Chelsea players had come close to winning the FA Cup before. We were losing finalists in 1915 and in 1967, three years before many of the same players eventually triumphed.

There had been numerous semi-finals too, but on a late April evening in Manchester, watched by a packed crowd in the stadium and a record TV audience, Chelsea at last won the Cup.

To celebrate that famous day, we have compiled words from past interviews and autobiographies of several members of Dave Sexton’s Blues team in which they discuss events before, during and after the 1970 FA Cup replay win against Leeds at Old Trafford…

John Dempsey was a fierce defender who had joined the club from Southampton the year before…

Every boy's dream was to play in the Cup Final – that was the showpiece of the English football season. It's moved on now with games being shown on television almost every day, but league matches in the Seventies were not shown, it was just highlights on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon.

The main game was the FA Cup Final, so to get there and win it was perhaps the greatest thing for an English footballer at that time. It would have been great to win the league, but if you'd given most people the choice at that time they'd have gone for the FA Cup.

John Hollins was a Chelsea youth product and midfield dynamo who played his part as Chelsea fought back twice to draw 2-2 in the final at Wembley:

In the first game Leeds completely dominated and had it not been for Peter Bonetti and some good defensive work we would have been high and dry, out of the cup. We nearly nicked it in extra-time, although we wouldn't have deserved it in the Wembley game.

By the time we got to Old Trafford, the field had dried out completely. I wouldn't say it was dusty, but it was certainly much firmer and didn't have a lot of grass down in the middle. That made a huge difference to the game.

Charlie Cooke was a silky Scot who made magic in the middle of the park, not least his run and pass for Peter Osgood's iconic diving equaliser in the replay:

It surprised me when I remembered back that there was actually almost three weeks between the final and the replay. There was a lot of time to work up to it and think about it, so it was unusual in that sense, and also the pitches had dried out a bit. I don't think people realise just how soft and deep the mud was at Wembley for the first game.

Hollins: We were finishing off the season and there was a feeling you could take care of any injuries and you made sure you were fit. As far as the game itself, it was such a huge thing. People forget the rivalry between Leeds and Chelsea, this was a huge game.

Another thing you have to remember is that because the '67 final against Spurs was a London derby and we lost it, it was a huge disappointment for all the fans and the club. That was a big weight on the club's shoulders. We went on the train to the replay. I don't think we trained anywhere. We had a run but we just went up there, stayed in the hotel and had a sleep in the afternoon. But you were playing an FA Cup Final replay. How were you supposed to sleep in the afternoon?

Ron Harris, the captain, youth product and enforcer who switched position for the replay and neutralised main Leeds threat Eddie Gray:

You used to get into the train compartments and you'd get people walking through the trains, so you'd always mix with the supporters a little. Ossie used to invite some into the compartment. The only time they stayed away was when we were having our meal. That was always private.

Hollins: When we arrived we had scrambled eggs on toast and tea. I had no appetite at all. It was something really light, no steak and chips. You just had to feel like your stomach was full, to get a bit more relaxed and afterwards I remember thinking, 'I feel great; I'm ready to go now'. What impressed me most was the fans. As you came out of the tunnel at Old Trafford, the Stretford End was a mass of blue and white and there was a tremendous roar.

Harris: For the replay it was almost like we were playing at home. I'd say we had more fans there than Leeds even though Old Trafford is just down the road for them and it was on a Wednesday night. The vocal support was fantastic. It just erupted and I still get a tingle now when I think about it. The atmosphere at Chelsea wasn't as good because of the dog track and the fans were so far away from the pitch so when we went to Old Trafford I felt the support was tremendous. Anybody who played that game will tell you that.

Hollins: The whole feeling was that we had to do something for these guys but unfortunately we went 1-0 down. The whole place fell silent. We are looked around at each other but you could see it had annoyed everyone.

Harris: I do remember at 1-0 it went quiet but when Peter Osgood scored the diving header, the whole place erupted. At that point I think a lot of people would have backed Chelsea to go on and win, only because of the fantastic support.

Chelsea songs were all you could hear and scarves swinging was all you could see. It was absolutely fantastic. When we lost the first goal, Leeds' confidence was high but once Ossie scored you could see their confidence seeping away. All of a sudden they looked a lot smaller and we knew we had them.

Cooke: Ossie’s goal has been shown so many times over the years, but I never tire of it because I set him up! I saw him by Jack Charlton, floating around the edge of the penalty area. You try this type of chip 1,000 times in your career and they’re never quite ‘on’. But this time, I thought if I could just get it over Jack, Ossie had a chance.

I made the chip. My God, it was perfect. It drifted over big Jack’s head and Ossie just threw himself at the ball. He was horizontal. It hit the back of the net and Ossie capped it all when he stood up by punching the air. The noise in the place was deafening. What a moment.

David Webb – the defender who completed a fairytale story by scoring the winner in extra-time, having been given such an awful time by Leeds winger Eddie Gray in the first clash:

We talked about changing the defence as soon as we got on the coach to go home from Wembley. Ron Harris is a tighter marker than me and we thought it would be better if he took Eddie Gray who had given me such a hard time and I looked after Allan Clarke. We might even have done that in the first match if Ronnie had been fully fit and the way it worked proved what a good move it was. First of all at Wembley I thought the pitch was against me and then everything went against me. To get the winning goal was marvellous after all I went through then. Leeds thrived for a long time on intimidation but we were too brave for them.

