True Blues — Chelsea FC
ΕΛ

Season: 1911–12

Football League Second Division

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  • Promoted

League

Chelsea’s seventh season ended in a promotion race that went to the very last afternoon.

Division
Football League Second Division (Tier 2)
Manager
David Calderhead
Top scorer (league)
Bob Whittingham (26)
Top scorer (all comps)
Bob Whittingham (26)
Avg. league attendance
27,198

Cups & Europe

FA Cup
Second round
League Cup
—
Europe
—
Other
London Challenge Cup: Semi-finals (beat Crystal Palace 2–1, 18 Sep 1911; beat Woolwich Arsenal 3–2, 16 Oct 1911; lost to Clapton Orient 1–5, 6 Nov 1911); London Professional Charity Fund: Woolwich Arsenal 2–2 (4 Sep 1911) and 0–1 (30 Oct 1911); Peterborough Infirmary Cup: Final, beat Peterborough City 8–0 (30 Apr 1912)

Notes

Chelsea’s seventh season ended in a promotion race that went to the very last afternoon. David Calderhead remained secretary-manager throughout. The Pensioners finished 2nd of 20 in the Second Division with 54 points — 24 wins, 6 draws and 8 defeats, 64 goals scored and 34 conceded — level on points with champions Derby County, who took the title on goal average (74–28 against Chelsea’s 64–34). Burnley finished third on 52. The decisive week came in April. A 0–2 defeat at Derby on 8 April left the second promotion place open, and Chelsea answered with four straight wins: Hull City 1–0, Blackpool 4–1, 2–0 at Barnsley and, on 27 April 1912, 1–0 at home to Bradford through a Charlie Freeman goal. Burnley and Chelsea had gone into that final Saturday both on 52 points with one game left, Burnley ahead on goal average; Burnley lost 0–2 at Wolverhampton, Chelsea won, and promotion back to the First Division was sealed at Stamford Bridge. The record was balanced: 15 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats at home (36–13) and 9 wins, 4 draws and 6 defeats away (28–21), a clear improvement on the road compared with 1910–11. Bob Whittingham was again the spearhead with 26 league goals in 32 appearances — almost half of the team’s total — including hat-tricks at Nottingham Forest on 17 February and against Clapton Orient on 2 March. George Dodd, signed from Notts County in August, added 9 in league and Cup, with a hat-trick in the 4–1 win at Birmingham. George Hilsdon, the club’s first 100-goal man, scored his last league goal for Chelsea at Gainsborough on 20 March and returned to West Ham in the summer of 1912. The FA Cup was short. Sheffield United were beaten 1–0 at Stamford Bridge on 13 January (Dodd) in front of 34,400, before holders Bradford City won 2–0 at Valley Parade on 3 February in the second round. Bounder’s season diary also lists a London Challenge Cup run to the semi-finals (Crystal Palace 2–1, Woolwich Arsenal 3–2, then a 1–5 defeat by Clapton Orient), two London Professional Charity Fund games against Woolwich Arsenal (2–2 and 0–1) and an 8–0 win over Peterborough City in the Peterborough Infirmary Cup final; those lines come from that diary only. Average home league attendance was 27,198 on the match-by-match gates of Bounder and mychelseafc (516,761 across 19 games), the figure Wikipedia also gives; European Football Statistics has 26,295. The biggest home crowd was 45,000 for the 3–0 win over Clapton Orient, while only 5,000 are recorded for Huddersfield Town in November. Whichever compilation is used, the Bridge again drew the largest crowds in the Second Division — and from 1912–13 they would be watching First Division football again.

Kits

Under review
Home
Away
Third—

Historical Football Kits dates the original Eton blue to September 1906 and a new home kit from 6 October 1906 (Nottingham Post report); a Chelsea programme for the Lincoln City game on 13 October 1906 already describes the colours as “blue and white”. Other accounts place the move to a darker royal blue as late as about 1912, so the exact shade worn from autumn 1906 is not settled — the swatch here still shows Eton blue. Maroon remained the change shirt. HFK also lists a one-off white change shirt “January 1907 v Worksop Town (FA Cup)”, but that tie was played on 11 January 1908; Chelsea’s only FA Cup opponent in 1906–07 was Lincoln City.

Illustration from hex colours (not official kit photography).

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Sources

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