Ewell CFC

I think Steve Clarke may have been the last regular starter from North of the Border.

We've been well served by Scots over the decades- in my time there was pretty much a Calaedonian or two playing for us throughout the 70's, 80's, early 90's ( I'm sure there has but can't off top of my head think of any since Craig Burley/ Wee John Spencer) Remember getting exited when David Haye signed off the back of the 74 World Cup. Also recall settling down to watch Scotland v England/ Home International at Hamden. Reckon it was 85- anyway we were well pleased to see Dixon and Speedie making their debuts I reckon?

My younger brothers scrap book 84/85

And we beat them 3-1 in the league next year. Trevor Aylott scored and had a blinder. It was all downhill for him from then on.

Enough cloth on those shorts to sail a tea clipper!

I remember watching us at West Ham in the chicken run with me old man- the Percy Dalton's peanut seller used to on the pitch- people would throw down change and he'd sling a packet of dry roasted up to whoever. At the Bridge probably 90's they'd flog those horrible soggy burgers in vacuum packed silver foil- vulcanised cheese slice- bloody awful they were.

Superb pics. The one of the Shed in the 70s; down the bottom by the pitch there's a woman sitting in what looks like a fold up garden chair. Early disabled facilities? Can't quite work it out.

In the late 80's a mate of mine spent a couple of summers coaching kids football in the states. Charlie Cooke was involved in the company that run these soccer camps, and I think also played in some semi pro / national 5 aside league. Cut a long story, my mate reckoned he was probably more skillfull then, than he was at his peak, owing to the amount of ball work he did whilst coaching etc. Apparantly he was awesome in the small sided games they used to play.

It's part of the ritual deciding what clothes to wear to the game- get it wrong and have the piss taken out of you all day by your mates! The only time I've worn a replica shirt to a game was the Pompey Cup final when we one the double- it was a retro 1970 one which tend to be worn at Cup Finals, but at the time thinking it was a bit sheep like and naff and that I'd made a bad move. Regarding the whole replica shirt issue, a few years back there was an article in one of the papers about whether fans were being ripped off by the constant changing of kits etc. Some Manc postman was saying he liked to buy new replica shirts because to him it was staying in fashion. Entirely a personal thing but to me they are the complete opposite of fashion. Horrible, shiny, just awful. ps no disrespect intended to Chelsea fans that do wear them, just not for me

I read Jack Charlton's biography a while back. He said that in the run up to the 1970 World Cup Alf Ramsey stated to the players that his selections would be based on form. In Charltons words " Alf was a bit of a hypocrite, because Peter Osgood was top of the tree" at that time, and should have been picked. Im trying to think who started up front for England in that tournament?

Where's this I wonder?

You are very probably correct regarding the practicalities of squeezing 60,000 backsides into a limited space, however I get the impression that the powers that be wanted a start from scratch landmark design, rather than a hotchpotch one stand at a time affair ala Man Utd, which houses 70,000 plus. What I do know is that you never know what's round the corner in football. Mr Abromovitch ( tugging of forlocks, thank you Sir for the stadium), might fall foul of Putin and nibble on a mercury sandwich) Don't imagine they're would be a lengthy queue of suitors looking to take over with a potentially ruinous 1 Billion stadium rebuild ticket. No matter how many millions have been spent to date in architects and planning fees, what's to stop the financial reality of the situation resulting in a more modest stadium design? Stranger things have happened. Ps I don't get the obsession with how flash the stadium looks from outside- window dressing in old money. When people go to the flicks they don't stand outside gazing admiringly at the architecture- it the inside that counts.

" Be Happy with what you are getting. You aren't Chelsea's accountant." Sounds pretty troll like me- deliberately rude hoping to get a reaction. Stroll on sunshine

A few Chelsea/ Rangers bobble hats on display. Goodson Park 84-84

TROLL ALERT

Another way of raising capacity... The space above the pitch is ignored. Why not have a series of wires criss crossing- connected to the top of stands. Spectators are suspended from these wires, packed in like sardines, upside down like a load if bats. After 90 minutes or so there a danger of blackout due to blood from the body ending up in the head, but it's a price worth paying IMO

Realistically the only way of reaching the magic 60,000 would be to go for Borussia Dortman type ends- which aren't actually cantilevered, go back forever, to the point that the seats at the very rear are about as close to pitch as watching from the back of the old Shed. All in all very difficult to but not impossible. Ps I'm old enough to remember when the club was on its knees for years consequent to overspending on one stand. The dept reached 4 million by 1977- what would that equal in today's money I wonder?

Did West Ham take the Shed in 78? 79 was the night game, they had a couple of small mobs that didn't make any inroads. 80 was quite early in the season and West Ham were well outside the roof other side of the tea bar with our mob right next to them.

Build backwards- two huge cantilever ends. Adapt the existing East and West stands to cater for increased numbers of corporate tossers

If the final price is closer to a billion than 500 million ( speculative figure granted), where's the money going to come from? Why not retain the East and West stands, and develop two huge ends ( the fly in the ointment may be that corporate facilities which is the main driver here, tend to be situated on side stands rather than ends)

Good shouts with Veron, Gronkjaer and Zenden. Veron was a lazy sod IMO, Gronkjaer got everyone exited when he had a blinder against Man U early on, then got progressively worse; like a lot of speed merchants he could be brainless- used to open his legs just for the sake of it and end up either offside or crashing into a hotdog stall on the Fulham Road. Zenden was hot and cold and like a lot of left footed players incredibly one sided ( does it just seem that way, or are left footed players more one footed than right footed players?) He did get picked for the Dutch National team when he wasn't starting for us which confused the bollox off everyone. Despite the shortcomings of the above, they were in no way as bad as some of fellas who turned out for us during the dark years. It was kind of understandable that when the club were really skint and we had to rely on home grown "talent", that quite often they'd get shown up, but to me the most annoying ones were the likes of Sutton and Fleck, who whilst costing lumpy transfer fees were total tosh with us, and decent with clubs before and after. You definitely can't win them all!

It was also 40 years today we took the North Bank Highbury

John Sparrow of long throw fame- I heard something yesterday that shocked me- a Chelsea player from the 80s who would never be included in the rubbish list, wore long sleeve shirts all year round, because allegedly he had a National Front tattoo on his forearm.