Dean--I was there too! I remember the floodlights conking out when we were 2-0 up and the ref called it a day ! We had to start from scratch in the replay and I cant remember how it turned out!
Blue if im not mistaken we were losing 2-1 late on in the game ( the replay), and me brother and his mates were all about to storm the pitch and try to get the game called orf, but we managed to score 2 late goals in injury time winning 3-2 ha ha ha great memories !!!!!
Blue I found the game, i guess we were losing 1 nil when we scored 2 late goals to win the replay 2-1 End, 03 February 1969 Score 2-1 to Chelsea Competition FA Cup 4th round replay Venue Stamford Bridge Attendance 36,522 View Chelsea v Preston North End head to head 2Chelsea 1Preston North End Goals: Charlie Cooke Dave Webb Goals: Starting lineup: DefenderStewart Houston DefenderRon Harris DefenderDave Webb Full backEddie McCreadie MidfielderCharlie Cooke MidfielderAlan Birchenall MidfielderJohn Hollins MidfielderJohnny Boyle ForwardPeter Osgood ForwardBobby Tambling Peter Bonetti Starting lineup: . .
I stand corrected Dean! There was however a match I attended before any of the stands were built (ie when SB was nearly all terracing) when the floodlights went off when we were leading 2-0 in the 67th minute! I'm not quite sure of the team , but after hanging about for about 10 minutes there was an announcement over the tannoy that the game had to be abandoned and replayed at a later date.
I was only 12 at the time. I'd won the tickets in a boy's club raffle so I went with a mate but our parents said there was no way we were going to Manchester on our own!
Dean---I've just been out to the garage and found that programme! The original game 29.01.69 FCup 4th Rd Att. 44239. Match abandoned 67th minute--floodlight failure. Scorers Ian Hutchinson and Alan Birchenall. Strange seeing Birchenall's name again! When we sold him to Leicester he bought a house in a place called Coalville., right next door to good friends of ours! We stayed a weekend with them and they introduced him to us. Birch used to call me " My old cocker!"
Watched the replay at home with my older brother & remember crying when Peter Bonetti got injured and he called me a silly little ****er!
In my SW London school playground there was only three Chelsea fans, me, Michael Brennan and Brian Lopez. Everyone else was either a Liverpool fan, an Arsenal fan or a Man U fan. Dozens of them all London lads. I know this cos we all lived and breathed football, playing morning, noon and night. The U11 team I was in couldn't get in a U11 league, I was 10. We competed in an U13 league and we won it. We all proudly declared our allegiances that why I remember. Even my Dad was an Arsenal fan, but then he did come from a large Kennington based Waterford family. I've said on the forum before, my Mum was a Chelsea fan and she took me to Battersea park regularly. Growing up I was banned from going to football matches by my parents, they were worried by the crowd violence of the 70's. My Dad fondly remembered flat cap football crowds. Of course I ignored them, but it was only a few years ago I told them. That and the car crash I was in when I was aged 20. So basically Chelsea were more unpopular than they are now and the certainly weren't successful which leads me to believe I must be some sort of masochist or more likely a Mummy's boy.
I don't recall any individual game but I grew up watching Peacock, Spencer, Hughes, Gullit, Zola etc. I'm glad I had my education as a midtable club winning nothing. Makes you appreciate success much more which the United/Arsenal types take for granted. Winning one week and losing the next makes you appreciate the game. What people don't realise is that losing is just as important as winning. A lot of Arsenal fans from the Invincibles era don't have that hence their overreaction to the minimal of losses and condemnation of any tram that does not play 4-3-3 and open up for them
I love your tags DL! Greaves and Bestie--drunk enough booze between them to float a battleship! Greaves paired up with a pub landlord friend of mine in my companys annual golf day . Bright as a button when he turned up, but had to be poured into his lift home. George Best used to frequently prop a pub bar I had in Jermyn St in the days before all day opening and he'd never leave at lunchtime closing! He'd have a kip on the bench seating til we reopened!
