Everything published on #AskWXM this weekend will be free, so enjoy the best in-depth coverage of the men against Chelsea and the women against Cardiff. Two huge games to relish, and then you can enjoy this stuff every week by joining one of the Patreon tiers here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/askwxm/membership
Our first match at Chelsea came early in the 1979-80 season and the hosts, newly relegated from the First Division, were below us in the table as we’d started the campaign strongly. We’d won our first two games of our second season in the second tier against West Ham and Oldham as well as knocking Carlisle out of the League Cup.
We kept our momentum going too, getting off to a terrific start as Dixie McNeil hooked the ball over his shoulder and Steve Buxton latched onto it to score in the 12th minute. That was a mere precursor for a bizarre sequence of goal action involving iconic Chelsea defenders who rarely threatened the net.
We only led for six minutes before legendary Chelsea hard man, Ron “Chopper” Harris (13 goals in over 700 career league appearances), scored with a long range shot which was rather fortuitously deflected past Eddie Niedzwiecki, in goal for the injured Dai Davies.
Then giant Mickey Droy (23 goals in a 17-year professional career), went close to scoring before the break while future Blues hero Joey Jones (27 goals in over 700 games) got the ball into the net with ten minutes of the half left, but the goal was disallowed because Graham Whittle was called offside.
After the break Chelsea pushed hard but Wrexham took control and were good value for a point, with a McNeil shot spectacularly saved by Yugoslavian goalkeeper Petar Borota, who would be in goal four years later when Wrexham pulled off one of the greatest shocks in the history of European football by beating Porto.
Unfortunately for Wrexham, in the 88th minute Ian Britton’s innocuous-looking long range shot was mishandled by Niedzwiecki, who stepped backwards over the line while trying to cling onto the ball. Ironically, Niedzwiecki would go on to be a fine keeper for Chelsea, and he was helpless in the final minute when substitute John Bumstead added another.
Wrexham would enjoy revenge in the return match in December, the final match of the 1970s, or as Bob Whiting put it in the Daily Post, “Wrexham whipped them”.
Chelsea arrived as league leaders, backed by a large travelling support, but they were comprehensively outplayed by Wrexham with Steve Fox in inspired form. He set up McNeil for an excellent opener in the 14th minute, and benefitted from Ian Edwards’ ability to hold the ball up under pressure to let loose a shot which Borota couldn’t hold onto, with Mick Vinter sweeping home the rebound.
After the match Geoff Hurst, the Chelsea manager, admitted Wrexham were comfortably better than his team, and having ended the 70s by beating a side managed by a hero of England’s World Cup winning team of 1966, we started the 80s in identical fashion by beating Nobby Stiles’ Preston North End.
The opening day of the following season saw us travel to Stamford Bridge and return unfortunate not to have claimed a first away win since October. Again, Hurst admitted Wrexham deserved a win but his side at least showed heart to stay in the game and eventually clinch a 2-2 draw. Chelsea’s preparations were disrupted the day before the game when Tommy Langley upped sticks and signed for QPR, but that was no excuse for their inferiority. Ian Edwards dominated Droy, which was no mean feat, and McNeil capitalised to put Wrexham ahead from a Les Cartwright corner after a quarter of an hour. However, Chelsea struck back instantly with Peter Rhoades-Brown cutting in from the flank to lash a thirty yarder past Dai Davies.
Wrexham took the lead again just after the half hour when McNeil sent Vinter through to score and it could have been 3-1 soon afterwards but Droy managed to clear McNeil’s shot off the line. Vinter did hit the net but the strike was disallowed and Borota was lucky to avoid punishment when he ran out of his area to pull McNeil down (at that time there was no red card rule for a professional foul.)
It was therefore a cruel blow when, with 11 minutes left, Mike Fillery, who had been forced forward into an unfamiliar position up front after an injury, headed in Colin Viljoen’s cross.
When the sides met at The Racecourse almost three months to the day later, it was a very different affair. Ravaged by injuries, Wrexham lacked Joey Jones, Alan Hill, Cartwright and Vinter, but held their own in the first half with Droy making a goal line clearance after a goalmouth scramble was precipitated by a corner from Graham Whittle, who was standing in at left back. However, just before the break Rhoades-Brown crossed for Colin Lee who drew a great save from Davies, tipping the ball onto the bar. However, Britton pounced onto the rebound to score the opener, and in the second half Chelsea took control.