Cooke: We finally deserved it in the end and it was a great event but leading up to the replay, the emotions were all real. It was very much Leeds versus Chelsea and there was a lot of feeling going into that game. Add the fact that it was an FA Cup final, an FA Cup final when they were extremely important as well. You didn't have the Champions League overshadowing it then. It was the big event of the year.

Let's not mince words. We all know the reputation Leeds have for hard men. In the heat of the match, when all you can think about is winning, it lifted me to see the way some of them were turning away and appealing to the ref.

In what was an exceptionally combative final, Eddie McCreadie committed the most extravagant and outrageous foul of it - and arguably all Chelsea history – when he kung-fu kicked Billy Bremner in extra-time:

I thought it was a great one! In actual fact, he was my friend and we played in the Scotland team together, and I had a couple of friends in that team – but I didn’t have any friends. Neither did Chopper. It’s professional soccer. I wouldn’t intentionally try to hurt Billy Bremner but this is show business, so to speak. I didn’t mean to catch him like I did. It was like a karate kick. I know that would hurt. The most amazing thing about that incident was that the referee let it go.

Hollins: It was about determination, skill and drive. We had the mentality that we would not let another goal in but we would score against them. The power and strength of that is amazing. We played 90 minutes plus 30 on a heavy, doughy pitch at Wembley, which took every bit of energy out of us. But all of us had to play; if somebody ran you had to pick him up. It tested everyone to their ultimate level of fitness and skill. It took everything out of us in the replay as well. There were 22 players who gave everything they had and all of them were very good players, but we came out on top.

Cooke: I’d also mention Peter Bonetti, who was so brave going down to the feet of onrushing forwards. In the replay, he got a knee to his thigh, a nasty Charlie horse. He couldn’t really move his leg for the rest of the game, but what a fantastic performance on almost one leg. He just wanted to see the game through and Webby probably would have gone in goal in his place – so it was a good thing he did!

Goalkeeper Peter Bonetti’s heroics in both games were pivotal to Chelsea’s triumph:

People say Mick Jones went for me in the replay, but I’m a bit more lenient than that – it was just one of those things. I went for a cross and his knee whacked right into my knee. It hit a nerve and I was in agony for quite a while, but I managed to get through the game and that was the main thing. I was actually delayed before coming out for the start of extra-time. I’d had my knee strapped at half-time, but when I came out for extra-time I had strapping around my boot because, believe it or not, it had split! It must have looked ever so funny.

It was a very physical battle every time we played them – none more so than the two games to decide the 1970 FA Cup. Everything went on, it was incredible that no one was sent off or got badly injured. I’ve got a video of the game and I look at it from time to time and I think to myself, ‘Bloody hell, I didn’t realise it was so brutal!’

Harris: I know people like to talk about the battles between Chelsea and Leeds from my time as a player in the 1960s and 1970s, but it does mean we don’t talk enough about the talent both sides had back then. There were generational talents in both teams. For us we had Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke and, a little bit later, Alan Hudson. All three were incredible talents and they were the lifeblood of the team. They were our match winners, while us other lads would give a little something else to allow them to play.

Leeds had Johnny Giles, Billy Bremner and Eddie Gray pulling the strings for them. And obviously the likes of Norman Hunter, who could bully the opposition and was a very physical player. My point is, though, there was a lot more to these teams and I think that’s why we always had a good game against each other. It’s what made the rivalry what it was, as we tended to be quite similar.

Defender Marvin Hinton played over 300 times for Chelsea and came on as a substitute in both finals:

I only played the last 13 minutes of the replay, although it might have been the longest 13 minutes of my career! It was real backs to the walls stuff and they threw everything at us to try and get back in the game. But when the whistle went, what a feeling. Everyone was jumping up and down, hugging and kissing. That was the best moment of my career.

Harris: The only disappointment for the players was we didn't have the 39 steps to walk up to lift the trophy; it took a bit of the gloss off it. Everybody will tell you walking up the steps is all part of the whole experience but it never happened for us.

Hollins: At the time the FA Cup was sponsored by the milk board and we were in the bath drinking pints of milk and I was thinking, 'milk?' while David Webb was sat in the bath, with a cigarette, saying, 'We've won it,' while drinking milk. It was quite surreal.

Cooke: I don't think we drank too much milk. It was a pretty wild group then and we enjoyed a little bit more than milk at that time. The celebrations were brilliant. It was a joyous time, it must have been a bitter moment for Leeds, a tough one to take for them, but we were overjoyed. That was a huge thing for the club, the first big one, Leeds, first historic replay, all these things made it big. A lot of people took time off work, a lot of kids took the next day off school. It was just brilliant for everybody.

Hollins: I remember we had the FA Cup on the train, bacon and eggs, a few beers, lots of singing and the journey took no time at all. Then there was an open-top bus which took us from Euston Station all the way down to Fulham Town Hall.

Harris: There were a few blurry eyes on the train, because we'd all had a celebration the night before. Then we had to catch the train back at 7.30 in the morning. But I can remember getting off at Euston and driving on the bus all the way back. That was fantastic. I have never seen so many people in and around Fulham Road. Thousands and thousands of supporters who would have travelled back in the morning. That will stay with me until the day I die. The supporters were all singing the songs from the terraces and going past a market, people threw up apples and pears to the lads.

Hollins: There was plenty of champagne at the Town Hall. There were thousands of people out the front and we went out on the balcony.

Harris: Chelsea had been starved of success and I'm proud of the fact that I'm the first Chelsea captain to ever lift the Cup. It was an historic moment.