John Terry and Petr Cech celebrate being crowned Premiership champions with Chelsea.
By Chris Hatherall. Monday, 02 May 2005.
John and Paul Terry both say they won’t be cracking open the champagne yet despite a remarkable weekend for Chelsea and Yeovil.
The two clubs may be at different ends of the professional ladder but they are joint TheFA.com Teams of the Weekend after two superb results that have got the Terry family jumping for joy.
Younger brother John – an England hero of course – helped Chelsea win their first title in 50 years by beating Bolton 2-0. And older brother Paul helped Yeovil beat League 2 title rivals Southend 1-0 away from home to set up a potential Terry double.
Former non-league giant killers Yeovil are newcomers to the Football League but have been outstanding all season.
Phil Jevons scored his 28th goal of the season to clinch victory at Roots Hall on Saturday – so the Glovers now need a draw at home to Lincoln to secure promotion and a win to clinch the title next weekend. But there are no celebrations just yet!
Manager Gary Johnson said: "We still have to be professional even though we are now in A1 position and are favourites. The champagne is definitely on
ice, but we definitely have the taste for it.
"We still have not won anything yet, although the win was a major step forward and I’m delighted with the result.
"But we still have too look at the other results. Scunthorpe and Swansea both won and Lincoln’s draw means they cannot go up automatically, but they are assured of a play-off place.
"Perhaps they might put out their youth team, but I doubt it. We are not 100 per cent sure of going up, but I would say we were 90 per cent."
But even with Yeovil flying up the leagues, it is impossible to ignore Chelsea these days. And they don’t have time to celebrate, either, with so many big games to come.
England star Terry said: "This is the best feeling ever to win the title. We have worked so hard all season. We had half a glass of champagne in the dressing room, but the season is not over. Hopefully we can beat Liverpool to reach the Champions League final now and really let our hair down with a few beers on Tuesday night!"
Tottenham had a wonderful weekend, too, as they moved up to seventh place in the Premiership by thrashing Aston Villa 5-1.
The win puts Spurs in the UEFA Cup places, moving above Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough – who they face next weekend.
Irishman Andy Reid, named man of the match for Tottenham, said: "We’ve been threatening to do that for a while, we’ve been playing well without finishing teams off.
"To get the five goals and get up to seventh puts us in a good position with two games left. You don’t like to write other teams off but we’re confident we can get the results to keep us there."
In the Championship, Coventry provided the result of the weekend by thrashing promotion-seeking Derby 6-2 in an emotional farewell to Highfield Road.
Coventry will be moving to a brand new stadium next season and needed a victory to stave off relegation worries.
It was a pressure situation but the Sky Blues did manager Micky Adams proud with former England youth international Gary McSheffrey scoring twice.
In League 1, Luton proved their class as champions by coming from 2-1 down against Brentford to score three times in the last six minutes.