1987-1994
The easiest place to start would be my first Chelsea game. That was in February 1987 when
my Dad took me to my first match as a treat for my 9th birthday. And what a match to have as
your first game! Chelsea against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. We drew 1-1 and
Micky Hazard scored. (See video).
United also managed to hit the post and the bar in one shot. A United player fell over about an
hour after he had been tackled. Cue boos and jeers from the Chelsea fans. I cried when we
scored.
The late 80s was an era from when footballers had proper footballing names. Kerry Dixon.
Micky Hazard. Joe McLaughlin. David Speedie. Gordon Durie. Pat Nevin. Kevin Wilson. Clive
Wilson. (Unrelated).
These were my heroes and always will be. Just like older supporters will always see Osgood as
their hero, Dixon was mine. A superb striker, a great person, a Chelsea legend. At the time I
read Roy of the Rovers, and he resembled the Chelsea striker to a tee as well. Well, in my
eyes anyway. When Shearer scores, he raises one hand in the air. When Dixon scored, he
raised both arms in the air. I always copied this in the playground if I had toe punted the tennis
ball in between the school bags representing goalposts at break time. When I heard the news
that Arsenal were trying to sign him, I was nearly in tears. Luckily he didn't. I found it tough to
adjust when the team changed and new faces were brought in, so when Dixon ended his
career I felt like a part of Chelsea had died inside me. It was akin to getting dumped by your
first girlfriend. After a while your heart hardens and you get used to the fact that players move
on.
We also had a few youngsters coming through. Young fans can always relate to the younger
generation. Jason Cundy. Graham Stuart. Graeme Le Saux. Andy Myers. Eddie Newton.
Damian Matthew. I even chose my middle name as Damian during my second Communion.
Unfortunately Chelsea have rarely had youngsters break through to become world class
players. At the moment John Terry is the only one who is truly brilliant. Jason Cundy was
always a sore point. When we sold him to Spurs there was graffiti on the bridge outside the
East stand exit proclaiming, "Bring Cundy back!". He scored a brilliantly fluky goal for Spurs
from the halfway line before his career sadly ended due to injury. One of the few players who
we genuinely loved despite him joining our North London rivals.
It was not until the next season that I began to go more regularly. My second match was a
thriller. Chelsea played Nottingham Forest and having been 3-1 down at half time, fought back
to win 4-3 in August 1987. My love for Chelsea was cemented. Later on that season we played
Everton at home. Football matches were the first place where I had heard so much swearing
and it soon rubbed off on me. I recall shouting at Southall and calling him a fat bastard. I swear
he looked in my direction, probably incredulous that a 10 year old had such a filthy mouth!
The Wimbledon away game that season was a good laugh, and my first ever away game.
Plough Lane was a funny little ground, but at least it had some character. It is disgraceful what
has happened to Wimbledon since and I hope it never happens again. The relocation of
Wimbledon to Milton Keynes showed one of the many things that is wrong with the game
nowadays. I always had fondness for the club and their fans (all three of them!). In any case,
we were 2-0 down in this game and the mighty moustachioed Northern Ireland striker Kevin
Wilson scored two goals to earn us a point. I would not say by any means that he was world
class, but he struck up a great partnership with Dixon and regularly scored at least ten goals
per season for us.
Oxford at home will stick in my memory as it was where Eddie Niedzwiecki's career was ended
by a terrible injury.
I also had the pleasure to see a great Liverpool team secure the league with a 1-1 draw at the
Bridge. Dalglish, Rush and Co. John Barnes scored a magnificent free kick against us.
The season ended terribly as I stood in the Shed and saw us relegated. Chelsea fans invaded
the pitch and rushed towards the Boro fans. And it wasn't to try to shake their hands and
congratulate them! It was because of Chelsea fans' behaviour that my Dad had limited the
matches he went to, and was sceptical of following Chelsea away. After that match I cried - but
my support never waivered.
From the 1988 season until now I have had a season ticket every year apart from one when I
had to spend a year in France as part of my degree.
Being a Chelsea fan has never been easy. I never dreamt we would win anything of note. I saw
some pretty awful games although looking back now I feel more sorry for the fans who had to
watch the Blues in the late 70s and early 80s. However, there was nothing like being at a
Chelsea game. We would lose to Scunthorpe in the League Cup but always seemed to get
results against the better clubs. You just never knew!
