An impressive run of success by some familiar old Chelsea names in the London Masters came to an end on Saturday night.

A Blues side won their regional six-a-side indoor tournament the previous five years and progressed to triumph in the national final back in 2004.

Some prestigious old boys including Gianfranco Zola, Peter Bonetti, Gustavo Poyet, Roberto Di Matteo, Dan Petrescu and Dennis Wise have taken part in the past.

This season, Tore Andre Flo was a new addition but the Chelsea team failed to recover from the damage inflicted by an opening game defeat - although they came mighty close to rescuing the situation.

The full Chelsea squad for 2008 was goalkeeper Alan Judge, captain David Lee, Ken Monkou, Peter Rhoades-Brown, Gareth Hall, Kevin McAllister, Darren Barnard and Flo.

The team's first group game at Wembley Arena was against Crystal Palace with Barnard giving Chelsea a lead midway through the eight-minute first-half. But Dean Gordon headed in after a messy scramble and Bobby Bowry scored to give Palace the lead before the break.

Flo went close twice in quick succession after the sides switched ends but having survived a Gordon howler of a miss, defenders Monkou and Lee both had shots saved, leaving the final score 2-1 to the south Londoners.

Other results meant Chelsea needed to win by three clear goals in their second outing against an in-form West Ham and they surprised many by establishing just such a lead even after Keith Rowlands had given the Hammers an advantage.

Keeper Alan McKnight was not a stranger to the odd blunder in his Upton Park days and he rolled back the years to inexplicably let a Barnard shot past him to level the scores.

Barnard, who left Chelsea 15 years ago, added a second before the break, followed by a trademark rocket from Lee and a good finish by Flo to put the Blues 4-1 up and in a position to make the final with just a couple of minutes to go.

However West Ham went straight up the other end and Rowland scored past a helpless Judge, who had been a short-term cover signing back in 1994.

Chelsea went out; West Ham went on to beat Watford in this year's London Masters final.