Ewell CFC

He was pretty attacking minded with us- Tommy Doc quipped that the only time he went forward was to toss the coin, but that was later on when he became a holding midfielder. Funny how in the late 70s the big London clubs all had an elegant talisman midfielder- Butch with us, Brady at Arsenal, Brooking over at West Ham and Glenn Hoddle with Spurs. ps I may have missed it but haven't seen a tribute paid from Hoddle yet- they must have played together or against each other from England Schoolboys until their late 30's?

Tragic news. He married my second cousin Jackie, who was one of the club secretarial staff, and they had their reception in what is now Under the Bridge Nightclub in the East Stand. I used to have childhood fantasies about them popping round and having a kick about with Butch in the back garden. I met him a couple of times and he was very friendly and a genuinely nice bloke. A fantastic footballer and hugely respected man, whose passing will be mourned by many others in the game aside from Chelsea fans RIP Butch Wilkins

This thread seems to be one endless circle of the board didn't back him/ he wants to put up and shut up etc etc etc etc..... My own humble opinion is that he wanted out/ was approached a very long while back, and that this miserablist charade of has been choreographed to elicit sympathy for his plight. ( how sorry are we supposed to feel for a bloke on a multi million pound salary and his future employment prospects rosy) Whatever happened to departure by mutual consent without an obscene payout? Modern football is all about money, which is a sh*t state of affairs IMO.

Bates said that the only manager he regretted taking on was Portaloo. Durie and Cundy both going to Spurs stuck in the throat a bit. Edit: Looking back we changed from being a selling club to a buying club when Hoddle arrived. We nearly always held on to our best players after his arrival. Can't think of any obvious departures post 94 through to the Abromovitch era in 2003 purely because we needed the dough?

Who did you play for non- league wise if you don't mind me asking?

I worked with a Chelsea bloke a few years ago- didn't know him before but one of those ones where you clock each other and quickly work out you recognise each other through football etc etc. Cut a long story he told me he went windmilling into a carriage full of Boro at Wembley Park after the game- can't remember the inns and outs but when the doors shut he was the only Chelsea on there. The train was non stopping to Baker St so plenty of time for them to hand out a proper kicking.

Great day out. There were rucks going on before, during ( half time in the concourse) and after the game. We had a massive firm that day. ps thought that was 89?

Cardiff?

He pulled some strokes that fella; before during and after his tenure at ours. I can't remember what Euro game we were coming back from but we got talking to him at Stanstead- he was wearing a very wide grin whilst announcing that Newcastle had just sacked Gullit.

Footballers seemed to look more like real men in the 70s compared with today. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it might have something to do with the abundance of sideburns and taches. I suppose it's a generational thing; me Grandad and old man used to take the piss something rotten when players took to cuddling and kissing team mates after a goal - " load of fairies" - 66 World Cup I don't recall Jack Charlton planting a smacker on Geoff Hursts lips after he did the business, five years later if was all the rage. Nowadays I find all the power slides onto knees and stagey celebrations a bit childish and cringey. Hey ho

To the tune of some Adam Ant song... " We are the Whitewall, we're going to Bristol, why don't the middle..." First time I went in the Shed (77), we arrived well early and plotted up in a near empty Whitewall. I remember saying to my brother " Can't we move a bit further in towards the middle bit?" He assured me that where we were would be lively enough when it filled out. Also I recall being right in front of a crash barrier- they were handy for sticking your programme on for a pre match peruse. When it started getting busier he moved me on knowing that during a surge the worst place to be was leaning on one, with the combined weight of everyone else on you. Just thinking about the Shed, the gangways had to be kept open no matter how packed it got; Safety Regs no doubt. However if you look at old photos of the Kop, which got ram jammed week in week out, their don't seem to be any gangways. It's just one continuos mass of people from left to right, unless I'm wrong?

I'm guessing the silver haired chap taking a bow would be Gus Mears? Nice pitch, reminds me of Figges Marsh, Mitcham.

The title of this topic's a bit nauseating IMO Cheers Roman would have been sufficient, but Thank You Mr Roman Abramovitch goes the full creepy, fawning, we are not worthy mile.

