1975/76 - Chelsea v Crystal Palace (FA Cup 5th Round - 14.2.76)

[@sphughes01]

What a match. A real treat to see the old Stamford Bridge packed to the rafters. This is when you just turned up if you wanted to watch the game. The atmosphere is second to none. Incredible to believe that such a huge crowd would attend an FA Cup match but that was how highly it was rated by the true fans back in the day. If you have a scroll down the highest attendance of most clubs it is for FA Cup matches. One that sticks out in my mind is the Huddersfield Town v Arsenal cup game in the 1930s when over 67,000 were in attandance. Not happening today at any level.

[@michaelchannon7538]

Peter Taylor was superb.

[@philipmillard3178]

was 14 when I went with a group of pals to this game. There were 5 or 6 of us all Arsenal fans except one pal who was Chelsea. We were in the Shed end. It was a huge crowd that I remember and the atmosphere very tense, mainly because of the punch ups mainly in the North stand. I remember seeing the famous Kung Foo kick, it was something so out of the ordinary. Thinking back to those days it was crazy that we were allowed to go to these games by our parents at such a young age. We started at age 11 or 12, mixing it between Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea games. The violence was always there, in the grounds, outside and on the tube getting there and coming home. The 70's were something else. Impossible to imagine parents these days letting their kids travel around London on their own doing what we did.

[@MrHurley61]

Brilliant, some mates from school went for the aggro.. 50000, terracing and an atmosphere you could not replicate in todays corporate stadiums. Real football, real pitch, real goals..

[@timmurphy9312]

As a Chelsea fan, the thing that I remember those days is the atmosphere it's electric, not like today,

[@KEVIN-tx6bt]

A classic game! Nice to see Malcolm Allison in his Grace Brothers hat.

[@paultaylor7082]

This game was played on 14 Feb 1976, not in 1975, as in the screen caption.

[@GoTellTheSpartans24]

With the club falsifying attendances and turnstile operators on the make this was easy 65000 attendance, I was there. Away end was packed with different chelsea mobs on the attack. Mental game

[@tommyhemlock7915]

Palace probably the closest any div 3 team ever got to making it all the way to the final.

[@Spectrescup]

Chesterfield got closer in '97

[@redflag8970]

@@Spectrescupsame

[@britishqueen94]

There was a weak flying Kick by a Chelsea bod on a Palace which the clueless media kept showing as terrible violence This was Bruce Lee era and if my school mates or me took a kick at someone they weren't getting. up .Palace were a 5 th rate firm who never turned up at WHL and the Rentboys could not see them off ? Loud singers tho?​@@redflag8970

[@UpTheJunction79]

Commentary by John Motson shown on Match of the Day BBC1

[@classicfootballmatches6167]

Thanks

[@UpTheJunction79]

@@classicfootballmatches6167 No problem. Thanks for the brilliant uploads lately

[@Lone-Wolf_Adventures69]

Wasn't this known as 'The Battle of Stamford Bridge' because the aggro was so bad? Most of the trouble used to be at the huge away end where the odd North Stand once stood. Ahh the good days. Proper terracing. Proper hard footballers. The original Shed End. And not the modern rubbish we have now

[@bingbong7316]

By the finish, it was like Horse of the Year show at the away end - I was in it.

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

I was in it also, aged 15

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

@@bingbong7316 where are you from, I’m from Paddington, Jamie Lilley.

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

@lone-wolf_Adventures69: the real battle of Stamford bridge was against West Ham in 77/78 season when we got promoted, Crystal Palace were not a main firm, even in south London. I literally saw everything that day against West Ham and West Ham didn’t do as good as they claimed, I can tell you that 100%. I have written what happened before, but KZbin took it down. We have to put it in the context of the last time before that date, when we played West Ham they took the shed completely, they stayed in the shed throughout the game in 1974/75. We got relegated that year and we stayed down for 2 seasons, so when we came back, the Chelsea boys were not having West Ham take the shed again like they did in the 74/75 season, I will repeat I saw everything that day, it was unbelievable, West Ham never came in the shed again after that, not for the want of trying, but they never ever got in again, that’s a fact. So that’s the context of that match in 1977/78 season. I think I should write a book about my Chelsea exploits, but nobody ever talks about that day against West Ham, I know hickey knows the truth, I will arrange a meeting with Hickey, but nobody puts what happened that day into context, people need to understand that West Ham probably had the best mob in England and Wales, they would have even took on Glasgow Rangers, that’s saying something, but something changed that day, that’s the truth of it.

[@nielsjunker1487]

🦅

[@mmm091000]

Great cup tie some of our players went on the missing list ! Wonder if a young Icky was involved in the trouble 😮

[@britishqueen94]

Icky the tosser was never involved

[@mmm091000]

@@britishqueen94 I didn’t know him personally, seen him regularly at the games over the years, not the same anymore football, lost its appeal.

[@britishqueen94]

@@mmm091000 totally agree with you, left 87 never looked back ...to be honest with it was shit back then and a waste of time

[@mmm091000]

@@britishqueen94 Totally agree all the best,non league football seems to be order of the day for the working class.

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

@mmm091000: hickey didn’t start to do his coaches until the last game of 1976/77 season away to wolves when we was banned and both Wolves and Chelsea got promoted, I didn’t go on his coach that time, me and my mates from Paddington travelled overnight and we shared the famous South bank with Wolves but I did go on his coach in Division 1, the next season and for the following seasons, he got nicked in 1987 I think, for operation own goal, eventually he got found not guilty in an appeal and got a lot of compensation and never really lived in the UK after that. Hickey would have definitely been in the north stand during that game, I got kicked out of the North stand around about that 2nd goal at half time, I was thrown out of the ground and bunked back into the shed end by the Bovril entrance. I couldn’t push my way into the shed as it was like sardines packed so tightly, but the atmosphere in the shed when we equalised was the best I’ve ever seen the shed. I would like to add that Big Mal came over with that fedora before kick off to the palace fans who had been getting a kicking from the moment they entered the north stand, the shed was singing Alison, Alison you flash Cu nt, Alison you flash Cu nt as he walked across the pitch towards the palace fans, he looked like a south London gangster, we just looked at him and couldn’t believe the front of the geezer, but when he put his fingers up to the palace fans and predicted the result, unbelievably he predicted the right score with his fingers 2-3 that’s when the palace fans actually started cheering, they was lifted by his presence, so we wasn’t having that and everyone of the north stand boys around the Palace fans steamed right into them and they started running onto the pitch for the first time, but not the last time throughout that day, Malcolm Alison’s smile on his face dropped with fear and the realisation he started a riot and he was lead away before it became a full blown riot. lol those were the days my friend.

[@rokerlad49]

Palace beat us next round 55000 at roker park lots bother in and around ground as a 15 year old .

[@paulkington8380]

54,000 crowd...

[@GoTellTheSpartans24]

Much more than that! Not only did the chairman fiddle the crowd but turnstile men were all at it 😉💙

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

@@GoTellTheSpartans24 your probably right about that attendance, it was officially 54,406, then we played Fulham with 55,003 the next season, it was all about George best and Bobby Moore and I think Rodney marsh also playing for Fulham, no trouble, Fulham knew better in those days because the terracing sorted the boys from the men, someone needs to tell QPR that fact, they didn’t want to know either when it was paying to get in the loft. Anyway we beat Fulham that day 2-0 I think. But it seems there was more against palace, that’s the point.