I went to Sellout with a mate who was a Leeds fan. That was scary enough especially when we scored the winner towards the end of the game. My impression was that there were more Leeds fans there than Charlton.
I couldn't get the time off to go to either Elland Road or St Andrews. I can though remember pretty much every second of what I did on the evening of the St Andrews game which was also my birthday. I wish I'd been there although it sounds pretty scary.
You'll need to skip on a bit as it's a bit Leeds-centric and shows there game against Oldham as well.
It's never struck me before when seeing the goals, but our second probably wouldn't have been scored today because no one made any effort to charge down the freekick, which is basically a matter of course these days.
This was basically when I first started going to charlton, my first game was against ipswich in the semis....
Went to Selhurst which my dad warned me that we get attacked which obvoiusly added to the excitement but I was deifnnately a bit nervous when I saw all the leeds fans and at the final whistle a handful of leeds jumped over the fence and came at the arthur waite... which Id never seen before....
for the playoff final my dad was listening to it on the readio and we were so nervouse he had to stop the car on the side of the road and when we won we wnt absolutely ballistic.....
totally wore the highlights video out and when I met all the players the next year it was just fantastic......
still felt a bit funny and star struck when I met lennie and Johnny H again at city addicks....
Went to all three games.
Elland Rd without doubt the most intimidating ground I've been to.
St Andrews was a rollercoaster of emotions.
No trouble with Leeds fans at any of the games. Bit of a row with locals in Brum but the worst was after eventually getting to our car at Leeds Kev H the driver hit the car in front while we were stuck in traffic. Sat in the back of the car I thought "oh shit thats the end".
Thanks for the link. I've not seen the goals for 20 years, one of my friends had a video of the match but managed to lose it.
One of my memories of the night was Andy Peake playing a blinder - with just about every pass finding his man and fittingly he supplied the cross from the free kick that led to Shirtliff's winner. Then look at him run towards Lenny after...
One of those games thatI'll never forget - getting there was an experience, the match itself with the despairafter Sheridan's goal and then the equaliser and finally the winner. Never mind the play-off final against Sunderland, this for me will always be the best match I've ever been to.
remember running across the wasteland to the game 5 mins b4 kick off from the coach car park and feeling sick knowing/expecting to lose (as i always do for the BIG games)
getting in the ground and seeing the huge leeds following(i think they all lived in birmingham;-) compared to ours and thought we aint getting out of here alive if by some miracle we win and the miracle happened... as the final whistle went the leeds fans were trying to break thru the gates/fences to get on the pitch.....
and then the coach journey back where we give it to a leeds coach heading back south in the traffic jam on the M1 and shit ourselves when a few of em jumped out the back of their coach and started banging on our coach, our coach drivers quick thinking saved the day as he shot off down the hard shoulder.... we then went into a service station where we saw a leeds coach and the vote was to drive straight back out and head home ... no toilet on the coach so there must have been some twisted bladders that night.....
[cite]Posted By: Valley McMoist[/cite]The game at Elland Road was the only time I have ever been scared at a football match. Was chased by this nutter weilding an axe before the match. And for that reason I didn't go to St Andrews.
JESUS!
Lets hope football never returns to theses dark days.
One or two people on here have alluded to the fact that we played really well at St Andrews and that was one of the things I remember so well. Our passing was top quality and up until they scored, Leeds were never really in it. I remember my feelings just after we equalised.....I was happy that we'd played so well and the players had given everything all season so if we lost on penalties, it somehow wouldn't count as a proper failure. Then Shirtliff dived in for the winner so none of that mattered anymore! The Wembley play-off v Sunderland was pretty good....but in truth St Andrews will always be the game for me. There's nothing to beat the tension of being in a play-off when failure means relegation!
PS: Thank God the laws were different then too and the goalie could pick up back passes. How many of those did we do in those last few minutes of extra time?!?!?!
Went to all 3 games. Elland Road was hellish - thought the team did well not to go under.
St Andrews a surreal experience (as said previously) - there weren't huge numbers of us there, but did we go mad when the second goal went in - I finished up 10 yards down the terracing. For me a more nerve racking experience than Wembley, perhaps because the club were in such poor shape you feared we could go under if we lost.
Still watch the tape of the St Andrews game now & again. The Commentator (name escapes me) obviously favoured Leeds, but I still enjoy the enthusiasm with which he described the drama.
