21 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

And if I remember correctly you used to go only when you were not playing and you played on both Saturday and Sunday.

Although I mentioned your different sense of humour to mine, I find it interesting that we are coincidentally on both the same forums.

Yes that's right sometimes 3 matches a weekend but usually caught a few games at the start and end of the season and Xmas/Easter. Did have a couple of lengthy football suspensions too which i took advantage of and went to Chelsea instead of the honourable option of supporting my teammates. Yep I did and do have a somewhat twisted sense of humour lol

Actually I found it easier to go more when the sunday afternoon games kicked in in the 90s/00s used to often play then jump straight on a train up to the bridge.

 

Over the course of the past 56 years of me attending matches @Stamford Bridge & away matches & Leicester! ....my favourite chance meeting was 49 years ago (Oct 1969)...whilst travelling back on the train to London ....after cheering on the Blues win 1-0 (osgood scored) @ St James’s Park Newcastle.

I had a surprise whilst I was running up the northern line escalators @ London Bridge, when John Hollins (who had played in the match).

I thought I was quick...but John Hollins overtook me like lightning ! No time for a chat....as after exiting station...he went one way and I went another.

Those were the days when the players used to travel on the same regular inter city trains as the fans....there was only about a hundred of us Chelsea shed boys up at Newcastle......

Another pleasant surprise occurred after i attended the last Charity Sheild @ Wembley...August 2000....we beat Man Ure.....I drove up the A1 to stay with some friends....and enroute popped into a pub @ Market Deeping.....with my chelsea shirt on....and was pleasantly surprised when I was welcomed by the landlord ( who by chance was Bert Murray!  ....we had a chat about the match and how proud he was to have played for Chelsea ...and how he still keeps in touch with his old Chelsea mates....especially  Chopper Harris...

Another chance meeting was when I met the whole squad....@ Tenerife in Feb 2002 ....I was on a family holiday and Chelsea Fc flew out on a winter sun training break (the day before they had been knocked out of the FA cup by arsenal....I’ve still got the fully signed ball! 

Moving up to date....During my recent match days @ the Bridge....Pre-match ...i often see Kerry Dixon, Tommy Baldwin & Bobby Tambling in the Bar of the Millennium hotel. 

KTBFFH

Sat behind the away dugout last Thursday courtesy of Mr Zola. Ended up sitting with Nigel Spackman. Enjoyed exchanging memories from his time at Chelsea. Really nice guy, he loved his time here and loved us fans. The players really appreciated our away following back then.

With the last crowd I was with I remember we went to a different pub and it was against Utd. I remember the pub as it had hanging flower baskets which was different from our normal watering holes.

As the weather was good we were standing on the street as a coach came by with loads of Utd giving us arms gestures, so someone strikes up, 'Who the fxxx are Utd as the Blues go...….' as I was singing along to this I noticed the bloke to my right also singing along was wearing a dark grey overcoat. That seemed a bit out of place with the song so I looked across to see it was Mathew Harding.

Ian Britton, Garry Stanley and a couple of others from that era (Ray Lewington? can't remember) used to occasionally go down the same wine bar as us.  We used to play it very cool by not paying them too much attention.

Ken Swain gave me and my friend a lift home after we went to watch them training.  Again, I think there may have been another player in the car, but it's too long ago now for me to remember properly.

And I attended a match (Plymouth Argyle I think) with then Chelsea youth team player, Peter Rhodes Brown, who went on to play in the first team.  He was going out with a friend of mine.  He was a really nice guy - I didn't fancy him though but my friend thought I did and had a go at me because I offered to help him bring the round of drinks over from the bar!  She was a tad possessive!

Ran into Hernan Crespo on Portobello said hey  he said hi back but kept on walking. The next day walking down the Kings road window shopping at a shoe store looked to my left and the bloke in a white leather jacket was Mario Stanic looking in the window at the shoes. He was very nice talked a few minuets with us.  

