1. You knew him as Al, Al, Super Al and not Super, Super Al
2. You were in one of those 800 crowds at Selhurst
3. You thought Gordon Watson was going to go on and be a superstar
4. You've never seen a player more skillful than Morts
5. You've never seen a player worse than Ralph Milne
6. You were one of the first 400 subscribers to the Valiant 500. The next 200-odd were johnny come lately's
7. You thought Killer could take on King Kong, and win
8. You've bought peanuts for a tanner a bag
9. You refused to shop in Sainsbury's because it was linked to Selhurst
10. You ripped the Palace badge off the corner of your ticket as soon as you walked through the Selhurst turnstyles.
11. You knew who Steven Alan was and was happy to be part of his red and white army.
12. Whenever you pass Barry Nugent out and about you want to shout 'Nugget, Nugget, Nugget, we want a cup of tea'
13. You've asked Headphones Norm what the scores were during a game.
14. You were on the Valley pitch at the Stoke match.
15. You look forward to the pre-season drink up at Welling United more than a trip to Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge
16. You've been to an away game that was cancelled. Bonus points if you took in another game.
17. You really believed that 'Things Could Only Get Better'
18. You were part of Valley Away, and branded morons by your manager
19. You stood on a near deserted East Terrace
20. You broke into the Valley during the exile. Bonus points for cameras.
21. You were proud when Motty boasted of the 'European standard' floodlights
22. You remember when Charlton songs were more than just Europop der, der, der's and dee, dee, dee's
23. To you, it was Martin, Martin Robinson scoring goals, not Johnny, Johnny Robinson.
24. You marched to Woolwich Town Hall. Bonus points for getting a seat inside, and double bonus if like Buckshee you're sporting a dodgy barnet on the video.
25. Half time was a bovril not a frothy, stroppy latte, a dog burger not a spinich and broccoli slice, and wagon wheel not a fruseli bar
26. You've been a ballboy or mascot, or a junior red on the pitch
27. You've a draw or loft full of old Voice of the Valley's, Goodbye Horses, Valiants Viewpoint, Lennie Lawrence's or Remember Remember's.
28. It was weird seeing something Charlton related in the Shoot, Topical Times Annuals.
29. Sunday nights we're radio nights. You wanted to smash Vic from Charlton into The Thames. You sometimes taped the radio show to listen on the way to work.
30. You've been in a pub where Killer, Colin Walsh, Stuart Balmer, or Eddie Youds were drunk.
31. You've been in a nightclub when Scott Minto or Anthony Barness was on the pull.
32. You remember when the Player of the Year do's were proper low market booze ups.
33. You've always thought it was criminal Johnny Humphrey didn't get the England call.
34. You try not to but you can't help but dislike Scott Parker for railroading our most successful season.
35. You've had a heated debate defending the fact Leaburn does a fantastic job for the team.
36. You've nearly got into a fight with a Leaburn defender after branding him the worst footballer ever in the world.
37. You actually attended away games at the Old Den, unlike others.
38. You had a pointy hat with Charlton on one side, and a Scottish club on another.
39. You sung 'we'll never play you again' to Palace in our promotion season.
40. You were at both Carlisle and Blackburn for confirmation.
41. The atmosphere at Portman Road for the 1st leg was the most electric you can remember
42. The feeling standing in the tiny corner of St Andrews was the most scared you can remember
43. You remember when toilets were open air walls, not mirrored and full of hand dryers
44. You did the conga at Barnsley on the week before going back to The Valley
45. You made a late decision to go Highbury on hearing we could be going back to the Valley.
46. You travelled to an away game on a bus with no toilet, where you could smoke and drink. Where the coach was a fog by the Dartford Tunnel. Where you broke down on the way home.
47. You've fallen to the deck on a terrace after a Charlton goal, and not being able to get back up again as the surge falls over you.
48. You wanted Gritty to get the job, not Curbs.
49. Though living a non-lawbreaking existance, you get a sense of pride when you see Charlton graffitti
50. Whether for the return, or the snow at the den, or talal in the last minute, the 5th of December will always be your favourite day of the year.