Many Chelsea fans look at the times when we were poor as being the best times to be a
supporter. Chelsea took loads away and at each match we had the hardcore fanbase which we
see less and less of each year as genuine fans who now have domestic responsibilities are
priced out of the market.
We also saw some weird things at the time: a formula one car spraying fans in the Shed with
pebbles as it drove around the dog track and Boy George singing at half time (not appreciated
by the fans for some reason) among them.
One memory from before matches was seeing the same scratchcard seller with his jumper
woven out of Chelsea scarves outside the East Stand before the game. We always used to
seem to have the same songs blaring out over the tannoy: Alexander O'Neal's Criticize; Harry J
All Stars' The Liquidator; Van Halen's Jump. We began to play songs for when the team came
out to motivate them. Among those I recall was Europe's "The Final Countdown", and later,
quite ironically in my view at the time, played Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" which the
opposition fans tended to dance and sing to instead of us. For some reason I remember
Sheffield Wednesday fans especially dancing to it. Perhaps they were being counter-ironic if
there is such a phrase.
Despite some Chelsea fans nowadays being dismissive of rugby, which in my opinion is the
second best sport in the world after football, I also remember us singing "Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot" if England had won a game in the old five nations.
There also seemed to be aggro at virtually every home match at the time. I tended to ignore it
and was more interested in watching the game. There would be pockets of fighting breaking
out from time to time. I started going towards the end of the worst phase of English
hooliganism, but it would be foolish to say those days are completely over. In fact at the
moment it seems to be resurging. Whether this reflects the feelings of disgruntled fans at the
way the game is going or whether there is something much deeper is yet to be seen.
The first trophy I saw us win was the 2nd division title. That felt good. Upon promotion we
somehow finished 5th the next season.
We beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at home in our second home game of the season. Cue
spontaneous chants against their manager, "He's big, he's fat, he's gonna get the sack,
Atkinson, Atkinson"!
Charlton away was a sickener and was played at Selhurst Park. We lost 3-0 and Paul Mortimer
scored a hat trick.
I went up to Everton for my first away game outside of London at the age of 11. Chelsea won
1-0 and Steve Clarke scored in off the post. Martin Keown did a back pass to Southall from the
half way line that went off for a corner. Myself and my Dad were in the Everton end and when
Chelsea scored, were the only fans in the stand to jump up and go bonkers. We quickly sat
down again though! I remember looking over to the Chelsea fans in the away end and thinking,
"so that's how we look when we score away!". It was utter pandemonium in the Chelsea end.
After the game I got to meet my heroes. Dixon, Beasant, Monkou, Nevin.
That was the last time we were top of the league for a long time. Typical Chelsea, we did not
win any of our next 11 games! This included a run of losing 5-2, 4-2, 5-2. It's funny how you
remember the crap games. Among these was a draw 2-2 draw against Palace at Selhurst Park
where the Chelsea fans disgracefully chanted, "the referee's a paki". My grandfather, who
attended many Chelsea matches straight after the Second World War after moving to England
from Poland was so incensed by the antics of the fans that we left with 10 minutes to go. Of
course, Le Saux scored in the last minute to equalise and I have rarely left a match early since.
There is still an undercurrent of racism at football despite the fact that we are supposed to be
more enlightened fans nowadays. I once met a Chelsea fan who stopped going to games when
we signed out first black player.
Chelsea 0 Norwich 0 that season was one of the worst matches I had ever seen. In the next
match programme you could see me as a podgy kid in the background of a picture in the East
Lower family section. Surprisingly this was the only moment in the match when I actually
watching play, as the match was so tedious. These were times when people regularly sang,
"what a waste of money" regarding the cost of their tickets. At about the same time Chelsea's
fans also sang Monty Python's "always look on the bright side of life" when we were losing. We
were one of the few supporters who still had a sense of humour when things were bad, and
that was another great reason to be a fan.
At least we won a cup at the end of the season that was on a par with the Champions League
trophy: yes - the Zenith Data Systems Cup. Dorigo beating Boro with a marvellous free kick.
