When Hitchy signed for Chelsea from Mansfield Town in March 1988, the Blues were heading towards the Second Division – a fate which eventually befell us via the play-offs, with our new goalkeeper between the sticks for the two-legged defeat to Middlesbrough which remains the only time a club has lost our top-flight status in that manner.

By the time he left us for Watford in the summer of 2001 to begin a coaching career which is now on its 10th stop, with New England Revolution, we had become regular trophy winners and welcomed a string of overseas superstars to the club.

In those 13 years, however, Hitchcock made only 135 appearances; by way of comparison, he was an unused substitute 243 times. But his role was far more important than that, as he was key to keeping the dressing room together and he notably struck up a firm friendship with Gianfranco Zola through a mutual love of golf.

The team at Chelsea magazine caught up with him at the start of 2017 to talk through some of his memories of an unforgettable time in west London and here are some of the best bits from that interview.

You spent 13 years here between 1988 and 2001, but it could have been even longer if the club hadn’t rejected you as a youngster...I was told I was too small and I would never be big enough to be a goalkeeper. To be honest, it wasn’t until I left school that I really began to grow and fill out, and I was turned down by Chelsea before that. Then I got a job as an apprentice electrician and I played non-league football for two years, which was the best thing I ever did. I learned football by playing it. That sounds very strange, so I hope you know what I mean! I had to grow up very quickly, because the lower you go, the harder it gets. Especially for goalkeepers – we had to look after ourselves a lot more in those days. I had two years at Barking, near West Ham, and I was picked up by a top manager: Brian Clough.

He wasn’t a bad judge of player, was he?He was fantastic with me and I can remember the first reserve team game I played for Nottingham Forest, which was up at Bolton and it was quite frosty. It was 0-0 at half-time and as I was about to run out for the second half, he pulled me to one side and punched me on the arm. “Young man, you’re in this team because you’re good enough. Now go out there and show me what you can do.” I felt 10 foot tall. It was brilliant.

It didn’t really work out at Forest, though, and you went on to establish yourself at Mansfield Town before joining us in 1988. But not before playing a blinder against Chelsea!I can remember Chelsea signing Roger Freestone, who had been at Newport, and we then played against them in the League Cup. I had a good game and afterwards, Ken Bates came into the dressing room and said, “I’ve signed the wrong goalkeeper!” That was when John Hollins was manager. Eddie [Niedzwiecki], God bless him, got injured and they were looking for another keeper – I went on deadline day in March 1988. It was Bobby Campbell’s first day as manager. The first thing he did was to sign me!

And then you were relegated within a few months…It was horrendous. I went into a club which was bickering. There were two groups in the camp. I’d come from Mansfield which was just a little club and everyone was together, so to join a big side like Chelsea with a big split in the middle was difficult. It took a little while to get everyone together.

On a personal level, which games stand out from your time at Chelsea?It’s so hard to pick just one. I always seemed to do well against Manchester City and I had a couple of great games at Maine Road. I think one game that really sticks out is going away to Brugge in the Cup Winners’ Cup. I played really well and in those days we used to get the same flight as the supporters; we got on the plane and they gave me a standing ovation. That was unbelievable, it’s something that always sticks in my mind. We beat them in a great game back at the Bridge and then went on to play Zaragoza in the semi-final. As good as they were, we were bad. But we signed Gus Poyet a couple of years later off the back of those games.

A lot of your time at Chelsea was spent as a back-up. Describe that role.It was frustrating, because you just want to play. I worked with Dmitri Kharine, Dave Beasant, Ed de Goey and many more, and if I wasn’t playing, I’d give those other keepers every ounce of my knowledge to help them prepare for the game at the weekend. I was desperate for them to do well. I’d give my all in every session to push them on. Whenever I speak with my young goalkeepers now ahead of a small-sided game in training, I tell them, “Make sure you’re better than the guy up the other end.” I pushed Bes and Dmitri, but not so much Ed – that was towards the end of my career – and I made sure they had to be on their toes. They knew if they didn’t perform that I was there. I’d like to think when I did come in and play for the club, I never let anyone down.

Did you have a good relationship with the other keepers?Yeah, fantastic. Me and Bes were really close and it was tough when he had his problems with Ian Porterfield because I felt he was really, really hard done by. But we stuck together and I was one of the first to speak to him after that Norwich game, when the manager said he’d never play for the club again. Our friendship never wavered regardless of what happened on the pitch. I’ve never had an issue with another goalkeeper at Chelsea, we were always close and I was never jealous of anyone – if they played, I always wanted them to do well. Maybe that was one of my strengths.

The bond seemed to spread through the camp – it was a very tight-knit group.I tell you who should get a lot of credit for that: Dennis Wise, Steve Clarke and myself. We were the senior players of the group and everyone who came in was told, “This is how we do it here. It’s our club.” And they all bought into it. We had people coming in after so much success in their career, but they all did it our way. Everybody was part of the family and that includes all of the people behind the scenes. When I go back to the club, there are still people here who were there when I started in 1988. It’s a fantastic club and they’ll never lose that.

And by the time you left you’d played in the same team as Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and Zola – and won more trophies than you could have ever dreamed of!No, not in a million years. I give credit to Wisey and Andy Townsend for bringing togetherness early on, but the next person who deserves so much praise is Glenn Hoddle. I’ve said it before and so many others have too, but he changed the club. He made it into a bigger club than what it was – and we were a sleeping giant for so many years. He signed people like Ruudy and Sparky. Then Ruudy took it on to another level – Robbie [Di Matteo], Luca, Franco. Fantastic signings. And we gelled. The foreign players we signed have to take a lot of credit for that because they took on board what we were like as a club. They accepted us straight away, we accepted them – it was a proper family club. That’s why we had so much success.

You managed to survive three different eras at the club, which took some doing.I left in 2001 so I just missed the next one under Claudio Ranieri, which was when the older players started to go. But the best thing was that someone was there to carry it on: JT. He kept going with what we built, which is amazing really, and he probably took it to another level. And I love him to death.

Of course, you struck up a great friendship with Gianfranco Zola after introducing him to golf…I introduced one person to golf but he’s better than me now so I don’t think that was the smartest thing I ever did. It’s strange, Franco couldn’t speak a word of English when he came over and within six to eight months he was one of my closest friends. We came from different backgrounds but our children and wives became very close – and are still close – and I’ve been very lucky with that.