Went to a Wigan v doncaster game at Springfield park and chelsea were playing somewhere in that area on the Sunday in the early/ mid 1980s 

was sat in the seats at Wigan with some donny lads,when Joey jones ,bumstead ,thomas and niedzwiecki and another chelsea player who has slipped my mind all sat in the seats quite close to us.

started to talking to jones and Thomas and they seemed to take to us when I told that I was chelsea.

at half time they invited me and the handfull of donny lads onto the chelsea team coach that was parked up outside the 

wigan ground  which they had come to Springfield Park on from their hotel.had a chin wag sat on the coach at half time and let us use the kitchen that was on the team coach.for life of me can’t recall what we ate or drank and the score of the Wigan v donny game,just that 5 chelsea players landed in the stand wanting to watch whatever division 3/4 game that was been played that Saturday .

cant even recall who chelsea was playing on the Sunday ,it might have been lpool 

Had a chat with Jody Morris in Chicago's in Sutton several years ago. He's my age, and a lot smaller, so I felt okay talking to him.

Despite having a bit of a rep back then, he was very approachable and more than happy to indulge me in conversation. Probably helped that I knew a girl that he also knew and I could even mention the Beemer he'd just bought!

Glad Jody's getting on well these days. 

Butch Wilkins on a train stn platform when we were both kids and both had a good clump of hair.............all the team at Carlisle in their hotel................chopper harris when he was walking to the ground outside of old Trafford v Liverpool in the semi..............few of the players at the time and era of the new east stand discos.......players in the lounge when my wife and I were given directors box tickets by K Bates when I was slashed by millwall......

59 minutes ago, Mike Carefree said:

Butch Wilkins on a train stn platform when we were both kids and both had a good clump of hair.............all the team at Carlisle in their hotel................chopper harris when he was walking to the ground outside of old Trafford v Liverpool in the semi..............few of the players at the time and era of the new east stand discos.......players in the lounge when my wife and I were given directors box tickets by K Bates when I was slashed by millwall......

How did Bates know you had been slashed by Millwall, that sounds like an interesting story?

Perhaps not a chance encounter but a few years back about 250 Chelsea fans were in a club near Wembley Stadium. I forget which game we played. In the club was Tommy Baldwin. His song was sung. A big smile on Tommy's face. 

His name is Tommy Baldwin......

Held the door open for Davie Hay when he was going into a shop in the centre of Glasgow a couple of years ago.

The shop was really busy, so I didn't get the chance to talk things Chelsea.

On 16/11/2018 at 13:27, Strider6003 said:

How did Bates know you had been slashed by Millwall, that sounds like an interesting story?

Hi just seen this.....not interesting story im afraid....small piece in newspaper.......then I sent him a photo of my neck/face.....letter came to me.....passes for myself and wife of that decade.....visired players area...visited the bar....met some great chelsea pensioners.....ken bates came to us at the end of the match and shook hands with me and let us take pics.......I licked his shoes of any dust..lol...

Edited January 10, 20197 yr by Mike Carefree

52 minutes ago, Mike Carefree said:

Hi just seen this.....not interesting story im afraid....small piece in newspaper.......then I sent him a photo of my neck/face.....letter came to me.....passes for myself and wife of that decade.....visired players area...visited the bar....met some great chelsea pensioners.....ken bates came to us at the end of the match and shook hands with me and let us take pics.......I licked his shoes of any dust..lol...

No yet it is an interesting of how the club tried to do right by you at that time.

6 hours ago, Mike Carefree said:

Hi just seen this.....not interesting story im afraid....small piece in newspaper.......then I sent him a photo of my neck/face.....letter came to me.....passes for myself and wife of that decade.....visired players area...visited the bar....met some great chelsea pensioners.....ken bates came to us at the end of the match and shook hands with me and let us take pics.......I licked his shoes of any dust..lol...

Was that the same night Bobby Isaac Back got slashed? Chelsea reserve player got circled by Wall fans. Got asked who their goalkeeper was and didn’t know. Slashed him, had a thick leather jacket on that helped but still needed 60 stitches!

