Midland Shed

https://flashbak.com/april-1970-chelsea-fans-waiting-for-the-fa-cup-winners-to-arrive-at-euston-station-410405/ Credits to Rob Baker and the excellent Flashbak.com Some great pics on there.

Thanks Bluehaze. My late missus took that back in 1980, we beat Oldham 3-0 and thought we were promoted but got pipped by Sunderland. I only went in the West Stand if she was with me.White Wall for me otherwise.

hopefully these upload ok, Millwall away 04.09. 1976.

This has been making me laugh all morning, i wish i'd been there to see it.

Same here SLV, the only reasons i came down to London were for Chelsea games or Punk gigs. Nice find CB, following the links in there,that German guy really captures what London felt like in that long hot summer of 76.

As soon as I came across that cutting I thought that's one for Carshalton.

Wolves 0 Chelsea 1 Aug 78. About 3,000 Chelsea on the South Bank desite this being a night game. I couldnt beleive it when the gate man opened up and hundreds of Chelsea steamed out, lots of second wave skinheads amonst them, straight down to the North Bank where the Wolves fans were well and truly took by surprise so legged it onto the pitch. From what i can see in the picture thats Chelsea in the North Bank looking down on its previous occupants. Apologies for quality this is a very old newspaper cutting ( 36years!!).

only the ones i put up from the same game earlier on this thread, my missus at the time took them, i never thought to take a camera in those days, if we knew back then what we know now eh i have got some boxes of old newspaper cuttings and memorabila though, i will be posting some up when i can get in "that" cupboard.

another look at The Shed in full voice against Oldham 79/80

I can remember the admission charge for The Shed End being doubled from £2 to £4. I travelled down to watch a game i think it was early 80s against Oldham (not the "promotion" one) and the game was shown on MOTD later and the commentator mentioned the increase and the reasons behind it i.e. the wranglings about the stadium. My missus at the time found it quite funny that i had travelled a 200 mile round trip to watch a game that was on TV and i got charged double for my troubles. Worth it in my eyes to stand on The Shed but i like many others on here have been priced out lately as have the younger generations in my family who are mostly Chelsea. We used to make Villa away our main get together as it was always potd and quite cheap at around £25-£30. Last season i think it was around £40 and there we were told that it was very unlikely that we could get away tickets on the day so,the pub it was.

This has to go down as one of the most tense days in Chelsea's history. I got in The Shed about half one, didnt wanna travel down and be locked out. Even then you could feel the tension and you didnt need "police intelligence" to fathom out that this was a timebomb waiting to go off. I dont think there were any other games that day and there seemed to be lots of Chelsea "mates" around. The feeling at the end of the game was unforgettable, absolutely gutted. I was near the gate where the copper lost the plot and came inside the fence weilding his baton around. Not a clever move when we'd just been relegated. Someone mentioned the Charlton game just before Boro. I was at that one too and remember the scrapping in the North Stand near The Benches, there was one huge Charlton fan who kept going until he was nicked and then frogmarched by about five coppers right past the Benches and The Shed. Heartbreaking days sometimes but the memories put that special smile on your face when modern day oppo fans sing "where were you when you were sh!t".

Gonna resurrect this thread and put Birmingham in purely on personal experience. Only God knows how some of you got out of WHL and The Den alive, fair play to you. I went to Brums ground a few times to see The Chels but one sticks out and has been mentioned in here. We lost 5-1 on a night game, 79/80ish. I took a mate from work who liked Chelsea but had never been, he was a bit of a timid type and didnt like the reputation our fans had in those days. Anyway i agreed to take him the back streets way avoiding New Street and Digbeth. Big mistake, Chelsea fans had started arriving mid afternoon and there were small skirmishes all over Brum, By the time we got down there some of the Brum gangs had started looking round these same back streets picking Chelsea fans off. Something serious had gone off near The Crown pub, there was a bus pulled up and the driver looked shell shocked, from what i can gather a fight started in front of the bus and a Chelsea fan lost his eye. My mate wanted to turn back but i talked him out of it saying that we would be ok as we got nearer the ground. We got stopped by some Chelsea and had to convince them we were also Chelsea, we got stopped by Brummies and laid our thickest accent on and told em we were going to see a band ha ha. We got to St Andrews and there was already talk that quite a few Chelsea had got done on the way down and that Brum were to get a little pay back once Chelsea had mobbed up. This scared my mate again (he was a black belt as well!!) so i agreed to sit in the seats with Brums fans to watch the game.We were dreadful and me and my mate also got sussed. Brum won a free kick and Tommy Langley fetched the ball and placed it where the kick was to be taken, he got a mini round of applause for this and a bloke behind me asked who it was, i responded "Tommy Langley" and he laughed and said "i knew you were Chelsea, we've scored five and you aint budged". Everyone around just laughed until towards the end of the game when true to form the Chelsea fans were now mobbed up and took it to Brum inside the ground. For the first time that evening i agreed with my mate and we made a discreet exit, i couldnt wait to get him out of Brum that day. My name was mud at work the next day, taking that nice harmless lad to a Chelsea game. I dont think he ever went again but it would take more than a scary night in Brum to stop me following Chelsea..

A couple of pics from the Oldham game when we thought we had been promoted (79/80). My first wife (no longer with us) took these, she took a great one of The Shed End in full swing that day, i've put it away somewhere safe, so safe even i cant find it but when i do i will get it on here.The banner in the East stand read Congratulations On Promotion, that was before the Sunderland West Ham game, i always wondered if the people who made it kept it until we did get back up?

