Born and raised in Chislehurst, funny but my parents had/still have absolutely no interest in football but have raised two sons who are totally obsessed by their teams, so there was no parental/ family influence
Sad but true, what decided it for me was, at about the age of 9 or 10, i wanted to go to a match and it was one bus to the Valley and two to Selhurst
Growing up in our house could be a trifle difficult. Saturdays were a pleasant distraction, football!
I remember planting myself in front of the TV watching rubbish wrestling & muddy Rugby League until the final score came on & my really important task of writing down every full time score for my brother & for my Dad to check his pool's. I'd hold my breath every time the Charlton score came through as it would determine my brothers mood.
My elder sister put pay to my brother ever wanting to take me to Charlton. My Dad had stopped going. So I had to make do with watching games on the box. So I never felt any real allegiance to a team apart from Liverpool as I marvelled at their skills (an Auntie bought me a scarf back from Anfield & because she bought it for me I instantly went off them, strange).
I suppose I have to thank my brother's future wife for me supporting Charlton. Not because he turned into a complete softy once they got together but her family were QPR fans & they went to a few games which made me finally pluck up the courage to ask if I could tag along. Once there it was no contest. Being little I don't remember a hell of a lot about the games but just remember the dead peanut shells on the floor, the patting on the head from old blokes as I tried to get past to get the best view, that mural on the walk back that seemed so colourful, being whisked up onto someone shoulders when Spurs stormed into the East Stand.
I had to wait until I was 17 and had my own money before I could go myself. Funny, I deliberately didn't go with my brother but dragged my Chelsea supporting boyfriend all the way to Sellout. After that I never looked back. Even used to go on my own if I couldn't find anyone to go with. Especially at Upton Park, many an evening game I went straight from work & would be supping a pint on my own in the Boleyn (just call me Billy).
After time the Killer clan grew & even our Dad came back. Our Mum was even dragged to the Play Off Final!
I tried to give it up once, but after missing two seasons I was hell to live with & told to go back in no ucertain terms.
If you go back enough it was our Uncle who was the first Charlton supporter but Dad insisted on checking out the other teams before he settled. All I can say is thank god Crystal Palace isn't actually in Crystal Palace (still moans about the walk from Crystal Palace to Selhurst to this day) & that Millwall had women spectators whose comments turned the air blue!!!! (little did he know his daughter would speak the same language in the future ;-) )
For some maybe not but my nephew on my wife's side didn't grow up in a Charlton supporting area or in a Charlton supporting family until his dad and him got ST when he was 11. You try telling him he's not a real Charlton fan.
Indeed.
People become fans of our club in different ways, and in many cases it can be through seeing that particular team. As many people have mentioned here, they got into Charlton by seeing them as a kid. All the kids that come in that might not care now, may start to care in the future if they see the club more and more. Admittedly it will be more difficult if we do go down, but I think the struggle we've been having this year may endear us to some of the kids coming to see a one off game.
I went to see Charlton V Huddersfield in the playoff season (1-0 Mark Bright) as one of those kids through my football team. The only player I knew that played for Charlton before the game was John Robinson. I can tell you that after that game I was a lot more interested in how Charlton did.
Now nearly 10 years on, theres certainly no way that I could ever not care about Charlton, and consider it as much "my" club as anyone else.
'73 first day, with my dad and grandad. Had been an Arsenal fan before. Charlie George's goal in the FA cup final was why. First ever match was Arse V leicester finished 0-0. Bored to death. Then went to the Valley. Loved it, used to go to the Stones club before and after saw the players after (and sometimes before) the game. Saw Jim Davidson and his mates kick the hell out of some Stoke fans in the car park one year, if I remember rightly Davidson held the drinks while his mates got stuck in. Went to more away than home games when we went to Shithurst. Loads of great memories over the years. Now take my 3 kids to the matches all season tickets holders.