19 hours ago, Richard P said:

Was that the same night Bobby Isaac Back got slashed? Chelsea reserve player got circled by Wall fans. Got asked who their goalkeeper was and didn’t know. Slashed him, had a thick leather jacket on that helped but still needed 60 stitches!

Top bloke is Rob, still has a season ticket at the Bridge. Was drinking with him before and after the semi final last season.

There was a big ruck outside the Pelican before the home leg.

They were knife happy back then Millwall, bit like us in the 90s

Edited January 11, 20197 yr by Ewell CFC

3 hours ago, Ewell CFC said:

There was a big ruck outside the Pelican before the home leg.

They were knife happy back then Millwall, bit like us in the 90s

Did our chaps carry knives in the 90's, I don't recall anyone mentioning that on the thread when our mob was at it's peak?

Plenty of violence though not from knives, I do recall other club's firms liked Stanley knives.

 

Have had a few chance encounters over the years. Early 80s, walking along Cornmarket in Oxford, bumped into Clive Walker. 

About 20 years later, I flew back into Heathrow late one Sunday, and bumped into the late great Peter Osgood. He was very friendly and happy to sign an autograph. This was only a couple of years before his sudden death.

For the first FA cup final at the new Wembley, when we beat Manure 1-0, I went with a mate who is a producer for MotD (a massive Chelsea Fan). He got us into an after match BBC party attended by Lineker,, Hansen,, Shearer, Schmeichel, Motson and the legendary Marcel Desailly, who was happy to chat over a beer.

A few years later I was at a football charity dinner for the Welsh FA. There were lots of big names in Welsh football and I had a good chat with a very drunk Mickey Thomas, who was thrilled to talk about THAT season, in particular his home debut, a fantastic 3-2 win over Sheffield Wed when he scored twice. He absolutely loved his time with us and said that home debut was 'the best day of his life'.

The highlight, though, was a few years ago in the US. We were on holiday in Washington DC, and our visit just happened to coincide with Chelsea basing themselves there n their US preseason. My son found out that their hotel was walking distance from ours, so we wandered over on the off chance there might be some squad members coming and going. About half a dozen American Chelsea fans were there, when a bus pulled up and out streamed all the players. Most of them were happy to stop for photos and autographs (although JT, Ashley Cole and José didn't, which was disappointing). We got photos with Schürrle,(who'd just signed for us) Mata, Oscar,Torres, Cech, Hilario and David Luiz. 

56 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

Have had a few chance encounters over the years. Early 80s, walking along Cornmarket in Oxford, bumped into Clive Walker. 

About 20 years later, I flew back into Heathrow late one Sunday, and bumped into the late great Peter Osgood. He was very friendly and happy to sign an autograph. This was only a couple of years before his sudden death.

For the first FA cup final at the new Wembley, when we beat Manure 1-0, I went with a mate who is a producer for MotD (a massive Chelsea Fan). He got us into an after match BBC party attended by Lineker,, Hansen,, Shearer, Schmeichel, Motson and the legendary Marcel Desailly, who was happy to chat over a beer.

A few years later I was at a football charity dinner for the Welsh FA. There were lots of big names in Welsh football and I had a good chat with a very drunk Mickey Thomas, who was thrilled to talk about THAT season, in particular his home debut, a fantastic 3-2 win over Sheffield Wed when he scored twice. He absolutely loved his time with us and said that home debut was 'the best day of his life'.

The highlight, though, was a few years ago in the US. We were on holiday in Washington DC, and our visit just happened to coincide with Chelsea basing themselves there n their US preseason. My son found out that their hotel was walking distance from ours, so we wandered over on the off chance there might be some squad members coming and going. About half a dozen American Chelsea fans were there, when a bus pulled up and out streamed all the players. Most of them were happy to stop for photos and autographs (although JT, Ashley Cole and José didn't, which was disappointing). We got photos with Schürrle,(who'd just signed for us) Mata, Oscar,Torres, Cech, Hilario and David Luiz. 

Some good memories there backbiter, I've bumped into a few notables over the years as I nearly always can spot a face though mostly just celebrities rather than specifically Chelsea.

Yours beats the lot for me in terms of meeting the players at different times.