I remember speaking to Jimmy Giles back in the day, he said if a player gets past me then he deserves to score! I remember him being massive, but then again I was only 10.
Stuart Balmer for me. I have a copy of The Sun Football Preview from first day of the season 97/98 when we were away at Middlesbrough who had just been relegated with a team of big names. Headline on the front was "Balmer: I'll Give Ravenelli A Welcoming Kick Into Division 1" - class!
Back in the day the landlord of the Railway Tavern, Higham was a friend of Derek Ufton who arranged a Charlton evening at the pub. Was chatting to Derek Hales about the scapes he got in and the story which sticks out was the time when we were playing Wrexham at the Valley and Joey Jones put in what was effectively a career ending waist high tacke on Phil Walker. In the ensuing mele' toothless goalkeeper Dai Davies rushed to the scene who Killer promptly grabbed hold of and said I quote: "if you had any f_____g front teeth I would knock them out" to which Davies quickly slunk back to his goal.
As an aside Hales also told me in his Derby days how hard Colin Todd was (no surprise about Andy) and the day when Todd had a run in with opposing centre forward Joe Royal at the Baseball Ground. Todd appently never went for drinks after the match with the other players but on this occasion burst ito the players lounge/boardroom intent on knocking seven bells out of Royal. Somehow Royal had got wind of Todd's intentions and was later found hiding on the team bus. To this day it always makes me chuckle when I hear Royal giving it large whem commentating.
It's got to be Alan Dugdale for me - from the late 70s. He didn't play too many games for Charlton but the whole crowd winced whenever he went in for a tackle. As far as I remember he was only ever sent off once (when @ Coventry I think) which is quite remarkable. He was short for a central defender but that was probably compensated for by partnering Dvae Shipperley - he was no angel either!
Billy Bonds said on the radio of Mat Svenson "i would like him onmy side if it went off"and Billy was hard as nails.There is a photo of some guy on the deck with Svenson holding him by the throat and just about to pop him with the other hand.
Thommo. F***ing loved that bloke. More recently, O'Connell was evil - stupid, and crap - but evil. Svensson is a good shout, he was double-hard. I don't buy all this stuff about Mills - he was a sly bastard, and put some meaty challenges in, but mainly his reputation came about through stupidity.
I'd forgotten Svensson - he was hard. As I recall he didn't get many starts - I couldn't wait for him to get on the pitch and put the wind up the opposition!
Speaking only from my recollections of the 70's i would say that they were all bloody hard men!!!! I think you had to be to survive, Ritchie Bowman always seemed to get stuck in, Killer was crackers...though that night when King Tutt got that terrible tackle..i would have to place him as the 2nd hardest man...
Could have sworn I put Svensson down on my earlier post about Miller.
Used to love his final 15 minute cameos when he would come on, have a dig and get booked.
Costa didnt even smile when he came back to play us pre season.
In my time watching Charlton it's definitely Steve Thompson.
Shirtliff was handy too, but Thommo was a proper tough nut. With that haircut of his he always reminded me of the sort of bloke you'd find in a leather jacket working the door of some shite northern club.
In more recent days - Costa, and that butter wouldn't melt in my mouth look after he'd clattered another centre-forward. At his unveiling as an Addick press conference he was asked how he would deal with Jimmy Floyd Haisselbaink. He pointed out without smiling that JFH had never scored against him. That following week we played Chelsea and won with JFH again failing to score against Costa.
Graham stuart for his tackle on the t##ser christano ronaldo. Was right in front of me in the east stand, ronaldo doing his shite step over crap in runs graham.... wallop!!!! Ronaldo 3 foot in the air!!! Cue me standing up aplauding like we had just scored. Loved graham stuart.
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I remember him being massive, but then again I was only 10.
also not forgetting steve brown always put his body in the way of anything.
Overall, has to be Killer, though - he would even put it about for our centre halves.
Was chatting to Derek Hales about the scapes he got in and the story which sticks out was the time when we were playing Wrexham at the Valley and Joey Jones put in what was effectively a career ending waist high tacke on Phil Walker. In the ensuing mele' toothless goalkeeper Dai Davies rushed to the scene who Killer promptly grabbed hold of and said I quote:
"if you had any f_____g front teeth I would knock them out" to which Davies quickly slunk back to his goal.
As an aside Hales also told me in his Derby days how hard Colin Todd was (no surprise about Andy) and the day when Todd had a run in with opposing centre forward Joe Royal at the Baseball Ground.
Todd appently never went for drinks after the match with the other players but on this occasion burst ito the players lounge/boardroom intent on knocking seven bells out of Royal.
Somehow Royal had got wind of Todd's intentions and was later found hiding on the team bus.
To this day it always makes me chuckle when I hear Royal giving it large whem commentating.
The guys I think of are Mills, Todd, the Herminator and Kish.
Had a good shot on him too. His goal against Bristol City at Upton Park was classic
no one could even get his shorts dirty....
Holland never got his shorts dirty either...
Costa -- you could see that some forwards didnt want to know when he was about
In earlier times we had a full back Jock Campbell who once caused a riot on tour in S.America.
Used to love his final 15 minute cameos when he would come on, have a dig and get booked.
Costa didnt even smile when he came back to play us pre season.
kind of
Shirtliff was handy too, but Thommo was a proper tough nut. With that haircut of his he always reminded me of the sort of bloke you'd find in a leather jacket working the door of some shite northern club.
In more recent days - Costa, and that butter wouldn't melt in my mouth look after he'd clattered another centre-forward. At his unveiling as an Addick press conference he was asked how he would deal with Jimmy Floyd Haisselbaink. He pointed out without smiling that JFH had never scored against him. That following week we played Chelsea and won with JFH again failing to score against Costa.