And not the first time we would beat the club that relegated us in a Cup Final either!
With it being a world cup year too I recall the Chelsea club shop selling T-shirts with slogans
on them such as, "Chelsea Hooligans on tour in Italy". I doubt they would get away with that
nowadays!
The next couple of seasons were a blur. Beating Spurs away 3-0 in the League Cup in 1991
was a highlight. I remember T-Shirts being sold saying "Blue Murder - 3-0". There was also a
fantastic game at Derby with the final score being 6-4 - and there was talk at the time of
widening goal posts to make the game more exciting! Chelsea were annihilated in the League
Cup semis by Sheffield Wednesday. That was the closest Chelsea had come to a major final
for a long time. The season ended on a typical Chelsea note. We lost 7-0 - yes 7-0 - to Forest
away. I was at a school friend's birthday party, and when I looked on teletext I thought there
had been a typo. It's when you remember games like this that you should be grateful for the
success Chelsea has now. It also keeps my feet to the ground knowing that someday Chelsea
will be a poor side again. At present that should not happen for at least 10 years.
Funnily enough we won the next game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge 4-2. To put it
mildly, there was never a dull moment with Chelsea - on or off the pitch.
Joe Allon was supposed to be Kerry Dixon's successor. We always laud our new strikers, and
in his first game against Wimbledon on the first day of the season he scored the equaliser
having come off the bench with more or less his first touch. We had found our Messiah. Even
more so because he ran to the Shed End and celebrated as if he had scored the winning goal
in the World Cup. Unfortunately he did little more for Chelsea, but will always be remembered
fondly by Chelsea fans for that celebration.
Later that season we played Sunderland in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Kerry Dixon took a
shot that was so bad, that when it went off the referee gave Chelsea a corner kick believing
there was no way someone could hit the ball that poorly. Chelsea scored from the resulting
corner, and earned a replay at Roker Park. Again we went behind only to equalise. With only a
few minutes left it looked as if Chelsea had earned a replay. Graham Stuart stood in front of
the away fans and lead the them to song like a conductor leading an orchestra. Then
Sunderland scored, and we were out yet again, 2-1 the result.
We sold Boyd and Allen soon after. Clive Allen had been a consistent goalscorer for us and we
sold him to West Ham. He scored a magnificent goal for them against us soon after, and many
Chelsea fans stood up to applaud (yes - Chelsea fans applauding a West Ham player!).
Luckily we won 2-1 against the Irons.
In the last home game of the season, Paul Merson scored to earn a point for Arsenal at
Stamford Bridge with one of the best goals ever against Chelsea - he hit the ball from the right
wing and it landed in the goal in front of the Shed.
At school it was tough being a Chelsea fan. In my first school in South East London there were
two Chelsea fans out of 1,000 kids. In my secondary school there were three out of a total of
1,400. Despite all the glory hunting kids purporting to support Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester
United, we were the only ones who regularly went to games out of the bigger clubs. The only
other fans who went regularly to see their team play were the Palace fans, and one Charlton
fan. Even worse, we only won our first real trophy after I had left school! Football was always
my passion and I remember us playing at break time with all the usual excuses: "You can't join
because you cheat"; "You can't join in because you foul"; "Sorry, we already have enough
players"; "The goalie wasn't ready"; "You can have monkey rush but we have a 5-0 headstart";
"It's not a goal as in a real game the referee would have blown for a goal kick". Those were the
days! You could never had a reasoned footballing argument, as being a Chelsea fan you
could not compete with other clubs' boasts. The only thing I could retort from any banter was
asking the perpetrator how many Manchester United games he had been to, and why he
supported them despite being a Londoner!
92-93 was a pretty nondescript season. The only memories were bad ones. The worst being
the loss to Crystal Palace in the league cup at Selhurst on a pitch so muddy that one of
Chelsea's efforts on goal stuck in the pitch about a yard from the line. This was one of many
Chelsea games that I went to where afterwards I found it difficult to sleep. It was also the game
where Le Saux threw his shirt to the ground upon being substituted. Another was the infamous
3-2 loss to Norwich at home. Norwich had arrived with just minutes to spare owing to heavy
traffic. For the first half they played like a team that hadn't been able to warm up and Chelsea
swiftly went into a 2-0 lead. Then disaster. Dave Beasant let in two goals that had comically
slipped through his fingers and eventually we lost the match 3-2. Beasant was another one of
the old Wimbledon boys we had brought in and in my eyes was a superb keeper. Ian
Porterfield was a disgrace. After that game he publicly humiliated Beasant by saying the
keeper should never play for Chelsea again. Beasant had the last laugh as Porterfield was
sacked before the end of the season. I recently met Dave and that game still rankles with him.
