True Blues — Chelsea FC
ΕΛ

Season: 1962–63

Football League Second Division

↑
  • Promoted

League

The bounce-back season.

Division
Football League Second Division (Tier 2)
Manager
Tommy Docherty
Top scorer (league)
Bobby Tambling (35)
Top scorer (all comps)
Bobby Tambling (37)
Avg. league attendance
29,376

Cups & Europe

FA Cup
Fifth round
League Cup
Did not enter
Europe
—

Notes

The bounce-back season. One year after finishing bottom of the First Division, Tommy Docherty’s young Chelsea stormed the Second Division and came straight back up as runners-up. They finished 2nd of 22 with 52 points from 24 wins, 4 draws and 14 defeats (81–42), a point behind champions Stoke City (53) and level with Sunderland on 52 — Chelsea took the second promotion place on goal average (1.929 to Sunderland’s 1.527). Home they were a fortress (15–3–3, 54–16); away the ride was bumpier (9–1–11, 27–26). The Big Freeze of early 1963 wiped weeks of fixtures after Boxing Day; league football did not resume until 9 February. Bobby Tambling had a monster year: 35 league goals and 37 in all competitions (two more in the FA Cup), with Barry Bridges on 15 in the league, Graham Moore and Frank Blunstone 8 each, Bert Murray 4 and Frank Upton 3. Eddie McCreadie debuted on the opening day at Rotherham; Ron Harris was already forcing his way into the side. Docherty kept dealing — Tommy Harmer in from Watford, Jimmy Mulholland from East Stirling, Derek Kevan briefly from West Brom — while Peter Brabrook left for West Ham and Andy Malcolm for QPR. In the FA Cup they reached the fifth round: a third-round draw at Tranmere (2–2) and 3–1 replay win, 3–0 at Charlton in the fourth, then a 1–2 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United on 16 March (Denis Law and Albert Quixall; Dennis Sorrell replied). They did not enter the Football League Cup — still boycotting with Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United and the rest of the big-club holdouts. There was no European football. The run-in was theatre. On 11 May Stoke — Stanley Matthews and all — won 1–0 at the Bridge in front of the season’s biggest league crowd, 66,199, and Chelsea slipped to third. Three days later a Tommy Harmer goal beat Sunderland 1–0 at Roker Park; then on 21 May they smashed Portsmouth 7–0 at home (Tambling four, plus Kevan, Blunstone and a Venables penalty) before 54,558 to seal second place and promotion. Biggest win of the campaign; the heaviest league reverse was 1–4 at Norwich in April. Home league gates averaged 29,376 (low 18,377 vs Scunthorpe on 22 August). The crest-era kit of 1960–64 still covered the shirt — white shorts, not the all-blue look that would arrive later.

Kits

Under review
Home
Away
Third—

In 1960 a crest appeared on the shirt for the first time; a white change shirt with red bands was tried in 1961 before all-red returned, and yellow-and-blue debuted in 1963-64.

Illustration from hex colours (not official kit photography).

On this day (related years)

All On this day →

History

Eras, trophies, and great matches in the History section.

Explore history →

Sources

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