Bovis Messroom

Trouble is unless you know the rat runs and back roads it can take a lot longer getting to The Bridge than on the tube especially for evening games. Three options.1. Have you tried West Ruislip station just a mile and a half north of Hillingdon? Big car park there, £4 all day and you have a choice of fast train to Marylebone or the more direct Central Line to either Notting Hill Gate (change to District Line for Fulham Broadway) or as I do to Shepherds Bush, cross the road for the Overground Line to West Brompton. Both roughly 40 min journey times. 2. As suggested keep on the A40 to Park Royal and you're much further down the Piccadilly Line towards Earls Court and it's easy to park in the residential roads just north of the station. 3. If you want to drive as far as possible, I'd recommend putting Moylan Road in your SatNav. Not far off the A4, no parking fees at weekends and about 15 min walk to the ground.

Yep, was at that game.......no, really . Was a pools agent for the club back then and if you sold £10 worth of lines, you qualified for a free match ticket. So there I was in the north part of the east lower, later to become Gate 13 with a handful of others. Honestly the only thing I remember of that game was some bloke a few rows in front of me shouting to Orients keeper, ex hamster Mervyn Day. "Mervyn !!"......."Oii Mervyn". The crowd was so small and we were well away from The Shed so he could definately hear him but Day kept his eyes firmly fixed forward. This went on for 5 minutes........"Merv"......"Mervyn, mate". All his experience was probably telling him to resist but Day finally looked accross. He should have known what was coming............... "Waaaaaannnnnnnkkkkkkeeeeerrrrrr". The chosen few didn't laugh.......much. :laugh2: :laugh2:

Like Langley, Gary Chivers was a Shed Boy too. Bobby Isaac who unfortunately came a cropper at Millwall still comes to Chelsea games with his son. Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is also Chelsea though you wouldn't think it from all his moaning over Luiz's non-sending off.

Think the press reports of him leaving are total guff tbh. First up, who is able to offer the wages he is on with us for the next year and a half? The chinese or the arabs, I hear? Think it has to be remembered he has two young daughters living with their mum in London. Plus an impending marriage. Can't see his immediate future abroad for starters. But the main reason I don't think he'd want to leave Chelsea is that I truly believe he wants to finish his career here and hopefully break the all time scoring record on the way. He seems an incredibaly driven individual who's had to overcome and prove doubters wrong during his career (there's not many sons who outdo famous playing fathers for starters). Think the injury and the complications that followed it really did knock him sideways especially for a player who was described as a 'freak' by Fergie for reeling off 55+ game seasons after season.. Although he's definately lost some of his previous power, he was never a hard running (some would say headless chicken) type like Gerrard who'd pop up all over the place. No, Frank always played a bit more with his head and paced himself through games. He's a smart fella and has always known with tiring opponents and games often stretched late on, his timed runs then into opponents areas often brought the most reward. On course for another 20 goal season. I'm not writing him off any time soon even at his age. Don't want to join a long list left with egg on the proverbial.

Match at The Bridge in the early '60's. Interesting view from the back of the old West Terrace showing just how big it was. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=70799

Hollywood actress Lana Turner declares the start of a night of Midget Car Racing at The Bridge not long after the war. http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=58269 Just look at the size of the crowd that day. A few so called 'big clubs' aint had that sort of attendance ever. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=58278

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=74047 Brings back a few memories. Was a 'Middle of the Shedender' back then.

Not just South West London non-league clubs. Wealdstone originally based in Harrow but lately Ruislip have a large percentage of their support that still or used to attend Chelsea games. Hayes Town (now amalgamated with Yeading) as well, I believe. Cardiff fans many years ago got a welcome they wern't expecting there for a FA Cup match.

Only played only one half of the Under 21's game last night so may well make possibly a substitute appearance for the senior team tonight. The loan spells of last season were very mixed for him. Joined two struggling teams and was excellent at Plymouth, even winning the supporters 'Player of the Month'. They wanted to extend the loan but their financial troubles meant a FA transfer and loan deal embargo. Notts County was different. Rarely got a start and was played out of position on the right flank. I frankly don't think much of our loaning out policy and hope he's given a chance with us this season. AVB's initial buys at least show the youth may well feature far more than previously.

1. Tottenham 2. West Ham 3. Leeds 4. Liverpool 5. Man Utd

I seem to recall Rangers decending en masse on Newcastle in the late 60's or early 70's. Older geordies still talk about the mayhem before, during and after.

It's an interesting article but the historical tie ups are a bit shaky. Firstly while ex Rangers man Jackie Robertson was indeed our first manager, the clubs original shirts were Eton Blue and taken from the racing colours of the club president. J.T. Robertson had long gone when royal blue was adopted. Middlebroughs and Aston Villas lions are closer in resemblance to Rangers one than ours (which was also derived from the presidents coat of arms). The Celtic / Rangers chants in fact were still going on in The Shed up till the mid '80's as was singing YNWA (Unbelievable to think now but true). Those chants were always only a bit of a laugh anyway.

