The week that was - Sunday 28th December 1986 Charlton 5 Man City 0

HOME & AWAY

Sunday 28th December 1986

Selhurst Park. Att 7,697

Charlton Athletic 5 (1) (Walsh 25 47, Melrose 60, Shirtliff 72, Shipley 80) Manchester City 0 (0)

Charlton: Bolder, Humphrey, Reid, Shipley, Peake, Shirtliff, Stuart (Pearson 68), Curbishley, Melrose, Aizlewood, Walsh.

Man City: Suckling, Gidman, Wilson, Clements, Reid, Redmond, White, McNab, Varadi, Moulden, Simpson. Unused sub: Brightwell.

Referee: P Vanes (West Midlands)

One of a few memorable games in this play-off season.

oohaahmortimer

that was as cold as you like that day ........
the infamous perry in goal for city
23 years ago where has it all gone!

stonemuse

Did not recall the crowd being quite that small!

Simonsen

Sunday afternoon....City only had about 800-1000 there (more than we used to take up there I hasten to add!!) Most of the goals were cracking shots. Melrose's was a long range effort and so was Walsh's 2nd. Walsh's 1st was typical of him...skinned his man on outside in the box and smashed it across the keeper into the far corner. George Shipley scored from edge of the box too as I recall. City were absolute rubbish and didn't want to know. I can remember Imre Varadi poncing about up front and me thinking this can't be same player that scored every time against us when we went to either Newcastle or Sheff Wed. City went down with 39 points.

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]that was as cold as you like that day ........
the infamous perry in goal for city
23 years ago where has it all gone!

You know we only won because Curbs was playing.

Amos on the wing

Have this game (full 90 mins) on tape somewhere. I remember Jimmy Melrose hitting one from long range and then celebrating right in front of the city bench. Jimmy Melrose....what a player!!

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: Simonsen[/cite] George Shipley scored from edge of the box too as I recall.

I seem to remember we were breaking quickly from defence:
Colin Walsh from just inside our own half split the high City back line with a long killer pass on the floor ....... and there was Shipley cutting in from wide, collecting and running 1-on-1 with their keeper, drawing him and slotting past him into the net.

Beautifully crafted lightning breakaway.

Colin Walsh was immense that day and inspired that 2nd half rout.
City weren't too confident but had clung to their task - but after our 3rd by Jimmy Melrose, it was just a matter of how many. Could have been even more in the end as we ran riot.

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: Amos on the wing[/cite]Have this game (full 90 mins) on tape somewhere. I remember Jimmy Melrose hitting one from long range and then celebrating right in front of the city bench. Jimmy Melrose....what a player!!

Jimmy Melrose used to play for Man City, that's why......!

Amos on the wing

[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]Jimmy Melrose used to play for Man City, that's why......!

Yes I am aware of that. Can remember Jimmy scoring against us in a 5-1 defeat up at Maine Road 2 years previously.

Ketman

The First Three goals we scored in this game were superb & I do believe we were bottom when we kicked off as everyone had played the day before.

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: Amos on the wing[/cite]

[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]Jimmy Melrose used to play for Man City, that's why......!

Yes I am aware of that. Can remember Jimmy scoring against us in a 5-1 defeat up at Maine Road 2 years previously.

That's right. My only trip to Maine Road ..... late-ish in the season, City were on their way to promotion, and most of the match was as one sided as the score suggests. Not one of our better days out.

JohnnyH2

Great performance this one. WIth the exception of an own goal against Newcastle we had not scored for ages before the game and really looked in trouble. 4 of the 5 goals were among the best we got all season.

AFKABartram

I was a ballboy for this game

northstandsteve

feckin young pup

TEL

As Stonemuse said...I dont remember the crowd being that small.....I know we didnt attract big crowds unless it was one of the big guns, but I thought we had more than 7K odd....definetly one of the highlights of the season

bingaddick

This was a real oasis of a game in a desert of losses and toil. We were bottom, I believe or very near it. It just shows what happens if you get a reasonably early goal and then things continue to go your way. It was a great game for the faithful, all 7,000 or so of us.

Walshie had a great game, Melrose was a handful and everything seemed to go our way.

I remember discussing the game with my mate afterwards and perhaps believing for the first time that we might have just enough to survive and so it proved.

One thing I can't remember is the part Curbs played. He wasn't a nailed on selection at the time if I remember rightly. I sure he was great! Eh Oggy?