51. You've drunk in the Waterman's Arms
52. You've hung around for a Kisella fisting and a Powelly leap
53. You've travelled on a football special
54. You really believed we'd go through up at Boro, that it was 'our year'
55. You thought Lennie was a bit out of order regarding Alan Kernagan
56. You were one of the 86,000 that claimed to see the Huddersfield comeback, despite the offical attendance of 12,535
57. You remember when players actually had to play in mud. West Brom away was one of the worst you had seen
58. You choked up when you heard about Tommy Caton
59. You thought the Inter Milan tie up was a massive coup, and would send us on to great things.
60. You thought Neil Redfearn was just what we needed to stay up, a goalscoring midfielder.
61. You saw Flanagan and Killer trading blows with each other
62. You been on a Barmy Betty Hutchins coach, or bought a Mars Bar off Syd Cheesewright for 60p.
63. You wondered if the Archbishop Desmond Tutu really did sponsor Charlton players.
64. You attended a Sparrows Lane open day and was an original Valley Golder
65. You could not believe that was Alan Simonsen on the other side of the pitch
66. You don't know whether to laugh or cry at the name Kelvin Morton
67. You could not believe that 14,838 said YES
68. You've possessed a novelty Charlton t-shirt. Bonus for 'i've seen the donkey's at the Selhurst Park Donkey Sanctuary'
69. Thinking that if Jesus Christ was a Superstar, then so was Arthur Horsfield
70. You witnessed Chelsea taking, and torching the Covered End.
71. Hearing rumours that Millwall we're going to show up.
72. You've wondered whether that Addick / Haddock link-up is really a load of old bollocks
73. You spent 45 minutes watching Chris Powell's every touch with pride and fear in his debut against Spain
74. You know where you were when you heard Dowie had been sacked.
75. You know what the initials ETCYT stand for
76. You get frustrated when the club don't confirm a rumour within 28 minutes
77. You remember when the only piece of free Charlton info you could get would be the Mercury on a Thursday.
78. You couldn't take no more waiting till Thursday, and phoned Clubcall at 40p/min
79. You thought Target 10,000 was 'pushing it a bit'
80. You've sung to Eltham Addick's old man, Les, 'who's up Sooty's arse, Matthew, Matthew Corbitt' despite him clearly getting the hump with it.
81. You we're still paying for Junior Red ticket when you were 20 years old.
82, You thought Killer looked cool in his Killer tracksuit
83. You've drunk in the Waterman's Arms
84. You know of a copper called Pc Jim, who once walked into the Covered End
85. You remember when you could park within two miles of the ground.
86. You had an inflatable banana
87. You marked team team changes and substitutions on the back of your programme (bloke next to me did this last night, could not believe it)
88. You miss the old numbered half time scoreboards
89. You never liked Mike Salmon or Wilo again after they gave the Covered End the w***er signs
90. You thought the little garden in front of the temporary changing rooms was a bit sad
91. You remember every detail of that 'Battle of the Bridge' day
92. Feeling strangely proud when we won the Guinness Soccer Six in Manchester. Being suprised at Leaburn's ground skills.
93. You managed to get a ticket in either the home or away end at Twerton Park, for the last game of the season against Bristol Rovers
94. You've been to an away game purely because it was a new ground.
95. You swallowed you're pride and paid Jordan £35 to see Dennis In The Last Minute
96. You've had your name called out over the tannoy because you're wife has gone into labour
97. You had someone come up to you when you're wearing a replica shirt to ask 'what team's that mate'
98. You sang on the Valley Floyd Road charity CD and got drunk in the Lord Herbert afterwards.
99. You marched with pride back from General Gordan Square to The Valley on 5/12/92
100. No matter where you are, what league we're in, how crap the team we have might be, you're always PROUD TO BE CHARLTON
1
Comments
Valiant 500 subscriber 301 and STARTED 39. My proudest moment.
especially No. 80........LOL
Bonus points included being in the Town Hall - Above the Irish Flag with the CAFC BAdge on it - christ knows where that came from.
Cancelled away game - Does Selhurst count? We decided to go Gillingham instead, train got cancelled from Woolwich Arsenal so had to get a bus, then when we got to Gill the game was cancelled about 1/2 before kick off to which I was really fuming then realised I was lucky when I realise there where 6 Carlisle supporters at the front of the bus.
Bonus pints for remebering it????
0898 12 11 46!!!!!!!!
I'll get me coat
Forgot about Clubcall.
When I was about 12 I ran up a massive phone bill by phoning Clubcall all the time. This was in the days when you just got your bill and it wasnt itemised. My parents went nuts when they saw the bill so requested that BT send them an itemised bill to show what calls were made. When it came through the post I hid it and me and my mate typed one up on his Commodore Amiga with a load of made up numbers and additional family calls (anything but 0898) and sent it in the post and the old man believed it, I still cant believe I got away with that one :)
ha ha nice one geez, did you ever own up once you were all grown up??
Our phone bill was probably about £15-20 a month in those days and it came in about £70 :)
Never phoned again.
RIght, i'm all Charltoned out, i need a replacement 'you're not proper Charlton unless' suggestion for number 83.
Over to you lot....
*I feel like Willy Wonka with his golden tickets*
You should add setting up a message board mate, it's the mutts nutts
re no.20
done this armed with a hacksaw to cut off 1 of those swords on top of the main gates.
was spotted and police turned up. absolutely shat myself.
only thing missing off list is singing ' who's the poof in the green and black, nigel nigel batch'.
Hands up who went to the 'female jelly wrestling' night at The Valley Club......
I'd be tempted to agree, except I remember Talal El Khalej.
And Richard Rufus too.
Not sure about this one, which year are you talking about? I do remember an FA Cup away game, not sure whether it was West Brom or Notts County, where it rained so heavily that the ball floated across a puddle on the goal line for their winner. Anyone else remember that?
And Pierre Bolangi.
Didn't he end up as top scorer in the competition? Probably the only event where his tendency to shoot wide was an asset, as the ball would bounce off the plexiglass and he'd stick in the rebound while the goalie was still on the floor.
What about being at Swansea in 1984 and talking to the players during their warm up about whether it would be our last ever game?
Wondering how the steps at the top of the East Terrace got to be so big?
Loved that place, 'grew up' in there.
But not as frightening as the walk back to the train station...
think i'll highlight out individual ones as conversation starters over the next few weeks.
Ali - definately the West Brom cup game
Good suggestions for 83 so far, any one else got another ??