Such is the regularity with which Chelsea Women play at Stamford Bridge and the huge crowds turn out to support them, it is easy to forget how far the team and the club has come in such a short space of time.

Not even a decade has passed since Chelsea Women, then known as Chelsea Ladies, won their first major trophy in what was the first Women’s FA Cup final to be played at Wembley. A maiden league title was secured later in 2015.

That was a year in which the England national team reached the World Cup semi-finals, broadening this country’s awareness of, and interest in, the women’s game. Momentum was swelling, nowhere more so than Chelsea.

In Emma Hayes we had one of the country’s top managers, and an influx of world-class players had bolstered the team’s domestic and European credentials. The signing of Fran Kirby, England’s star performer in Canada, was the biggest statement yet.

Wheatsheaf Park in Staines was a perfectly adequate home ground, as Imber Court and Imperial Fields had been before it, but the club had greater ambitions, targeting a fixture to be played at Stamford Bridge. Games against Arsenal and Manchester United at the Bridge in consecutive summers in the mid-1990s could at best be described as exhibition fixtures.

In 2015, our first European adventure had begun with victory over Glasgow City in the Round of 32, before we bowed out to perennial Champions League contenders Wolfsburg. When we drew the seeded German giants to kickstart our second continental campaign, in the autumn of 2016, a decision was made for the first leg of the tie to take place at Stamford Bridge, not Wheatsheaf Park.

A significant slice of club history would be written. Our very first competitive fixture in SW6, and our first since Chelsea Women turned professional, was set for Wednesday 5 October.

‘It’s very exciting for us to be playing at Stamford Bridge and it’ll be a special night,’ said Hayes.

‘It once again highlights the commitment and belief the club has in this team and it will be a real chance to show what we can do. I am sure the fans will come out in force to support us and create a fantastic atmosphere.’

Playing at the Bridge had been an idea years in the making. In his matchday programme notes, then-chairman Bruce Buck recalled a chat he had with Hayes at the Women’s Champions League final in 2013, contested between Wolfsburg and Lyon and held at Stamford Bridge.

‘Emma explained what she wanted to build here and how one day she hoped that the team would be playing on this pitch against the likes of Wolfsburg,’ revealed Buck. ‘In one sense, that mission has been accomplished, but I know Emma will not want the journey to end here.’

That was a message Hayes reiterated on the eve of the game.

'The opportunity to play at Stamford Bridge was something we couldn’t turn down,' she said.

'If we’ve the opportunity to get as many fans as possible to watch us in a big game then we should do that – and why not play it in a place the players get a chance to really feel what Chelsea is about?

'We enjoy the big stage and there is no better place to play the second-best team in Europe than at the club’s home.’

Tickets for the game, which took place during a men's international break, were priced at £5 for adults and £3 for juniors and seniors.

This was a time in which the WSL season ran from March to September, so the two games against Wolfsburg would be our last of the calendar year. We had lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal at Wembley and been pipped to the title by Manchester City. A statement European win would be the perfect reaction to those setbacks. One of our star players, Ji So-Yun, knew the size of the task at hand.

'They are a big team, very quick, and German teams are always strong physically,’ the South Korean noted. ‘Tactically they are smart and they are all clever players.

'They have everything but we know if we beat them we can go far in this competition. I don't want to play the first round with them, but I don't think they want to play us either.’

Captain Katie Chapman had won just about every major honour in the club game, including the UEFA Women’s Cup, precursor to the Champions League. She would be the recipient of the pennant in our museum that her opposite number Nilla Fischer handed over (pictured top).

‘As a player you always hope to play at the club’s main stadium and it is great to have that opportunity in such a big game,’ Chapman said.

‘It should be a fantastic night, but this is not just about the occasion and a celebration of how far the club has come. We are here to win and whether the match was in the local park, Wheatsheaf Park or Stamford Bridge, the tactics and mindset need to be the same.

‘It is another game and we need to block out certain elements and do our jobs. We will get a big crowd and will have home advantage, so I hope everyone gets behind us and we make this a night to remember for footballing reasons, not just the history of the occasion.’

Sadly, it is for the history of the occasion and not the result that the game is remembered. In front of 3,783 supporters, Wolfsburg proved a cut above. The two-time winners and finalists the previous season cruised to a 3-0 victory, Hungarian Zsanett Jakabfi netting a hat-trick.

That the team didn’t deliver in our first competitive game at Stamford Bridge only added to Hayes’ disappointment, as she explained in her post-match media duties.

‘I feel like I have let them down. I’ll say the right things about great numbers and being exciting and it really is, but I am a competitor and it absolutely kills me we haven’t produced something more worthy of the opportunity. We are better than that.

‘There are players out on the pitch who have played in World Cups, European Championships, Olympic finals. The occasion should be a doddle for most of them. The reality is the players want this.’

By the time Hayes next managed a team at the Bridge, three years later, they were called Chelsea Women, not Ladies, had won several more domestic titles, and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League twice. Nearly 25,000 fans, more than five times our record home attendance, watched Bethany England’s stunning goal defeat Spurs.

Chelsea Women walking out at the Bridge is now a regular occurrence. Nine games were played there last season, including every European home fixture in another run to the Champions League semi-finals. Next Thursday’s quarter-final second leg at home to Man City, for which tickets are on sale, will be our sixth in SW6 so far this term.

That we can enjoy these big occasions at our home ground is testament to the groundwork laid by Hayes and her team, and the many other people working behind the scenes at Chelsea a decade ago. The pennant given to us by Wolfsburg is an enduring memento of a landmark night in Chelsea Women’s history.

Tickets are still available for our Champions League quarter final second leg tie with Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. You can book your tickets for this must-see game on Thursday 27 March here.