I came across this report of the famous Johnny Summers game against Huddersfield. I wasn't born but my father and uncles always talk about it. What a day that must have been.
In the play off final when the score was 7-6 on penalties and Michael Gray stepped up to take the final penalty I remember thinking this must be an omen, then hiding my face because I couldn't bear to watch.
Division Two. Saturday December 21, 1957
Charlton Athletic 7 Huddersfield Town 6 - att. 12,535
Charlton Athletic: W.Duff, T.Edwards, D.Townsend, J.Hewie, D.Ufton, B.Kiernan, R.White, F.Lucas, J.Ryan, S.Leary, J.Summers.
Huddersfield Town : S.Kennon, T.Conwell, R.Wilson, K.Taylor, J.Connor, B.McGarry, B.Ledger, S.Howard, A.Bain, L.Massie, R.Simpson.
"Amazing, fantastic, incredible...call it what you will" exclaimed the newspaper report from this game as the dust settled on the most remarkable comeback in the history of English football.
There was nothing to suggest that a classic encounter was on the cards in the run up to this game.
Although Charlton were handily placed on the fringe of the second division promotion race there was little in the visit of mid table Huddersfield Town to inspire the locals on the Saturday before Christmas.
Vast swathes of the huge Valley terraces were almost deserted as a below average crowd huddled together in clutches to create atmosphere and warmth. There was no immediate sign of their team doing anything to help in this respect.
After a quiet opening in which the visitors had looked slightly the most lively the first incident of note occurred in the 17th minute.
Charlton's skipper and centre half, Derek Ufton, threw himself into a challenge and landed awkwardly on the heavy pitch. Obviously in agony, Ufton had dislocated his shoulder and had to be carted off to hospital for treatment.
With no substitutes Charlton were left to play over 70 minutes with only ten men.
Charlton had shown little to this point and, struggling to reshuffle after the loss of Ufton, Huddersfield assumed almost total control.
On 27 minutes the increasingly inevitable opening goal arrived, The Terriers inside left Les Massie firing home from point blank range.
Eight minutes later Alex Bain took advantage of the freedom he had been given since Ufton's injury to score and Huddersfield were two goals to the good, a score which remained the same up to half time.
Two goals and one man down at the interval, there had been nothing to suggest that Charlton could stage any kind of comeback.
On the terraces the shivering supporters wondered openly about the possible reasons for staying. Unable to find any, several left.
In the dressing room the Charlton manager Jimmy Trotter tried to rally his troops, urging his team to try to feed left winger Johnny Summers who had looked the teams' one potential source of danger.
Summers, once a promising youngster but now basically a journeyman after spells with Fulham, Norwich and Millwall, was more concerned with his disintegrating footwear. After careful examination of his decaying boots the winger condemned them to the bin and slipped on a new pair.
When Summers pulled a goal back within two minutes of the restart it seemed that Charlton might still have a say in the outcome but such hopes were quickly dashed.
Four minutes later Huddersfield had swept into a 4-1 lead through Bain's second goal and a Bill McGarry penalty.
This prompted a further trickle towards the exits which turned into a stream when Bobby Ledger was left unmarked to slot home the visitors fifth just past the hour mark.
With 28 minutes to play Charlton were a man short and four goals in arrears. The game was surely over.
There seemed no way back for Charlton, indeed there would have been no way back without the two goals which they now scored inside the next two minutes.
First Summers centred for Johnny "Buck" Ryan to score and then the winger instilled some real belief into the Valley by firing home his second and Charlton's third.
The new boots were working well. Not only had they scored two and made one inside twenty minutes but Summers had just blasted home with his right foot, normally trusted only for standing on.
This time Charlton maintained their sudden momentum and Huddersfield inexplicably fell apart.
There was precious little danger coming down the visitors left flank where the burgeoning talent of Ray Wilson held sway but "Buck" Ryan was now giving Jack Connor a torrid time and Stuart Leary and Summers were positively running amok down the Huiddersfield right.
On 73 minutes Summers completed his hat trick and by this time the sparse crowd was in a frenzy, swaying down the terraces in wild excitement and baying their team forward.
Five minutes later The Addicks were level. Once more it was Summers, once more it was his right foot applying the finish.
By now the loss of their centre half hardly seeemed to matter as Charlton poured forward at will.
With nine minutes remaining the comeback was complete as Summers rammed home his fifth goal to put Charlton 6-5 in front.
Five goals in eighteen minutes for the ten men, one can only guess what the Huddersfield manager, Bill Shankly, was making of it all.
Perhaps having taken the lead the Charlton players stopped to think about the astonishing situation and to question the wisdom of continuing their all out assault on the Huddersfield goal.
Maybe credit should go to the visitors for emerging from this nightmare to respond.
With four minutes remaining Huddersfield forced an equaliser, Stan Howard sending in a shot which deflected off John Hewie and beyond the wrong footed Willie Duff in the Charlton goal.
6-6 with four minutes to go. The Charlton fans could have been forgiven for biting their nails and shrieking for the final whistle but they had become too caught up in the manic events of the last half hour. To a man they urged their team forward in search of one more goal.
With the clock ticking down the last few seconds Johnny Summers set off on one final burst, tearing clear of the hapless Tony Conwell yet again to send over a cross which Ryan met perfectly to put his side back in front.
There was merely time enough left to restart the game before the referee signalled the end of this unbelievable game.
Onto the pitch swarmed the delirious Charlton supporters, chairing their men from the field and then remaining to demand their reappearance.
To the delight of everyone present the players soon emerged in the main stand to accept the congratulations of the crowd, Johnny Summers, not surprisingly, receiving the bulk of the adulation.
The upshot of this game was that Charlton climbed into fourth place in the second division table while Huddersfield slipped to thirteenth. Charlton would eventually miss out on promotion by a single point behind Blackburn Rovers.
There was a vastly more tragic fate awaiting Johnny Summers, the hero of this hour, who would die from cancer within five years of this unforgettable afternoon, an afternoon which can only be described as, well, "amazing, incredible and fantastic".
0
Comments