Kevin HITCHCOCK

After the excellent Eddie Niedzwiecki was finally forced to call time on his career after breaking down during a win over Oxford at the end of October 1987, Chelsea were forced to turn to young Welshman Roger Freestone to replace his compatriot between the sticks. Unfortunately for Freestone, the club immediately went on a winless League run which lasted for almost six months and saw the club plunge towards the relegation zone. Manager John Hollins was relieved of his duties in March 1988 and replaced by the experienced Bobby Campbell, who within days of taking over had signed Mansfield Town's keeper, Kevin Hitchcock, for £250,000.

The 25-year-old Eastender had first introduced himself to the club's supporters during a Milk Cup tie at Stamford Bridge some 18 months earlier when he saved a Kerry Dixon penalty to deny the big man yet another hat-trick, and was immediately thrown into the Chelsea side for the visit of Southampton, a match which The Blues lost 1-0 as the crisis continued. Nevertheless, he kept his place in the side for the club's remaining eleven matches but despite crucial penalty saves in consecutive matches against Wimbledon and Liverpool, both of which were drawn, he was powerless to stop a multi-talented group of players, who he later remarked were beset with internal problems, from dropping into Division Two via the play-offs.

He was in the team which faced Blackburn on the opening day of the following campaign but each of his three appearances in the first month of the season were punctuated by breaks for injuries, and a game against Manchester City in September proved to be his last of the season. Freestone returned but failed to impress Campbell, who broke Chelsea's transfer record to bring Newcastle's Dave Beasant to the Bridge in January 1989. Beasant's outstanding form meant that, once fit, Hitchcock was unable to force his way back into the side, and it was more than two years before he reappeared in the first team, replacing Beasant after the former Wimbledon man's broken finger brought to an end an incredible nine-year injury-free run. Kevin returned for the visit of Aston Villa and kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 victory, but after just three more appearances he was dumped in favour of the fit-again Beasant. Understandably frustrated by a lack of match action, Hitchcock spent a spell on loan at Northampton later that season. (Kelvin Barker)

It was Dave Beasant's turn to struggle with niggly injuries in 1991/92 and Kevin Hitchcock was the beneficiary. He made his first appearance of the season in a 3-1 win at Tottenham, performing superbly on the rare occasions that the home side were able to make incursions into his penalty area, but an awful lack of concentration a week later allowed Luton to score a late consolation in a 4-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge. Beasant soon returned but continued to struggle for fitness and by December, Hitchcock seemed to be settling comfortably into the no.1 spot. However, he was dropped by new manager Ian Porterfield just before Christmas but again returned after Beasant failed to recover from a New Years Day buffeting from Manchester City's Niall Quinn.

From January until March, Hitchcock performed heroics in a side who embarked on a lengthy FA Cup run. He kept clean sheets as The Blues negotiated ties with Hull City, Everton, against whom he saved a late Tony Cottee penalty, and Sheffield United, but in the quarter-final match against Sunderland he was slow to react to a late John Byrne header which salvaged a draw for the Wearsiders, who then won the replay. The first match against Sunderland proved to be his last involvement of the season but his 31 appearances in all competitions showed a marked improvement on previous campaigns. Hitchcock was again second choice at the start of 1992/93 but his many admirers amongst the Chelsea supporters did not have to wait long to see him back in action.

He returned to the side after a disastrous performance by Beasant against Norwich which was followed by Porterfield's disgraceful 'Beasant will never play for this club again' outburst in the after-match press conference. His first game back was a live televised match at Manchester City in which he won the man-of-the-match award hands down, repeatedly repelling the home team's strikers to preserve Chelsea's early lead. Three consecutive clean sheets followed before Hitchcock conceded his first goals of the season in a 2-1 defeat at Highbury, although he did also save a penalty from Arsenal's Lee Dixon during that game. On the final day of October he served up a treat for the tabloid headline writers when he gifted a goal to Sheffield United's Brian Deane which led to the inevitable 'Hitchcock's Halloween Horror' headlines in the following day's newspapers.