He was, and still is, the nicest person I have ever met and always had time to sign autographs
for the youngsters. For me, a Chelsea legend.
Suddenly things were changing. Glenn Hoddle joined as player manager. There is no doubt
that he was the catalyst for Chelsea's current success. He changed players diets; introduced a
more rigid and structured training regime; he instilled professionalism on the players.
In a pre season friendly in the Makita tournament Chelsea annihilated Spurs 4-0 in the final
with Cascarino scoring 3 and Peacock the other.
We were beginning to see a better standard of football and even reached the final of the FA
Cup for the first time since we had won it in 1970.
This also included a bizarre game where we played Barnet at Stamford Bridge despite it
originally being an away game. Glenn's brother, Carl played and we embarrassingly drew 0-0
"away" - a match we could have lost - then beat them 4-0 at "home". We had no difficult ties to
reach the final. Barnet, Oxford, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton. Kerry Dixon returned to
play against Chelsea for Luton in the semi-final at Wembley and had his name chanted
throughout the game by the Chelsea fans.
Then came the final. It was a grey, drizzling day and one I shall never forget. Could we beat the
best team in the land? We had done the double over them in the league and things were
looking rosy as Peacock hit the bar with a shot. Then Chelsea's favourite referee, David
Elleray, awarded a dubious penalty to United and the floodgates opened. Eventually losing 4-0
we trudged home with my tears mixing with the rain as some Chelsea fans took turns to kick
some Manchester United fans up the bum. That was the team I wanted to emulate. Cantona,
McClair, Hughes. What a team that was.
The plus side was that we had qualified for the Cup Winners Cup!
my Dad took me to my first match as a treat for my 9th birthday. And what a match to have as
your first game! Chelsea against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. We drew 1-1 and
Micky Hazard scored. (See video).
United also managed to hit the post and the bar in one shot. A United player fell over about an
hour after he had been tackled. Cue boos and jeers from the Chelsea fans. I cried when we
scored.
The late 80s was an era from when footballers had proper footballing names. Kerry Dixon.
Micky Hazard. Joe McLaughlin. David Speedie. Gordon Durie. Pat Nevin. Kevin Wilson. Clive
Wilson. (Unrelated).
These were my heroes and always will be. Just like older supporters will always see Osgood as
their hero, Dixon was mine. A superb striker, a great person, a Chelsea legend. At the time I
read Roy of the Rovers, and he resembled the Chelsea striker to a tee as well. Well, in my
eyes anyway. When Shearer scores, he raises one hand in the air. When Dixon scored, he
raised both arms in the air. I always copied this in the playground if I had toe punted the tennis
ball in between the school bags representing goalposts at break time. When I heard the news
that Arsenal were trying to sign him, I was nearly in tears. Luckily he didn't. I found it tough to
adjust when the team changed and new faces were brought in, so when Dixon ended his
career I felt like a part of Chelsea had died inside me. It was akin to getting dumped by your
first girlfriend. After a while your heart hardens and you get used to the fact that players move
on.
We also had a few youngsters coming through. Young fans can always relate to the younger
generation. Jason Cundy. Graham Stuart. Graeme Le Saux. Andy Myers. Eddie Newton.
Damian Matthew. I even chose my middle name as Damian during my second Communion.
Unfortunately Chelsea have rarely had youngsters break through to become world class
players. At the moment John Terry is the only one who is truly brilliant. Jason Cundy was
always a sore point. When we sold him to Spurs there was graffiti on the bridge outside the
East stand exit proclaiming, "Bring Cundy back!". He scored a brilliantly fluky goal for Spurs
from the halfway line before his career sadly ended due to injury. One of the few players who
we genuinely loved despite him joining our North London rivals.
