The week that was - Sat 1st April 1978. The New England Tea Men.

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Thirty years ago and no April fool's joke!

Saturday 1st April 1978. Field Mill. Att: 6,691

Mansfield Town 0 (0) Charlton Athletic 3 (1) (Gritt 42, Shipperley 65, Robinson 85)

Charlton: Wood, Berry, Warman, Tydeman, Shipperley, Dugdale, Powell, Robinson, Flanagan, Peacock, Gritt. Unused sub: Shaw.

Referee: N Glover (Chorley)

Tea Men: Lawrie Abrahams left for the United States on the day of the above match to join New England Tea Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Tea_Men. Colin Powell (5th April) and Mike Flanagan (8th April) followed shortly after with Manager Andy Nelson confident that Charlton would be in no danger of relegation. Nelson argued it was in the best long-term interest of the club. This logic would have been shot down as nonsense had the club been relegated. In the end this was just, and only just, avoided with the team managing just one win in their remaining seven games and required a point from their final game of the season to ensure safety.

Oh and a little history of 'Soccer' in the USA for those of you young enough to think a league was created this season for Beckham to play in... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Soccer_League

Big William

One of the all time Charlton balls-ups. We ended up going to Orient needing a point, it was rearranged after the original fixture was abandoned earlier in the season. Even then, the first attempt to play it on a tuesday night was scrapped, heavy rain again, and it was rearranged for the next night. Ended up 0-0 and it could easily have gone either way. Quite a noisy walk through the Woolwich foot tunnel afterwards, great acoustics down there. Even at 30 years distance, letting Powell and Flash go before we were safe was quite unbelievable. The Charlton of that era seemed to love gimmicks, this was a world class one.

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A bit of History for young 'uns and newbies..