It seems to me that other supporters have no idea what ist like to support a real club. Best club in football, maybe not the best team but the best club!
if I had supported anyone else.................I would never have spoken to my Dad, only thing we've ever been able to have a decent conversation about. Funny really as everytime KB & DaddyKiller talk about Charlton it ends up in a full scale barney...............hilarious!!!!
Anyone remember the old LBC programme on Saturday afternoons? They'd call around the grounds and get updates from their reporters - a bit like Sky do now, except that Charlton being a smaller second division club would always be called on less frequently than the likes of Spurs and Arsenal in the first division. Always agonising because you never knew what the score would be and you always held your breath, especially when the presenter said "there's been a goal at the Valley...let's see who it's gone to...over to...." before linking to the reporter in question at the Valley or wherever Charlton were playing. You'd have this fraction of a second guessing whether the background noise meant a goal scored or conceded.
oh pipe down. Would you like to give a more detailed answer to this post then the one you did last night?
anyway here's mine... when i was young girl my dad took me to West Ham for a couple of seasons, saw curbs and Merv play . But liverpool were my team, Daglish and co - i never forget the day liverpool game to play at west ham, my dad put me on his shoulders so i could see my heros and when he tried to move me higher up his back he didnt realise he was under a steel boulder and jumped up and banged my head quite a few times. some geezer next to him had to tell him he had knocked me out... Never went back.
Anyway I forgot about football for many many years until i happened to be in australia working on a building site. Being female trying to fit in with the lads they asked me who my team was and i racked my small brain and thought, i know, my local team. So piped up with Charlton. Luckily the lads on site didnt know too much about charlton (scousers) and obviously nor did I but i followed it through with yes charlton are my team. Ended up working with a few charlton out there funnily enough.
Anyway i came home and then thought I better start looking up this team and plus my sister had moved to charlton church lane so i became a follower. I followed the team results but not much else then plucked up courage to buy a ticket, charlton v brentford jan 96 with a few mates. (i know - janet come lately) and It bloody got snowed off. very disppointed but we decided to get on with our day planned and carried on drinking - it ended up with me getting a punch to the back of the head by a bloke in the "Who'd a Thought it" very late that night... how he could have mistaken me for a mouthy bloke i dont know... but it didnt put me off. never.
anyway then i went off abroad again and was away for play off final and have only had a season ticket for the last five years which is bad for a person my age but i dont care. I love my club.
First football match was a CAFC game at sellhurst aged about 7 or 8, couldn't tell ya which game mind, but it was defo at sellhurst. My Bro who posts on here as Morts_Genius will tell ya that i used to go up with his crew in his 'box on wheels' (a smallish weirdish Fiat thing inherited from our Sis) in fact some of his mates who might of been in the said weird Fiat post on CL (own up doods) now. Anyway went to a plenty of games at sellhurst, used to go in that weird club thing Chrystal's i think, and run around excited about the footie. I also attended a couple of aways, Arsenal on the clock end where it was so cold when i went toilet i couldn't do my top button of my jeans up, so my bro's girl mate/or bird not sure had to do it up for me and i was very embarrassed! Also did spurs away, remember loads of cafc and on a massive terrace, watford away (allotments anyone) and cant remember anymore, although i did attend plough lane but not sure who with (could of been to watch millwall). Anyway I always saw myself as charlton, although i strayed a bit, as when my bro stopped taking me for a reason which i dont no, i started going to the old Den with my dad (stood on halfway line with some orrible lookin knuckle draggers), who to this day is very disappointed i am cafc not Millwall like him, and told me as much just the other day when i had him round for dinner, and he took the pizz out of my framed Killer pic Gypo gypo gypo, typical millwall eh! I actually enjoyed going millwall but forgive me i was only about 10-12. I also liked the arsenal for a short time, as my step dad likes them, i dont mind em now, dont like there fans tho! Anyway i always still looked for cafc results, aswell as millwall and Le arse (they wasn't no Le arse then tho, they were le bore lol!) anyway i was prob 13 or when i decided enough was enough and that i had to rid myself of 2 of the 3 teams i liked. I was in school, and in class i stood up, and said thats it, my first ever game was Charlton, so Charlton it is. From then on cafc is my first love, altho i still look out for Millwall results i am Charlton through and through! Because my bro was cafc and my ol fella was Millwall we went to a few barnstorming games at sellhurst, once (i think when we got done 3-0 sherinam, cass and brierly goals) we were all together in an exec box, which for me as a young-un was ace! also another game with the most amazing atmosphere was v millwall (cant recall the score) but we were right next to the Millwall in the arthur waite, i am sure it half each and singing went back and forth, charlton charlton charlton, then millwall millwall etc etc anyone remember this, but the loud grim atmos will always stay with me!