It was not until the next season that I began to go more regularly. My second match was a
thriller. Chelsea played Nottingham Forest and having been 3-1 down at half time, fought back
to win 4-3 in August 1987. My love for Chelsea was cemented. Later on that season we played
Everton at home. Football matches were the first place where I had heard so much swearing
and it soon rubbed off on me. I recall shouting at Southall and calling him a fat bastard. I swear
he looked in my direction, probably incredulous that a 10 year old had such a filthy mouth!
The Wimbledon away game that season was a good laugh, and my first ever away game.
Plough Lane was a funny little ground, but at least it had some character. It is disgraceful what
has happened to Wimbledon since and I hope it never happens again. The relocation of
Wimbledon to Milton Keynes showed one of the many things that is wrong with the game
nowadays. I always had fondness for the club and their fans (all three of them!). In any case,
we were 2-0 down in this game and the mighty moustachioed Northern Ireland striker Kevin
Wilson scored two goals to earn us a point. I would not say by any means that he was world
class, but he struck up a great partnership with Dixon and regularly scored at least ten goals
per season for us.
Oxford at home will stick in my memory as it was where Eddie Niedzwiecki's career was ended
by a terrible injury.
I also had the pleasure to see a great Liverpool team secure the league with a 1-1 draw at the
Bridge. Dalglish, Rush and Co. John Barnes scored a magnificent free kick against us.
The season ended terribly as I stood in the Shed and saw us relegated. Chelsea fans invaded
the pitch and rushed towards the Boro fans. And it wasn't to try to shake their hands and
congratulate them! It was because of Chelsea fans' behaviour that my Dad had limited the
matches he went to, and was sceptical of following Chelsea away. After that match I cried - but
my support never waivered.
From the 1988 season until now I have had a season ticket every year apart from one when I
had to spend a year in France as part of my degree.
Being a Chelsea fan has never been easy. I never dreamt we would win anything of note. I saw
some pretty awful games although looking back now I feel more sorry for the fans who had to
watch the Blues in the late 70s and early 80s. However, there was nothing like being at a
Chelsea game. We would lose to Scunthorpe in the League Cup but always seemed to get
results against the better clubs. You just never knew!
Many Chelsea fans look at the times when we were poor as being the best times to be a
supporter. Chelsea took loads away and at each match we had the hardcore fanbase which we
see less and less of each year as genuine fans who now have domestic responsibilities are
priced out of the market.
We also saw some weird things at the time: a formula one car spraying fans in the Shed with
pebbles as it drove around the dog track and Boy George singing at half time (not appreciated
by the fans for some reason) among them.
One memory from before matches was seeing the same scratchcard seller with his jumper
woven out of Chelsea scarves outside the East Stand before the game. We always used to
seem to have the same songs blaring out over the tannoy: Alexander O'Neal's Criticize; Harry J
All Stars' The Liquidator; Van Halen's Jump. We began to play songs for when the team came
out to motivate them. Among those I recall was Europe's "The Final Countdown", and later,
quite ironically in my view at the time, played Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" which the
opposition fans tended to dance and sing to instead of us. For some reason I remember
Sheffield Wednesday fans especially dancing to it. Perhaps they were being counter-ironic if
there is such a phrase.
Despite some Chelsea fans nowadays being dismissive of rugby, which in my opinion is the
second best sport in the world after football, I also remember us singing "Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot" if England had won a game in the old five nations.
There also seemed to be aggro at virtually every home match at the time. I tended to ignore it
and was more interested in watching the game. There would be pockets of fighting breaking
out from time to time. I started going towards the end of the worst phase of English
hooliganism, but it would be foolish to say those days are completely over. In fact at the
moment it seems to be resurging. Whether this reflects the feelings of disgruntled fans at the
way the game is going or whether there is something much deeper is yet to be seen.
The first trophy I saw us win was the 2nd division title. That felt good. Upon promotion we
somehow finished 5th the next season.
We beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at home in our second home game of the season. Cue
spontaneous chants against their manager, "He's big, he's fat, he's gonna get the sack,
Atkinson, Atkinson"!
Charlton away was a sickener and was played at Selhurst Park. We lost 3-0 and Paul Mortimer
scored a hat trick.