The key change was the introduction of young winger Phil Driver, who tormented Whittle down the right with Rhoades-Brown doing the same to Neil Salathiel on the other flank.
Still, Wrexham clung on and might have got an equaliser with 13 minutes left when Borota seemed to pull Mel Sutton down in the box. The referee waved play on though, and Chelsea instantly cashed in: Driver received the clearance and ran from the halfway line to score a brilliant goal. Five minutes later, Clive Walker beat Wayne Cegielski to make it 3-0 and then Driver crossed to the far post where Lee made it 4-0.
Chelsea missed out on promotion once again, so we faced them again the following season: indeed, we actually ended up playing them five times!
The first clash was a 2-0 league loss at Stamford Bridge, who were now managed by legendary Wrexham boss John Neal. Having started the season badly under new manager Sutton, with just one point to show from the first five league games, Wrexham had suddenly improved with fine away wins over the top two, Luton Town and Sheffield Wednesday, in the last week, scoring five and keeping two clean sheets. However, our form petered out in a weak performance which saw Viljoen boss the midfield, at least until on loan debutant Billy Ronson came off the bench in the second half.
“We deserved nothing today. We never played at all.”
‘Mel Sutton, Wrexham manager.
Wrexham held out until just after the hour, with Niedzwiecki impressive in goal, but Fillery struck to break the deadlock and Viljoen then played a great through ball to allow Lee to score the second. Frustratingly, the usually deadly Vinter missed two easy chances in the first half, including a second minute opportunity where he rounded Borota but missed the target which he blamed on the wet conditions. Sutton was hugely frustrated afterwards, and at a loss to explain his team’s failure to build on the previous improvement.
We then drew Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the fourth round of the FA Cup, having pulled off a terrific upset by beating Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Once again, Niedzwiecki was impressive but this was a much better performance by Wrexham, with Ronson and Fox particularly influential against opponents playing their fourth game in eight games on what Sutton described as a “dead” pitch. Chelsea own young keeper, Steve Francis, just 17 years old, made a brilliant double save to deny Vinter and Buxton while Niedzwiecki’s 88th minute blinder from Lee took the game to a replay.
That match was played with a massive incentive hanging over it, as the draw had been made by then, guaranteeing the winner a home tie against European champions and all round football machine Liverpool, who surely were the best team in the world at the time.
Wrexham nearly earned that dream draw. It was an end-to-end affair which started with a bang when Droy, recovered from flu to take his place in the Chelsea team, planted a header against the bar in the second minute. Wrexham’s own centre back, Steve Dowman, repeated the trick, heading against the post from a Billy Ronson corner.
As the game wore on, Wrexham took control, with Steve Francis inspired as he kept Wrexham, and Vinter in particular, at bay. He made a fine save from the striker, saw another Vinter effort sail over the bar, and then pulled off a double stop from him before the break. Early in the second half he intervened brilliantly to stop a Frank Carrodus cross reaching Vinter. Wrexham squandered two massive chances soon afterwards, as Ronson shot wide when Fox was waiting for a pass with the goal at his mercy, and then Carrodus sliced a close range chance wide. However, we took the lead in the grand manner when Ronson beat two and fed Fox who crossed for our record FA Cup scorer McNeil to head the ball into the top corner.
Chelsea responded well, and ought to have equalised when Lee missed an easy chance but they denied us when Bumstead crossed for Alan Mayes to equalise with seven minutes left.
The game went into a thrilling half hour of extra time, with Phil Bater shooting just wide and Niedziecki making another good save to deny Fillery, but there were no further goals and Wrexham won the toss to be the hosts for the second replay.
A strange side note to the game was that there was an estimated away support of between 500 and 600 despite Chelsea’s fans being banned from all away games as a consequence of persistent hooliganism at their games. The FA, bizarrely, announced they would not be holding an inquiry into the matter as the police reported the Chelsea fans were well behaved, and there were only two arrests for an alleged minor theft. It seems a network of lorry drivers buying tickets on behalf of Chelsea fans was the main source of the contraband.
