Chelsea vs Derby County

Good Days and Bad Games

Apr 7^th 01: W 0-4: Goalscorers: Zola, Hasselbaink, Poyet 2

Sept 3^rd 10: W 1-4: Goalscorers: Hilsdon 3, Windridge

Oct 27^th 62: W 1-3: Goalscorer: Tambling 3

Dec 15^th 90: W 4-6: Goalscorers: Le Saux, Dixon 2, Durie 2, Wise

Oct 17^th 70: W 1-2: Goalscorer: Weller 2

24^th Apr 20: L 5-0

6^th Dec 30: L 6-2: Goalscorers: Jackson, Miller

11^th Dec 37: L 0-4

3^rd Jan 48: L 1-5: Goalscorer: Goulden

25^th Sept 74: L 1-4: Goalscorer: Hutchinson

Manager Profile: 17 Days after Tommy Docherty had left the Chelsea board appointed Dave Sexton. The players themselves exerted an enormous amount of pressure on the board for this to happen. He started out as Docherty’s coach winning a lot of fans at Stamford Bridge. He was fortunate to have a great start as life as the new manager as we had a pretty decent squad of players, there was money available, plus there was also a burning desire to start getting some trophies in the boardroom cabinet. Sexton’s first game in charge was on Oct 25^th 67 Vs Leicester City away, we came away with a credible 2-2 draw. By the end of the season Sexton had us finish in the top 6, just, which was an improvement on the previous year. In our next two season’s he got us into the top five twice, finishing 5^th and 3^rd. After finishing third we also had the small matter of an FA Cup Final against the mighty Leeds, and as you all know we kicked some serious booty at a wind swept Old Trafford. It was our second major trophy in our 65 years history, and with the team Sexton had fashioned this wasn’t going to be the last. The following season 70-71 we struggled slightly, but finished in a decent 6^th place, again we also had the small task of beating The Mighty Galaticos Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners Cup Final. The Karaiskaki Stadium was a far cry from the previous season’s FA Cup Final replay and after a furious 1-1 draw Chelsea managed to sneak a 2-1 win and bring home our first European Trophy. At the start of 71-72 there were cracks appearing in the Chelsea leadership, to which some players took full advantage of. We went out to a bunch of part timers in our defence of our European Cup and league results were getting worst, we even went out to Orient in the FA Cup. We did manage to get to the League Cup final, but losing this to Stoke was the beginning of the end for Sexton. The following two full seasons he was in charge he got us flirting with relegation. In Oct 74 Sexton was dismissed. His record was played 373, won 164, drew 108, lost 101, a win percentage of 44%. Dave Sexton Oct 67-Oct 74

Unsung Hero: This week’s Unsung is a player who had he  not got a career ending injury would have played at Chelsea for the rest of his career. I’m talking about Paul Elliott. Paul was on the verge of the England squad when in Sept 92 he went in for a tackle with Dean Saunders, the tackle was to prove fatal as Paul not only lost out on the rest of his playing career, but he ended up losing the court case in suggesting that Saunders put in a bad tackle, ending his career. Paul had to pay the $1million court costs. He later went into TV, becoming a very sought after summariser. He played just 54 games scoring 3 goals.

Flashback: The season is 1938-39, our last full season before the outbreak of WW2. We started the season off the same way we finished the previous season, with a defeat, this time at the hands of Liverpool. Thankfully that was to be short lived as in our next 6 games we only had one defeat and that was at the hands of Man Utd 1-5. October us only collect 3 points, and 2 of those were in a 4-2 hammering of Arsenal. After that though we had a really bad run of 7 defeats in 9 games December saw us playing 7 games in 28 days, we split the wins and draws and had one defeat. January saw us open with a 4-2 win Vs Middlesbrough, but after that it was straight into another slump with us losing the next 4. By the time March had rolled around Mr. Knighton and the boys realized that relegation was a real threat, March saw us win 3, draw 1 and lose 1. Apr was the complete opposite, we had to play 8 games in 28 days and we only managed 1 win, at home to Portsmouth, thankfully our last two games in Apr and our only game in May saw us grab 3 points. These points were enough to keep us in the first division, but only just. We ended up with a record of played 42, won 12, drew 9, lost 21, GF 64, GA 80, Pts 33, one more than relegated Birmingham. Our top appearance maker was Dickie Spence, Our top goalscorer was Joe Payne with 17, he actually scored 1 in every one of our last 6 games. Our average attendance was a decent 29, 999, not bad considering we were crap.

Route to the Final:

The FA Cup Final 1967

Rd 3: Jan 28^th 67 Vs Huddersfield Town (A) W 1-2...Goalscorers...Tambling, Houseman...Att 36,407

Rd 4: Feb 18^th 67 Vs Brighton (A) D 1-1...Goalscorer...Tambling...Att 35,000

Rd 4 rep: 22^nd 67 Vs Brighton (H) W 4-0...Goalscorers...Tambling 2, Young, Hateley...Att 54,852

Rd 5: Mar 11^th 67 Vs Sheffield Utd (H) W 2-0...Goalscorers...Tambling, Hateley...Att 40,730

Rd 6: Apr 8^th Vs Sheffield Weds (H) W 1-0...Goalscorer...Baldwin...Att 52,481

Semi Final Apr 29^th 67 Vs Leeds Utd (Villa Park) W 1-0...Goalscorer... Hateley...Att 62,378

FA Cup Final Vs Tottenham Hotspur

May 20^th 1967 L 1-2...Goalscorer...Tambling...Att 100,000

Team: Bonetti, A Harris, McCreadie, Hollins, Hinton, R Harris capt, Cooke, Baldwin, Hateley, Tambling, Boyle...Sub: Kirkup, not used.

Next week’s fixture: Sunderland (Away)

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Archived History Lessons