I went up to Everton for my first away game outside of London at the age of 11. Chelsea won
1-0 and Steve Clarke scored in off the post. Martin Keown did a back pass to Southall from the
half way line that went off for a corner. Myself and my Dad were in the Everton end and when
Chelsea scored, were the only fans in the stand to jump up and go bonkers. We quickly sat
down again though! I remember looking over to the Chelsea fans in the away end and thinking,
"so that's how we look when we score away!". It was utter pandemonium in the Chelsea end.
After the game I got to meet my heroes. Dixon, Beasant, Monkou, Nevin.
That was the last time we were top of the league for a long time. Typical Chelsea, we did not
win any of our next 11 games! This included a run of losing 5-2, 4-2, 5-2. It's funny how you
remember the crap games. Among these was a draw 2-2 draw against Palace at Selhurst Park
where the Chelsea fans disgracefully chanted, "the referee's a paki". My grandfather, who
attended many Chelsea matches straight after the Second World War after moving to England
from Poland was so incensed by the antics of the fans that we left with 10 minutes to go. Of
course, Le Saux scored in the last minute to equalise and I have rarely left a match early since.
There is still an undercurrent of racism at football despite the fact that we are supposed to be
more enlightened fans nowadays. I once met a Chelsea fan who stopped going to games when
we signed out first black player.
Chelsea 0 Norwich 0 that season was one of the worst matches I had ever seen. In the next
match programme you could see me as a podgy kid in the background of a picture in the East
Lower family section. Surprisingly this was the only moment in the match when I actually
watching play, as the match was so tedious. These were times when people regularly sang,
"what a waste of money" regarding the cost of their tickets. At about the same time Chelsea's
fans also sang Monty Python's "always look on the bright side of life" when we were losing. We
were one of the few supporters who still had a sense of humour when things were bad, and
that was another great reason to be a fan.
At least we won a cup at the end of the season that was on a par with the Champions League
trophy: yes - the Zenith Data Systems Cup. Dorigo beating Boro with a marvellous free kick.
And not the first time we would beat the club that relegated us in a Cup Final either!
With it being a world cup year too I recall the Chelsea club shop selling T-shirts with slogans
on them such as, "Chelsea Hooligans on tour in Italy". I doubt they would get away with that
nowadays!
The next couple of seasons were a blur. Beating Spurs away 3-0 in the League Cup in 1991
was a highlight. I remember T-Shirts being sold saying "Blue Murder - 3-0". There was also a
fantastic game at Derby with the final score being 6-4 - and there was talk at the time of
widening goal posts to make the game more exciting! Chelsea were annihilated in the League
Cup semis by Sheffield Wednesday. That was the closest Chelsea had come to a major final
for a long time. The season ended on a typical Chelsea note. We lost 7-0 - yes 7-0 - to Forest
away. I was at a school friend's birthday party, and when I looked on teletext I thought there
had been a typo. It's when you remember games like this that you should be grateful for the
success Chelsea has now. It also keeps my feet to the ground knowing that someday Chelsea
will be a poor side again. At present that should not happen for at least 10 years.
Funnily enough we won the next game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge 4-2. To put it
mildly, there was never a dull moment with Chelsea - on or off the pitch.
Joe Allon was supposed to be Kerry Dixon's successor. We always laud our new strikers, and
in his first game against Wimbledon on the first day of the season he scored the equaliser
having come off the bench with more or less his first touch. We had found our Messiah. Even
more so because he ran to the Shed End and celebrated as if he had scored the winning goal
in the World Cup. Unfortunately he did little more for Chelsea, but will always be remembered
fondly by Chelsea fans for that celebration.
Later that season we played Sunderland in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Kerry Dixon took a
shot that was so bad, that when it went off the referee gave Chelsea a corner kick believing
there was no way someone could hit the ball that poorly. Chelsea scored from the resulting
corner, and earned a replay at Roker Park. Again we went behind only to equalise. With only a
few minutes left it looked as if Chelsea had earned a replay. Graham Stuart stood in front of
the away fans and lead the them to song like a conductor leading an orchestra. Then
Sunderland scored, and we were out yet again, 2-1 the result.
