Chelsea v Bristol Rovers. Stamford Bridge. Tuesday August 23rd, 2016

Like a lot of football mad kids growing up in the 80's, my older brother supported Liverpool. Living in the South West meant there was little opportunity to ever see them play at Anfield. Aged about 11 though he did manage to persuade our Dad to take him to watch Barnes and Beardsley and co. Not fancying a trip to Liverpool, my Dad opted to watch them play away at Chelsea, far easier to get too along the M4. It was 1990 and Liverpool eased past the west Londoners on their way to the title. Sitting in the home end though, my brother had been turned and came back a Chelsea fan. The fickleness of youth. And that was that for the next ten years or so. Whilst we still watched Rovers play, Chelsea were 'our' top flight team. Dad didn't mind as he'd been a casual supporter of them himself in his younger days. For most of the 90's we went to Stamford Bridge a couple of times a season.

It was an interesting time to follow Chelsea. From my first visit in 1993/94, to when I last went, sometime in the early 2000's, the club and stadium changed a great deal. At my first game, Glenn Hoddle had recently taken over as manager, having jumped ship from Swindon and was trying to mould a group of mostly English and Scottish players in to an easy on the eye, Diamond formatted team who were all comfortable on the ball. In terms of Stamford Bridge, the only remaining stand from my first visit is the three tiered East stand, built in the 70's, it towered over the rest of the ground and almost bankrupted the club. Opposite back then was the very old looking West Stand, complete with wooden seats at the back and benches at the front where you could still see the old terraces. The old Shed end was still there, shortly to be knocked down and used as a car park from memory, with the new South stand built a few years later. I can't recall what was going on at the North end, but do remember the current stand slowly growing in those early visits. On the pitch, Chelsea were gradually morphed in to the club they are today. Then they were a decent mid table premiership club with plucky little players such as John Spencer, Mark Stein, Gavin Peacock and Dennis Wise as the main man in the middle. The money that poured in to the club, first from the late Matthew Harding and then from Roman Abramovic bought in the global maegastars that are now a main stay at Chelsea.

I was delighted then, as well as worried about a potential thrashing, when Rovers edged passed Cardiff and set up a second round tie away at Stamford Bridge. Before I got excited about a first visit in over a dozen years there was the small matter of trying to get a ticket. The 4,000 allocated to Rovers, sold out within a few hours, way before non season ticket holders like my self were able to get one. Chelsea had lowered the price to £25 and their twitter feed advised that they were pretty confident the game was going to be a sell out. Like a lot of Rovers fans, I started looking at buying tickets online for the home end but was told that any one trying to purchase a ticket with a BS post code would be blocked. In the end my mate Rich got a mate in London to buy us our tickets and all was well.

We left work early and set off up the M4 in sweltering heat, ready to sit on our hands in the home end, or more likely, cheer enthusiastically as Chelsea picked their league one opponents apart. We were meeting the guy with our tickets in a home supporters only pub. On the way up we discussed our plan of pretending to not be Rovers fans if challenged by bouncers, stewards or any Chelsea firms. I was pretty sure I could still name their entire squad from the 1994/95 season, this might have taken a bit too long, our mate Rich had the strongest Bristolian accent so we figured we'd be alright if he kept quiet. If things got really bad I was sure I could escape a kicking if I said I used to pray with Gavin Peacock.

In the event we cunningly split in to two two's and sailed past the doorman at the Rose pub and in to it's busy bar. Pleasantly surprised to buy a round of four pints in this part of London and get change from a twenty, we picked up our tickets and were soon our way to the ground.

"At least the Mem doesn't look like the Galaries"

Approaching the ground from the South, Rich made a fair point that the Chelsea hotel looks a bit like Bristol's second most popular shopping centre, the Galleries. We made our way to the upper tier of the West Stand, the newest and biggest side of the ground. It was a still and sweltering night, there was no need for windshields, but the West Stand had a beautiful panelled effort on each side.

From our lofty position we took in the team news. Matty Taylor being on the bench was the biggest concern. The Chelsea team was strong. The prospect of watching Stu Sinclair up against Cesc Fabergas, Daniel Leadbitter v Pedro, Harrison v Cahill, Ollie Clarke v Matic etc etc was both mouth watering and terrifying.

The West Stand Wind shield

The game began with Chelsea all over us. From our vantage point, most striking was how quick the Chelsea players moved the ball around, always seeming to know exactly what they were going to do with the ball before it came, but at the same time, able to adjust instantly if a pass wasn't on and pick another one, or take a player on instead. Moses and the new 33 million pound man Batshuayi looked particularly dangerous but somehow Rovers managed to keep them out for half an hour, before conceding two in quick sucession. Both goals close range finishes after quick runs down the wing, low crosses and the goal scorers getting ahead of their markers with apparent ease. At this point we were fearing the worst but hope was restored when Chris Lines delivered a lovely cross in to the box from a free kick for Hartrey to glance a header past Begovic. 2-1. Game on. Chelsea scored again a few mins later, another from Batshuayi. 3-1 at half time.

Luke James and Billy Bodin had both struggled to get in to the game and were replaced by Taylor and Easter at the break. Rovers started the second half well and it wasn't long before Taylor dropped deep and sensing Chelsea's defence playing a high line, spun quickly and played a perfectly weighted ball for Stu Sinclair to run on too. Sinclair raced in to the box and just when he looked like he was going to pull the trigger or was hoping for Harrison to take over, he was bundled over by Pedro. Penalty! Taylor lost the battle to take the pen and Harrison cooly dispatched it down the middle. 3-2.

Ellis Harrison about to smash his penalty passed Begovic

Miraculously Chelsea looked to be holding on for large parts of the second half. Harrison was posing a threat, Taylor, though not all his touches came off, added quality, Easter was another calm influence on the ball and bought numerous free kicks with his canny habit of falling on to and then picking up the ball. Lines was constantly dropping back in to the quarter back role, looking for possession and getting things going with a bit of vision. Sinclair and Clarke were grafting and scrapping for their lives. Whilst Chelsea still looked very dangerous, Harrison had a volley that brushed the bar and Easter bought an acrobatic save from Begovic. Conte even bought on Terry and Hazard to steady the ship. They did just that and the fariy tale was not to be.

Final score: Chelsea 3 Bristol Rovers 2.

We made our way out in to the balmy summers night, a memorable away day for Gasheads. Watching their team run Chelsea close and score two goals in front of 40,000 crowd at Stamford Bridge.