By Richard Edwards

Big stage: Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge hosted an Essex game in 1980

IT has been party time on the Kings Road this last month following Chelsea’s stunning Champions League triumph over Manchester City in Porto.
The club’s first match at Stamford Bridge next season should be quite some homecoming.
Those of a certain vintage, though, will recall when one of English football’s iconic football venues reverberated, not to the sound of celebrating Chelsea season ticket holders, but to Essex members.
It was August 1980, when the county created history...