The look on Frank Lampard’s face when he scored for Manchester City against Chelsea early this season took his father back more than 30 years, to his son’s first football match.

‘Solemn,’ says Frank Snr. ‘That was his expression that day which seems a lifetime ago now and it was the same when he scored that equaliser against his old club.’

Young Frank was five when his dad took him to a park near their home on the Essex-East London borders and asked the organiser of a schoolboy five-a-side if his lad could join in.

Frank Lampard acknowledged the crowd but didn't celebrate after scoring for Man City against Chelsea

It was a typical Lampard goal - arriving in the box at the perfect time to finish things off

Lampard scored almost 300 goals but for this one there was no wild celebrations with team-mates or fans

‘It was his first proper game of any sort,’ says Lampard Snr. ‘He scored with almost his first touch. Smashed it between the sticks.’

So why the subdued emotion?

‘It was an own goal,’ says Lampard with a chuckle. ‘One of the first things I’d told him about football was that if he wanted to really make his mark he would have to score goals. So when the ball came to him in front of the posts he just banged it in, before remembering which way he was supposed to be kicking.’

The grown man who ended Chelsea’s winning run to the start of this Premier League season knew exactly what he was doing in the rather grander environs of the Etihad Stadium in September. This time the restrained response stemmed from his maturity of 36 years, rather than childlike innocence.

Lampard's fellow midfielder David Silva (No 21) had a smile big enough for both of them after the goal

He took professional pride in yet another of his almost 300 goals for club and country – but derived no specific pleasure in scoring against the team he served so brilliantly for 13 winters.

His father, as has been his wont down the years while young Frank has been surpassing his own distinguished career with West Ham and England, was in the crowd. Yet he missed the moment, not seeing the goal or the reaction until he watched Match of the Day back home that evening.

‘I left my seat with about 10 minutes to go,’ he says Lampard. ‘Frank was on the bench. It seemed too late for City to bring him on and I wanted to beat the traffic for the long drive back to London.

‘As I reached the car a friend inside the ground called my mobile to tell me they’d put him on. As I got in the phone rang again to tell me he’d scored.’

Saturday's match will be another reunion for Lampard and his former Chelsea captain John Terry

The memories come flooding back on the eve of Frank the Younger’s return to Stamford Bridge wearing the paler blue of Chelsea’s rivals for the Premier League title.

The circumstances of Saturday's second reunion have been altered by the controversy concerning the way City manoeuvred his transfer via New York.

But something else happened that day in Manchester. Something which reassures the Lampards as they go to this high-tension fixture, one which could virtually decide the championship, that they will be greeted with respect and no little affection by the home supporters.

Lampard Snr recalls: ‘As soon as I turned on the car radio the first thing I heard was the commentator on 5 Live screaming ‘’I can’t believe this….they’re singing Lampard’s name…..the Chelsea fans …..incredible.”

‘What did I feel? Well, yeah, it was extraordinary. I felt proud. Not only of Frank but even more so of the punters. Fantastic. I also felt a twinge of relief for my son. But then they’ve always been brilliant with him and I’m sure they will be again on Saturday.’

Lampard has seven goals for City this season - including the winner against Leicester in December

That confidence is fuelled by the knowledge that it was not by Lampard’s volition that he has found himself spending this season playing for another major Premier League club.

Frank Snr says: ‘He had not been offered a contract by Chelsea. So he would have to leave. There were no gripes from his side. This happens in football. All good things come to an end. Especially at a great club like Chelsea, the time comes when they want to move on. He accepted that and decided he would like to broaden his horizons by playing abroad.

‘So he signed for New York City, not Manchester City. When that was happening last summer Man City went to New York on tour and Manuel Pellegrini came to see Frank. He asked if he would like to join them until the end of the year as a way of keeping fit while waiting for the start of the season in America this March.

‘What was he supposed to do? Suddenly the champions of England are asking you to join their squad for a bit so you can stay in shape. In any walk of business if a company lets you go and someone else offers you the chance to work for them at the same high level, what do you say?

‘Frank spoke to me about it and I said to him that he would never get another chance of Premier League and Champions League football. I said to him: "You are a professional footballer. That’s your job."’ Our family has been brought up in football. It was all I knew.

Lampard's last goal for Chelsea came against Stoke in April last year - but he wasn't offered a new contract

‘Then football became Frank’s life. He was not the most naturally gifted. He had to work hard on his game. Very hard. Nothing came on a plate. He had to prove himself at West Ham. He had to prove himself at Chelsea when he first went there and they played him out of position wide on the right until he kept scoring goals in tough away games.

