Sat 15th October 1977. Charlton Athletic 4 (1) (McAuley 2, Flanagan 71 78 82) Tottenham Hotspur 1 (1) (Taylor 25) The Valley. Att: 30,706
Charlton: Wood, Penfold (Gritt 41), Warman, Tydeman, Campbell, Berry, Powell, Abrahams, Flanagan, Peacock, McAuley.
Spurs: Daines, Naylor, Holmes, Hoddle, McAllister, Perryman, Pratt, McNab, Moores, Robinson, (Stead 80), Taylor.
Referee: B J Homewood (Sunbury)
Serious injury: Penfold suffered a double fracture of his right leg in the 41st minute - a complete accident after competing for a ball with McAllister.
Fighting: Some fans were injured when fighting broke out in the Covered End. The game was held up for a short time when hundreds spilled onto the pitch to get away from the trouble.
Highest crowd: For the second successive home match, The Valley attendance was the highest in the second division. There were also five top flight games with lower gates.
Free scoring: With Boro failing to score at Chelsea, Charlton remained the only club in the football league to have scored in every game.
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Comments
This was the season after Spurs had been relegated - without checking, probably the only season they had outside the top flight since about 1950. To win 4-1 against Spurs in their promotion year was some achievement.
I was squeezed into an unusually packed East terrace. The atmosphere was electric at times, Flash's hatrick against his old club was absolutely the highlight.
Hugh McAuley opened the scoring with a rare goal. Signed from Carlisle, if I remember, he was a hard working direct left winger much derided by some sections of the crowd. Newcastle had 'Super Mac', Charlton had 'Plastic Mac'.
Laurie Abrahams playing for us - there's a forgotten name - he was an inside forward-cum-striker, skilful but lightweight.
Martin Robinson playing for Spurs - we signed him soon after and, in his own quiet way, became a regular goalscorer for us and a bit of an unsung hero.
That match may also have been Stevie Gritt's debut, coming on as sub. I can't remember if he was on loan or just signed from Bournemouth. Charlton legend in his own right.
There was plenty of action on and off the pitch with sporadic fighting throughout the game. It was the norm for large groups from the Bermondsey area to come along and perform a their own version of 'meet and greet' on days when we had big clubs visiting.
Oggy mentions Martin Robinson above, a favorite of mine in that era who formed a good partnership with flash for a while.
ps just looked it up, Spurs finished 3rd in the 2nd division behind Bolton and Southampton but still got promoted.
They were relegated the previous year and had one season in Div Two - I remember them beating someone (Bristol Rovers from memory) something like 9-0, I don't think they were promoted as champions though.
Colin Lee scored four in that 9-0. I don't know why I remember that but I was on holiday in Cornwall at the time, October half-term.
They put a picture from the match on the front of the programme later in the season with the East Terrace in the background. It was absolutely packed, no spaces anywhere to be seen.
One of those days you look back on with pride.
But it was once what makest a man, a football man anyway.
As Southampton aluded too, there were many, many more people in The Valley that day than 30,000.
It's the only game I've ever been at where people were being stretchered away in front of the goal whilst the game was still going on.I always wondered what would have happened if a goal was stopped by hitting a stretcher.
As for the game 4-1, Flanagan hat trick, brilliant.
I remember the size of the crowd, the Spuds fans occupying the covered end. Some Millwall hooligans joining our smallish bunch of yobs trying to re-take the covered end, some yobs hurling building materials into the fray.
As for the game, it was nip and tuck in the first half with Penfold's leg being broken by a nasty tackle by McAllister.
As for Flash's hat-trick it was just an amazing 10 minutes. His first causing the Spuds to try and force an equalizer, which left them vulnerable to the counter attack and counter attack is what we did. I walked out at the end on cloud nine. We all knew that the Spuds were nailed on for promotion and we had stuffed them with some amazingly incisive football.
I went to the away trip later on where we took the lead, only to lose it fairly late on. The angry abuse which was hurled at us and the attempts of the Spuds fans to get at us by invading the pitch and jumping into our small away area was pretty scary.
Still happy days though.
Free scoring: With Boro failing to score at Chelsea, Charlton remained the only club in the football league to have scored in every game.
Well we're keeping that up so far this season.
Blimey ...
I remember being more interested in the punch ups in the crowd than the game.
But that was it i was hooked, im sure the next game i went to at home was a draw against Mansfield!
He also took me to WHL later that season when we lost 2-1 to dubious refereeing so my joy was short lived.
I think Hugh Mcauley actually signed from Plymouth but went to Carlisle after leaving us maybe via Tranmere , I think he may have played against us when we secured promotion in 81.
He was also signed with the Hales money and was ironically sold just before killer returned so his outgoing fee would have helped pay for Hales's return.
He is most famous now as a coach for his work with Liverpool academy.
Also 3 future Charlton players in the Spurs team
I used to play in the same Sunday team as Mark Penfold - Penhill Standard (all be it he was a couple of years younger, he was just that good!)
Hope your'e all going to be saying happy birthday on Thursday!