Eggs, Tomatoes, Potatoes and a Cabbage - The Recipe for a Roman Scandal

Sixty years ago today (6th October), Tommy Docherty’s young Chelsea side visited Rome for the second-leg of a Fairs Cup tie. The game was predicted to be a volatile encounter. And so it proved. Both legs of that tie are still talked about 60 years later.

AS Roma had won the trophy in 1961 and, despite only finishing ninth in Serie A, were chosen by the Italian football authorities to participate in the Fairs Cup. They were in significant debt, had been forced to sell five internationals to keep going and had even been reduced to passing a hat round at home games to help pay wages. They were understandably desperate for a decent Fairs Cup run.

The first-leg was at Stamford Bridge on 22nd September, the return a fortnight later. Docherty, coach Jimmy Andrews and captain Terry Venables had flown out to watch Roma play in a Serie A game, so they had an idea what to expect in terms of their defensive system. The manager observed ‘all the Italians look alike when you first see them. I want our men to get a good look at them before (the) match, so they know who’s who’, doing this by watching their training session at Mitcham. In the end, though, they learned little as the Italians held a desultory session in the sun.

Docherty sprang a real surprise by selecting eighteen-year-old Peter Osgood, whose competitive first-team experience was limited to a two-goal appearance against Workington Town in the previous season’s League Cup, at centre-forward for such an important game. The manager’s gamble (the biggest of his career according to the Evening News) meant moving England centre-forward Barry Bridges to right-wing and dropping winger Bert Murray. No substitutes were allowed in the competition so managerial options in terms of in-game flexibility were limited.

Osgood, who rose to prominence on the Australian tour a few months earlier, had scored a hat-trick in the reserves the previous week and Docherty clearly felt he was worth his place. He also thought long balls would be a waste of time and that Bridges’ genuine pace could unsettle, and get behind, the tight visiting defensive system. Happy to share his detailed thinking with journalists in the build-up to games, the manager further noted that even when behind and at home, Roma clung to their defensive shape. Osgood, casually confident, observed 'Roma are pretty clever but a bit flash. It's only another match.’

The Roma coach, Oronzo Pugliese, had never watched Chelsea. ‘I am told they do not mark tight’ he commented. Possibly a naive comment, given the ability of several players, including Harris, Hollins, Boyle and McCreadie to do that extremely effectively.

Injury to Marvin Hinton meant that reserve centre-half Allan Young played. With Bobby Tambling recovering from a hamstring injury, young Scottish winger Joe Fascione retained his place as Chelsea lined up :- Bonetti; Shellito, Young, Harris R., McCreadie; Hollins, Venables; Bridges, Graham, Osgood, Fascione.

The Roma side’s goalkeeper was 6ft 4in Fabio Cudicini, father of Chelsea keeper of the 2000’s, Carlo. In front of a disappointing reported crowd of just 32,753, including a number of London-based Italians, the game was exciting, incident-packed, volatile, physical and controversial. The Daily Mirror headline ‘Brawl As Chelsea Win’ spoke volumes as Roma spent much of the game engaged in ‘punching, butting and senseless kicking’, what Allen Mortlock, who was there, calls ‘the dark art of defending.’ After 30 minutes Eddie McCreadie retaliated when grabbed by the throat by Leonardi, who had earlier kicked him hard enough to cause a gash on his leg that later needed six stitches. Leonardi collapsed holding his face and the Scot was promptly sent off, the first Chelsea player to be dismissed in a competitive first-team game for over a decade.

Skipper Venables gave Chelsea the lead just after McCreadie’s dismissal, hitting home a George Graham indirect free-kick. Barison equalised with a swerving, banana shot free-kick but the home captain hit his second after a superbly worked, and clearly well-rehearsed, free-kick routine which must have delighted Docherty and Andrews. Venables was then savagely fouled by Barison who was booked but was lucky to escape dismissal. The captain was off the field for seven minutes leaving the team down to nine men, but they clung onto their 2-1 lead at half-time, and had a chance to regroup.

