Monday 14th April - Criminal
It's funny how some games are totally unmemorable, yet you remember very clearly, 40 years on, some of the details.
For me this was standing on Richmond station seeing the rain bucketing down, and also the Evening Standard headlines about the Krays being sentenced. Not that I really knew who they, or Harry Roberts, were at the time.
The other aspects of the game were that few teams really tried to mix it with us, Leeds of course, Tottenham (Osgood v Mike England was always extremely interesting, especially when Ossie got away scot free after kicking him in the chest in 1972 league cup semi) and Arsenal, with Mclintock being quite a nasty bastard, here he got away with head butting Chopper, both from referee and most surprisingly from Ron Harris..
Arsenal outplayed us for long periods but this was probably the first game in which we discovered how far Ian Hutchinson could throw a ball (Rory Delap pah, novice) and they couldn't handle it.
Somehow Chelsea won 2-1 and it was a great journey home with our Arsenal friends bleating about how they had been the better side. Did we look bovvered?
Sat April 12th 1969 - Nothing happened today
Anyone who has travelled the District Line from Richmond to Upton Park knows the journey takes for ever and is boring as hell. This game was as tedious and non eventful as that trek. The only memorable thing was that, for some reason, Chelsea wore black socks with blue tops, yes nothing else to report zzzzzzzz
Tues 8th March 1969 Hutchinson Proves a Winner
Back to the days when most league football results were only announced on the late news bulletins, before teletext, live score updates , satellite TV or internet streaming.
Chelsea won 2-1 at Nottingham Forest, like most away matches of the time I've never seen the goals or any highlights so rely on the match report from Nigel Clarke;
Ian Hutchinson scored another goal last night to confirm that he is one of the most exciting discoveries of the season. Indeed for 45 minutes he threatened to beat Forest on his own and would not have been flattered by a hat-trick.
Early on Hutchinson skimmed the bar with a rasping drive after streaking 50 yards and shrugging off Bobby McKinlay and Terry Hennessey, who tugged and pulled at his shirt.
Then after causing Forest continual trouble with his persistence and speed he set up Chelsea's first goal in the 22nd minute. After Alan Birchenall had put him clear on the right Hutchinson cut the ball back from the byline for Birchenall to score. Six minutes later came his own goal, running onto a clever cross from John Hollins to head firmly past goalkeeper Alan Hill.
Seconds later he stunned Forest again by taking a cross from John Boyle and hitting a post. He need only to have followed up to touch in the rebound.
With the luxury of a two goal lead Chelsea could afford to take off the pressure and in the second half Forest came at the with renewed vigour and camped in the Chelsea half for long periods. But the well organised and disciplined defence held out until the 74th minute when Barry Lyons hit a volley that Peter Bonetti knocked onto a post but it rebounded against him and went into the net
Chelsea won 2-1 at Nottingham Forest, like most away matches of the time I've never seen the goals or any highlights so rely on the match report from Nigel Clarke;
Ian Hutchinson scored another goal last night to confirm that he is one of the most exciting discoveries of the season. Indeed for 45 minutes he threatened to beat Forest on his own and would not have been flattered by a hat-trick.
Early on Hutchinson skimmed the bar with a rasping drive after streaking 50 yards and shrugging off Bobby McKinlay and Terry Hennessey, who tugged and pulled at his shirt.
Then after causing Forest continual trouble with his persistence and speed he set up Chelsea's first goal in the 22nd minute. After Alan Birchenall had put him clear on the right Hutchinson cut the ball back from the byline for Birchenall to score. Six minutes later came his own goal, running onto a clever cross from John Hollins to head firmly past goalkeeper Alan Hill.
Seconds later he stunned Forest again by taking a cross from John Boyle and hitting a post. He need only to have followed up to touch in the rebound.
With the luxury of a two goal lead Chelsea could afford to take off the pressure and in the second half Forest came at the with renewed vigour and camped in the Chelsea half for long periods. But the well organised and disciplined defence held out until the 74th minute when Barry Lyons hit a volley that Peter Bonetti knocked onto a post but it rebounded against him and went into the net
Fri 4th & Sat 5th April 1969 - a disappointing Easter
In the days before it became fashionable for top clubs to bleat about having too many games the Easter programme usually involved 3 games within 4 days for all teams, and the unthinkable situation of two home games on consecutive days arose with our fixtures at the Bridge at home to Newcastle on Good Friday and Burnley the following day. Sadly both results were disappointing for a Chelsea side that had 6 wins out of our last 7 league games, but still had nothing to play for in the last few weeks of an ultimately disappointing season.