Once i had decided that was cafc only, i sporadically went to the valley, not all the time tho. I remember a time when i was about 14 or 15 and my above mentioned bro took me to pompey home game on boxing day, nelse got the winner to make it 2-1 (if memory serves correct) anyway i had a couple of pints after match in the bugle, possiby my first football related pizz up, well lagged up, and my step dad had to lift up my face every so often as i kept falling asleep into my cold meat and mash, oh and i spewed loads!!
Once i was around 15 16 i started to go to all home games and some away games, for some reason i remember reading away (puked on wendy perfects coach up hungover, she loves me!), norwich away, stood next to this insane ipswich fan who hated norwich and liverpool in the cup, great times! Some great times in the f block, also the east stand blck B i think (glass half empty might no that, as i was sat right near him)!
Another great memoir was obviously the play off final, went with 6 pals, not all cafc but they all loved it, i think paul bacon sarnie's ol man got me the tickets (not sure tho) but this was a great day out, getting back to charlton for another pint in the bugle, cars driving past honking horns et al! In the prem that year i had an ST in the jimmy seed, it was great, we had our own songs and everything! then after we got relegated i still had my jimmy seed ST, but work stopped me from seeing alot of the games, so i gave it up! then i didnt return till 2003, when i got another st, even tho i worked a week on week off in the print, home games i was always on shift! Since then i been a regular again.
Anyways loadsa good memories from me, although i strayed to the old den for a couple of years, i am still and always will cafc till i die.
OK - confession time. Anyone and everyone who's ever met me thinks I'm Charlton through and through. However, the first football match I became aware of was Chelsea v Leeds FA Cup replay on telly in 1970. I asked my Dad who I should support, and he said Chelsea, because they were local team (lesser of 2 evils at the time I guess). It was a school night, so as I was only 6, I got sent to bed when it went to extra time. The next morning I found out Chelsea had won, so decided to support them. My poor Dad - neither my older sister nor brother had taken any interest in football, now suddenly his little daughter was hooked, but had chosen the wrong team - with his encouragement! I was so horrible to him for the next couple of years - he thought I was too young to take to a match, so he'd come home time and again from The Valley to be greeted by me laughing that Charlton had lost and Chelsea had won (as the latter went on to European glory and The Addicks sank to the third division.)
Anyway, 3-4 years later he started taking me along - my first game was at The Valley, and I think we won, though can't remember opposition or score. Dad was also kind (foolish?) enough to take me to Chelsea once or twice - but only when it didn't clash with Charlton. Gradually I started going to all the matches with him, and a year or two later announced from the back of the car 'OK, Dad, I give up, I'll support Charlton.' And haven't looked back since.
I last told this story publicly at my Dad's funeral just over a year ago - I'll always be grateful to him for helping me choose the right team eventually!
From Bromley, neither parents really interested in football. When I was 11/12 got taken to my first game. Think it was QPR at home in the season we went back up. Enjoyed it and went to a couple more games like Spurs at home in the cup and Dagenham.
Then when I was 13/14 started to go weekly and I was hooked.
