Continuing our series ’50 Years of Chelsea’ looking back, season by season, from the FA Cup winning 1970 season to present day; Stamford Chidge is joined by Jonathan Kydd and Dan Silver to look back at the 1985-86 season.
Chelsea start the 1985-86 season, having finished 6th in Division One, under new management with John Hollins replacing the much loved John Neal. And they pretty much pick up where they left off and spend most of the season challenging at the top of the table.
For many the highlight was the Full Members Cup final win against Man City in March in a nerve tingling 5-4 win. While universally derided as a mickey mouse cup, Chelsea fans treated it as a day out at Wembley and a bona fide cup, the club’s first trophy since 1971. But shortly after, Chelsea came crashing down as they so often do, as terrible 6-0 and 4-0 defeats to QPR and West Ham put paid to their title challenge.
A question of close, but not close enough as Chelsea finally finish in 6th position for the second year running.
Either way, it was another memorable season enthusiastically remembered by Chidge, Jonathan and Dan and embellished with clips from the ‘Chelsea Special‘ interviews with the players who played in these iconic games: Colin Pates, Kerry Dixon, Paul Canoville and John Bumstead.