[cite]Posted By: mid_life_crisis[/cite]
Still watch the tape of the St Andrews game now & again. The Commentator (name escapes me) obviously favoured Leeds, but I still enjoy the enthusiasm with which he described the drama.
went to Selhurst and St Andrews, Dad wouldn't let me go to Elland Road as I was 13 I think at the time...remember getting to St Andrews just on kick off, trying to get through the turnstiles and Leeds fans just jumping over them (in our end) and the policy doing nothing.
Remember stopping at Watford Gap (I think?) on the way home and all Charlton fans dancing and doing the conga round the resturant
I remember going up to St Andrews by train as I worked for the railway, so didn't have to pay. The train broke down on the way, so had to sit and wait for a replacement engine to turn up for over an hour. We finally got to the ground with about 5 minutes to go before kick off.
After the game, because of extra time, we had to run back to the station. Half way into the town, as we passed a pub, several men jumped out of a doorway and with a big northern voice asked who had won. Now being a little nervous and not being able to tell if it was a brum or Yorkshire voice whispered the Charlton had. They cheered and said that they wanted us to win, and the were Birmingham, and told us not to stop and talk to anyone and just keep going till we got on the train.
When we got back to London, everything was closed, I ended up getting a cab to Waterloo East were using the fact I worked on the railway managed to get a driver of an empty train give me a lift back to Orpington station, and then an hour walk home, But, it was worth it!!
Dont remember much about the Selhurst game, and didn't goto Elland Road, but St Andrews....
Met a mate at Charing Cross about lunchtime (it was a Firday I believe), and we went to soccer scene at Carnaby Street and purchased a palarse shirt, which we later burnt around a crush barrier (well, big Duncan did, RIP).
Remember sitting right at the back of the stand on the floor when we looked like losing with the right hump, then just pure elation at the end.
The being chased down the road by loads of outrgaed Yorkshireman, and when we finally got back to London at a silly hour at Euston, spending all night until the first train out of Charing Cross drinking lager in Trafalgar Sqaure, if I'm not mistaken I think 1905 was there?
Don't remember too much about the game at Elland road (apart from being scared)
Never been to a game like the replay before or since. Closest I've ever come to crying at a match when they scored then absolute joy tinged with a feeling of disbelief when we got the winner.
Went selhurst and st andrews as a 16 year old,proper shite myself after the game in brum.Remember asking the old bill where the police escort was and being told better get on your toes by the solitary old bill outside.Also remember all the zulu warriors coming out of boozers on the way back to the station,telling us to piss off home as they were havin Leeds tonite.Didn't get any arguments off us.
As Southampton Addick says,we were very quiet in Kev H car hundreds of Leeds walking past us as we were in that traffic jam.
Still remember walking to the car park after the game and thinking this could be well on top.
Was a bank holiday monday and we had a great beer in a country village just outside Leeds and all the pubs were packed with them.
awful memories for me as that week i found my best mate dead , he was 34 and had died of a stroke in bed.Thought he was pissed and asleep till i turned him over.
had a ticket didnt go to game think i was in shock for a week or so.
Drove up to St Andrews with two mates (Steve & Greg). Abiding memories included trying to get to the ground unnoticed but surrounded by Leeds neanderthals in club colours (40 year olds with scarves around their wrists and flaired trousers!) and us being obviously Charlton because we went 'plain clothes'. Stick we got from Leeds supporters because of our small number (come in a taxi etc). Feeling sick to the stomach watching the Leeds fans congaing round the terraces after they scored. The ultimate fooball ecstasy of the equaliser and winner. Leaving the ground was like the start of the old Le Mans motor race. We raced from the place and across wasreland to the car while the Leeds fans were still stunned by what had happened and didn't look back until we got to the motorway.
Journey home was magic especially when we passed cars containing 'London whites'.
Funnily enough the worst trouble I saw was at the Ipswich away game. Was only 14 and absolutely bricked when we walked out of the terrace and were met with the sight of 100s of tractor boys charging towards us. From memory we took 1000s up to Ipswich, those two terrace pens were packed. When we were awarded the penalty the surge was terrifying! Was still recovering when Walshie missed it.
Elland Rd was a weird one. I think I was too young to feel properly intimidated.
Nearly got a beating from my mates dad at St Andrews - me and my mate were marching back to the car singing our heads off.......he looked very worried, poor bloke. The worst we got was an ice cream and hot dog lobbed at the car - we had hung our red and white scarves out of the back window without his dad knowing.
John Helm's words on the commentary still make the hairs on the back of neck stand up.....
"ohh its a good one..........Shirtliff!!!!!!!.....and its a Sheffield man that has probably kept Leeds in division two for next season".
