http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/tn/Sport.cfm?id=6398&headline=Why%20tonight's%20Brighton%20game%20means%20so%20much%20to%20Peter%20Varney
Interesting read, wonder if Peter has ever thought about writing a book? He's probably got some stories to tell!
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I guess this puts in words how I feel about this club too. I guess the final analysis is, whether beating Liverpool or losing to Orient ant the Valley, we're still 'Charlton'. And proud of it.
''In truth I used to get a lot of stick at school for being a Charlton supporter but I said then what I still say to kids now. You watch your team every week so you are a real supporter. Ask those who take the mickey out of you how many times they have seen Manchester United and Liverpool play and invariably they will say not at all. Are you a real fan then, you should ask? ''
I think every Charlton fan has been involved in a conversation like this!!
Let's hope we win. :-)
well said that man
Hopefully I'll still be around in 2060, I'll try and remember 100 years ago Peter Varney went to his first game. By then there will be stories like "I remember Jonjo Shelvey as a player", after Jonjo retires as Charlton manager in the World Super League.
I hope, despite his recent resignation from the Board, that he stays around the Charlton corridors of power for a good few more years.
EDIT: The article took an age to download for me and appears to be taking a long time for others so here it is copied and pasted from the South London Press:
Why tonight's Brighton game means so much to Peter Varney
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
By Peter Varney
ON FEBRUARY 24 1960, I was an excited schoolboy celebrating my sixth birthday when my dad told me he was going to take me to a real football match. It was something that I had been pestering him to do for months. He was going to take me to see the football team he used to watch on a Saturday without me despite the fact I was football mad - Charlton Athletic at The Valley.
The opposition was Brighton and Hove Albion and we won 3-1. It is a sign of how quickly life passes us all by that today I will be watching the team that has been such an integral part of my life for 50 years play Brighton at The Valley. The same scoreline will do nicely.
If my dad knew that his decision to give in and take me to The Valley with him would result in me one day being a senior executive and director of his beloved club and that my youngest son would sign as a professional player and represent the academy, youth and reserve teams for 13 years, I think he would have been very proud. Sadly he died before any of that came to pass.
Of course when you support a club for that length of time there are so many matches that stick in the mind. That doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best games but the ones I remember the most.
The 2-0 defeat of Brian Clough’s high-flying Derby County in January 1969 in a season when I believe we deserved to be promoted to Division One as it was then. The fantastic goal from the edge of the box by my then favourite player, Irishman Ray Treacy, was played over and over again on television and I can still see it now. In the same season we suffered a 2-0 defeat to the then mighty Arsenal in the FA Cup fourth round but there I was at the legendary Highbury with its massive crowd and I couldn’t see a thing. We had earlier defeated Crystal Palace in a third-round replay at Selhurst Park with another two Treacy goals, one a real gem. The journey back home was amazing. I had never been on a train before with so many people rocking up and down and singing.
There were many night matches in the unique covered end atmosphere at The Valley. Paddy Powell scoring the winner in a 4-3 thriller against Brighton, a couple of teams were hit for six with Mike Flanagan on fire after being converted from a left-winger to a centre-forward. The win over Bobby Charlton’s Preston North End, when Bobby got a fantastic ovation from the crowd as he walked out, and the dramatic 3-1 win that ensued to secure promotion.
The 4-1 defeat of Spurs at The Valley in October 1977 was a great day. I got married in July that year and I entered an Evening News competition to have a night out with any footballer in the country. I sent in a report of that 4-1 win over Spurs and I won that week. Over the time the competition ran other winners chose George Best and other high profile players of the time but I chose Keith Peacock. It was the start of a friendship that has lasted the years. In 1978 we finally beat Millwall at The Den and then there was the longest coach journey in the world to Carlisle United in 1986 to see us gain promotion. Our fans that day were brilliant.
The 1-0 win at Manchester United in the same year was fantastic and, in 1988, we endured an unbelievably tense and intimidating final match at Chelsea, where the referee lost control of the match and but for a colossal performance from Paul Miller we would have been relegated from the top flight. Another match I remember vividly is the first game back at The Valley in December 1992 and that goal from Colin Walsh. I organised Walshie’s testimonial with some of my closest friends and would go on to do quite a few more – John Robinson, Steve Brown and Alan Curbishley and, of course, a whole array of events for Steve Gritt to raise funds for brain research in the name of his brave late daughter Hayley. The emotional night we hit the £100,000 figure at the London Golf Club in Kent was one neither Steve or I will ever forget.
