Not only were the Premiership's top guns Chelsea on show on 30 July, but five of the club's most famous sons were also on hand to kick-off a new era after the Terrors finally moved into their posh new £6,000,000 stadium.

No-one connected with the Ryman League Division One side will forget the famous side of 1958-59 - who all but beat Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup Third Round tie at Sandy Lane ground - and Brian Bennett, Wally Pearson, Albert Grainger, Alan Vines and Tony Slade easily won the loudest cheers of the night after being introduced to the 2,000 plus crowed.

Chairman John Buffoni said "I hope everybody had a great time and enjoyed the match. Everything went fantastically well - apart from the result of course!"

David Gabriel was of the two former Tooting & Mitcham stars to be honoured with a testimonial to coincide with the Blues game. The other-former skipper David Taylor could not attend because of family holiday.

But Gabriel, 39, was delighted with his reception. "It was a great night, up there with the day I scored the only goal of our 1-0 win over Thame to keep us up a few years back," he said.

For the record , Tooting & Mitcham lost 2-0 to Chelsea with Georgian International Rati Aleksidze and German Under-19 International Sebastian Kneissel scoring.

Not that it mattered. The Tooting fans were just please to be home.

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