50 Years of Chelsea: 1976-77

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 Mark Meehan to look back at the 1976-77 season.

Thanks to the Club being £3million in debt, it was a case of promotion or bust this season.

Chelsea made a great start with Eddie McCreadie’s mix of talented youngsters and the older wiser heads of Ron Harris and Peter Bonetti and by the end of the year were sitting top of Division Two. Even Dr Henry Kissinger, a VIP visitor for the match against title rivals Wolves seemed impressed!

Predictably Chelsea wobbled in the second half of the season but a key win against Nottingham Forest in April meant it all boiled down to the penultimate game away to Wolves.

Due to the frequent hooliganism throughout the season, Chelsea supporters were banned from going to this vital match, but the saying “You Can’t Ban a Chelsea Fan” was borne that day as thousands of Chelsea fans were in all parts of the ground to witness a 1-1 draw and promotion back to Division One.

A week later, Chelsea thumped Hull City 4-0 resulting in several pitch invasions and Eddie McCreadie imploring the supporters to allow the game to continue. They did, just, but the mass invasion at the end showed just what it meant for Chelsea to get back to where they belong.

As the supporters had been singing all season “We’re the Boys in Blue in Division Two, but we won’t be here for long”. Thankfully they were right!

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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