When Nick Crittenden was named man of the match after his Chelsea debut, it’s unlikely anyone would have predicted the way his career would have turned out.
Crittenden was handed his first-team debut by Ruud Gullit in a League Cup clash with Southampton at Stamford Bridge in November 1997, a week after celebrating his 19th birthday.
He played the full 90 minutes and impressed, but in a familiar tale of a young player at a big club, two more substitute appearances in the Premier League proved to be the sum total of Crittenden’s time at Stamford Bridge.
He went on to play over 650 appearances in his career, helping Yeovil Town gain promotion to the Football League in 2003, and is now the Glovers’ accountant, but he still has fond and vivid memories of that one start for Chelsea, some 20 years on.
“Graham Rix, who was the assistant manager and had coached me in the youth team, always put the reserve team list up on a Monday for that night’s match,” Crittenden says.
“This one Monday I looked at the list and thought it was strange because my name wasn’t on it. Graham came up to me and whispered in my ear that I was playing on Wednesday instead.
“I thought, ‘What’s happening on Wednesday?’ and then I realised. I had two days to get my head around it.”
Crittenden started in his favoured position on the right wing and Chelsea won the match 2-1, with their goals coming from Tore-Andre Flo and Crittenden’s fellow youth team product Jody Morris.
“Ruud Gullit put out quite an inexperienced team, although both he and Dennis played in that game,” Crittenden says.
“I could have gone into my shell, but the game was one of the best I ever had.
“Dennis Wise told me he’d look after me and that he would give me the ball immediately so I got my first touch out of the way. He did that and, from then on, it totally relaxed me into the game.
“It was a really proud moment as my parents and my nan came to watch. It was the first time my nan had seen me play live.
“Afterwards, Ruud told the Sky Sports interviewer that I was his man of the match, which seemed unbelievable. It was amazing for me and I have still got the video of the game at home.”
Falling out of favour
At the time of Crittenden’s debut, Chelsea had started to add an exotic flavour to the club.
Italian internationals Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola were signed, as were two future World Cup winners, Frenchmen Marcel Desailly and Frank…
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