In November 1994, the Blues travelled to the Austrian capital for a European Cup Winners’ Cup tie during our first continental campaign since the early-Seventies. We were only in the competition thanks to Manchester United doing the Double the previous season, which included an FA Cup final win over Glenn Hoddle’s side, but Chelsea fans deprived of any European action for decades were not about to complain about that…

Having seen off Czechoslovakian side Viktoria Zizkov in the first round, our next assignment was against Austria Vienna (although they were known as Memphis in those days, due to a sponsorship deal).

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A 0-0 home draw might have been considered an excellent first-leg result by Jose Mourinho, but for a Chelsea side in 1994 without the resources the Portuguese coach had at his disposal, it was far from ideal.

Last striker standing

What is more, player-manager Hoddle was dealing with an injury crisis that he could confidently state had left him ‘down to the bare bones’. So, while an away goal would be even more crucial, having prevented our opposition from getting one, club-record signing Paul Furlong and the previous season’s top scorer Mark Stein were both out injured. Our next go-to when it came to scoring goals, John Spencer, was struggling with a hamstring problem.

Ahead of the trip to the Ernst Happel Stadium in the Austrian capital, Spenny decided that this was no ordinary game. It was a mission into the unknown, which needed a different kind of pre-match preparation…

‘Me, Craig Burley, Kevin Hitchcock and a few of the guys had been reading the book Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab and before the game I ended up shaving my head like I was SAS,’ joked the Scot when talking about his new streamlined look for the game in an interview for the Chelsea programme years later.

‘That's why the dressing-room environment is such a unique place. Some of the stuff that goes on there would drive some people crazy, but for footballers it's just a normal world. I was just doing my bit for team spirit and morale.

‘Hitchy and Craig Burley said to me: “You'll never do it, you'll never do it.” but it was Kevin's wife, Fiona, who ended up doing the shaving. I can't say my own wife was too happy at the time! Looking back on the photographs, luckily it wasn't too short anyway.’

Keystone Cops

So, Spenny and co. were going behind enemy lines for a European test that promised to be far sterner than the routine win over Zizkov in the previous round. For the first 40 minutes, we kept the opposition at bay, before a kamikaze corner routine from the home side offered us an opening that Spencer would gobble up.

Just about everyone went up for the corner shortly before half-time, and when it didn’t go to plan and the ball fell to the Scot on the edge of his own box, there was only one thing for it…

‘They had a corner and only left one man back, but he decided to come up for a short one and had a shot blocked,’ he said. ‘It just fell into my path and I couldn't believe nobody was there, so I just kept running and running and running – a bit like Forrest Gump! Eventually I went around the goalkeeper and put it in. I don't think I ever ran that far in my life again.

‘While the goal was fantastic, I have to say it was bad defending from them. A lot of Chelsea fans ask me about this goal – and I remember telling one of them the last time I ran that fast was because I was getting chased in Glasgow by the police!

‘I’d actually been out for a few weeks before the game with a hamstring injury and I think this was my first start since, so you can imagine how knackered I was. There’s a picture of me with Wisey and Eddie Newton celebrating with the fans, and then another where I’m behind them, slumped on the turf!’

How the massive following of Blues fans who made the trip – some 7,000 of them – celebrated the goal. The other end of the stadium from where it was scored, the jubilation lasted almost to the half-time whistle!

Although Austria Memphis pulled a goal back with 20 minutes to go, the away goal had done the damage – and, with it, written Spencer’s name into Chelsea folklore. Just this month it featured on this website in a list of the club’s best-ever European goals.

At the time, though, it was far more important than that. It ensured our first modern European adventure would continue after Christmas, which felt like a huge deal at the time.

A famous comeback over Bruges followed in the last eight, before we eventually fell to a Real Zaragoza side who went on to lift the trophy by beating Arsenal, courtesy of Nayim’s famous goal from the halfway line.

Spencer’s goal might not live on in the memories of the wider football watching public in quite the same way as the Spaniard’s audacious effort, but for Chelsea fans of a certain vintage it meant an already popular player had assured himself of cult-hero status for years to come.