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 Mark Meehan, author of ‘Eddie Mac’ and formerly editor of the ‘Chelsea Independent’ fanzine.
After a disappointing mid-table finish to the previous season, Chelsea supporter’s hopes were not high, but little did they know what was in store for the 1987-88 season. If seeing Nigel Spackman and David Speedie leave wasn’t bad enough, the performances on the pitch were even worse. Appalling form and injuries to key players saw Chelsea sleep walk toward relegation. But surely they were too good to go down?
Unfortunately, even after the sacking of John Hollins and more important Ernie Walley, Bobby Campbell’s Chelsea finished in 18th which meant they had to play-off to remain in Division One. A hugely controversial 1-0 win in the home leg against Middlesbrough was not enough to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the 1st leg and the unthinkable happened. Chelsea would be the ‘Boys in Blue in Division Two’ once again.
Never a dull moment at Chelsea in a season enthusiastically remembered by Chidge, Jonathan and Mark and embellished with clips from the ‘Chelsea Special‘ interviews with Colin Pates, John Bumstead, Kerry Dixon and Paul Canoville.