Here we go then with mine, born at the british home for mothers and babies, lived my early day`s on the springfield estate charlton church lane, used to watch the boy`s from the Height`s in the sixties, some of older lads told they knew how to get in for nothing and they would get me in if helped, they lifted me up so I could see over the wall to see if there were any coppers in the Sam Bartram toilets ajoining the laundry, there weren`t so over I went, and kept dog eye until the rest were in then we had to split up until half-time in case we`had been spotted, very cloak and dagger, but I was only six, who we were playing that day I can`t remember, but I do remember standing in "The Covered End" right behind the goal watching the biggest bloke I`d ever seen, playing in goal and the best moustache I`d ever see until I married and I met the mother in law, and that goalie was Charlie Wright, in the second half the ball was tipped round the post by the great man, he shouted to me" get the ball son" which I did, returning to the small iron fence that used to surround the pitch I was just about throw it when Charlie said "cant you kick" so I did, he was right I couldn`t, I went straight over the fence onto that gravel surround, taking the skin of my chin in the process, Charlie came straight over picked me up, brushed me down, ruffled my hair, of which I had plenty of at the time, I was made up, my best`est mate in the whole world was Charlie Wright, and the love affair with greatest club in the world was born............................................
i have to confess that my dad was/is a man utd fan. he used to take me all over the country in the 70's and early 80's so i will always have an afinity with them.
we both got a liking for charlton when mark penfold started to play. as a friend of the family, we used to watch him in the youth team at sparrows lane, and when he got into the 1st team we would watch him at the valley.
we switched back to mainly watching utd when mark broke his leg. i apolagise in advance but 1 of (not the) my best moments watching football was as a 11 year old going to old trafford (1982) for the visit of juventus. seeing the likes of dino zoff, paulo rossi, michelle platini and boniek in the flesh and not in a sticker book was amazing. it wqs 1-1 with alan davies scoring for utd (he later topped himself).
any way within a year i wanted to go football on my own so the only way my dad would allow that was to go charlton with my school mates, which i did. and haven't stopped since.
Great uncle had been a fan pre-WWI and helped dig out the Valley in 1919. My Dad started going in 1934 and took me in 1964/5. Don't know what the first game was but we used to go in the old West stand. Remember being able to get programmes that people just left lying around at the end. That's it really.
Told my wife that if our son didn't like football that was fine but if he did he would be a Charlton fan. He does and he is.
My dad took me to my first game in 1975 a cup game midweek against Oxford United i was in the old West Stand,i remember seeing a punch up in the covered end,and at half time i went to the programme shop and went up the wrong staircase going back into the stand and got a bit lost,missed about 10 mins of the second half and got a bollocking from the old man.Went again the following season against Fulham.My dad used to manage a local league team called West Kent who played at Welling's old ground in Butterfly Lane in Eltham so i watched them until they folded in the mid 80's then started to follow Charlton.Christ knows how many thousands of pounds i've spent on Charlton since then but it's been worth every penny!!!
My Dad's family all supported the Addicks. It all stemmed from my Grandad who lived in Catford and started supporting in 1920's during the ill fated move to the Mount.
My first game was aged 8 in 1968 3-3 against QPR. At the time I supported Chelsea copying my best mate who supported them. I saw quite a few games in 1968/9 season when we finished third behind Brian Clough's Derby and some poxy team from Selhurst.
I saw Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge once, yet I had been many many times to the Valley. I suddenly realised that Charlton meant more to me than a bunch of Flash Harrys from the Fulham Road. That was it. Never the same again.
I can understand why kids end up supporting Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. which is why its so important to encourage them to come and watch us as early as possible. Once bitten, forever smitten!!
My dad was a big fan. And before him my Grandad was a big fan. His hero was Sam Bartram. So never really had a choice. Can remember my dad giving me a newspaper and asking me who I was going to support. Arsenal, I said. Not in this house, he told me. And so it went on until I said Charlton.