Simonsen

Curbishley got injured earlier in the season and wasn't looking his best so we bought Andy Peake (and Colin Walsh). He then couldn't really get back into the side and when he did, he looked short of match practice. Essentially that season's new signings..Shirtliff, Walsh, Peake, Crooks and Miller replaced Pender, Thompson, Shipley/Aizlewood, Curbishley and Pearson. Had he stayed fit Curbishley was probably the only one out of those blokes who could have cut it regularly in Div 1 but he looked totally out of it by the end. Shame because he'd had a great season (as all the others had) just a year prior.

PS: We followed the Man City game a couple of days later with a totally lacklustre home defeat by Spurs (New Years Day I think). From memory we were never in it.

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]I was a ballboy for this game

And hasn't grown since

;o)

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: bingaddick[/cite]One thing I can't remember is the part Curbs played. He wasn't a nailed on selection at the time if I remember rightly. I sure he was great! Eh Oggy?

Have to ask Mr OohAagh.

He's in charge of Curbs Idol.

;o)

BlackForestReds

[cite]Posted By: Telnotinoz[/cite]As Stonemuse said...I dont remember the crowd being that small.....I know we didnt attract big crowds unless it was one of the big guns, but I thought we had more than 7K odd....definetly one of the highlights of the season

I think there were quite a few matches around that time where we officially had fewer fans than we appeared to have in reality.

I remember the game well - besides Walsh's two goals. George Shipley got a rare start and played a blinder.

HOME & AWAY

One of our happier days at Sellout. No sellout that day though 7k!

Carl Leaburn

As usual the Programme can be seen here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/addicks7-6/11511401163

Want to see more Charlton Programmes, then visit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/addicks7-6/sets/

ElfsborgAddick

Seem to recall the City fans waving white handkerchiefs during the game!

Brian

JohnnyH2 said:

Great performance this one. WIth the exception of an own goal against Newcastle we had not scored for ages before the game and really looked in trouble. 4 of the 5 goals were among the best we got all season.

Highlights of this season are on Youtube. Someone has uploaded the old Finches videos they used to do each season. This game is part 2. Just type in Charlton Athletic 1986/87. The quality is not great but the pictures do bring back some good (and not so good) memories.

Viewfinder

I woz there. Astonishingly, this 5-0 tonking was our only win in a run of 17 league games from November to April; we also lost at 'home' (Sell-out Park) to Walsall in the FA Cup. But we managed to stay up, evading the drop by two points, partly because of four consecutive wins in October that included a 3-2 win over Everton. Jimmy Melrose scored a hat-trick in that match against his former club, who went on to finish the season as league champions.

Ormiston_Addick

Viewfinder said:

I woz there. Astonishingly, this 5-0 tonking was our only win in a run of 17 league games from November to April; we also lost at 'home' (Sell-out Park) to Walsall in the FA Cup. But we managed to stay up, evading the drop by two points, partly because of four consecutive wins in October that included a 3-2 win over Everton. Jimmy Melrose scored a hat-trick in that match against his former club, who went on to finish the season as league champions.

He scored the hat-trick but he wasn't a former Evertonian!

He scored against City in the 5-0 game, they were his former club.

Viewfinder

Ormiston Addick said:

Viewfinder said:

I woz there. Astonishingly, this 5-0 tonking was our only win in a run of 17 league games from November to April; we also lost at 'home' (Sell-out Park) to Walsall in the FA Cup. But we managed to stay up, evading the drop by two points, partly because of four consecutive wins in October that included a 3-2 win over Everton. Jimmy Melrose scored a hat-trick in that match against his former club, who went on to finish the season as league champions.

He scored the hat-trick but he wasn't a former Evertonian!

He scored against City in the 5-0 game, they were his former club.

Thanks for correcting my ailing memory, Ormiston!

Godstone

Great game. Colin Walsh before the injuries....superb.

Big William

Pretty sure Melrose was having a go at Billy McNeill the City manager when he scored, something he repeated a few months later when he scored against Villa - McNeill had gone there and ended up having a hand in two relegations in one season.

JiMMy 85

(Go to 7m 30s)

http://youtu.be/yfR9x0kTIIQ?t=7m30s

DaveMehmet

Viewfinder said:

I woz there. Astonishingly, this 5-0 tonking was our only win in a run of 17 league games from November to April; we also lost at 'home' (Sell-out Park) to Walsall in the FA Cup. But we managed to stay up, evading the drop by two points, partly because of four consecutive wins in October that included a 3-2 win over Everton. Jimmy Melrose scored a hat-trick in that match against his former club, who went on to finish the season as league champions.

We stayed up through the play offs (against Leeds at Birmingham in the final replay) that season.