Just done a bit of checking back because the memories a bit hazy. The other team in '93 was Lazio (Gazza's return to WHL) and the other two teams the following year at Highbury were Napoli (who I think beat us in the semi) and Atletico Madrid. The only thing I do remember of that tourney was that Madstock was going on at Finsbury Park up the road the same weekend. The Nottingham one was held in '96 and Goodison Park in '97. I also went on both Le Havre trips (right pish up on the ferry from Portsmouth). Wern't so many on the first occasion, maybe 250-300. French old bill completely over the top after each game on both trips. We were also involved in the Birra Moretti trophy in 2002 pre-season along with Inter and Juventus. The thing was it was held at Bari, down the other end of Italy from Milan and Turin so we wern't expecting that many to attend. Wrong !! 52,000 packed into the stands with at least 10,000 locked outside. The home town club wasn't even involved. The games were only 20 minutes or so each way and we got stuffed by Inter 3-0 then lost on pens to Juve. Best part of the night for us was when Zola got interviewed pitchside. Massive ovation from the whole stadium.

I would say ALL hat-tricks scored against Spuds are perfect. Though some are just a bit more perfect than others. :)

We had a decent record in those pre season tournaments back then. Apart from that win up at Goodison, we of course also won the Makita trophy at WHL in 1993 with Cascarinos hat trick. Think we beat Ajax in the semi and they were also in the one held at the City Ground along with us, Forest and Man Utd. We won that too. The thing was those those tournaments was they were held over two days so their were loads of us who stayed up in Liverpool and Nottingham for the whole weekend. Was a particularly impressive blues following at Forest, the whole of the Executive Stand Lower.

Don't have to much of a problem with the stands being named after sponsors tbh. The Shed Stand afterall was sponsored by Umbro for a few years after it was built. Not sure if they would attempt to rename the Matthew Harding given his financial input got the stand constructed. The biggest stumbling block for the club is naming rights for the whole stadium. Sure it can be done for newly built grounds like the Emirates and Stokes Brittannia Stadium. But who apart from the corporate types would call an old, established ground with a famous name by it's new title? It would remain SB to everyone else no matter how much signage they put up. And potential sponsors don't want that reaction.

Yep. The Shed for me. Down the front as a kid in 1971 but moving further back into The Middle as I got older. Went a few times in the North Stand in the early '80's but by 1984 me and my mates had season tickets in The Benches. When the Taylor Report meant the impending closure of terraces I went back to The Shed for its last couple of seasons, usually by the tea bar. Would really love if the recent 'safe standing' initiative suceeds. 17 years and still can't get used to sitting down watching football.

It's a relatively quiet area during the week....so they'd be relying on weekends. People might stop off there for a few drinks, but they're not going to stay there all night as it's a bit isolated According to their site, it doesn't open till 4pm on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. So we can safely say they wont be catering for football going crowd. Plastic palm trees on the Fulham Road, Jeez wept. The old White Hart up the road was another casualty a few years back. Donkeys years as a good old fashioned boozer then it's replaced with yet another poncey winebar to attract a better class of customer no doubt. Wasn't open but a few months when some Yardie turns up and shoots dead the bouncer. Oh, the irony.

Gone for 3. Option 1 would have been good with the lion and two stars (as worn on the '70's shirts instead of the rubbish Bates monstrosity.

Chelsea section sold out this morning according to Ticket News. I guess our allocated area will be the normal away corner section plus maybe a couple of blocks of the Broomloan Lower. Those applying for tickets from Rangers and wanting to sit as close to there should go for probably Blocks BF3 or BF4 Broomloan Lower, BR4 or BR5 Broomloan Upper or Blocks 1F and 2F of the Govan Stand. Bunch of us arriving by train at about 11am and If my memory is right from the '86 game, the Toby Jug pub is over the road from Central Station so that will probably be our first port of call. Bringing our flag as well as the celery. :)

I wanna be a air force ranger, I wanna live a life of danger, I wanna be a scuba diver, I wanna be a 69'er. Here's to the girl that I love best, Every night I suck her breast, Shag her standing, Shag her lying, If she had wings, I'd shag her flying, Now she's dead, Not forgotten Dig 'er up, Shag 'er rotten, Woah oh oh, Chelsea, Chelsea, I'd walk a miliion miles for one of your goals....

Hello there and welcome. Think you've missed the deadline for season tickets for 11/12. Your best bet for this season is to become a Club Member who get a set period to buy tickets for home games before they go on general sale. As a Club Member tickets are a fiver cheaper than for non members. Details on how to join are on Chelseas Official Club site under the 'Membership' tab. After joining it's a doddle to apply for tickets online. Members are also allocated a percentage of tickets for away games too. Best part of the ground for singing and a bouncey is the Matthew Harding (North) Stand Lower, blocks 11, 12 and 13. Though there are other parts of the ground like the corner sections of the MHL and The Shed Upper that sing but they don't really jump about so much.

As said The Prince of Wales and The Liliie Langtry are both good but tend to have more of the old school Chelsea in them and singing is limited to the front patios usually. Though it was bloody mental in the POW after the Wigan title clincher game. Still they are a bit far from the ground to replicate the So Bar experience. When I was a lot younger and a Middle of The Shedender, The Swan (now Brogans) with its big open plan bar was the place that was jumping. Personally I think the So Bar mob should reclaim The Kings Head / Slug and Lettuce as a proper home pub as in the past the away fans in there have been allowed to sing to their hearts content pre match.

What a fall from grace. Was at the Levski Sofia away game in the Uefa Cup 10 years ago and he and a few others (I think he was a sub) were warming up before the match and shooting at goal. The home fans jeered when two of his shots hit the bar. By the fifth time it happened they realised he was actually aiming at the bar. Looked about 5 foot tall and eight stone wet through back then.

The Prince of Wales in West Brompton I would consider a proper Chelsea pub. The landlady and half the bar staff join the customers to head to SB for every home match. Great night celebrating the title in there after the Wigan game last year.