That error was soon forgotten when he again turned on the style for the TV cameras in a 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough in December and, despite a brief appearance by new Russian keeper Dmitri Kharine in January, Kevin retained his place with a degree of comfort until Porterfield was sacked in February and, after a disappointing performance at Blackburn in caretaker David Webb's first game in charge, he was forced to make way for the returning Beasant. The consolation for the player born in Custom House, a stone's throw from Upton Park, was that he finished the season on loan to his boyhood heroes West Ham. (Kelvin Barker)

 Kevin Hitchcock's fine form during pre-season gave new manager Glenn Hoddle a selection headache ahead of the 1993/94 season but a surprise 3-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion, with Kevin in goal, just a week before the new campaign began, perhaps swung the pendulum in favour of Dmitri Kharine, and it was the Russian who took the gloves on the opening day. Hitchcock made just two appearances that season, consecutive defeats against Oldham and Leeds, and missed out on Chelsea's FA Cup run which ended in defeat to Manchester United at Wembley with Kevin watching from the substitutes' bench.

He remained out in the cold at the start of 1994/95, appearing just twice prior to a match at West Ham at the end of February when he replaced the injured Kharine with just nine minutes remaining and repelled a wave of attacks from the home side as they tried unsuccessfully to claw back a 2-1 deficit. Three days later he kept goal in a European Cup Winners Cup tie in Bruges, and performed heroics to restrict the Belgians to a single goal, a lead which was overturned in the second-leg at Stamford Bridge. Back in favour, he played in 13 of the last 18 matches of the campaign but it was again Kharine that Hoddle turned to at the start of his final season in charge, 1995/96. However, the usually reliable Russian was dropped after his injury-time clanger against Newcastle in an FA Cup third round tie at Stamford Bridge enabled Les Ferdinand to salvage an undeserved draw for the Geordies.

Hitchcock made his first appearance of the season in the following weekend's 1-1 draw at Everton and was then the hero of the Cup replay when he saved the first two Newcastle penalties in the shoot-out after the match had finished level after extra-time. Chelsea's spot-kickers did the rest and the club were off on another fine FA Cup run which ended in a semi-final defeat by Manchester United. The good news for Kevin was the fact that he was able to string together a run of 19 League and Cup appearances, the bad news was that Kharine was back in possession of the shirt before the season ended. (Kelvin Barker)

 Dmitri Kharine remained between the sticks as the 1996/97 campaign began, with Ruud Gullit now at the helm. Sadly for Kharine, a ruptured knee ligament suffered early in a 2-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday in September brought his season to a premature end. Hitchcock replaced him at Hillsborough and kept his place for the next two months but an error which allowed Tottenham to equalise during an emotional match three days after the death of Chelsea's vice-Chairman, Matthew Harding, was followed by an on-pitch rebuke from Gullit, and after just one more game, a 2-1 win at Old Trafford, he was replaced by Norwegian loanee Frode Grodas.

Kevin returned in January and was a member of the side who famously overturned a 2-0 deficit to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup at the expense of Liverpool, but an injury suffered during a clash with Manchester United a month later kept him on the sidelines until the final week of the season. He replaced Grodas at Everton on the final day of the League campaign after the Norwegian had been sent-off after just 20 minutes of a game which Chelsea still managed to win, and six days later he was on the bench as The Blues won their first major trophy for 26 years by beating Middlesbrough in the FA Cup final. The final three seasons of Hitchcock's playing career were spent almost entirely as a back-up goalkeeper and vociferous cheerleader. His two appearances in 1997/98 were in Coca-Cola Cup wins over Blackburn, where he again excelled during a penalty shoot-out, and Southampton.

In March, he was amongst the substitutes as Chelsea won that trophy with another Wembley triumph over Middlesbrough, and little more than six weeks later he took up the same role for the European Cup Winners Cup final in Stockholm where Chelsea beat VFB Stuttgart 1-0. Sandwiched in between these finals was Hitchcock's testimonial against Nottingham Forest, a team he had been loaned to during his time with Mansfield. He remained on the bench throughout the majority of the 1998/99 season but replaced Ed De Goey at half-time of a crucial match at Charlton in April, and kept a clean sheet as The Blues ran out 1-0 winners. Later that month, he kept goal in a truly dreadful 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday which was, nevertheless, an important point en-route to Chelsea qualifying for the Champions League.

His appearance in a 2-2 draw at Tottenham in the season's penultimate match proved to be his last for the club. He remained on the books throughout 1999/2000 but was relegated to third choice behind Carlo Cudicini, and for once was not amongst the substitutes as Chelsea won the last FA Cup final to be played at the old Wembley. He was, however, given a new one-year contract at the age of 37 to cover him for the following season but he was not selected to play. Kevin was released at the end of that campaign before taking a coaching role under the management of his old boss, Gianluca Vialli, at Watford. (Kelvin Barker)