‘Years ago I told him that the first law of the game is to play. I said it again. Because that is always what we love the most and what we will miss the most. That was my opinion but he’s very much his own man. He made the decision.’

That decision was to rankle in New York when Pelligrini decided to keep Lampard in Manchester until the end of this season. But there will be no further extension of that arrangement.

Lampard Snr says: ‘Since I go to most of his games I expect I’ll be making half a dozen or so trips over there later this year. I’m really looking forward to watching Frank play his first matches in New York and America this summer.’

Frank Snr, pictured with his boy and future daughter-in-law Christine Bleakley, goes to young Frank's games

Father and son watched Chelsea beat QPR the FA Cup fourth round at Loftus Road in January 2012

Frank Snr says the young Lampard had to work very hard to prove himself and get to the very top

The proud dad was on hand when Frank was awarded his 100th England cap at Wembley in November 2013

Make that in mid-June at the latest. Perhaps as early as May if City fall out of contention for the Premier League and are knocked out of the Champions League before the final.

The timing will depend on professional criteria, not how much he is enjoying himself in Manchester.

Lampard settled in quickly at the Etihad, in part with the help of City legend Mike Summerbee who is now an ambassador for the club.

Frank Snr explains: ‘Mike and I go back a long way. When I was a full back at West Ham and him a winger with City we had a good rivalry. We used to kick lumps out of each other. We were hard and honest with each other because unlike most wingers, he kicked back. Since then we’ve always been good to each other down the years.

Lampard made his West Ham debut in January 1996 when his uncle, Harry Redknapp, was the manager

‘As soon as Frank got there he told me that Mike was very welcoming and kind to him so I knew he was in safe hands. I knew the manager would take to him, too, once he got to know him. Because what you get with Frank is a model professional.

‘City’s fans have been fantastic with him too, just like Chelsea’s. Great.’

Now comes the litmus test of the Stamford Bridge love affair with their all-time leading scorer and top midfield player.

The Lampards have no qualms about returning, even though City will be striving to prevent Chelsea pulling vitally further clear in the title race.

Frank Snr says: ‘They know the depth of our feeling for the club. We both still live within a stone’s throw of the Bridge. I am sure they remember everything Frank has done for them. Like playing in that Champions League semi-final against Liverpool only a couple of days after his mother died.

‘Avram Grant was the manager and when we lost Pat he offered to rest him. But my lad did not want to let the fans down. He insisted on playing. Scored the penalty which got them to the final. And we will always carry with us that image of him pointing to his mum in heaven.’

He scored in the final, too. And although Chelsea were to lose to that other team from Manchester on penalties that was yet another of those goals which have hallmarked his success.

His father says: ‘He also had to work hard to win over the England fans. He got a lot of jibes from the Wembley crowd at one point but I said to him that his goals, on top of his hard work, would turn it round. Scoring is the hardest thing and when you put your goals on the table you earn your respect.’

Lampard scored in the Champions League against Liverpool just days after his mother passed away

Lampard looked up in tribute to his late mum after his goal against the Reds at Stamford Bridge

The midfielder had told manager Avram Grant that he wanted to play in the match

There were more than 200 for Chelsea. Now one against them could be enough to complicate Jose Mourinho’s campaign to regain the championship from City.

Will they face him from the start or from the bench?

The Lampards don’t know yet, although much of his playing time for City has been as a scoring substitute.

Either way, Frank Snr knows how his son will react.

Lampard will always have a special place in the hearts of the Chelsea supporters

‘He’ll approach it as a proper professional. If he does score he won’t celebrate. He has too much respect for Chelsea, especially the fans. Me too. I think I may have invented that run round the corner flag when I scored one of my rare goals with a diving header against Everton at Elland Road in an FA Cup semi final. But on Saturday I’ll just sit quietly watching.

‘I have a good relationship with the fans. When I was caught up in the traffic going to the Etihad last weekend they were joking through the car windows and having a giggle with me. And I’ll be among friendly faces in my usual seat, like I was on Tuesday when I went to see them beat Liverpool. Don’t forget, me and Frank have kept our season tickets at the Bridge.

‘Whatever happens it’s an incredible story which not even Charles Dickens could have written.’

As it happens, Frank Jnr is penning the final chapter with his exploits on the field of play.

Will it have a fairytale ending, like the popular children’s books he now enjoys writing?

Not even the Lampards know that.

Lampard has spent time on the bench this season - his old club will hope he stays there on Saturday night