I come from a long line of Charlton supporters but was actually born and live in North West London. Fair to say the area is not a Charlton hotspot.
I Charltonised my son from birth and brought him to the Valley from an early age to get him properly hooked. Proud to say it worked and he is now carrying on the family tradition of supporting Charlton (and still causing great confusion to all he meets as to why someone living in NW London supports Charlton!). The only time he was ever looking like wavering was when a couple of mates asked him to go to Chelsea with them. No problems, I said - but you'll have to buy your own ticket. One look at the prices and he was soon quite happily coming back to the Valley!
So the moral of the story is if your son ever looks like wavering, don't offer to buy him a ticket for another club!
Funnily enough I actually got my Dad into football and eventually all of us supporting Charlton.
I was 10-11 when I properly got into football so I didn't have much primary school banter about it, when I did I liked Arsenal but then flicked through an old Match magazine season preview and said to my Dad I wanted to go and see my local Premiership team, Charlton.
My Dad liked football but only really watched the FA Cup Finals and that was it, he didn't really support any team. So our first game was Charlton-Everton in February 2003, and we go to the then Junior Addicks office to pick up the stuff from joining, and we get offered free tickets for the game ironically against Arsenal two weeks after.
We beat Everton 2-1, and then went to the Arsenal game. We were in the family section, to the left of the away allocation, with no separation between us and the Arsenal fans across from us. Arsenal won 2-0, and my Dad thought I'd probably have been delighted and stayed with Arsenal, turned out I was absolutely gutted, and then we kept on getting tickets the following season, then season tickets, starting getting Mum into football and bringing her along and kept on going through the awful Championship and League One times.
So stick with it, get him on the Junior Addicks stuff (I really wanted to go to the Christmas parties but we were in Kent and my Dad didn't want to stick around and do nothing) and should be fine.
Funnily enough I actually got my Dad into football and eventually all of us supporting Charlton.
I was 10-11 when I properly got into football so I didn't have much primary school banter about it, when I did I liked Arsenal but then flicked through an old Match magazine season preview and said to my Dad I wanted to go and see my local Premiership team, Charlton.
My Dad liked football but only really watched the FA Cup Finals and that was it, he didn't really support any team. So our first game was Charlton-Everton in February 2003, and we go to the then Junior Addicks office to pick up the stuff from joining, and we get offered free tickets for the game ironically against Arsenal two weeks after.
We beat Everton 2-1, and then went to the Arsenal game. We were in the family section, to the left of the away allocation, with no separation between us and the Arsenal fans across from us. Arsenal won 2-0, and my Dad thought I'd probably have been delighted and stayed with Arsenal, turned out I was absolutely gutted, and then we kept on getting tickets the following season, then season tickets, starting getting Mum into football and bringing her along and kept on going through the awful Championship and League One times.
So stick with it, get him on the Junior Addicks stuff (I really wanted to go to the Christmas parties but we were in Kent and my Dad didn't want to stick around and do nothing) and should be fine.
A similar thing happened to me. Aged 11, I was a glory-hunting Ipswich fan. If you're under 30 that might sound bizarre, but they were excellent in the early 80s and nearly won the league. My third ever game at the Valley was an FA Cup tie versus Ipswich (Jan 1983 - just looked it up.). I went along with my dad, wearing my Ipswich scarf and asked if I could go in the away end ('Definitely not'). Ipswich won 3-2, but were pretty lucky and Charlton played with real spirit. On the way back to the car I informed my dad that I was a Charlton fan now.
Yep Uboat, that was indeed a great Charlton performance, so no wonder you were turned. From distant memory I think we raced to an unexpected 2-0 lead early on, only to be pegged back to 2-2 by a very good Ipswich side. Pretty sure the Ipswich winner came about as late as last Saturday's, just as my mate and I were already finalising plans to drive to Portman Road for the reply.
Funnily enough I actually got my Dad into football and eventually all of us supporting Charlton.
I was 10-11 when I properly got into football so I didn't have much primary school banter about it, when I did I liked Arsenal but then flicked through an old Match magazine season preview and said to my Dad I wanted to go and see my local Premiership team, Charlton.
My Dad liked football but only really watched the FA Cup Finals and that was it, he didn't really support any team. So our first game was Charlton-Everton in February 2003, and we go to the then Junior Addicks office to pick up the stuff from joining, and we get offered free tickets for the game ironically against Arsenal two weeks after.
We beat Everton 2-1, and then went to the Arsenal game. We were in the family section, to the left of the away allocation, with no separation between us and the Arsenal fans across from us. Arsenal won 2-0, and my Dad thought I'd probably have been delighted and stayed with Arsenal, turned out I was absolutely gutted, and then we kept on getting tickets the following season, then season tickets, starting getting Mum into football and bringing her along and kept on going through the awful Championship and League One times.
So stick with it, get him on the Junior Addicks stuff (I really wanted to go to the Christmas parties but we were in Kent and my Dad didn't want to stick around and do nothing) and should be fine.
