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Applauding an opponent

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BLUENUT

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I saw an interview with Roy Bentley recently on CFCTV and he mentioned when he started playing for Chelsea it was normal for the crowd at Stamford Bridge to applaued both sides onto the pitch and clap off the winners, weither it was Chelsea or the opposition, and it was something Ted Drake wanted to stamp out when he became manager.

Weither it's at the bridge or not, have you ever clapped our opponants or an opposing player, before during or after a match?

I have, but I'll give the reasons why later in the thread.

 
I always clap old boys when they come back (with the odd exception of course)

Last player was Huth and I applauded when his name was called out.

 
I usually clap for old boys playing for the opposition, but ES, I don't think I've ever clapped at Huth even when he was in a Chelsea shirt!

 
Only time I've applauded the opposition is when we've played Rangers. Used to applaud certain ex-players too, but by no means all of 'em.

I've heard from two or three people who were there that back in the early 60's (before even my time!), a young Ron Harris was roundly booed by the Chelsea crowd in a home match against Stoke City because he 'tackled'(*) Stanley Matthews, who must have been in his late 40's at the time. Apparently, Matthews was airborne from the moment Chopper hit him till he landed on the far side of the greyhound track - I'd love to have seen that! :D

The Chelsea home crowd didn't become really partisan until the late 60's, and from that time on if Ron Harris had repeated his effort against Matthews there would have been huge roars of approval - and rightly so!

* - When I say tackled, I mean in a strictly Chopperesque way :o

 
I applaud if:

* It's a player I like

* A player have done really well (unless I hate him, then I wont applaud, just sit grumpily and mumbling some profanities)

* A player (or team) scores a great goal (unless I really hate them)

* It's a player who used to play for a team I support (unless he left us as a total git, a bit Gallas-esque)

I think that's all.

 
I was there a few years ago when JFH scored against us and then apologised to the Chelsea fans. Rather an odd thing when the whole ground is singing the name of someone who has just scored against you :o

 
ethicalstrategy said:
I was there a few years ago when JFH scored against us and then apologised to the Chelsea fans. Rather an odd thing when the whole ground is singing the name of someone who has just scored against you :o
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Thats the one I fondly remember.

He scored and walked back to the halfway line. I stood and applauded him for his lack of celebration and his name started echoing around the ground.

I just remembered I also stood and clapped Huth as he warmed up in the last home game V Boro, along with most of the MH stand.

The one that stands out was Kerry Dixon playing for Luton against us at Wembley. As he walked down the tunnel, at the end of the game, the entire Chelsea end sang 'There's only 1 Kerry Dixon' - He still say's today that it was one of the greatest moments of his career.

If an opposition players has had real stormer against us he might get a clap out of me as he substitued towards the end of a game, but no-one springs to mind as I'm typing away.## I have once or twice applauded an opponants goal, but it's got to be sheer class, or a bit of magic. The Di Canio goal against us a few years got a 'what a goal' out of me, then I turned to resoundly b*llocked out lack-lustre defending.

## If I'm right I remember Hagi getting a decent reception form Chelsea fans as he was subbed playing against us in the CL, he'd had a decent game and you could tell he was a quality player.

 
I remember hearing a number of people in the MHL applaud Ronaldinho for scoring that amazing goal against us. It was absolute quality of the highest order though I bet those people were much happier that we went on to win the game.

 
BlueBeard said:
Only time I've applauded the opposition is when we've played Rangers.
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Same here. At the pre season friendly both goals were aplaudded by 95% of the Chelsea end.

You can see vids of the fans singing together all over youtube (some of my vids too!)

Seeing them do the bouncy and sing 'We hate Tottenham' was magic.

 
I have applauded some ex players on their return during the warm up (clearly when I say 'some' I am not referring to the likes of Andy Townsend!) but all that stops when the game starts.

I have certainly never applauded something that an opposition player has done which has led to us conceding a goal (i.e. like the example Geezer gave) - if for no other reason than the fact that when we concede a goal I would be hard pushed to applaud my 5 year old winning a Nobel peace Prize let alone the bloke who just scored against us!

 
Neville Southall was always warmly applauded by The Shed and he always responded.

 
Peckham Blue said:
Neville Southall was always warmly applauded by The Shed and he always responded.
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My memories, both home and away, was that we nearly always clapped as the opposition keeper aproached the goal, be it shed end or the away end of which ever ground we were massed.

 
BlueBeard said:
Only time I've applauded the opposition is when we've played Rangers. Used to applaud certain ex-players too, but by no means all of 'em.I've heard from two or three people who were there that back in the early 60's (before even my time!), a young Ron Harris was roundly booed by the Chelsea crowd in a home match against Stoke City because he 'tackled'(*) Stanley Matthews, who must have been in his late 40's at the time. Apparently, Matthews was airborne from the moment Chopper hit him till he landed on the far side of the greyhound track - I'd love to have seen that! :)

The Chelsea home crowd didn't become really partisan until the late 60's, and from that time on if Ron Harris had repeated his effort against Matthews there would have been huge roars of approval - and rightly so!

* - When I say tackled, I mean in a strictly Chopperesque way :D
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thats brilliant, must have been funny to see. and i think we all know exactly what you mean by chopperesque, id hate to have been on the end of one of them...

 
I seem to recall that Liverpool, the day that Dalglish scored to win the title for them, got a pretty good round of applause at the end of the game. Others have been rightly mentioned, Kerry at Wembley and Jimmy Floyd when he scored against us.

 
I remember the Shed massively applauding a Leeds player in the late 60's/early 70's whenever we played them at the Bridge ;)

Don't panic though, it was their keeper, Gary Sprake. He was that era's version of Calamity James, and was always likely to make a cock-up which would result in a goal for the opposition. Remember the Peter Houseman goal at Wembley? He must have hated it when he had to make his way to the Shed End goal, with Chelsea fans cheering him because he was so crap!

"Give us a goal, give us a goal,

Gary Sprake, Gary Sprake"

sung to the tune of "Give It To Me" by The Troggs.

Sprake also gave his popularity at Chelsea a massive boost when he laid out Bobby Gould with a superb punch at Highbury ::clap2::

 
When we won promotion back to the old first division in 1977/8, I seem to recall that we sealed it with a win at home against Hull(?)

Each of our goals sparked a celebratory pitch invasion, during which a shed ender presented their goalkeeper with a bunch of flowers.

Can anyone verify this or is my mind starting to go?

 
bjd said:
Same here. At the pre season friendly both goals were aplaudded by 95% of the Chelsea end.You can see vids of the fans singing together all over youtube (some of my vids too!)

Seeing them do the bouncy and sing 'We hate Tottenham' was magic.
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Good to hear that mate but god knows how we won that and just for the record we do hate tottenham :rolleyes:

Only player i've clapped was Frank Lampard when he came to Ibrox. Absolute genius.

 
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I have as a fan, a player and a coach. Surpisingly, its hardest when a fan. I'll never appluad someone who I feel does not show class (as a person) though.

Ive always been the type to give credit when credit is due.

But then again, Ive done everything from punch an opponent in the head in the dying seconds of a game(long story), to applaud and help an injured opponent to his teams bench when I could of gone for a fast break (coach was livid, but I kept captaincy so I suspect he knew it was the right thing).

However, Im the youngest of 3 boys (and an sister who is the eldest) so I've learned to be able to combine competition and admiration (or loathing lol).

 
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