Memories of times that meant a lot when young will always linger longest and burn brightest in the memory.

So it's easy to imagine the excitement in playing the final of the one youth tournament the football-watching public at large knows about - and just how cherished those moments are later on.

This season's progress in the FA Youth Cup by the Chelsea Under 18s side has been a long time coming with the club having not reached the semi-final stage since 1973 and the final since 1961.

In the years following the first FA Youth Cup back in 1953, Chelsea made an early impact on the competition with a run to the semi-final two years later - but it was the next set of players who came through that began what was the club's golden era for youth football. Over a spell of five seasons we won the trophy twice, were beaten finalists and played in another semi-final.

As the modern day Chelsea Academy were making final preparations for the quest to add a third FA Youth Cup to the club's role of honour, chelseafc.com caught up with two famous ex-players from that era to hear vivid memories from the days they began to make names for themselves.

Bobby Tambling (pictured) needs little introduction. A total of 202 first team goals, the most by any Chelsea player, says plenty. And Bobby was in the side that lifted the Youth Cup back in 1960.

'The thing about the year we won it,' Bobby begins, needing no time to find his flow, 'was that Chelsea had had a much more famous youth team two years before and it had fallen short at the final. That was the youth team with Jimmy Greaves in it.

'When we reached the final, I don't think we were so fancied and when we drew at home 1-1 with Preston, we all felt we lost our chance.'

The FA Youth Cup final, then as now, was played over two legs, the idea being to reduce the likelihood of teenage players freezing on the day - as might be the case with a one-off match.

Bobby and colleagues were proved unduly pessimistic when Chelsea went up to Lancashire and won the second leg 4-1, Bobby scoring three, heralding a career that would produce eight first team hat-tricks.

'To win it away, the hard way round, was magic,' he smiles. 'We all felt so happy for Dickie Foss, who was the youth manager, because he had been there in the 1958 final and how can you be 5-1 up like they were in the first leg and not win the Cup?' he asks.

We knew how much it meant to him and we knew we were only there by his grace. It is still a lovely memory.'

Golden eras of youth football are pretty meaningless unless they lead to golden eras for the first team but that is exactly what did happen in the 1960s. Manager Tommy Docherty blooded a fresh group that would evolve into the side that enjoyed major trophy success under Dave Sexton.

Included in Bobby's 1960 Youth Cup-winning side were future captain Terry Venables plus Peter Bonetti, Bert Murray and Allan Harris. A year later when the trophy was retained, although Bobby had moved up, a young Ron Harris was introduced. There were also several names who played a handful of first team games.

'Many of those two teams have gone on to have tremendous and long Chelsea careers,' Bobby agrees. 'You have the club's record appearance maker, the record appearance goalkeeper and the record goalscorer - players that have really loved the club and I just hope that this year we will get players the same.'

Coming out of the earlier 1958 beaten finalists were Ken Shellito and Barry Bridges, two players who were also very significant in Docherty's side.

Bridges and Tambling made their first team debuts on the same day and both scored, the pacy Barry going on to add another 92 to his total.

He too has clear Youth Cup final memories, perhaps no wonder as their four-goal first-leg advantage was wiped out on losing the second leg 6-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

'It was ridiculous, crazy,' Barry recalls. 'I remember Greavesy in the bath after we won 5-1, saying: "If we lose this we want shooting," and we lost. Our goalkeeper had an absolute nightmare.'

'There was about 25,000 at Chelsea and nearly 30,000 at Wolves. We used to get those crowds for big youth games, and we just blew it, absolutely blew it. I remember Ted Drake, the manager of the club, smashing a cup against the wall, he went spare.'

By the time we did taste a second Youth Cup success, Bridges had begun banging in goals at first team level.

'It was the same time as the Busby Babes, they were a year or two ahead of us, and we were Ted Drake's Ducklings. We could see we were something special. The number going through to the first team was a great ratio.'

'Most teams in the old days would go out there, battle well and try to score goals, but we were ahead of our time.

'Of course, the game is better today and players are fitter. Bobby said to me recently that he went to the training ground to see training, and his words were: "We wouldn't have lasted a warm-up". The players are athletes now. Look at a guy like Drogba, how can anyone stop him when he is in full flight?'

The influence of Dickie Foss, a Chelsea player before the war who took charge of the youth scheme in 1952 and remained in the job for 14 years, is frequently commended by this generation, Bobby Tambling among them.

'Dickie was a very normal person but difficult for us to please. He never over-praised you which is a good thing at that age when you think you have done something by being on Chelsea's groundstaff or an apprentice.

'I have watched Chelsea TV and seen a debate about players who looked like they were going to be great players and then didn't come through, and players who hadn't looked so good at youth level like John Terry who became such a winner.

'The one thing that makes a difference from my own experience is that there were 10 or 15 players who had more skill than me, but the one thing I had was a good attitude. You can have all the skill in the world but no attitude, no career.

'I can't speak highly enough of Dickie and I believe that so many from those youth teams went on to be part of Chelsea's history because he kept our feet so firmly on the ground.'

Much has changed in football since Bobby was netting his Youth Cup final hat-trick 48 years ago, but the thrill of victory never will. He has his fingers-crossed that the youthful players beginning the two-legged decider tonight can follow in his footsteps.

'I'll definitely be keeping my eye on the games and wishing them all the best. I am sure they can do the same as we did. It is a long time coming but everything has to break sometime.'

Kick-off at Stamford Bridge is 7pm and all support for the young Chelsea side will be most welcome. Entry is free and via the West Stand initially and the East Stand if the West fills.

If you can't make it along, Chelsea TV's exclusive live coverage begins at 6pm.

chelseafc.com will be reporting on the game and there will be regular mobile phone updates at wap.chelseafc.com