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7-6 Yes I was there
ross1
Posts: 51,074
I was one of the genuine supporters who was there this day, behind the goal, which is now the Jimmy Seed stand
Charlton Athletic FC @CAFCofficial 2h2 hours ago
ON THIS DAY | In 1957, we staged the greatest comeback of all time, beating @htafcdotcom 7-6 at The Valley. #cafc
Charlton Athletic FC @CAFCofficial 2h2 hours ago
ON THIS DAY | In 1957, we staged the greatest comeback of all time, beating @htafcdotcom 7-6 at The Valley. #cafc
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Johnny Summers netted five, while 'Buck' Ryan scored twice as Charlton recorded an incredible 7-6 victory. #cafc
Charlton Athletic FC @CAFCofficial 2h2 hours ago
With the Addicks 5-1 down, with 10 men, and just 27 minutes remaining, they rallied... #cafc0 -
Old supporters will remember who their manager was that day0
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Did anyone leave at half time?0
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Must have been amazing to have been there - bet that's a memory that you'll always cherish.
Given that it's almost 60 years I wonder if there's a way of recording (through the museum perhaps) the memories of all the supporters still alive who were at that famous match so we can hold onto them forever ?1 -
2%Uboat said:Did anyone leave at half time?
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Did the manager say afterwards that we were the best team for 27 minutes?
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How many were there? The atmosphere must have been incredible when we got back within a goal. When did they get their sixth?0
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The match opened quietly, with a smaller crowd than usual due to the cold and wet weather, but with Huddersfield apparently the livelier team. Just 17 minutes into the match, Charlton's captain and centre half, Derek Ufton was taken to hospital after he landed awkwardly from a challenge and dislocated his shoulder. With no substitutes allowed, Charlton were forced to play another 73 minutes with ten men. Huddersfield took control of the match. Les Massie pierced the leaky Charlton defence to score the first goal for Huddersfield at 27 minutes. Eight minutes later, Alex Bain added a second. Charlton managed to keep Huddersfield at bay until half-time, and so trailed 2–0 at the break. Seeing little chance of a come-back, some of the crowd started to leave.
During half time, Charlton's manager Jimmy Trotter decided to move left winger Johnny Summers to centre forward, and asked his players to feed the ball to Summers, seeing him as their likeliest way to get back into the match. Summers also replaced his old boots, which were on the verge of falling apart, with some new ones.
Trotter's plan seemed to be working when the left-footed Summers scored with his unfavoured right foot from close range within 2 minutes of the start of the second half, but the relief was short-lived. The pitch was getting increasingly muddy, and gaps were opening in both teams. But in the space of just 4 minutes, Bain scored a second goal and Bill McGarry put away a penalty, to leave Charlton 4–1 behind. Bob Ledger scored another goal for Huddersfield, giving them a 5–1 lead with less than half an hour of the match left. Charlton seemed lost, a man down and four goals in arrears, and an increasingly large number in the crowd turned towards the exits.
But then the match turned. Charlton drew back two goals in the next two minutes, with a Summers pass put into back of the Huddersfield net by Johnny "Buck" Ryan, and then Summers scoring a second goal with his weaker right foot, to leave Charlton two behind, 5–3. Huddersfield could not find a way to stop Charlton's probing attack on the increasingly treacherous pitch. Within 16 minutes of scoring his first goal, Summers completed his hat trick, again with his right foot, and Charlton were only one behind, 5–4. What remained of the home crowd had come alight, cheering their team on, and Summers scored his fourth goal and then his fifth, all right-footed, to give Charlton the lead for the first time in the match, 6–5, with just 9 minutes to play. Charlton had scored five goals in 18 minutes, the last three by Summers within the space of 8 minutes, and Charlton were still ten men against eleven. Huddersfield's manager Bill Shankly was nonplussed.
With 4 minutes left, Stan Howard found an equaliser for Huddersfield with a shot that deflected off Charlton defender John Hewie and past Willie Duff into his own goal, 6–6. With barely seconds left, Summers put in a final cross, which Ryan put past the Hudderfield goalkeeper Sandy Kennon. The referee blew his whistle moments after the restart, and Charlton had won a famous victory, 7–6. Ecstatic Charlton supporters invaded the pitch and carried their team from the field cheering. The team came back out into the main stand to accept their supporters' congratulations.
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Aftermath
Trotter commented: "Things had not been coming off for Summers so I moved him from inside-left to centre-forward. As a last resort, I switched him to outside-left, his last chance to make good. How well he took it!"
The result of this match allowed Charlton to climb to fourth place in the Second Division, and Huddersfield slipped down to thirteenth. Huddersfield would go on to end the season ninth in the Second Division. Charlton finished third, pipped to promotion by Blackburn Rovers by a single point, having lost their final match of the season 4–3 to Blackburn, when a draw would have seen Charlton promoted instead. Two weeks later, Huddersfield also met Charlton in the third round of the 1958 FA Cup. After a 2–2 draw at Huddersfield on 4 January 1958, Charlton won the replay in London on 8 January, 1–0, before a much larger crowd.
Within three years, Charlton were involved in another match in which their opponents scored six goals at The Valley but failed to win. On 22 October 1960, they hosted Middlesbrough in a Second Division match that finished 6–6,[1] one of only two Football League matches in history to finish thus.
Summers also scored five goals in a Second Division game against Portsmouth in October 1960, but died of cancer in June 1962, aged just 34.
The match is remembered over 50 years later, and was chosen by The Observer in 2001 as the sole football representative in its list of the 10 greatest comebacks of all time in any sport, calling this match "the most remarkable comeback in football history".