A similar thing happened to me. Aged 11, I was a glory-hunting Ipswich fan. If you're under 30 that might sound bizarre, but they were excellent in the early 80s and nearly won the league. My third ever game at the Valley was an FA Cup tie versus Ipswich (Jan 1983 - just looked it up.). I went along with my dad, wearing my Ipswich scarf and asked if I could go in the away end ('Definitely not'). Ipswich won 3-2, but were pretty lucky and Charlton played with real spirit. On the way back to the car I informed my dad that I was a Charlton fan now.
Ipswich were lucky that day!
Dear old Les Berry lumbered after Eric Gates, caught him and tackled him well outside the box. Gates leapt like a Salmon and landed just inside the box and the ref gave a penalty thus depriving us of a well deserved replay. We were 2-0 up after 20 minutes or so too!
Ipswich game was the day of my 21st party, was sauntering down Floyd Rd with my best mate and his g/f, heard within a couple of minutes of each other 2 massive roars - we were 2-0 up very lively, paid to get in saw Ipswich score 3 . Great party tho'
Funnily enough I actually got my Dad into football and eventually all of us supporting Charlton.
I was 10-11 when I properly got into football so I didn't have much primary school banter about it, when I did I liked Arsenal but then flicked through an old Match magazine season preview and said to my Dad I wanted to go and see my local Premiership team, Charlton.
My Dad liked football but only really watched the FA Cup Finals and that was it, he didn't really support any team. So our first game was Charlton-Everton in February 2003, and we go to the then Junior Addicks office to pick up the stuff from joining, and we get offered free tickets for the game ironically against Arsenal two weeks after.
We beat Everton 2-1, and then went to the Arsenal game. We were in the family section, to the left of the away allocation, with no separation between us and the Arsenal fans across from us. Arsenal won 2-0, and my Dad thought I'd probably have been delighted and stayed with Arsenal, turned out I was absolutely gutted, and then we kept on getting tickets the following season, then season tickets, starting getting Mum into football and bringing her along and kept on going through the awful Championship and League One times.
So stick with it, get him on the Junior Addicks stuff (I really wanted to go to the Christmas parties but we were in Kent and my Dad didn't want to stick around and do nothing) and should be fine.
I think that sums up what being a Charlton fan is about. It Just gets into you. You just cannot explain exactly why to anyone.
My Oldest (13) will go to appease me and enjoys it as he loves football but he supports Man U really c/o our crapness and his Uncle.
My middle (9) says she supports Man City just to wind my Oldest up but she also claims to love Charlton and loves going to a game just for the Coca Cola and crisps.
My youngest kisses the badge every time she comes across it but she's 3 and as cute as anything so will soon grow out of it - saw her first and only game when we played Hartlepool in the Div One winning final game.
Yep Uboat, that was indeed a great Charlton performance, so no wonder you were turned. From distant memory I think we raced to an unexpected 2-0 lead early on, only to be pegged back to 2-2 by a very good Ipswich side. Pretty sure the Ipswich winner came about as late as last Saturday's, just as my mate and I were already finalising plans to drive to Portman Road for the reply.
That's still the best game I've been to. Unrelenting 90mins of action.
Comments
I Charltonised my son from birth and brought him to the Valley from an early age to get him properly hooked. Proud to say it worked and he is now carrying on the family tradition of supporting Charlton (and still causing great confusion to all he meets as to why someone living in NW London supports Charlton!). The only time he was ever looking like wavering was when a couple of mates asked him to go to Chelsea with them. No problems, I said - but you'll have to buy your own ticket. One look at the prices and he was soon quite happily coming back to the Valley!
So the moral of the story is if your son ever looks like wavering, don't offer to buy him a ticket for another club!
I was 10-11 when I properly got into football so I didn't have much primary school banter about it, when I did I liked Arsenal but then flicked through an old Match magazine season preview and said to my Dad I wanted to go and see my local Premiership team, Charlton.
My Dad liked football but only really watched the FA Cup Finals and that was it, he didn't really support any team. So our first game was Charlton-Everton in February 2003, and we go to the then Junior Addicks office to pick up the stuff from joining, and we get offered free tickets for the game ironically against Arsenal two weeks after.
We beat Everton 2-1, and then went to the Arsenal game. We were in the family section, to the left of the away allocation, with no separation between us and the Arsenal fans across from us. Arsenal won 2-0, and my Dad thought I'd probably have been delighted and stayed with Arsenal, turned out I was absolutely gutted, and then we kept on getting tickets the following season, then season tickets, starting getting Mum into football and bringing her along and kept on going through the awful Championship and League One times.
So stick with it, get him on the Junior Addicks stuff (I really wanted to go to the Christmas parties but we were in Kent and my Dad didn't want to stick around and do nothing) and should be fine.
On the way back to the car I informed my dad that I was a Charlton fan now.
Dear old Les Berry lumbered after Eric Gates, caught him and tackled him well outside the box. Gates leapt like a Salmon and landed just inside the box and the ref gave a penalty thus depriving us of a well deserved replay. We were 2-0 up after 20 minutes or so too!
My middle (9) says she supports Man City just to wind my Oldest up but she also claims to love Charlton and loves going to a game just for the Coca Cola and crisps.
My youngest kisses the badge every time she comes across it but she's 3 and as cute as anything so will soon grow out of it - saw her first and only game when we played Hartlepool in the Div One winning final game.
No legacy in my lot........