THIS WEEKEND'S FIXTURE - -Liverpool Vs Chelsea

For years this has been not one of my favorite fixtures, not just because for ages we couldn’t win there but cos them damn scourers beat me up once, I wouldn’t mind but we got beat by them 0-3.Anyway enough of the hostilities, here’s this weeks lesson. We have played a total of 63 league games at Anfield and have only come away with all the points on 8 occasions, we have managed 13 draws and the rest were defeats, we have scored a pathetic 63 goals and let in  twice as many. Some results have not been good to us up there in Beatles country, we have had some heavy losses, including 1-5 (Jan 1910) 0-6 (Apr 35) & 4-7 (Sept 46),in recent season we have lost 1-5 in 96-97 & 2-4 in 97-98,as for high scoring draws we have managed two 3-3’s,but our best win was very recent, it was the 1-4 drubbing from Oct 05,with our goals coming from. Lamps Duffer Joey Cole & the gapped tooth wonder himself... Geremi 

Recent Statistics: The season I’ve picked for this segment is the first season we finished above Liverpool in the Prem. That season was 1998-99, we finished 3^rd with 75 points & they finished a lowly 7^th with a paltry 54 points. Over the two games, we won at the Bridge 2-1, goals from Flo & Goldbaek, and for once we didn’t lose at Anfield, we held on for a 1-1 draw with Casiraghi getting his only goal for Chelsea. Our top goal getter that year was Franco Zola with 13 in 37 games & for the hubcap thieves Owen topped out with 18 in 30 games. Liverpool also had the highest win this season with a 1-8 win at Nottm Forest. But not to be out done we had the longest unbeaten run which stretched for an impressive 21 games. Our biggest wins this season were at home 3-0 Vs Wimbledon and away by the same score to Aston Villa.   

Memorable Game: There can only be one game Vs this lot that really stands out and it has to be “that FA cup 4^th round game” in Jan 97.The day started off badly as the train which normally left Wolverhampton with shoppers and a few Chelsea fans pulled into the station full of shellsuited scousers, so straight away I knew I wasn’t going to get a seat. We hadn’t even reached Birmingham and this was already the journey from hell. Upon leaving New Street Birmingham we were told there would be delays along the line, it took nearly an hour to get to Coventry, which should only take max 10-15 mins, by this time we managed to get a seat (the floor if you can call that a seat) and the shellsuits were starting to get, shall we say a little boisterous. Once we left Coventry we seemed to be making up time, until we pulled in at Rugby, first there was a delay as the train driver was finished for the day, second the damn train engine decided to die and third the shell suits were playing havoc with anything and anybody. So we got another driver and eventually a new train and after a few arrests we were under way. Thankfully from there on we had police protection so it was a lot safer. We even got a seat where we sat with a couple from Liverpool who were actually allright as scousers go. I will always remember them asking my friend for a prediction and she said 4-2 Chelsea the same as it was in 78, they just laughed at her and I must admit I thought she had been at my can of Stella. We made it to the ground as the players were coming out the tunnel. And what happens, by halftime 2-0 down, I said to my friend if they get another in the first 10 minutes or so I’m out of here. But as we all know Rudi took off Minto and put on Hughes, within 10 minutes we had pulled on back 2-1..come on lads at least given em a game, then Vialli scored 2-2 COME ON  CHELS!!! Freekick...Zola’s got to take this. Come on Chels….YES 3-2 OH MY GOD.Seriously when this went in I nearly passed out, I had to sit in my chair I just couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. By now Liverpool had had it, they were “not good” Towards the end Vialli got another, the atmosphere, considering there was only 29,000 there, was probably the best I had experienced.Right at the end Collymore fouled Super Dan, Dan got up and counted 4 on one hand and 2 on the other and showed it to Collymore.Yes we had come back to win a game which was totally lost at halftime. If none of you have seen this game I do have it on British tape and one other thing I remember from the tape on 74 minutes I think, the BBC camera panned round the scouse fans and there was this 16-17 year old kid in tears. That will teach you to take all the seats on the train!!! Probably my greatest game.

 

 

 

 

 

Games from This Week in Years Gone By

            Jan 18^th 47 Vs Leeds Utd (A) L 1-2...Goalscorer.Lawton...Att 37,884

            Jan 19^th 57 Vs Birmingham City (A) W 0-1...Goalscorer.McNichol...Att 30,157

            Jan 21^st 67 Vs Aston Villa (H) W 3-1...Goalscorers. Baldwin, Hateley, Tambling...Att 30,922   

CHELSEA LEGEND: This weeks legend is none other than the flasher himself, Clive Walker .Clive was an integral part of our teams through the late 70’s and early 80’s, with his lightning speed mainly down the left flank. He also played a lot in the center of the forward line and was renowned for scoring spectacular goals, none more so than the goal that saved us from going down to the old 3^rd division in May 83.Clive played a total of 224 games and banged in a respectable 66 goals. Sometimes his play was a little unpredictable but that said he was a huge favorite of the Chelsea faithful, and to be fair to him he did play in some pretty damn awful teams. His only honor for all his years at Chelsea was being capped by England at schoolboy level. Clive used to run an auction house in Surrey but on the odd occasion turns out for the Chelsea old boys. CHELSEA LEGEND! 

CHELSEA TRIVIA: Players who have played 1 game for Chelsea as a sub:  R Wosahlo 67, J Clare 80, G Peyton 92, S Livingstone 93, J Sherrin 97, S Hampshire 97, L Knight 01, A Grant 05, J Smith 06.

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS:

   1: Which teams are the furthest north, east, south & west….north is Newcastle, east is Norwich & south & west is Plymouth.

   2: Which team has played in the prem, divs 1, 2, 3, 4, div 3 south & div 3 north…Coventry

THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS

   1: What was use in the 1973 FA Cup final & never used again?  

   2: Which 2 players have played in.Mersey, North East, London & Milan derbies?                                                                                                              

NEXT WEEK’S LESSON IS Blackburn Rovers

Until Next Time Then…….Cheerio!  Tel