Heard a story about a falling out at the Wales training camp between Canners and a certain fiery tempered forward of ours. ( they'd arranged to sort out their differences man to man) The fiery tempered forward was urged to patch things up, owing to the fact that if they did have fight Canners would have murdered him.

The sand dunes of Wales were probably good practice for playing on our own sandy pitch- it was like Blackpool beach some winters. Talking of Blackpool beach, when we played up their a few years back, some fellas I know were deliberately playing up to the Flash Cockney stereotype by paying over the odds for donkey rides ( making the Northern holidaymakers look like paupers)

Just dug this out of the loft to take to work and annoy my West Ham and Arsenal colleagues. In the run up to us winning the title in 2005 I got a plastics company to knock these up. Sent one to Tim Lovejoy who had in on Soccer AM, various pubs and bars sold them for me. It's basically a load of plastic sh*te- believe it or not this is the deluxe model with a better badge than the originals. I got rid of the last of them at the parade @ Eel Brook Common a couple of years back. A bit " this time next year we'll be millionaires" but a good laugh all in all.

Curse of modern football I'm afraid- piss taking management looking for a payoff, (!why can't he just be straight and admit he's had his head turned or he's just plain homesick, rather than play this silly hard done by in the transfer market charade ); Crying all the way to the bank it's known as. Nb: result today about as bookies would have predicted, my comments are in connection with his usual funeral parlour post match condition.

A sobering tale

Cheers for that. For anyone interested in local history I read a book a while back by Harold Clunn called the Face of London which was printed in the mid 60s. He reckoned that the part of Fulham bounded by North End Rd, Lillee Rd, Munster Rd, Greyhound Rd and Star Road was as mean as anywhere to be found in the East End. Yet when I've spoken to fellas from that End who were around then, they reckoned that Sands End was rougher.

No one calls that area Walham Green these days ( even though that is technically the area around Fulham Broadway and it's still referred to as that on some maps) I reckon if you mentioned Walham Green to 100 Londoners maybe half a dozen would know where it is. Did locals ever refer to it as Walham Green I wonder, or was it always just Fulham or Fulham Broadway? I've no idea...

Anyone know when this was taken? A little bit of the Shed seems to be fenced near the front, most likely for repairs so this might be pre-season?

Jelly and ice cream all round. My Grandad who grew up in Wandsworth and went to games in the 20s was also born in 1905 Funny how all these professional teams sprouted up across various parts of London a century plus back. It would have made life more simple if rather than a dozen or so London clubs, there were just four teams; North, South, East and West London? All big clubs, massive grounds etc

Everton 1985

I'm told that when we played Sunderland in the Milk Cup in 85, the front window of a coach got put through, and they drove home home down the motorway with the wind billowing down the length of the coach. It was a cold night as well. Ps my brother and his mates took a minibus up to the Sunderland game, and had to fight there way back after the final whistle. When they eventually made it on they had to pelt their attackers with beer bottles, which means they had nothing to drink coming back. sh*t night all round by the sound of it.

On a personal level between the ages of when I was 9 and 18 Chelsea only played in the top tier for 2 seasons ( period 75-84) I was too young to remember the glimmer or success we had in the early 70s, and was 31 when we won the FA Cup in 97 which was our first major trophy in 26 years. We were half decent from then on and won a few things prior to RA taking over in 2003 ( probably my most favourite times) When Roman arrived we effectively won the lottery, and since then have won every trophy it's possible to win more or less. Im rambling on a bit, but I suppose we've become accustomed to the status quo or us being a top team- a bit like euromillions winners I'm sure don't wake up every morning years after the win thinking " isn't this great", they have become used to it and it's the norm. I think my generation of CFC fans are a bit more happy go lucky about team performance because we've experienced the downs, whilst fellow fans under 25 say have only known success. ( Not a criticism just an accident of birthdate) One thing I will say is that there was probably as much if not more laughter and fun at the Bridge when we were sh*t, because there was no expectation. Thats just my take on things Edit- never mind probably more laughter and fun when we were sh*t, there definitely was. We were the loudest, wittiest, most bonkers fans in the land.