We sold Boyd and Allen soon after. Clive Allen had been a consistent goalscorer for us and we
sold him to West Ham. He scored a magnificent goal for them against us soon after, and many
Chelsea fans stood up to applaud (yes - Chelsea fans applauding a West Ham player!).
Luckily we won 2-1 against the Irons.
In the last home game of the season, Paul Merson scored to earn a point for Arsenal at
Stamford Bridge with one of the best goals ever against Chelsea - he hit the ball from the right
wing and it landed in the goal in front of the Shed.
At school it was tough being a Chelsea fan. In my first school in South East London there were
two Chelsea fans out of 1,000 kids. In my secondary school there were three out of a total of
1,400. Despite all the glory hunting kids purporting to support Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester
United, we were the only ones who regularly went to games out of the bigger clubs. The only
other fans who went regularly to see their team play were the Palace fans, and one Charlton
fan. Even worse, we only won our first real trophy after I had left school! Football was always
my passion and I remember us playing at break time with all the usual excuses: "You can't join
because you cheat"; "You can't join in because you foul"; "Sorry, we already have enough
players"; "The goalie wasn't ready"; "You can have monkey rush but we have a 5-0 headstart";
"It's not a goal as in a real game the referee would have blown for a goal kick". Those were the
days! You could never had a reasoned footballing argument, as being a Chelsea fan you
could not compete with other clubs' boasts. The only thing I could retort from any banter was
asking the perpetrator how many Manchester United games he had been to, and why he
supported them despite being a Londoner!
92-93 was a pretty nondescript season. The only memories were bad ones. The worst being
the loss to Crystal Palace in the league cup at Selhurst on a pitch so muddy that one of
Chelsea's efforts on goal stuck in the pitch about a yard from the line. This was one of many
Chelsea games that I went to where afterwards I found it difficult to sleep. It was also the game
where Le Saux threw his shirt to the ground upon being substituted. Another was the infamous
3-2 loss to Norwich at home. Norwich had arrived with just minutes to spare owing to heavy
traffic. For the first half they played like a team that hadn't been able to warm up and Chelsea
swiftly went into a 2-0 lead. Then disaster. Dave Beasant let in two goals that had comically
slipped through his fingers and eventually we lost the match 3-2. Beasant was another one of
the old Wimbledon boys we had brought in and in my eyes was a superb keeper. Ian
Porterfield was a disgrace. After that game he publicly humiliated Beasant by saying the
keeper should never play for Chelsea again. Beasant had the last laugh as Porterfield was
sacked before the end of the season. I recently met Dave and that game still rankles with him.
He was, and still is, the nicest person I have ever met and always had time to sign autographs
for the youngsters. For me, a Chelsea legend.
Suddenly things were changing. Glenn Hoddle joined as player manager. There is no doubt
that he was the catalyst for Chelsea's current success. He changed players diets; introduced a
more rigid and structured training regime; he instilled professionalism on the players.
In a pre season friendly in the Makita tournament Chelsea annihilated Spurs 4-0 in the final
with Cascarino scoring 3 and Peacock the other.
We were beginning to see a better standard of football and even reached the final of the FA
Cup for the first time since we had won it in 1970.
This also included a bizarre game where we played Barnet at Stamford Bridge despite it
originally being an away game. Glenn's brother, Carl played and we embarrassingly drew 0-0
"away" - a match we could have lost - then beat them 4-0 at "home". We had no difficult ties to
reach the final. Barnet, Oxford, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton. Kerry Dixon returned to
play against Chelsea for Luton in the semi-final at Wembley and had his name chanted
throughout the game by the Chelsea fans.
Then came the final. It was a grey, drizzling day and one I shall never forget. Could we beat the
best team in the land? We had done the double over them in the league and things were
looking rosy as Peacock hit the bar with a shot. Then Chelsea's favourite referee, David
Elleray, awarded a dubious penalty to United and the floodgates opened. Eventually losing 4-0
we trudged home with my tears mixing with the rain as some Chelsea fans took turns to kick
some Manchester United fans up the bum. That was the team I wanted to emulate. Cantona,
McClair, Hughes. What a team that was.
The plus side was that we had qualified for the Cup Winners Cup!
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