The Leeds play-off replay was easily my most memorable match. Looking back I'm quite amazed that I actually went: I was only 14 at the time and although Large and Golfie accompanied me I think that it was a tad risky to say the least. It was strange that there were so few Charlton fans; it was a Friday night game but if the Leeds fans could make it why couldn't we? I'd only started going to away games that season and I knew we didn't take many but for a game of this importance I couldn't (and still can't) believe that we didn't take more.
Someone else mentioned the fact that for us a defeat meant relegation just mad it worse. Today's promotion play-offs are hard if you lose but to be relegated is worse. In addition, I may have only been 14 at the time but I realised that this game meant life or death for Charlton. I remember asking Large if we'd survive if we went down. I think he just shrugged. When people talk of 'must win' games now they make me laugh. When they talk of our situation now being bad, it makes me laugh. This was as bad as you can get.
Then we had the Leeds fans to think about. I think I was too young to really understand how bad it was. I'd got used to Large telling me to hide my shirt at away games and shut up, so I think I just thought it was more of the same. We were outnumbered by the other team's supporters just like normal away games (although this was neutral) so I think I saw that as normal too.
But it's easy to underestimate a 14 year old now I'm older. I only have to look back at this game to check myself. I had the same emotions about the game then as I do now - the same but stronger I think. I think that younger fans take things harder. They also have to take much more grief at school than at the workplace. I remember the Leeds fans dancing on the roof of the stands when they scored. I loathed them. The joy when we equalised was greater than that of the winning goal for me. As I 14 year old I got away with grabbing a policeman and trying to dance with him. I'd like to meet that policeman now ask him if he remembers the kid with tears streaming down his face in happiness. I was just elated to have the chance of a penalty shoot-out. Then the winner: I think that I was so stunned and extraordinary delirious that the run across the wasteland from the Leeds fans to the coaches was in my mind just like running from a slower kid at school at lunch-time. In my mind they wouldn't catch us because we were Charlton, we were staying up, we weren't going to go bust, and we were just better than them so why worry.
Another emotion was that the good guys had won, a little team with no money had beaten one of England's most well supported clubs. As JM says above we didn't take many fans there and those that did go speak after of the hostility from the Leeds fans who had around 75% of the ground. On the pitch Leeds carried on where their fans left off. Brendan Ormsby was stretchered off after trying to decapitate Garth Crooks, the traitorous Aizlewood was booked for a deliberate handball and in any normal match would have received a second yellow for anyone of a number of sly fouls, and they were typical of Leeds approach to the game and football in general.
Getting home was hazardous - especially for those who had to get back the station, but knowing that we'd won and done it the proper way and kept Leeds from bullying their way in to the first division made it all the more satisfying.
75%? More than that. We had one small corner of one end. 75% would mean three sides more or less. They had both sides and at least 1.5 ends. I'd say that we had one third of one end : one eighteenth of the ground. Therefore they had over 90% of the ground. It was as if we were away to Barcelona!
[cite]Posted By: jimmymelrose[/cite]75%? More than that. We had one small corner of one end. 75% would mean three sides more or less. They had both sides and at least 1.5 ends. I'd say that we had one third of one end : one eighteenth of the ground. Therefore they had over 90% of the ground. It was as if we were away to Barcelona!
We had a section of The Tilton and I would estimate max 1500 maybe less.
Leeds came from everywhere with flags from all over the country. I remeber them singing that
'we're going up tonight ' song .........wrong !
[cite]Posted By: jimmymelrose[/cite]75%? More than that. We had one small corner of one end. 75% would mean three sides more or less. They had both sides and at least 1.5 ends. I'd say that we had one third of one end : one eighteenth of the ground. Therefore they had over 90% of the ground. It was as if we were away to Barcelona!
We had a section of The Tilton and I would estimate max 1500 maybe less.
Leeds came from everywhere with flags from all over the country. I remeber them singing that
'we're going up tonight ' song .........wrong !
Is the Tilton stand to the right of where we stood? Or the standing area in the corner? From memory the pens behind the goal and the left hand corner were empty.
I thought we had a section of the seated stand to our right, but I've no idea if we had any fans in there and if so how many (I was stood at the back). Also I think the gate that night was between 17K and 17.5k and we took around 2000, although it's difficult to work these things out in grounds you don't know.
[cite]Posted By: jimmymelrose[/cite]75%? More than that. We had one small corner of one end. 75% would mean three sides more or less. They had both sides and at least 1.5 ends. I'd say that we had one third of one end : one eighteenth of the ground. Therefore they had over 90% of the ground. It was as if we were away to Barcelona!
We had a section of The Tilton and I would estimate max 1500 maybe less.
