True Blues — Chelsea FC
ΕΛ

Season: 1924–25

Football League Second Division

League

Chelsea’s sixteenth competitive season was the first full campaign back in the Second Division after peacetime relegation.

Division
Football League Second Division (Tier 2)
Manager
David Calderhead
Top scorer (league)
William Whitton (16)
Top scorer (all comps)
William Whitton (16)
Avg. league attendance
30,738

Cups & Europe

FA Cup
First round
League Cup
—
Europe
—
Other
London Challenge Cup: Round 1 (lost to Arsenal 0–2, 27 Oct 1924); London Professional Charity Fund: lost to Fulham 0–1 (17 Nov 1924); Tommy Meehan Fund: beat Football League XI 2–0 (20 Oct 1924)

Notes

Chelsea’s sixteenth competitive season was the first full campaign back in the Second Division after peacetime relegation. David Calderhead stayed as secretary-manager. The second tier still had 22 clubs, with only the top two going up. The Pensioners finished fifth with 47 points — 16 wins, 15 draws and 11 defeats, 51 goals scored and 37 conceded — one point behind Portsmouth in fourth and ten behind Manchester United in second. Leicester City took the title on 59 and went up with United. Home form kept the Bridge noisy: 11 wins, 8 draws and only 2 defeats (31–12). Away from home it was harder work — 5 wins, 7 draws and 9 defeats (20–25). William Whitton led the line with 16 league goals and none in the Cup, so 16 in all competitions. Andy Wilson added 10 in the league. The season opened with a jolt — 0–4 at Leicester — then a 5–0 thrashing of Oldham Athletic and a 4–0 revenge win over Leicester at the Bridge, Whitton scoring all four. Bob Turnbull arrived from Charlton Athletic on 4 February and scored three times before the spring was out. The heaviest blows were the two 0–4 defeats, at Leicester and at Stockport County; the brightest afternoon the 5–0 at Oldham. Tragedy struck before a ball was kicked in anger for the league programme: Tommy Meehan died on 22 August 1924. In October Chelsea beat a Football League XI 2–0 in a fund match staged in his memory. Average home league gates were 30,738 (645,500 across 21 games). The biggest Bridge crowd of the season was 42,000 for Crystal Palace on 27 September; the smallest league gate was 8,500 for Hull City on 1 November. The FA Cup ended at the first hurdle: Birmingham City won 2–0 at St Andrew’s on 10 January 1925. Chelsea also went out of the London Challenge Cup in Round 1 to Arsenal and lost to Fulham in the London Professional Charity Fund. Fifth place was respectable after relegation — but the promotion places stayed out of reach, and another year in the Second Division followed.

Kits

Under review
Home
Away
Third—

Historical Football Kits shows a distinct 1912–1914 home panel at the start of this span and a further 1914–1918 panel covering the wartime seasons: royal blue shirt with white shorts (socks not settled in text). Maroon remained the change colour into 1912–1914 A; HFK’s wartime panel is labelled within the same royal-blue era. Some accounts place the darkening from pale/Eton blue earlier (see the 1906–1912 row); the archive therefore starts the royal-blue row at 1912–13 without claiming an exact switch date or inventing a shade beyond HFK’s royal-blue labelling.

Illustration from hex colours (not official kit photography).

On this day (related years)

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History

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

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Sources

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