Hi there,

 

I'm writing an article about the Zenith/Full Members Cup and I wanted to get the fans' views on it (the ones who can remember it, obviously). As a side that won it twice, Chelsea fans are better equipped than most to discuss this cup. Obviously, we look back on it now a bit of a Mickey Mouse competition, but what did it feel like the time? How did winning it compare to winning other matches? How much did you care? 

 

As I'm sure you know the competition was created when English clubs were kicked out of Europe. But could it even remotely fill that void?

 

If you have any memories or opinions on the The Zenith Data Systems Cup, please share them here!

 

I'd want to use some of the your quotes for the article, which will appear on the Yahoo Football website next week. So if you don't want your comments to be used then let me know, and they won't be. All quotes will be credited to this site.

 

Some of you may recall I already used your knowledge and witty opinions once before for this article on David Lee: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/blast-past-no-25-david-155055610.html 

 

Cheers!

Kevin 

1986 saw us in the Full members cup final which became the zenith data cup, we played Man City and it was our first Wembley appearance for 14 years. The crowd was 68,000 I believe and prob around 50,000 plus were Chelsea, there weren't so many of your replica shirt crowd in those days, there was a lot of your druken 20/30 year old lads, we had to play southampton the day before and city I think Man utd. I was 16 and went in the crammed Chelsea end, my parents also went and in another part of the chelsea end, they left after about 15 minutes being helped out on a ladder like other fans, as the end was so crammed. They didn't see any of the game, and what a game they missed!!. We went 1-0 down, but thanks to a David Speedie hatrick and I think two from Colin Lee we went 5-1 up with 5 mins to go, our full back Dougie Rougvie kindly gave city a consolation goal with an own goal, only to see city score two more to make it 5-4 we held on though, and at the time it felt like a really big thing as we hadn't won anything for so many years. One memory is seeing a large mob of chelsea being escorted round the dog track during the game and receiving an ovation from us, as they had got in the city end and caused a fracas!!!!

The second time we won was in 1990, I remember going to the away quarter final v Ipswich, we won either 3-1 or 3-2 kevin Wilson got the winner, the semi final against palace 1st leg at selhurst park I think we won, the second leg at the bridge, I got all the way to the ground from the south coast only to find people turning round and walking home as it had been called off for strong winds, we won the second leg when replayed and faced Middlesborough in the final. We had been sent down by them two years before, so it was pay back time, a pretty boring game won by us with a brilliant Tony Dorigo free kick, remember t shirts going around with no fences this time Boro, in reference to the day they sent us down in 1988 and the insuing crowd trouble. All in all these cups were memorable but how football has changed.