Middlesbrough Vs Chelsea

Good Days and Bad Games

19^th Jan 29: W 4-5...Goalscorers: Law, Thain, Thompson 2, Miller

1^st Jan 09: W 1-4...Goalscorers: Hilsdon 3, Windridge

19^th Apr 13: W 0-3...Goalscorers: Ford 2, Woodward

27^th Apr 02: W 0-2...Goalscorers: Zenden, C Cole

05^th Oct 03: W 1-2...Goalscorers: Gudjohnsen, Crespo

 

16^th Dec 78: L 7-2...Goalscorers: Bumstead, Osgood

29^th Dec 52: L 4-0

4^th Mar 36: L 4-1...Goalscorer: Barraclough

18^th Sept 37: L 4-3...Goalscorers: Buchanan, Burgess, Chitty

05^th Oct 46: L 3-2...Goalscorer: Goulden 2

 

Manager Profile: Ted Drake: Came to Chelsea after he had learned his trade at Reading, and from the very first day Drake was looking to make some drastic changes. Out went the CFC badge with the pensioner on it, also he got rid of the unwanted ‘music hall’ image. He also got rid of the secretary/manager tag and became our first ‘track suit manager’. Drake’s first season, 52-53, started and we still had some seasoned players, such as Bill Robertson, Stan Willemse, Johnny Harris, Ken Armstrong and Roy Bentley. Drake had a very good knowledge of lower league players and brought in players like John McNichol, Les Stubbs, Ron Greenwood and Peter Sillett, he also brought in one of the most talented wingers Chelsea even had, Frankie Blunstone. Drake instilled an attitude of total commitment, in short he sent a team out he expected a victory from them. In his first season we didn’t do to well, in fact from the start of the season through to the beginning of 1953 we only won five games. By the end of his first season in charge we had managed to muster up twelve wins, but we did finish a rather disappointing 19^th, staying up by goal average. The second season was lot better we finished a respectable 8^th and had a decent run of only three defeats in 24 games. The following season was the season that everything came together. Even though we ended up with the lowest points total ever, (52) for a championship winning team, we were just happy to get our first major trophy in the cabinet. After the championship winning season things started going south in a dramatic fashion as we finished the 55-56 season in 16^th, just 4 points above relegation. Drake carried on for a further six season, the best finish we had in that time was 11^th in 57-58.By the start of the 61-62 things hadn’t got any better and his last game in charge was Vs Blackpool away which we lost 4-0. Ted Drake was in charge from May 52- Sept 61, he was in charge for 426 games of which our WLD’S are 156,167,103, he had a win percentage of 37%

On This Day: It’s December 16^th 1978 and Ronald Reagan has just denounced President Jimmy Carter’s recognition of China People’s Republic. So the Chelsea fans had something to talk about as they headed up to Ayresome Park, knowing that tomorrow OPEC was going to raise the price of oil by 18%. The journey home from Middlesbrough was long and arduous, especially after we took our worst beating ever there losing 7-2, we were in good spirits though as Birmingham and Derby had also lost this weekend so our main rivals in the relegation battle were not helping themselves. Suffice to say we got relegated, ending up rock bottom with just 5 wins and 92 goals against. Ahh so it was back to listening to the Bee Gees singing Stayin Alive…rather appropriate don’t you think. Our team that day was...Iles, G Wilkins, Stride, Bumstead, Wicks, Harris, Britton, Langley, Osgood, Aylott, Stanley. Sub...Walker

Unsung Hero: Ok so this bloke’s got a few quid stashed away, that doesn’t mean he can’t be included here. You know who I’m on about, Mr. Abramovich himself. Having been enlisted in the Russian Army Roman’s interest in oil began, mainly concentrating on Oil products out of Omsk in western Siberia. His big break came upon meeting Boris Berezovsky and later upon filling Berezovsky’s shoes he began building his empire. Needless to say he soon rose in the Forbes Money list and is now around about 49^th wealthiest person, with an estimated $3.6 billion to $7.6 billion in his Wells Fargo account. When he took over Chelsea in July 03 he instantly cleared our debt of close on $160 million, and has since bought in loads of world class players and a world class manager. As shy and quiet as Mr. Abramovich is I hope that one day he can shout from the rooftops (or Ken’s apartment) that we are the European Champions.

Flashback: It’s the start of season 1982-83 and we are hoping that after two consecutive finishes of 12^th in Division Two we could do a little better. We started the season off in August winning one and drawing. In September of the five games we played we only managed one win at home to Oldham, with two goals from David Speedie. October started really well with a 5-2 home drubbing of Grimsby Town. We couldn’t get any type of run going in October, 2 wins, 2 defeats and a draw was the best we could do. At the beginning of November we had played 12 games won 4, drawn 4 and lost 4. Things were not looking rosey. Things didn’t get any better in November picking up just 2 points from four games, we really were in serious trouble and there was a smell of relegation in the air and we hadn’t even got to the new year yet. The start of December saw us have a good run, winning 3 of our four games, all the victories were by the same score, 2-1, Vs Burnley, Bolton and QPR, our one loss was at Boro. The end of the year and the start of the new year saw us not find the back of the net for 3 games, until we played Cambridge at home, we thrashed them 6-0 in front of a very sparse turn out of just 7,808.

After the Cambridge game Chelsea went into some kind of freefall, winning just two games from Jan 15^th through to May 7^th. Now May 7^th is one of those days that will stay with me forever, as this to me was one of those moments in Chelsea’s history when things started to slightly turn round. We had to play at Burnden Park, home of Bolton Wdrs. Bolton themselves were involved in the relegation battle along with Burnley, Grimsby and Rotherham. This game was far from a classic, but the most important thing was we managed to win 0-1 thanks to a Clive Walker 25 yarder. Our last game was at home to Middlebrough and we were grateful for the point. But that game on May 7^th saved Chelsea from dropping down into the third tier of English football for the first time. We had stayed up by 2 points. Our WLD’s 11, 17, 14, GF 51, GA 61, points 47. Our keeper Steve Francis had the most appearances with 37, our top goalscorer was Speedie with 7, our player of the year was Mike Fillery. Our attendances were very low…Surprise!!! With an average of just 12,737, our highest being Vs Fulham 29,797, the lowest was Vs Carlisle Utd 6,667, there was also a lot of others that were way below 10,000.

A To Z of Chelsea FC:

T: Ticket prices for the shed end: 1970-30p, 1975-50p, 1980-2gbp, 1990-7gbp

T: Ticket prices for the benches: 1970- 60p, 1975-80p, 1980-3gbp, 1990-12gbp, 2005-43gbp

P: Programmes: 1970-5p, 1975-10p, 1990-1.30gbp, 2000-3gbp, 2005-3gbp

Games Played This Week in Past Years:

22^nd Oct 10 Vs Glossop North End: (A) L: 2-1...Goalscorer...McEwan...Att 7,000

28^th Oct 39 Vs Southampton (H) W: 6-2...Goalscorers...Weaver, Bucanhan, Smith, Payne 3...Att 2,818      *football league south fixture

28^th Oct 67 Vs West Ham Utd (H) L 1-3...Goalscorer...Osgood...Att 40,303

Who Am I?

I was born in Rotterdam

I played for Ajax before joining Ac Milan

I joined Chelsea from Barcelona

I had 20 Dutch caps by the time I joined Chelsea.

It took me three seasons to get my first team debut

I only played at total of 12 games from 2000 through 2004

I think I was a waste of money.

Who Am I?

Last weeks answer: Ian Hutchinson

Next week’s fixture: Manchester City (Home)

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

Archived History Lessons