Tonight, Chelsea will visit Sincil Bank for the first time since 1911.
We’re going to be looking for our first win against the Blues since 1907, and indeed only our second.
I’ve already covered when we beat their illustrious kids on penalties, and a friendly for George Peden and John Kennedy from 1973, but I doubt very much anyone reading this has memories of the games I’m going to feature.
1906/1907
Considering we’ve only played Chelsea eight times in our history, it is remarkable that we played them four times in 126 days in the 1906/1907 season. We were in Division Two, and drew the Blues in the FA Cup.
Our trip to Stamford Bridge in October resulted in a 2-0 defeat, and their visit to the Bank in February ended with them as 5-0 victors. It was probably a surprise when we held them to a 2-2 draw on January 12th at the Bank, Ted Dixon and William Watson bagging for us.
It was even more of a surprise when we turned them over at Stamford Bridge, after extra time, courtesy of Norrie Fairgray. He was an interesting player, netting eight time in 65 games for us,but later moved to the Blues. He first came south from Maxwelltown Volunteers in 1906, joining the Imps alongside George Kennedy and George Nisbet. A year later, manager David Calderhead took him to Chelsea, where he spent seven seasons, scoring five goals in 84 appearances and later being joined by Kennedy.
Fairgray featured in the Home Scots v Anglo-Scots trial matches in 1908 and 1909, though a full cap never came. After spells with Motherwell, he returned home in 1919 to play for Queen of the South’s first competitive side.
Bravo, they called out at the Theatre Royal, but not in the next round – Derby County beat us 1-0.
At the end of the season, Chelsea finished second in the table and were promoted. We finished second bottom of the table, but retained our place in the division.