Glad to hear you had a good time Carshalton and that some of our players and staff showed a little respect to your family. As mentioned above our pre season freindlies are now well out of reach for us, i used to look forward to the odd midland game, the last one i remember was at Birmingham where Zola went off early, half time i think, and spent most of the second half sitting in the stands signing autographs and chatting to youngsters, he got a round of applause all round when he finally aimed for the dressing room. Just been looking at some of yours and Shatners earlier posts, fantastic pictures and memory joggers. I can only vaguely remember the Shrewsbury games but two stick out, a 3-0 defeat (79/80) with massive CFC support, we must have threw about a dozen balls into that river. Our train was held up too as the Police wanted to search everyone for a missing football. I think they just wanted a bit of revenge as it was chaos that day and i think a jewellers got turned over. if i remember correctly we had to hastily get together some red shirts as we had only taken blue or yellow ones which were their colours. The other one was the game in the snow and this time we wore white, trying to camouflage ourselves maybe. Just before this game there was an incident, not sure it was CFC related though, where some fans were lured into a backstreet on the premise there was an away friendly boozer down there but instead they got a proper kicking. This happened to me and my mate on this day and as most pubs were shut on account that CFC were in town, we chanced it and were mighty relieved actually find a pub full of Chelsea. This must have been the 1-0 FA Cup win in Jan 86. The idea of playing Shrewsbury these days is about as remote as our first team doing a UK only pre season tour.

cheers folks, i've put my first post in the vintage section, i managed to do a catch up on pages 1-6 today. its gonna be a long hot summer!

Allrite folks, i've said my hello's in the newbie section. So much to catch up on, I'm gonna try and work through the Vintage section and comment on all the brilliant earlier posts. One picture is already emerging after looking at the first six pages in here, Carshalton,you are a legend, some of your pics and video links bring back some great memories. Aston Villa 4 Chelsea 2. Weren't we already relegated but still had a massive turnout for this game, i still argue that at least we won the second half 2-1. I was there in the away fans end and there was definately a small Chelsea mob in the Holte that day causing havoc, i think they were escorted out to join us way after the kick off. There was a National Front meeting in West Bromwich later on the same day and rumours were rife in the Midlands that it would be over run with Chelsea.That never happened but there was a tense atmosphere all day. Me and my mate decided at the end not to go with the escort but to head to Witton Station and make our own way back accross the midlands. There was about 100 Chelsea standing waiting when a huge Villa mob appeared, someone said "dont run" and no one did except The Villa when a few Chelsea started heading towards them. I never got involved in goings on but following Chelsea in those days you got used to it and were glad to have some decent lads around you at times like this. Aston Villa 2 Chelsea 2 a few years later, me and the missus took my nephews to this, they were already Chelsea by then but have both never looked back. We were late getting in and missed both our goals, again i dont think Villa expected so many of us. We did get a good view of the clash between Tony Daley and Graham Le Saux, Vinny Jones got involved and wouldnt stop staring at Daley waiting for him to get the ball. Vinny was substituted before this happened, clever management but it would have been interesting to see what happened next. Like i say, i'm concentrating on pages 1-6 for now, one other game Carshalton mentions is Chelsea v Charlton just before the 'Boro play off. I was in The Shed for this one, there was loads going on in the Charlton section, its gotta be the same game as that pic Carshalton. There was one huge Charlton fan wearing a white top or similar, we could see him wading in every time the Chelsea mob went in. The police eventually escorted him out but for some strange reason walked him all around in front of the benches then the shed to a chorus of "you fat bar steward", good job there were about five of them holding him back, he looked well mean. Just quickly to round off this bit, Snedger, i was at that Walsall game too. I sat on a wall in the Walsall end, i think it was all ticket and living nearby i was one of many Chelsea in their end that day. i arranged to meet my brother in the pub at 6.00 on the same night, he said you will be late if your going to the game, i said nah, i'll leave when we're 5 up ha ha. There was no way Beasant was ever going to let that pen in either, he was furious about the decision. Sorry if i've gone on a bit folks and also if i've repeated details but this Vintage Chelsea stuff is right down my street. I came accross this site via the excellent The Missing Link, i think theres more talk of that later on in this forum so i'll show my appreciation for that and all you other posters as i come accross your stuff. all the best for now from the sweltering midlands.

The one in the Midlands that is, not some exotic African outpost. This site is brilliant, i will have to trawl right back through the Vintage section and add bits to some of the games you guys have been to and mentioned on here, theres so much info in here its mindblowing when you hit it first time as an old school Chelsea fan. I've been Chelsea since 1967, first got to see us play 69/70 season with a 3-0 win at Coventry (the one with the much talked about Hudson goal). My first game at The Bridge was 75/76 v WBA, we lost 2-1, not nice when you are surrounded by Baggies fans day in day out (theyre nicer these days after RDM, Clarkey and Lukaku though). I have a few pics that my late wife took at the Oldham game when we thought we had been promoted, we were in The Benches and you can see the banner in the main stand that said Congratulations On Promotion, little did we know what was to follow with that Sunderland West Ham game. I'll get these pics up as soon as i work out how to, any quick tips would be helpful. I'm mid fifties now, i never went to all the games but have been to quite a few and several of these have been mentioned already, Shrewsbury in the snow, the Leeds and Boro games at the bridge, some hairy moments down Birmingham. Theres others too that stick in my mind like the heavy defeats at Wolves (7-1) and a cracking turn out at Notts County that trebled their attendance that day and we won 3-2. I'll start sharing all these memories now i've finally joined up and look forward to chatting not only about the good old days but hearing whats going on down The Bridge these days. KTBFFH