The History of Brighton and Hove Albion v Chelsea

There have been only nine league meetings between Brighton and Chelsea outside of war time football, and two of them at the Goldstone have ended in complete disgrace from both players and supporters.

The Blues visit in September 1983 for the first ever league game between the two sides saw some of the worst hooliganism that the old ground was to witness. Chelsea ended up winning the game 2-1 and with 8,000 of their fans spread in all corners of the stadium including the home sections, the final whistle saw them launch a pitch invasion from every side, fighting the outnumbered police on the pitch and smashing up the North Stand goal.

Seven police officers were injured in the fracas but the best bit was still come. Chelsea defender Chris Hutchings was said to have encouraged the rioters by clapping the away support at the end of the game before telling a police officer to "f**k off". He was promptly arrested for threatening and abusive behaviour and in a nice twist, by the time he was in the dock at Hove Magistrates Court had become an Albion player for the fee of £50,000.

There was further trouble both on and off the pitch in our 1973 FA Cup meeting. Two goals from Peter Osgood decided the tie in top flight Chelsea's favour in a game that saw red cards handed out to the Albion's George Ley and the Blue's Ron "Chopper" Harris along with five yellows and a particularly brutal last 20 minutes which simply involved foul after foul. The violence extended onto the terraces as well with 25 arrests being made.

Generally, we've struggled against Chelsea having scored only four goals in nine games against them. Wartime football was a different story though - Scottish striker Jock Davie managed double that personally in the 1941-42 season, scoring a hat-trick and Stamford Bridge and then five goals in the return game at the Goldstone. That performance at home was even more remarkable given that he turned up to the game 10 minutes late!