No substitutes being allowed, Venables returned following intensive half-time treatment and responded in the best conceivable way, almost immediately firing home a spectacular volley from a Graham pass to complete a stupendous hat-trick. The hosts missed chances before Graham headed a fourth from a Ron Harris cross with twenty minutes left. The visitors tried to take advantage of their numerical superiority, but Chelsea heroically held out for a 4-1 win to complete an extremely satisfactory night for Docherty’s men, apart from the sending-off. Venables ran the game in what was arguably his very finest performance in a Chelsea shirt, ‘ripping Roma apart’ as the Daily Mirror put it, especially laudable given his primary role was as creator, not goalscorer.

Given the circumstances it was a truly magnificent team effort. Under a ‘Chelsea 4, Violence 1’ headline, the Daily Mail noted that ‘Chelsea held their composure in a match that rumbled along just the right side of a riot. They never lost the conviction that football could answer the most brutal of fouls.’ A series of home players were treated for injuries during the game but, apart from McCreadie, kept their composure in the face of systemic intimidation. In ‘Kings Of The King’s Road’ Osgood talked about Roma players ‘pinching and pushing, nudging you and scraping their studs down the back of your leg’, behaviour not common in English football. For the whole team it was their introduction to competitive European games, and certainly opened their eyes as to what they could sometimes expect to face. Osgood gave an outstanding display and fellow youngsters John Hollins and Fascione, despite both suffering brutal treatment at the hands (or more accurately, feet) of Benitez, worked their socks off for the cause. Afterwards, Docherty acidly observed to the Daily Mirror ‘If this is the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, god help the European Cup.’

Harris was praised by the Daily Telegraph for a cool and assured performance, which was to his great credit given his youth, the highly charged nature of the game and his ability to mix it when he thought it appropriate. They observed that ‘Chelsea learnt more about the cut-throat business of international club football in 90 wild, magnificently exciting minutes in their own backyard yesterday, than they did in all their journeys of discovery round the world.’ Possibly a fair point, though the numerous friendlies the side had played since Docherty took over as manager four years earlier had undoubtedly helped them in extremely tough circumstances.

Charlie Brooks-Watson recalls that the defeated visiting players were serenaded with mocking chants of ‘Arrivederci, Roma’ at the end, unlikely to have improved their mood. The Daily Express, which used that phrase as their main headline, referred to the ‘furiously chanting crowd’, and the totally committed backing that the crowd gave the side without doubt inspired them. Steve Lloyd remembers sensing that ‘the crowd was really angry and so was I, normally reserved, very angry as I joined in the jeering and booing.’ Brooks-Watson, sitting in the recently opened West Stand Benches, remembers the crowd really rallied the team after McCreadie’s dismissal, with chanting from around the ground, not just the Fulham Road End (soon to be renamed The Shed).

Pugliese praised the Chelsea support. ‘I would like to make the biggest buy in football – the Chelsea crowd. They cheered their team right from the kick-off and were as good as an extra man on the field.’ Roma General secretary Vincenzo Bianconi claimed after the game that several home fans spat at him at half-time, but there was absolutely no corroboration for this. Similarly, a story of a home player spitting at a Roma official and throwing him out of the home dressing room post-match seemed to have no substance. The Italian press had also laid into Chelsea, and particularly McCreadie, following the first-leg. What all this did do was to stoke up the sense of injustice among Roma players and supporters to fever pitch. A torrid affair was expected, but few could have predicted exactly how torrid it would be.

Chelsea warmed up for the trip to Italy with a 2-1 win at West Bromwich, televised on Match Of The Day, while Roma beat World Club champions Inter Milan. Despite the Stamford Bridge dismissal, McCreadie was allowed to take part in the return game. Fairs Cup rules stated that it was up to the national association, in this case the FA, to decide his fate in terms of possible suspension, and a backlog meant the case could not be dealt with immediately. He was later suspended for fourteen days. Barison and team-mate Ardizzon were missing, away on international training.

The flight out was delayed an hour, giving McCreadie, Venables and reserve keeper John Dunn the chance to take over as unofficial ticket inquiry agents at the airline desk, causing a degree of airport chaos, heightened because the participants all wore smart suits, thereby looking official. This was topped off when Venables told one woman she was ‘the 100,000th passenger to pass through here this year’, that she qualified for a prize and if she gave her address, she would be contacted.

