The Tottenham away game would be my five-hundred and thirteenth away game. Forty years ago to the exact day – Saturday 8 December 1984 – my tenth ever away game was at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday. Let’s go back in time. My first five away games had been in Bristol, four...
There are simple words to describe, in our eyes, his most formidable achievement in his thirty-eight years. HENRY AUGUSTUS MEARS FOUNDER OF THE CHELSEA FOOTBALL CLUB He is buried with his son, Henry Frank Mears, who died in the First World War aged just nineteen. The tombstone might be ...
The boys had bought me a lager; my first pint on a “driving match day” of the season. I guess I needed to celebrate another complete away record somehow. It was lovely to bump into Whitey, who I had not seen at Chelsea for years and years. We reminisced about Juventus away in ...
I only really saw a few bits from the first game – the ludicrous match against Wrexham – and that just about turned my stomach; everybody sat, no singing, a flat atmosphere, and what seemed to be thousands of American couples out on some sort of bizarre “date night.” Strangely, on...
I pulled in to the car park at Gatwick North just a few minutes before four o’clock. Four AM. Fackinell. There were already masses of Chelsea folk in the departure area. I joined the queue. “Hellos” to a few faces – Luke, Aroha, Doreen – then John and Maureen, all on the ...
Tales From Two Firsts Posted on January 1, 2025 2 Ipswich Town vs. Chelsea : 30 December 2024. This was a new ground for me. In my fifty years of following Chelsea at various locations, I had never yet ventured as far as Portman Road in the Suffolk town of Ipswich. In fact, I...
The clock ticked away. Eighty-nine minutes. Marcos Alonso had the ball at his feet away on the far touchline, in front of the original Archibald Leitch Stand that closely resembles our old East Stand and which is featured on the front of “Hoolifan” from a few years back. He sent ove...
Like sardines in a tin on the Clock End terrace. An 11.30am kick-off. The noise. The togetherness. The madness of Kerry’s goal. The greatest domestic away game in our history. Chelsea are back. Chelsea are back. Hello. Hello.” PD and Parky were there too, though their memories ...
I briefly mentioned the story of my grandfather attending a match at Stamford Bridge, and how I genuinely think it could well have been the 1920 FA Cup Final, one hundred years ago this year. I hoped that the atmosphere would be good for them on this night in SW6. I always remember a...