A football historian has unearthed the five matches that Manchester City legend Tony Book played for Premiership rivals Chelsea. It could have been so different for the City icon if he had impressed the Stamford Bridge hierarchy back in 1954. Book died last month and ahead of his funeral it emerged that in his last game for the Blues Reserves side Book actually scored Chelsea’s goal in a 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic. But Book didn’t play well enough to earn a contract and later ended up being one of City’s finest ever players. Historian Andrew Rowley said: 'I did a bit of research and found that Tony actually played five times for Chelsea. He played for us twice in the Metropolitan League and three in the London Midweek League.'. He added: 'Being a lifelong Chelsea supporter and a collector of programmes for many years I’d always been interested in the history of our club. "When I heard that Tony Book had been for a 'trial' for us in the 1950s I started to do some research. "I found he actually played for us in 1954 - on five occasions. It just shows how the course of football history may have changed if Tony had impressed the Chelsea management in those games." Mr Rowley, from Saffron Walden, Essex is a member of the Chelsea Graves Society - an organisation which is tracking down the final resting place of every player. His research found that Book played in the following games for Chelsea in 1954. A 1-1 draw with Guildford City, on Feb 20th, a 3-0 defeat to Portsmouth on March 31st, 2-0 win against Brighton on 25th August, and a 1-1 draw on 18th October with West Ham followed by another 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic on 27th October. Book played alongside John Sillett who had an illustrious career for the Blues playing in the 1954/55 Division One championship side. He ended up managing Coventry City when they beat Spurs 3-2 in the 1987 FA Cup Final. Also playing in some of the games was Peter Brabrook who played 250 times for Chelsea before joining West Ham where he won the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup alongside Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. It’s not the first time Mr Rowley has uncovered part of football history. He found the grave of Harold Halse who was the first man to ever play in FA Cup finals for three separate teams - manchester-united-fc>Manchester United, Chelsea and Aston Villa. But Halse became forgotten and when he died in 1947 he was buried with little ceremony in an Essex seaside resort. His grave became derelict. But thanks to Mr Rowley it was found. At the time he said: 'We had been searching for Harold's final resting place for some time. We finally managed to find the grave from records of his wife and daughter who emigrated to Australia after his death and then were able to backtrack to Walton on the Naze. "It's been a privilege to play a small part in a project enabling us to remember and pay our respects to those who have played a part in our great club’s history." Join our new WhatsApp communityand receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.