50 Years of Chelsea: 1977-78

The Chelsea FanCast looks back, season by season, to 50 Years of Chelsea history from 1970 to the present day.

Stamford Chidge is joined by Jonathan Kydd and Tony Glover to look back at the 1977-78 season.

Chelsea was back where they belong, in Division One, but they would start the season without the manager who got them back there, Eddie McCreadie. McCreadie had surprisingly left the club during the summer and was replaced by Ken Shellito.

It was to be an infuriating return the top division though, with Chelsea typically mercurial. Winning away at Man Utd (now managed by former Chelsea boss Dave Sexton) and beating Forest, the eventual Champions only to lose 6-2 to City, 5-1 to Coventry and 6-0 to Everton. In between there were mad 5-3 and 5-4 victories over Ipswich and Birmingham.

But the season is remembered for one game in particular. The FA Cup third round match against Liverpool, European Champions at the time. Clive Walker ran rings round them that day and Chelsea won 4-2. Chelsea beat Burnley 6-2 in the next round and hopes were high for a tilt at the trophy until they came crashing down, like the wall at Leyton Orient in the 0-0 draw, before losing to the second division side 2-1 at the Bridge in the replay. After all that disappointment in the Cup, at least Chelsea managed to avoid relegation back to Division 2!

To help us celebrate 50 Years of Chelsea we’ve partnered with 3Retro who have a superb collection of Chelsea retro gear and are offering 10% OFF when you use the 3RETRO10 code and if you order over £50 of merch you get FREE UK delivery.

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