I hope the small flashes of gold à la the old crush barriers and current stairwells are incorporated into the SB redevelopment. The club of course should also replace our blue alternate socks with gold ones, but that's another matter.

22 hours ago, Richard P said:

Were you in gate 13 for the Leeds game?

I was. Great day... what an atmosphere 

Chelsea v Norwich 1991

 

Edited November 16, 20169 yr by Carshalton Blue

1971 ECWC parade

^ I was there!

Stamford Bridge in the 80s.

18 hours ago, Peckham Blue said:

^ I was there!

I wasn't there but I went to Heathrow airport when they flew in. There was a huge crowd and the team appeared from behind some gates near terminal 1 in an open top bus. The bus drove off down the A4. I was in a car and did follow them to the Hounslow turn off but went home from there. I have heard stories that after that they stopped off at a pub in Osterley for a drink with the fans. I find this hard to believe and would be interested to hear of any stories.

Carshalton were you infiltrating the Norwich fans!! Looking at the North stand, before that fence down the middle by the scoreboard it must have been so easy to make your way into the away section. I only stood there once against the Chinese national team 79/80 because the shed was closed. Was too young to stand there late 70s early 80s.

Chelsea at Newcastle 81/82

 

Chelsea at Cardiff 81/82

On 16/11/2016 at 18:44, Carshalton Blue said:

Chelsea v Norwich 1991

 

and to think this pre 2004/5 when we had no fans! Glad Norwich took the whole of the away end. Shame no tractors tho. Did they park them down the road?

9 hours ago, romfordblue said:

and to think this pre 2004/5 when we had no fans! Glad Norwich took the whole of the away end. Shame no tractors tho. Did they park them down the road?

 

we did have fans.....just that they never showed up all the time 

12 hours ago, Carshalton Blue said:

Chelsea at Newcastle 81/82

 

Carshalton looking at your great collection of pics over the years you got some great angles to take the photos. Did you have to go in with the opposition to take them? Can't remember if we got small section of seats at some away games eg Newcastle above and also if we had any of the north stand for the Leeds pictures 83/84?

Stamford Bridge (1948)

Chelsea v Bolton on a mud-splattered at Stamford Bridge in 1957.

On 19/11/2016 at 09:55, Richard P said:

Carshalton looking at your great collection of pics over the years you got some great angles to take the photos. Did you have to go in with the opposition to take them? Can't remember if we got small section of seats at some away games eg Newcastle above and also if we had any of the north stand for the Leeds pictures 83/84?

Sadly there not my pics mate, i get sent them from mates or sent a link to find them.

The great Jimmy Windridge, scorer of Chelsea’s first ever goal against Tottenham (2-1, 1909)

One of the rare pictures of Jimmy Windridge as well, I failed to find a good photo of the scorer of the second goal Joe Bradshaw.

picture sharing

Edited November 23, 20169 yr by TrueBlueBIH

Worth a  watch. From 1971.

From the game against Moscow Dynamo in 1945.

Terry Venables holding up the 1965 League Cup Trophy

 

Another footballer who signed for the 17th Middlesex Regiment ,the "Footballers Regiment" was former Chelsea goal keeper Bob "Pom-Pom" Whiting.
Born in January 1884 in Canning Town, as Robert Greenhalf he took his step fathers name Whiting. Bob Whiting followed family tradition and entered the local shipyard as a labourer. Selected as goalkeeper for the works football team, Thames Ironworks, (West Ham United from 1900) he went on to play for South West Ham FC and Tunbridge Wells Rangers.
Bob was moving up, fast. After being scouted to play in goal for Chelsea FC in 1906, Whiting married his wife Nellie the following year.
Ruthless business
Such was the power of his kicking from goal that Bob Whiting soon acquired the nickname 'Pom Pom' (after the four-barrelled two pounder rapid firing naval gun of the same name). Chelsea fans revelled at his piston-like ability to kick deep into the opposition's half.
But team selection was a ruthless business. After only one season 'Pom Pom' was dropped from the Chelsea side. In 1908, with his wife Nellie and his two sons still in Tunbridge Wells, he was transferred to Brighton and Hove Albion.
In January 1915 Bob Whiting signed up to fight in WW1
After almost a year's infantry training in England, Robert Whiting - promoted to lance sergeant in June 1915 - was sent with his battalion to France in November 1915.
Whilst serving in the filthy trenches Whiting contracted scabies and was evacuated in late May 1916 for treatment at the Eastern Military Hospital at Brighton.
Nellie was able to stay in Brighton to be near him and it was at this time that she fell pregnant with their third son Joe.
When the time came to return to the trenches, Pom Pom could not bear the prospect of leaving his pregnant Nellie behind and so went absent without leave from the hospital - for 133 days.
A serious military crime which carried the possibility of a death sentence.
'
Whiting was arrested for desertion and sent for trial in December 1916. At his court martial he was demoted to private and sentenced to nine months hard labour. 
His absence and detention coincided with the great Somme offensive from 1 July to 18 November 1916 - in which 420,000 British soldiers had been killed. Pre-war sporting hero Pom Pom Whiting was labelled a coward by his military colleagues.
However, the British Army was in dire need of able-bodied soldiers, even those convicted of serious military offences. His case was passed up the chain of command to General Hubert Gough (commander of the British Fifth Army) for final review. Gough suspended his sentence.
In March, Whiting was returned to B Company, 17th Middlesex (6th Brigade, 2nd Division, Fifth Army) in France, just in time for the bloody, month long, offensive at Arras from 9 April to 16 May 1917.
The big push at Arras was launched as a diversionary thrust in support of the huge French Nivelle offensive on the Aisne. Initially, the offensive was successful. For three weeks prior to the attack, 3,000 British guns fired 2.7 million shells onto the formidable German Hindenburg Line positions.
On 9 April, the British divisions advanced under a creeping artillery barrage, from a deep network of concealed chalk caves, to penetrate four miles of German-held territory, taking 9,000 prisoners in the process.

Slow to respond, the German Army eventually counter attacked on 23 April. The British advance stalled in the teeth of heavy opposition. A vicious battle of attrition set in; the Nivelle offensive it was designed to support faltered and then failed.
The battle inflicted 159,000 British, Australian and Canadian and over 100,000 German casualties. At Arras, 4,076 British soldiers were killed each day, an attrition rate even higher than on the Somme. The bill for Arras also included 'Pom Pom' Whiting.
On 28 April 1917, Private Robert Whiting was among 462 men from the Middlesex Regiment killed only one officer and 41 men returning unscathed from the German lines.also killed that day was Private Charles Edward Green, a former right-back with Millwall F.C. 
Whiting was reported as being buried near Vimy Ridge but his remains were never recovered.
Back in Brighton, Nellie Whiting not only grieved for the loss of her husband but was also forced to endure unfounded local speculation that Bob had been shot for desertion.
She was obliged to publish a letter in the Brighton Argus from his commanding officer attesting to his courageous end.
With no remains ever found, Bob Whiting was listed on the imposing Arras Memorial, along with 35,942 other missing British Tommies from Britain and its Commonwealth.