Leeds came from everywhere with flags from all over the country. I remeber them singing that
'we're going up tonight ' song .........wrong !
Is the Tilton stand to the right of where we stood? Or the standing area in the corner? From memory the pens behind the goal and the left hand corner were empty.
I thought we had a section of the seated stand to our right, but I've no idea if we had any fans in there and if so how many (I was stood at the back). Also I think the gate that night was between 17K and 17.5k and we took around 2000, although it's difficult to work these things out in grounds you don't know.
Think I've got my Kop and Tilton mixed up there.. The crowd was given as 18K
Comments
I couldn't get the time off to go to either Elland Road or St Andrews. I can though remember pretty much every second of what I did on the evening of the St Andrews game which was also my birthday. I wish I'd been there although it sounds pretty scary.
Highlights Here
You'll need to skip on a bit as it's a bit Leeds-centric and shows there game against Oldham as well.
It's never struck me before when seeing the goals, but our second probably wouldn't have been scored today because no one made any effort to charge down the freekick, which is basically a matter of course these days.
Went to Selhurst which my dad warned me that we get attacked which obvoiusly added to the excitement but I was deifnnately a bit nervous when I saw all the leeds fans and at the final whistle a handful of leeds jumped over the fence and came at the arthur waite... which Id never seen before....
for the playoff final my dad was listening to it on the readio and we were so nervouse he had to stop the car on the side of the road and when we won we wnt absolutely ballistic.....
totally wore the highlights video out and when I met all the players the next year it was just fantastic......
still felt a bit funny and star struck when I met lennie and Johnny H again at city addicks....
one of the best....
Elland Rd without doubt the most intimidating ground I've been to.
St Andrews was a rollercoaster of emotions.
No trouble with Leeds fans at any of the games. Bit of a row with locals in Brum but the worst was after eventually getting to our car at Leeds Kev H the driver hit the car in front while we were stuck in traffic. Sat in the back of the car I thought "oh shit thats the end".
Thanks for the link. I've not seen the goals for 20 years, one of my friends had a video of the match but managed to lose it.
One of my memories of the night was Andy Peake playing a blinder - with just about every pass finding his man and fittingly he supplied the cross from the free kick that led to Shirtliff's winner. Then look at him run towards Lenny after...
One of those games thatI'll never forget - getting there was an experience, the match itself with the despairafter Sheridan's goal and then the equaliser and finally the winner. Never mind the play-off final against Sunderland, this for me will always be the best match I've ever been to.
remember running across the wasteland to the game 5 mins b4 kick off from the coach car park and feeling sick knowing/expecting to lose (as i always do for the BIG games)
getting in the ground and seeing the huge leeds following(i think they all lived in birmingham;-) compared to ours and thought we aint getting out of here alive if by some miracle we win and the miracle happened... as the final whistle went the leeds fans were trying to break thru the gates/fences to get on the pitch.....
and then the coach journey back where we give it to a leeds coach heading back south in the traffic jam on the M1 and shit ourselves when a few of em jumped out the back of their coach and started banging on our coach, our coach drivers quick thinking saved the day as he shot off down the hard shoulder.... we then went into a service station where we saw a leeds coach and the vote was to drive straight back out and head home ... no toilet on the coach so there must have been some twisted bladders that night.....
Lets hope football never returns to theses dark days.
PS: Thank God the laws were different then too and the goalie could pick up back passes. How many of those did we do in those last few minutes of extra time?!?!?!
St Andrews a surreal experience (as said previously) - there weren't huge numbers of us there, but did we go mad when the second goal went in - I finished up 10 yards down the terracing. For me a more nerve racking experience than Wembley, perhaps because the club were in such poor shape you feared we could go under if we lost.
Still watch the tape of the St Andrews game now & again. The Commentator (name escapes me) obviously favoured Leeds, but I still enjoy the enthusiasm with which he described the drama.
think it was john helm(et) the biased northerner
"One nil down, two one up, Shirtliff scored and we stayed up...."
Superb thread.
Remember stopping at Watford Gap (I think?) on the way home and all Charlton fans dancing and doing the conga round the resturant
After the game, because of extra time, we had to run back to the station. Half way into the town, as we passed a pub, several men jumped out of a doorway and with a big northern voice asked who had won. Now being a little nervous and not being able to tell if it was a brum or Yorkshire voice whispered the Charlton had. They cheered and said that they wanted us to win, and the were Birmingham, and told us not to stop and talk to anyone and just keep going till we got on the train.
When we got back to London, everything was closed, I ended up getting a cab to Waterloo East were using the fact I worked on the railway managed to get a driver of an empty train give me a lift back to Orpington station, and then an hour walk home, But, it was worth it!!