Chelsea 1 Newcastle 1
For just two minutes the 42,000 holiday crowd were given something to shout about, half an hour went by without incident before Chelsea snatched the lead their territorial domination had earned. Alan Birchenall started the brief spell of excitement by forcing keeper Iam Mc Faul into a flying save and from John Boyle's resulting corner Ian Hutchinson forced a header over the line.
Straight from the restart , in their first raid of the match, Newcastle were presented with a penalty when Eddie McCreadie handled needlessly. England under-23 international Bryan Robson fired in his 16th goal of the season from the spot.
Pity Peter Bonetti, this was the sixth penalty he has faced since March 1st, and the third since March 15th that has finished in the net. Yet he only had to make one real save against Newcastle's forwards, who just didn't want to know. That came 20 minutes from the end when a John McNamee header hit McCreadie on the line and Bonetti swivelled in mid-air to catch the rebound.
Chelsea 2 Burnley 3
Bobby Tambling limped off the pitch at half time in this needling, foul-ridden clash with Burnley and there's not much chance of him lining up for Tuesday's match at Nottingham Forest.
This was a typical Chelsea performance, not playing well but still managing to lead 2-1 before Ralph Coates, later to play for the bitter enemy from North London (and famous for his Bobby Charlton style combover hairstyle) turned the game around and we lost 2-3 to extremely average opponents.
Chelsea earlier went ahead with a Tambling goal, equalised when Thomas scored with a corner than swirled past Bonetti's hand before Hollins gave Chelsea the lead with a typical rocket shot. Then it all went pear shaped..
In those days we used to hang around after games to get autographs from players as they left the East Stand dressing rooms after the game. Most players were brilliant, John Hollins always had time to chat, and it was quite common to catch Tommy Baldwin walking down the road towards the underground station. My abiding memory of the Burnley game was their winger, Dave Thomas, refusing to sign someone's programme and proclaiming "I'm not signing that!". When he later went to QPR he remained one of the players I disliked intensely, for this unnecessary spiteful response to that young lad.
FOOTNOTE:
In these days of squad rotation it is interesting to note that there were only two team changes between our line ups for the Friday and Saturday.
Sat 29th March 1969 - A win on Merseyside
A Saturday evening kick-off in the days before television called the shots?
The late kick off was to avoid a direct clash with the Aintree Grand National (won by Highland Wedding at pre-decimalisation odds of 100/9) and as ever in those days getting the final score, let alone updates, was very difficult, often having to wait until the very late news bulletins.
This was even harder as it was also Eurovision night, which ended in a four way tie including Lulu with the classic Boom Bang-A-Bang sharing the honours in Spain, still under the rule of General Franco. (As an aside anyone who used to holiday in Spain in those days will probably remember the Sun taking two days to arrive in local shops with the page three girls having printed on bikinis!, a far cry from today when hard core porn DVDs are openly displayed on sale next to today's UK newspapers in many Spanish newsagents)
Anyway to the game, a win on Merseyside albeit against the lesser evil, but still our first victory at Goodison since 1956/57. John Hollins was involved in all three goals, firstly with a run that set up Hutchinson after 16 minutes, then conceding a penalty for handball before crossing for Alan Birchenall to score the winner, in what was Everton's first home defeat since August.
Everton 1 Chelsea 2 (Hutchinson, Birchenall)
Bonetti, Webb, McCreadie,Hollins, Dempsey, Osgood,Boyle, Birchenall, Hutchinson,Harris,Houseman
22 March 1969 - down to earth with a bump
So many similarities with today, 5 league wins on the bounce and a trip to White Hart lane full of confidence. And then we never really turned up, several half chances notably from Hutchinson, who was earning rave reviews every week, Ossie (wearing the number 6 shirt) hit the post and then we lose to a goal from Neil Johnson 10 minutes from time.
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