Chelsea: Zenith Cup Winners
A quick potted history of the Full Members Cup:
In 1985, in the wake of the Heysel stadium disaster, English clubs were
given a five-year ban from European competition. Two new tournaments were
suggested: a Super Cup for the teams that finished in the top 6 in 1984-85 and
a new tournament was created for all the teams in the top two divisions below
that, the Full Members Cup (teams in Divisions One and Two were recognised as Full Members of the Football League,
teams in Divisions Three and Four were Associate
members and thus not eligible) which would be more commonly known as the
Zenith Data Systems (or ZDS) Cup.
The Super Cup only lasted a year while the Full Members Cup struggled
on for seven years until 1992 despite being universally loathed. The League Cup
has always had problems establishing itself so what chance did League Cup 2
have?
Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Reading, Nottingham Forest and Crystal
Palace will go down as the only five teams to have ever won the competition.
Chelsea and Nottingham Forest both won it twice. It’s not going to cause much
envy though since Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United
never bothered to enter it.
Nobody ever took it seriously as the low crowds will attest. Chelsea
however, were somewhat honour bound to put some effort though as the whole thing
was the brain child of one Ken Bates.
So, it was perhaps fitting that Chelsea should win the inaugural
competition, defeating Manchester City 5-4 in the final in 1986.
Forward on a few years and Chelsea are riding high. They’ve just won
the Division Two championship, they are going strong in Division One and are
about to start their campaign in the much maligned ZDS cup…
And first up was scrappy Bournemouth. The Cherries took the lead twice
in the game but Chelsea would win thanks to a hat-trick from Alan Dickens,
recently signed from West Ham. It was perhaps his finest moment in a Chelsea
shirt. Shame it was in a competition nobody cared about.
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| Kerry Dixon volleys the opener at Crystal Palace |
But just because a competition is rubbish that doesn’t mean there can’t
be great games in it as Chelsea’s next opponents West Ham United prove. Chelsea
went 2-0 ahead thanks to a goal from Kerry Dixon just before half-time and a
penalty from Graham Roberts. The East Londoners wouldn’t lie down though and
came back to lead 2-3 with just a few minutes remaining. Just a few minutes
however was all Kevin Wilson and David Lee needed to turn things around and
give Chelsea a 4-3 win. The video has full highlights on this one, so as well
as the goals we get to see the fine saves pulled off by the two goalkeepers.
Dave Beasant may have conceded three but it could have been more, he was
actually on good form that night. A fine game of football that nobody
remembers.
The next round is the ‘Southern Section Semi-Final’, though hardly
seems fair Ipswich Town should be allowed to play a semi-final at their home
ground Portman Road. The video only has highlights of the goals from this one.
Chelsea took the lead three times in this game with an own goal and two from
Wilson to win 3-2.
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| Chelsea win the ZDS Cup |
Kerry Dixon turns up to tell us how seriously the players are taking
the competition as it’s a chance to play at Wembley. And that’s the only real
appeal of the competition really. Nobody will respect you for winning it but
for the players it’s a chance to go to Wembley. And isn’t that the dream of
every young football supporter, to play at Wembley.
The Southern area final is against Crystal Palace and that brings out
the Sky cameras. You can’t miss this footage came from Sky as their logo
appears every 15 seconds. Sky were still relatively new to the game at this
point but once again, the difference in quality of coverage between Sky and
Chelsea’s own in-house production is marked (though Chelsea are improving).
Commentary on both legs is provided by Peter Brackley with Big Ron Atkinson as
co-commentator for the first leg and Lawrie McMenemy for the second.
Palace were a good young side at this point, just a month away from the
biggest moment in the clubs history when they beat Liverpool 4-3 in the FA Cup
semi-finals. They boasted future England internationals Nigel Martyn (with a
preposterous moustache), John Salako, Geoff Thomas, Ian Wright with equally
deadly strike partner Mark Bright. And er, Alan Pardew. Point being, they
weren’t a side to be taken lightly.
Chelsea swept them aside however. Winning the first leg 2-0 thanks to a
sumptuous volley from Dixon and the second from Kevin Wilson, who was really
enjoying himself in this competition. Chelsea repeated the score line at
Stamford Bridge with goals from Jon Bumstead and Gareth Hall. Chelsea were
going to Wembley! Alright, in the ZDS Cup but all the same, Wembley!
The final was against Middlesbrough. Though not said in the video,
there would undoubtedly have been a number of Chelsea fans and I daresay
players too who would have felt they owed Middlesbrough one in attendance that
day. It was a little under two years previously that Chelsea had been relegated
in a play-off match against the Boro’.
The final was less than classic in truth, settled by a Tony Dorigo
free-kick.
It’s a strange thing watching the players lift the trophy and celebrate
at the end. The ZDS Cup was a joke, it always has been. But seeing the smiles
on the faces of the players (for some of whom, this was the pinnacle of their
career. It was the only time Bobby Campbell went to Wembley as a player or as a
manager) and the fans, it’s a reminder it also created a lot of good memories.
And maybe that’s what football is really all about.
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