Met a mate at Charing Cross about lunchtime (it was a Firday I believe), and we went to soccer scene at Carnaby Street and purchased a palarse shirt, which we later burnt around a crush barrier (well, big Duncan did, RIP).
Remember sitting right at the back of the stand on the floor when we looked like losing with the right hump, then just pure elation at the end.
The being chased down the road by loads of outrgaed Yorkshireman, and when we finally got back to London at a silly hour at Euston, spending all night until the first train out of Charing Cross drinking lager in Trafalgar Sqaure, if I'm not mistaken I think 1905 was there?
Don't remember too much about the game at Elland road (apart from being scared)
Never been to a game like the replay before or since. Closest I've ever come to crying at a match when they scored then absolute joy tinged with a feeling of disbelief when we got the winner.
Still remember walking to the car park after the game and thinking this could be well on top.
Was a bank holiday monday and we had a great beer in a country village just outside Leeds and all the pubs were packed with them.
had a ticket didnt go to game think i was in shock for a week or so.
RIP danny one of the true nice guys.
Journey home was magic especially when we passed cars containing 'London whites'.
Funnily enough the worst trouble I saw was at the Ipswich away game. Was only 14 and absolutely bricked when we walked out of the terrace and were met with the sight of 100s of tractor boys charging towards us. From memory we took 1000s up to Ipswich, those two terrace pens were packed. When we were awarded the penalty the surge was terrifying! Was still recovering when Walshie missed it.
Elland Rd was a weird one. I think I was too young to feel properly intimidated.
Nearly got a beating from my mates dad at St Andrews - me and my mate were marching back to the car singing our heads off.......he looked very worried, poor bloke. The worst we got was an ice cream and hot dog lobbed at the car - we had hung our red and white scarves out of the back window without his dad knowing.
John Helm's words on the commentary still make the hairs on the back of neck stand up.....
"ohh its a good one..........Shirtliff!!!!!!!.....and its a Sheffield man that has probably kept Leeds in division two for next season".
Someone else mentioned the fact that for us a defeat meant relegation just mad it worse. Today's promotion play-offs are hard if you lose but to be relegated is worse. In addition, I may have only been 14 at the time but I realised that this game meant life or death for Charlton. I remember asking Large if we'd survive if we went down. I think he just shrugged. When people talk of 'must win' games now they make me laugh. When they talk of our situation now being bad, it makes me laugh. This was as bad as you can get.
Then we had the Leeds fans to think about. I think I was too young to really understand how bad it was. I'd got used to Large telling me to hide my shirt at away games and shut up, so I think I just thought it was more of the same. We were outnumbered by the other team's supporters just like normal away games (although this was neutral) so I think I saw that as normal too.
But it's easy to underestimate a 14 year old now I'm older. I only have to look back at this game to check myself. I had the same emotions about the game then as I do now - the same but stronger I think. I think that younger fans take things harder. They also have to take much more grief at school than at the workplace. I remember the Leeds fans dancing on the roof of the stands when they scored. I loathed them. The joy when we equalised was greater than that of the winning goal for me. As I 14 year old I got away with grabbing a policeman and trying to dance with him. I'd like to meet that policeman now ask him if he remembers the kid with tears streaming down his face in happiness. I was just elated to have the chance of a penalty shoot-out. Then the winner: I think that I was so stunned and extraordinary delirious that the run across the wasteland from the Leeds fans to the coaches was in my mind just like running from a slower kid at school at lunch-time. In my mind they wouldn't catch us because we were Charlton, we were staying up, we weren't going to go bust, and we were just better than them so why worry.
Getting home was hazardous - especially for those who had to get back the station, but knowing that we'd won and done it the proper way and kept Leeds from bullying their way in to the first division made it all the more satisfying.
We had a section of The Tilton and I would estimate max 1500 maybe less.
Leeds came from everywhere with flags from all over the country. I remeber them singing that
'we're going up tonight ' song .........wrong !
Is the Tilton stand to the right of where we stood? Or the standing area in the corner? From memory the pens behind the goal and the left hand corner were empty.
I thought we had a section of the seated stand to our right, but I've no idea if we had any fans in there and if so how many (I was stood at the back). Also I think the gate that night was between 17K and 17.5k and we took around 2000, although it's difficult to work these things out in grounds you don't know.
Think I've got my Kop and Tilton mixed up there.. The crowd was given as 18K
My seat was definitely in a side stand, not behind a goal.
A brilliant night - and we then watched the entire video as soon as we got home. A fairly late night.