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Charlton Athletic (2–3–5): Willie Duff – Trevor Edwards, Don Townsend – John Hewie, Derek Ufton, Billy Kiernan – Ron White, Fred Lucas, Johnny "Buck" Ryan, Stuart Leary, Johnny Summers
Huddersfield Town (2–3–5): Sandy Kennon – Tony Conwell, Ray Wilson – Ken Taylor, Jack Connor, Bill McGarry – Bob Ledger, Stan Howard, Alex Bain, Les Massie, Ron Simpson3 -
Bill Shankly became manager of Huddersfield after Andy Beattie resigned in November 1956, so 1957–58 was his first full season in charge of the team. After the team's glory years in the 1920s, winning the 1922 FA Cup Final and leading the First Division for three consecutive years in 1923–24, 1924–25, and 1925–26, Huddersfield had been spent many years towards the bottom of Football League First Division. They were finally relegated at the end of 1951–52, but gained immediate re-promotion the following season. They came third in the First Division in 1953–54, only to be relegated again in 1955–56, and remained in the Second Division at the end of 1956–57.
Charlton Athletic had reached the First Division in 1936, been Division One runners-up the following year, and won the 1947 FA Cup Final, but were also newly relegated to the Second Division, having conceded 120 goals to finish at the bottom of the First Division at the end of 1956–57. Their manager, Jimmy Trotter, had replaced Jimmy Seed after his resignation in September 1956 ended Seed's 23 years in charge at Charlton.
The teams had already met on the first day of the 1957–58 season, at Huddersfield. Charlton were 3–0 up at half time, but Huddersfield scored 3 goals in the second half to secure a draw. After that, Huddersfield were having a moderately successful season in 1957–58, with 6 wins (3 away), 9 draws, and 6 losses (2 at home), but Charlton were doing better, and were in the race for promotion back to the First Division.
The teams met again just before Christmas.2 -
Hold on, Ross. That's not what you said earlier.ross1 said:Charlton managed to keep Huddersfield at bay until half-time, and so trailed 2–0 at the break. Seeing little chance of a come-back, some of the crowd started to leave.
Charlton seemed lost, a man down and four goals in arrears, and an increasingly large number in the crowd turned towards the exits.
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So it was 6-6 with a minute to go? Blimey.
I don't think I would have been able to watch.0 -
My Dad was there...said lots left at half-time...but he stayed.0
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Sorry, but a long time ago and was only 12 surrounded by lots of people, apart from around me, it would have been difficult to see people in other parts leaving, but if the reported story says so, I must be wrong.Uboat said:
Hold on, Ross. That's not what you said earlier.ross1 said:Charlton managed to keep Huddersfield at bay until half-time, and so trailed 2–0 at the break. Seeing little chance of a come-back, some of the crowd started to leave.
Charlton seemed lost, a man down and four goals in arrears, and an increasingly large number in the crowd turned towards the exits.0 -
I was there when Charlton's 3rd team (I think) drew 6-6 with Snowdown Colliery in the Metropolitan League. Who else can claim that?1
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I was there and I'm sure it was a diving header from Buck Ryan,from J Summers cross.0
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Same with my dad. One of my most treasured possessions is his programme from that game. I think there was a cup game against Huddersfield soon after because I recall he also had a Huddersfield away programme which he said had a higher than normal travelling away contingent....Weegie Addick said:My Dad was there...said lots left at half-time...but he stayed.
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Didn't that one finish 0-0 ?CatAddick said:
Same with my dad. One of my most treasured possessions is his programme from that game. I think there was a cup game against Huddersfield soon after because I recall he also had a Huddersfield away programme which he said had a higher than normal travelling away contingent....Weegie Addick said:My Dad was there...said lots left at half-time...but he stayed.
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I was there, doing the breaststroke in Grandads bollocks!1
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Was there enough room?soapy_jones said:I was there, doing the breaststroke in Grandads bollocks!
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400 million of us but plenty were moving out every night apparantly...0
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[ was also there .It was my first ever game at the valley [ was with my late father and my older brother who wanted to go home at halftime1
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My dad went with his next door neighbour who left when their 5th went in. Would not believe my dad when he got home and said we had won so he walked down and got both the evening papers (standard and express) to prove it.
My dad played with Bill Shankley at Luton during the war and was also in the same RAF camp so knew him. Spoke to him after the match and he was surprised he was not angry with his side but seemed to be still in disbelief at what had happened.
Still exciting reading about it after all these years. Must have been great to have been actually there.1 -
First Charlton game I ever went to. My father had taken me to a couple of Millwall games, (sneaking me under the turnstiles) but on this particular Saturday I saw a poster on the bus shelter in Forest Hill for an excursion bus to the Huddersfield game and decided to go. I was hooked for ever. The rare occasions I can get to The Valley now, usually in the off-season, still brings tears to my eyes. Watching the Watford game this weekend reminded me of the warm glow supporters get leaving their stadium after a hard-fought win against a good team, there's nothing compares to that.1
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Bill Shankly never played Sandy Kennon in goal again after that game.
So Derek Ufton told us at a Bromley (Widmore Rd) meeting, said he should have kicked the ball out!
Pretty sure that Henry and a few other Charlton icons were at that meeting.0 -
Think it did. Definitely a draw.se9addick said:
Didn't that one finish 0-0 ?CatAddick said:
Same with my dad. One of my most treasured possessions is his programme from that game. I think there was a cup game against Huddersfield soon after because I recall he also had a Huddersfield away programme which he said had a higher than normal travelling away contingent....Weegie Addick said:My Dad was there...said lots left at half-time...but he stayed.
[edit] Just looked it up 2-2 in 3rd Round of cup and we won the reply 1-0 (League game up there was 3-3 so that season we played 4 games and shared 24 goals)0 -
My late Dad was there. He never left a game before the end.0
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I've seen the highlights on TV - black and white scarves everywhere4
