Great days, I watched a reserve game vs Wet Spam there in about 1988, the look on Liam Brady's face when he came out onto the pitch for the warm up was priceless.
Was Tony Adams comeback after being in prison at Welling, seem to remember seeing a clip of him on Premier League Years and sure they said it was Welling.
There was a period during our final, miserable, season at Sellout that most of us looked forward to the reserves at Welling far more than the first team games. Gritty was in charge and he had them playing in his image, all commitment and hustle and bustle.
Does anybody remember the game when the ball dropped over Leaburns shoulder and he smashed it in from 20 yards, a la Norman Whiteside? Bobby Mimms losing it and chasing the linesman?
Another epic was "One goal went past Perry" directed at the man himself, and the late great Bernie Taylor leaning over the wall and asking "Whats after 9 Perry?" which got the response "My wages!"
Was Tony Adams comeback after being in prison at Welling, seem to remember seeing a clip of him on Premier League Years and sure they said it was Welling.
Simon Royce gave my daughter his goalkeeping gloves after a game.Also remember Andy Reid destroying us for Notts Forest I think from memory that he scored a hatrick.
I used to really enjoy those games at Welling. Remember Garth Crooks last game, winning three in a row against star studded Arsenal, Chealsea and Spurs sides when Gritty managed them and Leaburn looked like a world beater. Also remember Kenny Achampong moaning at me cos I took to long to get the ball back and Peter Eustace strange habit of standing on the terrace and yelling at the youngsters to berate the ref.
Bristol Rovers at home 1987, on a sunny wednesday afternoon in August at Park View Road, when after 5 minutes a young left back wearing the Number 3 shirt according to the team sheet was Paul Mortimore. He got the ball on the halfway line. Ten seconds later after beating 4/5 players he nearly set up the first goal of the afternoon. The rest is history.
I used to be on shift work so could make a lot of the afternoon games. Used to my take my two young daughters when I could. Playing Spuds one match and my youngest froze staring in amazement at one of the young Spuds reserves warning up on the pitch at half time. The most unlikely looking pro footballer, he must have been about 18 at the time. Peter Crouch, Bambi on ice. We still have a chuckle now about it after all this time. He went on to do quite well in the game.
One moment i will always remember Kim Grant freekick 20yards out direct,takes a short run-up hits the ball and his boot flys towards the goal along with the ball.Out-come keeper did not know what way to dive and ended up picking the boot and ball both out of the net.Happy Days indeed.
My personal favorite was one freezing evening against I think Southampton (red & white stripes anyway). It was so cold you could hear the studs clacking against the frozen mud. The referee reduced the game to about 25 mins a half and seemed to introduce a no-tackling policy for safety reasons the idea being to just to complete the reserve fixture. The other thing I remember is all the players ran down what they thought was the tunnel, then had to about turn and all run back out when they realised it wasnt actually the route to the dressing room after all. It was so cold my hot chocolate froze, and no one complained about the match only being about an hour long just so pleased to get home early.
I also remember that Leaburn goal (best he ever scored).
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Met a lot of fellow Lifers there for the first time, including Large & his parents and AFKA.
Does anybody remember the game when the ball dropped over Leaburns shoulder and he smashed it in from 20 yards, a la Norman Whiteside? Bobby Mimms losing it and chasing the linesman?
Another epic was "One goal went past Perry" directed at the man himself, and the late great Bernie Taylor leaning over the wall and asking "Whats after 9 Perry?" which got the response "My wages!"
Happy days.
Charlton Life Sentence.....
I also remember that Leaburn goal (best he ever scored).
The opposition goalkeeper kicks out the ball, it hits Andy Jones on the back who turns around and scores.
Later on in the same half, exactly the same thing happens again!
Bizarre. I still wonder if this has ever happened twice in the same game before or since.