Chelsea vs Sunderland

Good Days and Bad Games

Mar 16^th 97: W 6-2...Goalscorers: Sinclair, Petrescu, Di Matteo, Hughes 2, Zola

Dec 13^th 30: W 5-0...Goalscorers: Law, Cheyne, Gallacher 2, Crawford

Feb 22^nd 69: W 5-1...Goalscorers: Birchenall, Tambling 4

Mar 16^th 02: W 4-0...Goalscorers: Gallas, Dalla Bona, Gudjohnsen, Forssell

Apr 26^th 24: W 4-1...Goalscorers: Crawford, Brown 2, Wilding

 

Mar 12^th 10: L 1-4...Goalscorer: Downing

Nov 14^th 36: L 1-3...Goalscorer: Mills

Mar 23^rd 57: L 0-2

Mar 17^th 01: L 2-4...Goalscorers: Desailly, Gudjohnsen

Jan 14^th 56: L 2-3...Goalscorers: Bentley, OG

Top appearances makers Vs Sunderland

Woodley 12, R Harris 16, Willemse 11, Hollins 12, Armstrong 18, J Harris 17, Wilding 10, Bentley 16, Mills 9, Zola 9, Spence 10.

On This Day: It’s  March 16^th 1997 and with everyone playing with their hot new Tamagotchi and watching NJ Devils Dave Andreychuk become the 26^th player to hit 500 goals, Chelsea were racking up one of  their biggest wins at home to Sunderland at the Bridge. In a fine display Chelsea ran out 6-2 victors in front of a crowd of 24,027.Our team that day was...Grodas, Sinclair, Clarke, Myers, Petrescu, Di Matteo, Wise, Burley, Minto, Hughes Zola. Maybe it got a mention on Cnn’s new Spanish broadcasts which started the day after.

Unsung Hero: This week’s unsung is someone who should have played a lot more games for us but he was prone to the odd injury or 2.I’m talking about Ian Hutchinson. Proclaimed to be one of our best ever bargains, Hutch developed one of the longest throws in football. It was through one of his throws that led to our winning goal in the 1970 cup final. He was a star of our team in the 70’s.He won just 2 U 23 caps for England. Hutch was also a great header of the ball, none more so than in the first game against Leeds at Wembley where he scored with a diving header with minutes remaining on the clock. Hutch ended up playing 144 games and finding the net 58 times. After joining us in 1968 he retired in 1976, he later became Chelsea’s merchandising manager. Sadly Hutch passed away on Sept 19^th 02.He was only 53.

Flashback: It’s the start of the 1906-07 season and after our first season finish of 3^rd things were looking a little rosy at the athletic grounds…sorry the Bridge. Our manager JT Robertson had got rid of our legendary custodian Willie Foulke. Infact only 6 players who started in our first ever game last season started the first game of our second season. Our new #9 had been signed from Luton Town and we were all looking forward to see how well he would do in his first match Vs the mighty Glossop. He kind of did ok scoring 5 in a 9-2 victory, so I suppose he would be a bit of a keeper. Actually our first 5 games, all in Sept we only dropped 1 point .Our next 6 games October through to early November was a case of win one lose. From the Burnley game at home on November 10^th we went ballistic and won 10 and drawing 2 of our next 12 games. Our next loss was Vs Nottingham Forest on Feb 9^th but by this time the Chelsea players knew that promotion was a reality. We had already been knocked out of the fa cup by Lincoln City, whose manager was David Calderhead. So all we had to play for was promotion. Our last 2 games of February were against Lincoln City and Burton United and we got maximum points and 6 goals to boot. March was a hard month, having to play 4 times in 13 days, we played a total of 8 games in March, losing 3 and winning 4.Promotion was on its way. April, the final month of the season, saw Chelsea start with a 7-0 hammering of Chesterfield, we then went onto win our last 3 games against Wolves, Clapton Orient and Gainsborough Trinity, winning 4-0, 1-0, 4-1 respectively. We finished the season in 2^nd place and a place in the first division for the first time in our history. Our WDL’s for the season were...26,5,7,GF 80,GA 34..Pts 57, 3 off of the top team Nottingham Forest. Our top goalscorer was George Hilsdon with 27 from 32,Our top appearance maker was the popular Tommy Miller, playing in all 38 league games. Our average attendance was 17,578 with the top one being against Hull City 48,000.

A to Z of Chelsea FC:

B: Bad Boys: Alan Birchenall, Cookey, Ossie & Johnny Boyle, all technically injured-lunched at Barbarella’s on the Fulham Road in the shadow of the Bridge. They shared 14 bottles of wine. Manager Sexton found out and went ballistic and all were dropped for the next match.

R: Really bad boy: Tommy Baldwin was arrested after throwing a bottle of Vodka from a car driven by a man without a licence, in a chase involving several police. Tommy appeared; blood stained in front of the magistrates and got a four month jail sentence, which on appeal was suspended. Baldwin was the first football player to be convicted of drink driving after the breathalyzer was introduced in 1967.

R: Really Really bad boy: Graham Rix was sentenced to a year in Wandsworth in 1999 for having sex with a 15 year old girl.

Games Played This Week in Past Years:

Dec 8^th 06: Wolves (A): W 1-2...Goalscorers...Hilsdon, Windridge

Dec 10^th 06: Arsenal (H) D 1-1...Goalscorer...Essien

Dec 9^th 98: Aston Villa (H) W 2-1...Goalscorers...Zola, Flo

Who Am I?

I played a total of 180 games for Chelsea

I hold 3 different passports

I played 15 times for England, even though I’m not English

I won the 2^nd division and the Full Members cup with Chelsea

I scored a goal for Chelsea at Wembley

I came from Aston Villa and went to Leeds

Who Am I?

Last weeks answer: Chris Hutchings 

Next week’s fixture: Arsenal (Away)

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

Archived History Lessons