Leicester City: (H) W 3-2
McCreadie, Tambling, Venables (pen)
League Cup Final: Apr 5th Vs Leicester City: (A) D 0-0
Games
Played This Week in Past Years:
Dec 12th 65Vs Wolves (H) W 2-1...Goalscorer: Bridges 2
Dec 13th 75 Vs Carlisle Utd (A) L 2-1...Goalscorer: R Wilkins
Dec 15th 90Vs Derby County (A) W 4-6...Goalscorers: Dixon 2,
Durie 2, Wise, Le Saux
Who Am
I?
I came through the youth ranks at Chelsea
I played left back or midfield
I only made 42 appearances for Chelsea
I only scored twice, once Vs Watford and once Vs Leeds
I got an FA Cup winners medal in 2000
I left to play for Fulham and Sheffield Utd
Who Am
I?
Last weeks answer: Tony Dorigo
Next week’s fixture:
Blackburn Rovers (Away)
* This lesson was done just after Avram Grant’s first game in charge
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