Bolton Vs Chelsea

Good Days and Bad Games

1^st Jan 55: W 2-5...Goalscorers: P Sillett, O’Connell, Bentley 2, OG

4^th Oct 80: W 2-3...Goalscorers: Fillery, Lee 2

14^th Mar 36: W 2-3...Goalscorers: Spence, Bambrick, Mills

5^th Sept 38: W 0-2...Goalscorer: Hanson 2

30^th Apr 05: W 0-2...Goalscorer Lampard 2

 

4^th Mar 59: L 6-0

17^th Dec 55: L 4-0

10^th Nov 23: L 4-0

15^th Mar 52: L 3-0

Manager Profile: Billy Birrell: Became Chelsea manager in May 1939 but due to WW2 He didn’t get to manage the first team in a league Division one game until the 1946-47 season. In the war years it was a case of getting “guest players”, some of who were Matt Busby, Eddie Hapgood, Joe Payne and the great Scottish keeper Tommy Walker. The war years changed the face of football and we had to play in league where traveling was limited. Birrell managed to get us to third in our first season of football league south, but after that with a lot of guest players we struggled until we finish fourth in 1945-46. After this it was back to normality. In our first season under Birrell in Division one we finished a lowly 15^th and went out the FA Cup in the 2^nd round, things got worse the following year when we ended up in 18^th. Infact in his remaining 4 seasons we finished 13^th, 13th, 20th and 19^th. He did however get us to two FA Cup semi-finals in 49-50 and 51-52, both times losing out to Arsenal in replays. By the time he left in 1952 he had managed Chelsea for 556 games (ww2 games  included) and won 210, drew 118 and lost 228, a win percentage of 38%. Billy Birrell May 1939- May 1952.

On This Day: It’s Jan 1^st 1955 and everyone was waiting for The Bhutan to issue their first ever stamp and Bob Cummings first show on NBC. Chelsea had a difficult trip up north at Burnden Park, even though we were on our way to the League title for the first time this was always one of those fixtures that we could win comfortably or very easily lose. And thankfully “Drakes Ducklings” as they were affection ally known came away with our biggest win ever at Bolton,2-5. Our team that day was…Robertson, Sillett, Willemse, Armstrong, Wicks, Saunders, Parsons, O’Connell, Bentley, Stubbs, Blunstone. On the coach home Ted Drake was in such a good mood, he put the radio on and everyone had to listen to some type of music they had never heard before. Some guy was going on about rocking around a clock. Minimum wage was a bank busting 75 cents an hour so everyone rushed out to buy this new record.

Unsung Hero: This week’s unsung has never even laced up a pair of boots for Chelsea, but is someone whose job we would all love. His first game was way back in the 50’s, Oct 24^th 59 to be precise. It’s none other than Neil Barnett. Neil started off working for a local community paper where he used to live. In 1985 he decided he had had enough and wanted to do freelance. Within two years he was working at Chelsea. He started doing the “Chelsea Clubcall,” which started in Oct 86, he also did the QPR and Wimbledon clubcalls. In 1991 Neil finally went full time with Chelsea and became editor of Chelsea’s magazine, onside. He also became a busy boy by becoming editor of the Chelsea matchday programme, keeping both jobs until 2004. Now Neil has his plate full with doing most of Chelsea TV, to include on pitch presentations, to coming out to America and seeing us faithful supporters. I remember Neil interviewing me for “onside” in the stands at Coventry once regarding the highlights and low lights of the past season. He would ask you a question and if you didn’t have a decent answer he would help you out and jog your memory. His knowledge of Chelsea’s history is unbelievable and I’m surprised he’s never won the Chairman’s award at Chelsea. Neil Barnett another case of Unsung or Ledge.

Flashback: It was the first season after England had won the World Cup and the country was still on a high after that famous 4-2 victory at Wembley Stadium. There was an air of expectancy around football after the World Cup, none more so than at Chelsea, where in the 65/66 season we had a top five finish and ended up in a FA Cup Semi Final. Our first game of the 66/67 season was at West Ham, home of three of the players to win the Cup for England. In front of a crowd of 36,122 we came away with a 1-2 win thanks to a goal from our new boy Charlie Cooke. Four days later we beat Forest at home 2-1, with a brace from Ossie. Our other two games in Aug didn’t wield any losses or wins or even goals. Sept was a good month, we only dropped two points out of a possible ten. In Sept the two most notable wins were 3-6 at Aston Villa and a 3-1 home victory of Arsenal. Oct started well with a win over Man City 1-4, then promptly lost at home to Mighty Burnley 1-3, we also droped a point at the house of horrors, thanks to a Paddy Crerand own goal. Normal business was resumed Vs Spurs and Fulham at home, winning 3-0 and 3-1. Nov saw us only win one game, at WBA 0-1, we also started a run of five draws and three losses that took us through to the beginning of 1967.In one of those draws we managed to score five but so did West Ham, we also managed to lose 6-1 at Sheffield Weds. Jan saw us in a win one lose one situation, Feb wasn’t any better picking up just three points from six. In Mar the team was really beginning to struggled and seemed more focused on a trip to the twin towers, even though we only lost one in March we did drop points against Fulham and Spurs, and lost at home to Blackpool. Apr confirmed we were focusing on the FA Cup Final as we lost four of five, our only win being against mid-table Stoke City. Our last two league games were against Leeds and Leicester and we could only muster up one point. We ended the season in a disappointing 9^th place. Our WLD’S were 15, 13, 14, GF 67, GA 62.Pts 44. Our top goal getter was Tambling with an impressive 21 from 36 starts, Baldwin was next with 16 from 30. Our one ever present was our Captain Ronnie Harris. Our home attendance total was 747,421 with an average of 35,591. Our top attendance was Vs Man Utd 56, 452; our lowest was Vs WBA 18,448. However we did make it to our first Wembley final, which we lost to Spurs 2-1.

A To Z of Chelsea FC:

M: Mears: The name Mears was synonymous with Chelsea from Day one right through to the 70’s/80’s. HT and JT Mears had the foresight to buy Stamford Bridge in the early months of 1905... 

M: Most goals in a match: This honor goes to George Hilsdon, who scored 6 Vs Worksop Town in the FA Cup in 1907/08 

H: Highest aggregate score: Vs Jeunesse Hautcharage 21-0, we won 0-8 over in Luxembourg and 13-0 at the Bridge, the scorers were Osgood 8, Baldwin 4, Houseman 3, Hollins 2(1P), Webb 2, Hudson, Harris

Games Played This Week in Past Years:

Oct 8^th 66 Vs Burnley (H) L 1-3...Goalscorer: Baldwin...Att 42,573

Oct 13^th 01 Vs Leicester City (H) W 2-0...Goalscorers...Hasslebaink, Gudjohnsen...Att 40,370

Oct 7^th 78 Vs Derby County (A) L 1-0...Att 20,251

 

Who Am I?

I was born in Derbyshire in 1948

I was said to have been one of Chelsea’s best buys

I played 144 games and scored 58 goals

I was prone to the odd injury or two

I helped set up a goal in the 1970 FA Cup replay

I retired in July 1976

I ran a pub in Windsor

I helped Chelsea do their merchandising in the late 70’s

I passed away in Sept 02

 

Who Am I?

Last weeks answer: Kevin Hitchcock

Next week’s fixture: Middlesbrough (Away)

Click on the link below to see the Archived History Lessons.

Archived History Lessons