THIS WEEK'S FIXTURE - -Portsmouth Vs Chelsea 

So it’s down to the south coast for a lovely day at the seaside, hopefully after a win we can get those knotted hankies out and head to the beach. After that’s all said and done our record at Fratton Park is as follows. Nothing special, really, we have played the “old pompey chimes” 33 times we have nicked all the points on just 11 occasions, drawn 9 and lost 13, we have only scored 48 against their 55.Our biggest win at Fratton Park has been a couple of 1-5’s but they were both during the war (43 &44) and they weren’t even league games, these games were won in the Football League South. We have had some big defeats though, a 2-5 in Dec 48 and a 0-4 in Mar 50, as for high scoring draws our favorite scoreline of 4-4 once again appears, this was on New Years Eve 1955, our goals coming from Les Stubbs and a Frankie Blunstone hat trick.   

Recent Statistics: Our recent stats are great, if you can call 1957 recent, that was the last time we lost to them. Since then we have played them 18 times, won 11 and drew 7,since 03-04 we have won 6 in a row scoring 14 and not letting in any, not bad eh!!!. Our best results was a 3-0 in Dec 03, on that day our team included Sullivan in goal, Melchiot, Gronkjaer and Mutu. That season was Pompey’s first in the Money League and they finished a credible 13^th, while we finished an eye opening 2^nd. Our biggest Home win was 5-0 Vs Wolves, as for attendances our highest was 41,932 our lowest 40, 491, with a healthy average of 41,234 and a total of 783,451 going through the Gates of Stamford Bridge for the season.

CHELSEA LEGEND. This week’s Legend is none other than our own hard man from the 60’s & 70’s Ron “Chopper” Harris. Ron started out as a junior before moving through the ranks for club and country making his debut in Feb 62 Vs Sheff Weds (W1-0), in that season he only played a total of 3 games, the following season he only played 7, but after that he was a regular close on 17 years, he had 4 seasons where he was an ever present (64-65,66-67,72-73,74-75). He was a member of 4 cup final sides having already played in a winning FA Youth cup team. He also earned 6 schoolboy caps & 4 U 23 caps for England. But most of all apart from being probably the fittest player in the 70’s team Chopper was a respected defender who if the ball went passed him you knew the player wouldn’t. He was also at the time (FA Cup final 67) the youngest man to captain a cup final team. But most of all, probably the thing that will always endear Chopper to all Chelsea fans is his formidable record of games. Ron played from Feb 62 through to May 80,his last goal for Chelsea was in a 2-1 win Vs Burley (Mar 15^th), his last game was Vs Oldham at the Bridge and we won this one 3-1,for most of this season (79-80) Ronnie was used as a left winger and was the only player left from the 70’s golden era to play in our 1000th league win at Orient(3-7). When Chopper’s Chelsea career ended he had amassed a total of 795 games with 14 goals. Nobody will ever get close to this record, that’s why Ron “Chopper” Harris will always be a true…CHELSEA LEGEND! 

CHELSEA TRIVIA: Cant see this happening in the near future: players signed from non league: D Barnard-Woking, P Canoville- Hillingdon Boro, I Hutchinson-Cambridge Utd, K Swain- Wycombe Wdrs, M Droy- Slough Town, V Woodley-Windsor & Eton, And C Hutchings- Harrow Boro.

                                                                                                                                                                                           

NEXT WEEK’S LESSON IS Liverpool

Until Next Time Then…….Cheerio!  Tel