The best match of all in my 50 years of support has to be the 1998 play-off final, which included the greatest hat-trick ever scored at Wembley by super Clive Mendonca. Sorry Geoff!
And in the years that followed I enjoyed so many of the matches in the Premier League and hardly ever missed a game home or away. In fact I believe I have only missed about a dozen or so home matches since 1960. Beating Southampton 5-0 at The Valley on our return to the top flight, the 4-2 wins over Arsenal at Highbury and the same scoreline in a Boxing Day drubbing of Claudio Ranieri’s high-flying Chelsea.
The 4-3 win at Villa Park that resulted in our fate being decided on the final day of the season and so many more. Winning the First Division Championship at Ewood Park in 2000 and being drowned in champagne by John Robinson. Operation Riverside, Operation Ewood and the yellow day at Nottingham Forest were real fun to organise and they all got fantastic support even though we never delivered on the pitch.
I am sure I have missed some real gems of matches but these are the ones I remember and if my facts are wrong it is still how I remember them that counts!
In truth I used to get a lot of stick at school for being a Charlton supporter but I said then what I still say to kids now. You watch your team every week so you are a real supporter. Ask those who take the mickey out of you how many times they have seen Manchester United and Liverpool play and invariably they will say not at all. Are you a real fan then, you should ask?
I joined the club as managing director in 1997 as a man with a mission and I am satisfied with my contribution over the succeeding 11 years. More than anything I wanted to see The Valley redeveloped and I know that I worked beyond the call of duty to raise finance for the development and I drove the design and construction phases, often arriving at 7am and leaving at 9pm and working in freezing cold portacabins in the old north stand car park. It was worth every minute. Not many clubs build stands that come in at £300,000 below budget and I am proud of that. During the financing phase my waist line took a battering as we launched a north stand patrons’ scheme that raised £1m from 40 of our most loyal supporters but over 300 came to the lunches and they were great fun.
On the subject of the construction, I well remember taking the contractors’ site manager out to dinner to try and resolve a dispute on their many contractual claims. We ordered a Chinese meal and then started to discuss the claims. Things got heated and he walked out leaving me on my own with a meal that looked like it was for 10 people. I remember people looking across and thinking ‘you greedy so and so’ but I did my best to eat as much as I could before gingerly requesting the bill.
The redevelopment will be the achievement of which I would like to be most associated because for most of my years supporting the club prior to working for them, I was a covered end resident and in truth as a supporter I was always a little embarrassed by the stadium.
The Premiership years were fantastic and I worked with a very supportive board and chairman in Richard Murray and the greatest manager the club has ever had in Alan Curbishley, with all due respect to Jimmy Seed. Keith Peacock, Mervyn Day and Glynn Snodin, who were a great and sometimes unacknowledged support to Alan, remain great friends to this day. I worked alongside some fantastic players and characters in my time at the club and a talented, hard working and committed group of staff. Some players I still keep in touch with today, such was the bond that was forged during that time.
I love working with the Charlton Athletic Community Trust now and it is something that every supporter should be proud of. Jason Morgan, Matt Parish and their remarkable team of staff and coaches as well as the trustees do a tremendous job and their programmes are unique and inspirational. Most importantly, they are affecting the lives of young people all over the south east region for the better.
I won’t be around for another 50 years but I have enjoyed every minute of supporting the club I love and hope to continue doing so for a few more seasons yet. Perhaps one of our younger supporters will check if, on or around February 24 2060, we are home to Brighton and Hove Albion. If we are, have a wry smile for me!
I guess this puts in words how I feel about this club too. I guess the final analysis is, whether beating Liverpool or losing to Orient ant the Valley, we're still 'Charlton'. And proud of it.[/quote]
When it's in the blood, it comes easy from the heart.
you moron, Peter would've been crushed watching that tonight
utterly inexcusable comment
Are you best mates with him or something. Lighten up you old man!!!