Bridges later recalled that the visiting party had problems going through customs on arrival in Rome, and no Roma official met them at the airport, giving a foretaste of the welcome they were to receive at the stadium. The game was moved to the evening but the day before the game Chelsea were forced to train in high afternoon temperatures, as apparently no floodlit pitch could be found in Rome. The Daily Express wondered why the game had been shifted from the Olympic Stadium to the Stadio Flaminio, which just had a hedge round the pitch as opposed to proper fencing. It soon became clear.

Docherty saw that the main threat to his side’s progress to the next round was if they lost discipline, emphasising the importance of keeping their heads and stating ‘we must not be provoked, that is most important.’ He feared McCreadie, in particular, would be targeted. John Boyle recalls how the manager ‘told them to keep it tight and keep their heads.’

The fit-again Hinton returned for Young, the hard-working Murray came in for the mercurial Osgood (who had played well in the first-leg but was seen as too inexperienced for what could to be a volatile night) and Docherty preferred the competitiveness of John Boyle (their key man according to the Evening News) to Fascione’s wing play for what promised to be a difficult encounter. Tambling failed a fitness test, but Hollins was fit to play.

Chelsea lined up :- Bonetti; Shellito, Hinton, Harris R., McCreadie; Hollins, Venables, Boyle; Murray, Bridges, Graham.

Before the game, the Chelsea team were pelted with stones while inspecting the pitch, having earlier had the coach taking them to the ground spat at. The directors were also the target of missiles. The visiting players were given no footballs to warm up with before the game. Smoke bombs and fireworks were set off by a crowd using sirens and whistles to heighten the atmosphere.

According to various reports, the barrage of objects thrown onto the pitch by the 40,000 spectators included coins, stones, metal hinges, an iron stanchion, pieces of metal, concrete, a seat, cans, glasses, pieces of glass, empty bottles, full bottles (including those containing urine), fireworks, lighted cigarettes, blocks of ice, paper, rotten eggs, over-ripe tomatoes, pears, grapes, potatoes and a cabbage. It continued unabated throughout the game.

Docherty and his staff had to sit in front of the main terrace where they were missile targets throughout the 90 minutes. The players showed superb composure in achieving a goalless 45 minutes, restricting the home side to one chance, and were the target of more missiles as they left for the sanctuary of the dressing room at half-time.

After the interval, the Roma side wanted the Chelsea players to go back on the pitch first, presumably unwilling to go ahead and get pelted for their trouble. Venables and his side unsurprisingly refused, so the teams went back on together. Boyle was knocked out by a bottle in the second-half while taking a throw-in, causing an incandescent Docherty to storm across the pitch to protest to hapless referee Herr Baumgartner. The manager then strode over to the section of terracing the bottle had been thrown from and appealed for calm, threatening to order his side back to the dressing room. Following treatment the young Scot was bravely able to continue, the incident holding up play for five minutes. Boyle recalls that he was indeed struck by a bottle, probably containing urine, and after going down was told not to get up too quickly by trainer Harry Medhurst, presumably to allow Docherty to try and calm things down, as well as allow him time to recover.

Venables twice appealed to the referee for help in calming things down, without success. Peter Bonetti was later hit by another bottle, McCreadie knocked out by a stone, Docherty hit by another one. John Hollins was almost struck by an iron stanchion. Baumgartner stopped play at one stage for the Roma Secretary to appeal for calm with a megaphone, threatening to abandon the game. He was not successful. Manager Pugliese also tried to calm the crowd, without success.

Despite all this, and the real fear of being badly hurt, Chelsea players did not retaliate, and retaining their defensive shape held out for a superb 0-0 draw, winning 4-1 on aggregate. Bridges missed a good chance early in the second-half which would have won the game, but maybe it was as well he did not convert it. Similarly, it was probably just as well Leonardi was booked, not sent off, for punching Hinton in the face. Boyle, acting as an extra defender, performed particularly heroically, remarkable given he was out cold at one stage. Docherty’s men kept their cool when opponents dived and rolled around after tackles, committed obstruction on a regular basis and unsuccessfully tried to provoke the visitors into a reaction. From a distance of 60 years, that two-legged display must rank as one of the best in the club’s history. Of 21 fouls in the first-half, 14 were committed by the home side, showing just what Docherty’s players had to deal with.