The ban caused Wrexham a problem for the second replay as tickets were not allowed to be sold on the day of the game and the FA insisted the game be played the following Monday in case a third replay was required: FA rules dictated it would have to be played the following Thursday. Wrexham asked for a relaxation of that rule and the game to be moved to the Tuesday in vain. As it turned out, the third game would prove sufficient to provide Liverpool with their next opponents.
We needn’t have worried about the attendance being affected by the short turn-around, as it attracted a five-figure crowd. Again, the away support situation was farcical: an estimated 3,000 Chelsea fans were in attendance, and British Rail laid on a special train to get them back to London afterwards!
Wrexham dominated the early stages. Once again, Ronson was front and centre, but equally familiar was the brilliance of Francis in goal for Chelsea, who denied the midfielder with a great save early on and stopped a Vinter free kick.
However, against the run of play Chelsea took the lead with Droy grabbing another rare goal, flicking home a Mick Nutton free kick with his head after Wrexham had somehow neglected to pick him up in the area. Wrexham hit back with a Ronson free kick driven goalwards by Dowman, but it was cleared off the line and Vinter put the rebound over.
Ian Edwards had broken his wrist a fortnight earlier at QPR, but the referee allowed him to play in both replays in a plaster cast, but perhaps it counted against Edwards as he had to go off injured fifteen minutes into the second rematch. His replacement, young striker Steve Jones, who had come on for Edwards to make just his fourth senior appearance and his first in four months. He collided with Francis and a melee ensued with Droy at the heart of it.
The Chelsea defender earned himself a booking, which was a fair achievement in those days, and would continue to battle with Jones throughout the game with the youth player going close just after the hour. Jones’ Wrexham career was brief – he made a further four appearances and was released at the end of the season.
Fox set up the chance and after a quiet first half he started dominating the game, but another bolt out of the blue set Wrexham back further. A bad pass by Dowman gifted the ball to Mayes and he beat the exposed Niedzwiecki.
With four minutes remaining, Vinter scored to rekindle hopes of entertaining Liverpool at The Racecourse with a screamer, setting up a desperate conclusion to the game as Wrexham poured forward. The equaliser just wouldn’t come though as the game ended as it had begun with Francis making a fine save to foil Ronson.
Therefore, it was John Neal who landed the dream tie, not his former player Mel Sutton. Just to rub more salt in the wounds, Chelsea pulled off a sensational surprise by beating Liverpool 2-0, while we spent the day losing at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
The most recent clash between these two sides, played four weeks later at The Racecourse, brought a measure of consolation. Once again there was pre-match frustration for Wrexham when Ian Edwards was ruled out for the most galling reason. Having been allowed to wear the plaster cast on his broken wrist for over a month, the referee refused to sanction it and he was ruled out.
Once again there were plenty of Chelsea fans in attendance and they vented their fury when the referee, perhaps feeling guilty about his adjudication on Edwards’ wrist, waved away a strong shout for a penalty after a Dowman challenge on Clive Walker. Neal would spend ten minutes in the referee’s room after the match complaining but reported to The Mirror “I didn’t get any satisfaction”.
That attack came against the run of play though, as Wrexham dominated the first half despite being firmly rooted in the relegation zone and winless in the league in three months, while Chelsea were chasing promotion. Indeed, we’d suffered seven defeats on the bounce going into the game.
On-loan duo of Ronson and Dennis Leman impressed in midfield, Fox was in spectacular form and nearly set up Frank Carrodus for an opener, and even Joey Jones went close. Vinter went off injured with an ankle injury which required seven stitches but it didn’t affect Wrexham’s flow, although the half closed with another reminder of the Londoners’ quality when Fillery hit the bar with a long distance screamer and Jones, in more customary mode, hurled himself at the rebound to smother the danger.
Fox would tee up the only goal in the 66th minute with a cross which was powerfully finished by Carrodus, who had missed the second replay with a hamstring injury.
So, we beat Chelsea last time we met, a mere 43 years ago. We’ve got them just where we want them!!!!!!!!
Leave a Reply