A Deeper Shade of Blue: Eddie McCreadie's Blue and White Army and a False Dawn by Neil Fitzsimon;

Author:Neil Fitzsimon;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mint Associates Ltd
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

SO, THAT was it. The stark reality facing everyone connected with Chelsea Football Club was that we were now a Second Division side; no more visits to Old Trafford, Anfield or White Hart Lane. Instead, we now faced the grim prospect of trips to such far-flung outposts as Oldham Athletic and York City, and all the other nonentities that were in the Second Division.

The bookies initially made Chelsea one of the favourites to win promotion but, to be honest, I had my doubts. It was obvious that a lot of the other teams would be out to get one over on us. Beating Chelsea, one of the biggest clubs in the country, would be a tremendous scalp for those minnows.

True, Manchester United had overcome this problem by cruising their way to the Second Division title in 1974/75, but as far as I was concerned, they seemed to be in a much more stable position than the Blues. For one thing, they had been able to spend to get all the players they needed in order to win promotion, and in former Chelsea boss Tommy Docherty they had a strong, charismatic manager, while the Blues were in a much more fragile position.

With Eddie Mac we had in effect an untried rookie as our manager, and after the sale of such established players as John Hollins, David Webb, Chris Garland and Steve Kember, we were left with a squad full of untried youngsters and a few veterans, who would, undoubtedly, shoulder the responsibility of trying to win promotion back to the First Division. And as the club was broke, I and many other Blues fans looked upon the upcoming season, more in hope than expectation.

On the Monday after our relegation had all but been confirmed following the home draw against Everton, Spurs predictably beat Leeds 4-2 at White Hart Lane to secure their First Division place. As I mentioned before, the league made some threats to Leeds about fielding a weakened team but, of course, nothing came of it. The only crumb of consolation that I and many other Blues fans took, was that Leeds’ ploy of fielding a scratch side that night ultimately didn’t do them any good in the long run, because when they faced Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final with all their stars mysteriously back in their line-up, they lost 2-0 to the Germans.

What was even funnier was that Leeds had a perfectly good goal ruled out by the referee, after Peter Lorimer had volleyed the ball like a bullet into the back of the Bayern net. It was a scandalous decision, and it remains a mystery to this day as to why it was chalked off. I can’t really say that I was crying into my beer that night over their misfortune. In fact, I was overjoyed that Bremner, Giles and the rest of the Leeds mob had been mugged off. I think it’s the only time in my life that I’ve ever celebrated Germany winning at anything.

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