For this weeks classic match, its time to go way back (47 years in fact) to 1970 and a trip to White Hart Lane for an FA Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane.
The decade itself may only be a few months old but you can immediately tell we're in the 70's by the lack of grass on the pitch. Players were proper tough back then, they had to be to play on these sand-mud marsh monstrosities. Could you imagine Eden Hazard trying to play all his little tricks on those pitches?
Chelsea had made it to this stage via wins over Birmingham City, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers. Their opponents were Second Division side Watford, who were not to be taken lightly having eliminated Liverpool in the previous round.
First blood went to Chelsea, David Webb finding himself unmarked at the back post from a corner.
Watford equalised before half-time with a long range strike from Terry Garbutt (that maybe Peter Bonetti should have done better with?).
Chelsea took control in the second half. First, Peter Osgood kept up his record of a goal in every round with a header from Peter Houseman's cross to restore the Blues lead.
Houseman than makes a mockery of my statement about the state of the pitches by jinking through the Hornets defence for 3-1.
Ian Hutchison made it four with an effort on the turn and then turned provider for Houseman to make it 5-1.
A great performance from Chelsea in tough conditions. Something that wouldn't go amiss for the current players in this weekends encounter.
No comments:
Post a Comment