Caught in Time:
Chelsea crowned First Division champions, April 1955

Peter Boyle - Times on Line

It has become a familiar sight over the years, Old Trafford rolling out the red carpet for the champions on the final day of the season. But back in 1955 the team taking a bow wore blue shirts. Chelsea had clinched their one and only League title the week before, with a 3-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday, and now it was time to enjoy the moment as they posed for a team photo.

Matt Busby, Manchester Uniteds manager, had his players line up to applaud Chelsea on to the pitch and Roy Bentley, the Blues captain, recalls: Matt made sure we got the full red-carpet treatment. It was a marvellous moment. Its just a pity we lost the game 2-1, although I did head our goal the last of our title-winning season.

Chelseas 52 points were the lowest winning total since 1938, but Bentley says it took more than one season to lift the title. Ted (Drake) was appointed manager in 1952 and we were fighting relegation in his first season. We really had to work, but gradually it began to come right. Ted forecast that it would take three years before we started winning pots and pans and he was spot-on. It was all about the glory rather than the cash, because we were only on about 10 a week plus a 2 win bonus.

Chelsea had never been fashionable, and in the 1930s and 1940s were something of a music-hall joke. Drake changed all that. Previously, training had consisted mostly of running we never saw a ball until match day, but at Teds first session there was a ball for every player, says Bentley.

His man-management was outstanding but he wasnt a great tactician. However, he did come up with one novel approach that worked well for us. He told our wingers, Frank Blunstone and Eric Parsons, not to cross high balls to the far post but to drive in low and hard across the six-yard box. Its a very difficult ball to defend and we got lots of goals that way.

Looking back, Bentley says he was aware even then that the championship was the end of a great endeavour rather than the beginning of a golden age. We were quite an old team lots of us in our late twenties or early thirties and I knew we weren't going to go on winning titles. The following season we struggled and by the end of 1956, six of the championship side had gone.

1 Jack Oxberry The team trainer was born in Sunderland and played inside-forward for South Shields in the 1920s. He also spent time at Blackpool and Reading, where he met Drake. He retired in 1961 and died in London in 1963.

2 Stan Willemse Willemse played for Sussex Boys before joining the Royal Marines in the second world war. He joined Chelsea in 1946 and developed into a tough full-back. He left the club in 1956 to join Leyton Orient. At 80, he lives in his home town, Brighton.

3 Ken Armstrong The Yorkshire right-half made 362 league appearances for Chelsea before emigrating to New Zealand in 1957. He made 13 appearances for the Kiwi national side before being appointed chief coach for the New Zealand FA. He died in 1984, aged 60, and his ashes were scattered at Stamford Bridge.

4 Peter Sillett Just 22 when Chelsea won the title, Sillett was the son of Southamptons Charlie Sillett and the older brother of John, who managed Coventry to FA Cup success in 1987. Right- back Peter scored 34 goals for Chelsea in 288 appearances. He also won three caps for England. Arthritis forced him out of the game and he died in 1988, aged 55.

5 Stan Wicks A close friend of captain Bentley, the defender left Chelsea to join him at Reading when Bentley became manager there. He went into the family carpet business, but died of cancer in 1983, aged 55.

6 Charlie Chic Thomson Chelseas goalkeeper was a Scot who was spotted playing for the army team during his national service by Drake, who brought him to Chelsea from Clyde in 1952. He left Stamford Bridge for Nottingham Forest, with whom he won an FA Cup winners medal in 1959. He still lives in Nottingham.

7 Derek Saunders The inside-forward won the FA Trophy as an amateur with Walthamstow Avenue and represented Great Britain at the 1952 Olympics. He turned professional at Chelsea, but left in 1959, to teach a PE at Westminster School. Now 78, he lives in Essex.

8 John Harris A renowned hard man, Harris also had plenty of skill and was an excellent reader of the game at centre-half. He left Chelsea in 1956 to manage Chester, later becoming a lay preacher. He died in 1988, aged 71.

9 Eric Parsons One of only two men (the other being Saunders) to play in every game that season, Parsons started at West Ham, where his speed earned him the nickname Rabbit. During the war he served with Montgomerys Eighth Army then returned to Upton Park before joining Chelsea in 1950. After quitting football, Parsons opened a grocery shop and then a cigarette-vending business. Now 84, he lives in Worthing, West Sussex.

10 John McNichol The Scottish forward was an apprentice motor mechanic playing semi-professional football for Clachnacuddin in the Highland League when he was signed by Newcastle. On Tyneside he had a second job working for a funeral director, keeping the hearse in running order. Brighton offered him a 2-a-week pay rise, and it was from there that he became Drakes first signing. In 1957 he bought a newsagents shop; the long hours he spent working in it meant the goals dried up and he lost his place to Jimmy Greaves. He worked in the fund-raising departments of Crystal Palace and Brighton before retiring. At 79, he still lives on the south coast.

11 Roy Bentley Born in Bristol, the deep-lying England centre-forward scored 22 league goals in the 1954-55 season. He had brief spells as an apprentice with Bristol Rovers and Bristol City before joining the navy in the second world war. He then signed for Newcastle, moving to Chelsea for 11,000 in 1948. After spells with Fulham and QPR, he quit playing at 38 and went into management at Reading and Swansea City. He was later club secretary at Reading and Aldershot before filling a similar role at a golf club and a lake fishing business, both run by Ron Harris, a Chelsea captain in the 1960s. Bentley, 80, lives in Reading.

12 Ted Drake He had a distinguished career with England, Southampton, Arsenal and Reading before going into management at Reading. One of the first track-suit managers, he revitalised the Blues when he took charge in 1952, turning them into league champions in three seasons. He fared less well in subsequent years and Chelsea never finished higher than 11th in the next six seasons. He was replaced by Tommy Docherty in 1961. Drake died in London, aged 82, in 1995.

13 Seamus OConnell The Carlisle-born inside-forward was a one-season wonder. Signed as an amateur from Walthamstow Avenue, he made 16 league starts for Chelsea in 1954-55, scoring 11 goals. He rarely trained with his teammates, instead travelling down on match day by train, boots hanging round his neck by the laces, and leaving for home as soon as the game finished. Soon after Chelseas triumph he moved to Spain, where he became successful in the cattle business. Now 75, he still lives there.

14 Frank Blunstone At 20, the left-winger was the baby of the team. He was signed from Crewe in 1953 and played 317 league games for Chelsea. He won five caps for England before retiring through injury in 1964. Jobs as Chelseas youth team trainer followed, plus two spells as Brentford manager and as youth and reserve team coach at Manchester United. Now 70, he lives in Crewe.