Fruit Bat

Good to hear he's still going strong.

Great snap. I recognise the bloke with the long horse like face.

For the Barnsley game in 84 it was nigh on a full house, and they didn't bring many, so we must have had the pen next to Gate 13 because they would have kept the away fans apart. But that doesn't explain Umbro who stopped kitting us out in 81/82.... That family section with the yellow barriers { which is no longer in that pic} was definately going for the Spurs and Liverpool 82 Cup games...I give up

I think it's a good bit earlier than 83/84. The Umbro advertising hoardings a giveaway. I'd go Spurs 78/79, then again the little family terrace bit next to the East Stand- not sure whether that's operational in that pic which it would have been then?

Generally stick on the Big Match Revisited when I get home from work, which is 81/82 atm. Jesus home many taches in that Liverpool team. Grobbelar, Alan Kennedy, Sounness, McDermott, Rush. It's like watching The Village People... YMCA. Spurs v Man City yesterday the vermin had a midfield of Hoddle, Ardiles, Ricky Villa and Mickey Hazard. Ardiles was a flair player who could get stuck in, but the rest were flair player powder puffs. No obvious ball winner. General observation would be the football looks primitive, but at the end of the day no one knew any different, and same as today it was essentially a contest between two teams. No one had a crystal ball predicting that decades on the game would be played on perfect pitches, with lightweight balls, with teams comprising of the best talent from across the globe. From a Chelsea point of view the atmosphere was better, no one seemed to take things too seriously, and it was more of a laugh. Back to football- some of the worst stuff to watch was when back fours used to push up to condense the game, which led to most of the action taking place in a 40 yard corridor in the middle of the pitch. Think Tony Adams with his arm in the air looking for an off side.

I read Harry Rednapps biography a while back. He grew up in Poplar, and his old man was a football mad docker, who quite often crossed the river to watch Millwall, because they were THE dockers team. I'm told back in the day quite a few Milllwall lived north of the river and got the East London line to The Den. The union official Bob Crowe was a Millwall fan from Shadwell.

I wasn't at the Arsenal game when they made an appearance in the West Stand, but a mate was, and he was very impressed with Chubby. In his words, he was knocking them over like skittles.

Looks likes PB's wearing an engraved brass belt. Btw the sort next to him's a dead ringer for Ginger Spice

Our family used to holiday at Pontins during the 70s, and mostly through knocking around in the amusement arcade you'd get to know other kids from across the country. I got pally with someone from Plymouth, who told me that Chelsea came a cropper trying to take their end. Load of bollox I naturally thought, unaware that Plymouth was/is a pretty rough place. Like any naval/ garrison town the local herberts scrap with squaddies every weekend etc. Talking of Pontins probably in the early 70s, a kid from East London told me that at Upton Park, on a certain bit of terrace dockers used to congregate, and they used to sing ' DOCKERS.. clap clap clap ' DOCKERS' Seems a bit unlikely but who am I to know..

I was in a Jersey bar a month or so back. There was a table of well oiled Dubliners near by, next thing this girl came up and said ' are you who I think you are' Didn't know if she was on a wind up or not...' Who do you think I am?' ' You're in that Bucks Fizz aren't you'...... For the record I'd been experimenting with long hair, had it cut now. ' Yes, its true. I am Bobby from Bucks Fizz. No photos please I'm on holiday' Struth as they say.

Agree it was a major let down considering the hype. When I first started work an older Spurs fan recalled that shortly after this film came out we played at WHL and many of ours donned white overalls, bowler hats and walking sticks. Cant see any of them getting in the ground with sticks; like flag poles and rattles they went the way of the dodo.

Suprised to learn he only scored 13 goals in 272 appearances for us, given what a beast he was in the air. Thinking about it, time after time we'd get a free kick in our half which he would launch with his left peg towards the opposition box - it might had made sense to get him on the end of these balls, however I guess that wasn't the way we played back then. If he returned to the Bridge he'd get a hell of a reception.

Lardy arse Lukaku is listed as 94kg. Big Mickey was a stone heavier.

That's some weight 15st 9lb

There was also a pitch invasion at WHL on the same day as the Hull game. Headline on the back page of the Express according to me brothers scrapbook was CHELSEA AND SPURS ARE DISGRACED. They got relegated btw

A mate of mine was on schoolboy forms with Wimbledon and if they were playing Chelsea in the South East Counties League I'd go along and watch. Before one game him, his old man and me went into a sports shop in Raynes Park and he picked out these boots. I think they came with a certificate confirming it was genuine kangaroo leather. Strange how we remember little things from 40 plus years ago yet can't remember where we left the house keys

They were a great boot. I had a pair of Puma Kings with the small circular indentations by the heel but not SPA Kings, which were similar to Royals I believe. You had to be a pretty decent player to carry them off, otherwise you were labelled ' all the gear and no idea'

Certainly was. It held a good couple of thousand people. There was a bit of animosity between blacks and whites, and various crowds from different parts of London. I'm told that various football firms used to congregate in certain areas- Chelsea under a certain balcony etc but I was too young to know the score. Cass from West Ham said in his book that he never went there because he was too well known. It didn't help when Greg Edwards used to stoke everyone up with his North London, West London, East London, South London shout up. Incidently South London always got the biggest cheer. Strictly speaking they should have had a separate thing for South West and South East London but no one gave a crap.

Never worn strides to football but worn shoes rather than trainers last ten years or so. Coming back from away games early/ mid 80s, it would have made life a lot easier if you could get in clubs with casual clobber, rather than having to go home, sharpen up and get changed. Saying that, The Lyceum I remember had blokes wearing diamond pringles circa 82- I'd say they probably had to have a collared shirt underneath and trousers. I had a wicked pair of dogtooth check Farahs but wouldn't entertain wearing to football.

How old would he have been when this photo was taken? Mid 50's by the look

Agree with 77/78 start of replica kit fad. The first Chelsea kit I had ( use that term loosely) came in a box, and an iron on rampant lion badge came from a sports shop in The Arndale Centre Wandsworth. The colour of the blue badge faded after a couple of washes and looked pretty crap. Started secondary school in 78 and my to be best mate looked brilliant in our yellow and green away top. Another mate bought the Arsenal away colours yellow and blue number for the 79 Cup Final and he still has it in pretty much perfect condition. Olympus Sports who had many chains were the first outlet I remember who knocked out lots of different kits. Lillywhites might have done but I was a bit too young foray Up West.

We played Arsenal at home January 85. There had been freezing weather and in order to make the pitch playable it was covered in straw and some sort of balloon system from memory ( Bates being Bates he probably had one eye on us being the only fixture in the capital to go ahead and a bumper crowd) The game went ahead and was a bit of a farce with straw flying around and rock hard conditions. Charlie Nicholas seemed the only player who looked comfortable I remember.

Ron Harris in photo's looks stockier in the 60's than in his later years. Would't be suprised if dogs urinated up those legs of his...

I used to enjoy the Kingstonian pre seasons not least because I could walk to the ground in half hour or so from New Malden. Reckon the first one was on a Friday night in 96. The Robert Peel strip pub next door did a roaring trade whenever we played there. Micky Droy rattled off a good few appearances for Kingstonians after he ended his pro career. Both his knees were bandaged up and he wasn't particularly mobile, but he was a force at set pieces by all accounts.