Monday 5th April 1999. Upton Park. Att: 26,041
West Ham United 0 (0) Charlton Athletic 1 (0) (Stuart 76)
West Ham: Hislop, Ruddock, Pearce, Minto, Sinclair, Lomas, Lampard, Foe, Di Canio, Kitson (Berkovic 79), Keller. Unused subs: Forrest, Moncur, Potts, Lazaridis.
Charlton: Ilic (Petterson 44), Mills, Powell, Tiler, Rufus, Stuart, Kinsella, Barnes, Robinson (Bowen 40), Hunt (K Jones 84), Pringle. Unused subs: Bright, Youds.
Referee: Steve Dunn (Bristol)
Robinson was stretchered off after making a tackle on former Addick Minto and was replaced by Bowen, who made his first appearance since the play-off final. Four minutes later Ilic followed him with an injured neck after colliding with Keller and the post. He had pushed out a fierce Lampard shot and Keller, who was flagged for offside, followed up and crashed the ball home.
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Drunk with a West Ham mate in a very very dodgy boozer pre and post match (its been knocked down now)
Remember going loopy for Stuarts goal, and I also remember the Charlton fan in the pub after who just about got to the Charl in Charlton before getting laid out sparko.
Good old fashioned 10am - midnight drinking session with a streaky 1-0 win thrown in.
Just found this match report to jog memories:
Record signing Graham Stuart snatched all three points with his first goal for
Charlton to lift the Addicks out of the relegation zone.
The former Sheffield United forward repaid a huge chunk of his £1.1million
transfer fee with the only goal of the game after 75 minutes to give Alan
Curbishley's side renewed hope of beating the drop.
Stuart took advantage of some terrible Hammers defending to nip in and slot
home after Richard Rufus' knockdown It ensured Charlton's first win in five
games, a season's double over West Ham and took them out of the bottom three.
Harry Redknapp's Hammers had won their last three home games to put them in
pole position in the race for a European place but they missed both the injured
Rio Ferdinand and a killer touch in front of goal.
The one thing not lacking was commitment from both sides, Neil Ruddock and
Carl Tiler conducting a private running feud throughout the game that the former
Liverpool defender looked keen to continue after the whistle.
Despite a huge number of chances for both sides it looked as though Charlton's
poor run would continue - they had taken only two points from the last four
games - as opportunities went begging.
They should have in fact taken the lead within the first minute as West Ham
were caught napping with only 45 seconds on the clock.
Danny Mills' through-ball was deftly turned into the path of Andy Hunt by
Stuart but Hunt fired his shot straight at goalkeeper Shaka Hislop who saved
well down to his left.
That served to wake the Hammers from their Bank Holiday daydreams and, in a
frenetic opening period, they came close to scoring.
After five minutes Paul Kitson thought he would score when he get on the end
of Scott Minto's pull-back from the byline but found his sidefooted effort from
12 yards blocked first by Chris Powell and then Mark Kinsella.
Marc-Vivien Foe then went even closer with a superb downward header from Marc
Keller's free-kick that bounced over the bar with Sasa Ilic well beaten.
The frantic pace of the game often came at the cost of much quality and Mills
was booked on 20 minutes by referee Steve Dunn for a reckless lunge at Keller.
Ruddock then drove a free-kick over and Lomas dragged a shot wide before Foe
joined Mills in the book for a clash with Stuart.
Charlton were then forced to make a substitution on 38 minutes when the
injured John Robinson was replaced by Mark Bowen.
Bowen, making his first appearance of the season after a succession of
injuries, then almost had a telling impact, crossing for Stuart who looked
certain to score from only six yards out but hit his shot straight at Hislop as
the keeper scrambled back across his goal.
At the other end, Lampard should have done better than chip over the bar after
being put through by Paolo Di Canio before the Hammers thought they had opened
the scoring.
Lampard's drive was only palmed away by Ilic and Keller bundled in the rebound
only to be denied by a linesman's flag raised for offside.
Ilic would have been grateful for the reprieve if not for the fact he had
injured himself trying to prevent Keller getting to the loose ball.
The Melbourne-born Yugoslav, who was knocked unconscious at Chelsea earlier
this season, crashed into the post and, after receiving lengthy treatment on the
pitch, was eventually stretchered off to be replaced by Andy Petterson.
There was still time for West Ham to hit the post in a frantic end to the
half, Pearce's header from Keller's cross clipping the upright before Mills
cleared off the line.
The action continued unabated in the second half, Hislop pulling off a
brilliant one-handed save to palm away Bowen's shot and four minutes later,
Hislop repeated the trick at the other corner, turning away Hunt's shot as
Charlton pushed for the winner.
At the other end, Lampard drove over, Keller's cross ran all the way along the
six-yard box and Petterson had to be alert to dash quickly from his line to deny
Di Canio.
Pringle then went close with a diving header from Mills' cross, Lomas doing
just enough to prevent the former Benfica player from directing his effort on
target.
When Kitson then blazed a left-foot volley over on 61 minutes it looked as
though amazingly the game was going to end goalless.
But with time running out West Ham committed defensive suicide to gift the
visitors the lead.
Rufus' knock down from Mills' free-kick should have been cleared but as the
Hammers defence and Hislop waited for each to take responsibility, Stuart nipped
in to steer the ball into the empty net.
That prompted Redknapp to bring on Eyal Berkovic for the out of sorts Kitson.
Di Canio hit the side-netting from a narrow angle but Charlton stood firm,
bringing on Keith Jones to strengthen the midfield, and they held on for a vital
three points.
Guy infront of us was showing us all his winning bet of a charlton 1-0 win with Stuart to get the goal. Was a great day.
Got extremely drunk that night thinking we were going to be staying up.
He really rolled back the years but I can remember Kins needing to massage his legs to keep him going because we had used all of our subs.
Probably the best West Ham team since 1986 and hasn't been a better West Ham since.
Can't remember where though - we were out at the time, I was listening to it on my Walkman, and I remember seeing a boy of similar age wearing a Charlton shirt, and I called to him "We're one-nil up!"
His response?
"Oh... who are we playing?"
I had only just started getting interested in football that season (the home fixture against West Ham being the first match I had ever attended), so I was bitterly disappointed at my first genuine attempt at a football conversation with a stranger.
As others have alluded to, we went on to record some absolutely awful results afterwards and ended up getting relegated. Though I have it in my head that Graham Stuart scored a goal every other game for a few weeks at that time, so I thought he was amazing.
Plenty of hand signals too and from the hammers to our right
Cue someone telling me our goal was at the other end
These were the glory years even though we went down , Thanks Curbs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/addicks7-6/7406403744
Also available is the Teamsheet
https://www.flickr.com/photos/addicks7-6/7408119630
Want to see more Charlton Programmes, then visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/addicks7-6/sets/