At the final whistle, the visiting players bravely raised their arms in mocking salute before heading swiftly down the tunnel as home fans lit bonfires on the terracing. After leaving the pitch to the sanctuary of the dressing room, and changing, the team, plus directors, officials and English journalists eventually got onto the coach to take them to the hotel, having waited 90 minutes with a view to letting the spectators disperse. The plan utterly failed, police having to hold back thousands of angry locals.

The moment the coach moved off, it was attacked with stones, bottles, bricks and an iron bar by a furious crowd, with police riot squad jeeps in front and behind, in theory to restrain the hostile mob but in reality to do very little. Coach windows were shattered, and everyone had to lie on the floor. Several of the party, including director Leslie Mears’ wife Pamela and McCreadie, were showered with glass before the coach finally reached the sanctuary of the hotel. Boyle recalls that the only time that whole evening he was actually worried was when the coach windows got broken.

Chairman Mears enthused ‘I’m proud of this magnificent performance under the worst possible provocation. How they remained so cool was remarkable considering their age.’ He was particularly critical of the Italian police both during and after the game and Docherty was similarly scathing. Back in the UK, the incidents before, during and following the game made numerous front pages as well as the back pages, rare for football 60 years ago. Chelsea were widely praised for their restraint and discipline, the story making the front page of the Daily Telegraph under a ‘Bottles Flung In Riot After Chelsea Game’ headline. The fact that a number of leading Fleet Street writers were on the coach brought the story vividly to life. Renowned Daily Telegraph journalist and BBC radio broadcaster Bryon Butler, in ‘I Was There’, gave an excellent first-hand account of what happened that night.

Hinton and Bonetti were injured during the game, the former as a result of Leonardi’s stomach punch, but it could have been a lot worse. The average age of Docherty’s side was only 22 and the oldest player, Bridges, was just 24, so their ability to turn the other cheek was remarkable. The Evening News pointed out that it was as well there were no Chelsea supporters there (or if there were, they were certainly not visible or vocal), or they would possibly have been lynched.

The Minister For Sport, Denis Follows, sent the chairman a telegram congratulating the team for their ‘wonderful conduct and composure.’ The game was arguably the worst night, in terms of violence, in the history of European club football up to that point.

A rightly furious Docherty, with a cut on his head from a stone, described events after the game as simply terrifying and stormed ‘Italy should be banned from football if this is what happens, and you can quote me on that.’ No shrinking violet, The Doc described the coach journey as ‘simply terrifying.’ As captain Venables said, it was a miracle nobody was killed. It is to the enormous credit of all concerned that, under the greatest provocation, Chelsea players and staff conducted themselves in such an exemplary manner, given how hostile and frightening events must have been, both on the pitch and afterwards.

The Daily Mail reported that a host of Italian football journalists met the Chelsea party to apologise for the events of the previous day, though ironically, as was pointed out, it was inflammatory comments in their press that whipped up anger in Roma supporters before the game. Even then, the Corriere Dello Sport could not help itself, claimed Chelsea ‘were just waiting so as to impose their robust type of game and at the same time appear as the victims.’ A spokesman for the Italian Football Federation suffered a similar lack of contrition, thinking the behaviour ‘though deplorable, is a retaliation for what goes on in England.’

Chelsea Secretary John Battersby, fortuitously on the Fairs Cup executive committee, flew straight to Basel for the draw, and took the opportunity to make an initial report on the night’s events to Sir Stanley Rous, British FIFA president and chairman of the Fairs Cup committee. The club later made a full report and formal protest to the committee, asking that Roma be banned from European competition and eventually they received a three-year ban and a £500 fine.

The most important thing, in retrospect, was that Chelsea qualified for the next round. The manner in which they did it, however, deserved enormous credit, especially given that none of the players had experienced anything remotely like it before.

This is an extract from 'From Soviet Bouquets To Shed Banners - Chelsea In Europe 1945-71' by Tim Rolls, due out in November.