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Your Chelsea History Lesson
Chelsea Vs Manchester City
Good Days and Bad Games
22nd Mar 03: W 5-0: Goalscorers...Gallas,
Terry, Lampard, Stanic, Hasslebaink
19th Nov 60: W 6-3: Goalscorers...Greaves
3, Tindall 2, Tambling
31st Aug 94: W 3-0: Goalscorers... Wise,
Peacock, OG
2nd Apr 60: W 3-0: Goalscorers... Greaves, Brooks,
Blunstone
9th Mar 57: W 4-2: Goalscorers...P Sillett, Allen,
Gibbs, OG
16 Sept 78: L 1-4: Goalscorer..Stanley
25th Dec 51: L 0-3
20th Sept 88: L 1-3: Goalscorer..Pates
22nd Jan 55: L 0-2
9th Dec 33: L 1-2:Goalscorer..Mills
Top Appearance Makers Vs
On This
Day:
It’s Nov 13th 1945 and with WW2 just over Chelsea has invited the
Russian powerhouse Dynamo Moscow over for a friendly. Stamford Bridge was to
witness something beyond all beliefs when at one o clock the turnstiles were
opened, they were closed just an hour later with an ‘official attendance’ of
74,496. The stat was meaningless as real estimates were put between 90 and
100,000. The crowd we standing on the greyhound track and some were even
seen standing on top of the roof of the East stand. It was a miracle nobody
was seriously hurt.
The drama off the pitch was match by the drama on the pitch. The Russians
played with speed and style, but it was Chelsea who opened the scoring with
a goal from Len Goulden, ten minutes later it was 2-0 with Reg Williams
scoring from close range. Vic Woodley saved a penalty and it looked like we
were on our way to a famous win. In the second half the Russians scored two
quick goals to tie it at 2-2 but with nine minutes to go Tommy Lawton headed
us back into the lead. Five minutes later the Russians had the ball in the
net for a goal that was a blatant offside, it was 3-3 and Tommy Lawton said
to the ref “you can’t allow that it was miles offside.” To which the ref
said “I gave it for diplomatic reasons old boy,” Lawton replied “stuff the
diplomatic reasons I’ve just lost my win bonus.” Our team that day
was…Woodley, Tennant, Bacuzzi, Russell, Harris, Taylor, Buchanan, Williams,
Lawton, Goulden, Bain….Bacuzzi & Taylor were loaned from Fulham.
Unsung
Hero:
This week’s unsung played a total just over the 200 mark but I think he
should mentioned somewhere along the path of Chelsea’s History. I’m talking
about Barry Bridges. Barry signed professional forms for us in May 58, after
being a junior for two years. He had great speed and was always a threat in
the penalty box. He made a sudden impact on his debut (with Bobby Tambling)
scoring along with Tambling in a 3-2 win over West Ham, not a bad start for
two sixteen year olds. He only picked up one medal during his time at
Chelsea, League Cup 65, but he did win four England Caps. Barry played 205
games for us and netted an incredible 93 times. He eventually retired from
the game in 1977 having played over 700 games and scored 215 goals. He is
now a newsagent in Norwich.
Flashback:
It’s the start of the 1995-96 season and Glenn Hoddle had bought in some guy
with dreadlocks called Ruud Gullit? Anyway there was a little bit of
optimism floating around Chelsea as we had also bought in the tried and
tested Mark Hughes. We started the season in disappointing fashion, grinding
out a 0-0 with Everton, infact our first four games only wielded three
points and two goals. Sept started a little better with wins at West
Ham and a 3-0 home victory Vs Southampton, we then lost up at St James’ Park
but then won a tight game at home to Arsenal 1-0 with Hughesy getting the
winner. Oct saw us win 1, lose 2 and draw 1, one defeat being 4-1 to Man Utd.
After our last defeat in Oct we then went on a run of 7 games undefeated,
which took us through to Late December, our run coming to an abrupt end at
Wimbledon. Again after that defeat we went on a run of 6 games undefeated,
up till the beginning of February, included in this set of results was the
5-0 demolition of Middlesbrough which the newspapers started to say Chelsea
were playing Sexy Football. We then promptly went and lost two on the bounce
to Coventry and West Ham, thankfully the last game of Feb was a 2-3 win at
Southanmpton. March saw us go un-victorious, as we drew 3 and lost 1. The
season was beginning to wind down already and it was only March, but we were
having a good run in the FA Cup, having reached the Semi Final. The Semi
final draw paired us with Man Utd. We took over Villa Park with flags and
banners everywhere, the Mancs had nothing, nothing at all. We managed to
take the lead through a Gullit header close on half time, but in fairness we
should have had another when Duberry smashed a shot against the bar. In the
second half, we got two injuries in quick succession, Phelan and Clarke both
coming off. Utd scored one of their goals playing on Phelan’s injury. The
second was a bad mistake by Burley. United could have got a third late on
when Cantona hit the post, but in the end we ended up losing 2-1. Our
remaining fixtures wielded 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses. The last game, a 2-3
home defeat to Blackburn was to be Hoddle’s last game in charge and the guy
who Hoddle bought was about to take over, maybe this could be the new
beginning for Chelsea.
Our top appearance maker this season was our Captain Dennis Wise with 44
starts from 48 games, our top scorer was “wee” Johnny Spencer with 14. Our
best attendance was 31,137 Vs Liverpool.
A To Z of Chelsea FC:
O: Other than SW6: Chelsea’s name is quite popular over
here in the States. Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma &
Vermont all have towns name after our beloved boys.
S: Sunday: 27 Jan 1974 was our first top flight game to be played when nothing else was open, we lost 1-0 to Stoke.
Games
Played This Week in Past Years:
Oct 25th 69 Vs
Oct 29th 79 Vs
Oct 28th 95 Vs
Who Am
I?
I was born in Streatham in 1950
I didn’t play many games for
I was
My ‘nickname’ was
I spent the best part of my career at Aston Villa
In my 3 starts I scored 2 goals
Who Am
I?
Last weeks answer: Winston Bogarde
Next week’s fixture:
Wigan Athletic (Away)
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