THIS WEEK'S FIXTURE - -Chelsea Vs Middlesbrough

We have pretty decent record against “the boro”,considering they Did send us down via the playoffs in May 88.We have played the Boro 49 times and have come out winners a total of 31 times, with 13 draws & just 5 defeats. We have managed to score 93 goals against 37.Our best win Vs Boro at The Bridge have been a couple of 5-0 whoppings, one in Feb 52 with D’Arcy scoring a hat trick & Bentley getting the other 2.The other 5-0 thrashing was the game where the media started using the “sexy football” tag, this was in Feb 96 with Peacock 3 Spencer & Furlong getting the goals. So what are the odds on another Feb 5-0 win? Our biggest losses to Boro are two 2-3’s in 1912 & 1933,as for high scoring draws the best I can come up with are a couple of 2-2’s the last being in 2001.

  Recent Statistics: Since season 99-00 we have played Boro 14 times in the league and we have claimed the lion’s share of the results, having won 8, drawn 4 & only 2 defeats. Our best result in this sequence was a 0-2 win at the Riverside in Apr 02, with Zenden & C Cole getting the goals. The season I’m looking at this week is the season when we beat them in the cup final in 97.Boro had already been relegated by the time the final took place so on paper it should have been and easy game especially as we finished 6^th with 59 points,Boro finished 19^th with 39 points. This if you can remember was the season they had 3 points deducted for not playing one game due to illness amongst their players, if they had won that they would have stayed up. Top scorers this year were both Italians for us it was Luca with 9 & for Boro it was “THE SILVER EAGLE””Ravenelli with a very respectable 16 from 33 games.Boro’s average attendance was better than ours, ours was a Shed rebuilding 28,418 their’s was a finished Riverside  30,215.Our biggest home win that season was a 6-2 mauling of Sunderland, our biggest away win was at Leicester 1-3,our heaviest defeat at home  was to Le Arse 1-3,our biggest away defeat was In the red side of Beatle Country. 1-5.  

Memorable match: There’s actually quite a few I could pick from the tin pot that Bates thought up, the Fa Cup & League cup finals. But I’ve decided to go for the game that got us relegated. It was the end of may 1988 it was a bright sunny day with the crowd in fine fettle, as bad as we had been towards the end of the season surely we couldn’t lose (again) to this outfit. Three days earlier we did 0-2.As the game got underway you could tell everyone was nervous.Nevin missed a glorious chance, but saying that Bernie Slaven missed an even easier chance. On around 20 minutes Durie scored from a cross from Nevin and we were right back in the game 1-2 on aggregate, we kept going forward but apart from a Dixon header we didn’t look like we were going to get another goal. As the second half was heading towards the end the Chelsea players seemed to be losing any inspiration they had and you could tell it was second division football for us next season. As soon as the final whistle went loads of Chelsea “fans” ran towards the Boro fans and started throwing bricks and bottles and whatever else they could find. As a result of the loutish behavior we were fined 75k and ordered to play the first 6 games of the new season behind closed doors. Our team that day was…Hitchcock,Clarke,Dorigo,Wicks,McLaughlin,Pates,Nevin,Bumstead,Dixon,Durie,K Wilson. Used Subs...Hall, McAllister…Att 40,550

 

 

 

Games from This Week in Years Gone By:

Feb 7^th 30 (A) Middlesbrough D 2-2...Goalscorers...Jackson Pearson...Att 16,443

Feb 9^th 52 (A) Sunderland L 1-4...Goalscorer...Jones...Att 37,298

Feb 6^th 71 (A) Newcastle W 1-0...Goalscorer... Hudson..Att 34,320                                                                       

CHELSEA LEGEND.Ok this player wasn’t so much of a hero when he played for us, if anything he was a target for the “boo boys”, but since many a year has passed since he left us more fans have come to appreciate what a decent player he was. I’m talking about Peter “nobby” Houseman.Nobby made his debut late Dec back in 63 at home to Sheffield Utd a game we won 3-1…Oh what a night!!! After staring in another 3 games that season it took Nobby another 4 seasons to establish himself, making just 69 appearances between 63/64 & 68/69.None the less in season 69/70 along with Hollins he played in all 54 games. Nobby was a left winger who could operate in midfield & towards the end of his Chelsea career played a far amount as a left back. Who can ever forget his face when his miss hit shot went under Sprake’s body for the equalizer in the cup final, I can remember him looking at all the Chelsea fans and thinking, Boo me know you arrogant lot. Houseman collected a decent haul of medals in the early 70’s.But unfortunately it was March 19^th 1977 that I will remember, as the day the 1970 Chelsea Cup Final team started to leave us. Tragically Peter was killed along with his wife Sally by a drunk, driving up the wrong side of the motorway, he was only 32.Peter played 343 games and scored 39 goals. Peter Houseman, Missed and a very underrated...CHELSEA LEGEND! 

CHELSEA TRIVIA: Songs with Chelsea in the name: Chelsea morning. Joni Mitchell. I don’t wanna go to Chelsea, Elvis Costello, Chelsea Girl, Simple Minds. Chelsea Monday, Marillion Chelsea Hotel#2, Leonard Cohen

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS:

 1.        The 9 international England Players who’s last name start & ends with the same letter are…Scholes, Stiles, Tueart, Stevens G (Everton), Stevens G (Spurs), Newton, Scales, Talbot, Rimmer
2.         3 players to score a hat trick for 3 different premier league teams are…Kevin Campbell, Les Ferdinand, Teddy Sheringham.                                                                               THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS

   1: Can you name the 7 England players with an X in their name?     

NEXT WEEK’S LESSON IS ?????

Until Next Time Then…….Cheerio!  Tel