All my family are Chelsea fans, but I didn't like the fact it took ages to get to Stamford Bridge (from SE London and I was only small!).
My school got free tickets to a game at Selhurst and I was hooked from there, fair play to my Dad, he used to take me to games at Selhurst and Upton Park despite the fact he'd rather be at Stamford Bridge.
I didn't really take much of an interest in football until I was about 12 I think, when it became impossible not to and go to school at the same time. I actually followed Liverpool for a couple of years, while still being taken to the odd Charlton game by my dad. Pretty soon after that I got a season ticket for the 95/96 season and all of a sudden supporting Charlton became very much a full time thing, so I said goodbye to Liverpool, tore down my Robbie Fowler posters and replacem with... erm, Stuart Balmer posters I guess.
Been a season ticket holder ever since.
Even before I took an interest in football I'd always hoped we'd do well, simply because I've lived in Charlton all my life.
Went to football first when i was about five with my nan & grandad (unless you count the times I went when me mam was pregnant with me!)
I was in love with Charlton the first time I saw them - good job n'all, since my whole family has been Charlton supporters since the early twenties.
To be honest, probably like many other fans, I'm slowly falling out of love with football - the money, Sky, the constant overdose of it on the telly etc etc - but I will always love Charlton - even if I stop going one day.
Cheers mate - you too. looks like a lot of old faces from NetSaddicks are on here.
It finally got too much for me over there - all the stupid backbiting and mulitple personaliIty disorders could handle, but it was getting near enough impossible to post anything without it timing out!
I got into Charlton when my old man was groundsman at Sparrows Lane from 1980 (might have been late 79) - 81.
We (Mum, Dad, Me, Little brother) lived in the staff flat in the clubhouse, so as a 4 year old lad I got to see the players train every day, and even have the occasional 'kickabout' with them - One of the few vivid memories I've still got from back then is getting hit in the stomach by a Martin Robinson howitzer that strayed off course. Honestly, I can still see it coming straight at me, and not being able to do a thing about it except brace for impact..
Of course, those kickabouts paled into insignificance in comparison to the fun of hitching a ride on the tractor and mowing the grass, but they were alright I suppose
Watching my old man and Paddy Powell knock golf balls about the place is another memory I've got. It's strange how these very mundane things stick in your mind..
Anyway, to cut the story short my sister arrived in August 81, and that was that - a new and better paid job for the old man was necessary, and us leaving paradise (it was to me anyway) soon followed.
I ain't really got much to remember those times - a wage slip, a few pictures and some Charlton momentos (team sheets from the notice board, a 79/80 shirt, a pennant or two) is all I've got, but I'm grateful to have had that year or two. It's a pretty unique way of "finding your club"..
I'm a Johnny-come-lately - it took years for the bug to bite properly. I was brought up in Greenwich to parents who didn't care about football. But my grandparents (who lived in Tallis Grove), used to go to Charlton and took me when I was tiny - so that's where it comes from.
Then my grandad became ill and stopped going, then Selhurst happened, and that was it. When I was a bit older I went to Selhurst and Upton Park a few times with mates from school (£3 Junior Red tickets, puddle at the bottom of the Arthur Wait...), used to listen a lot on the radio (remember listening to Ronny Rosenthal whup our arses at Selhurst on Capital Gold) and always used to buy Voice of The Valley.
But by the time the return to The Valley happened I'd turned 18, drifted out of the fold, was more into music, couldn't afford it anyway, so became an armchair fan. And stupidly, I binned a whole load of VOTVs as well. Duh.
And then at the end of the 90s, I fell in with a football-going crowd once again, I started earning decent money at long last, so I started going regularly from the beginning of the 1999/2000 season, and match-going started to replace gig-going, and got bitten straight away. Got a half-season ticket after that, and the rest is history.
(And now I think I have football and music in a perfect balance.)
Comments
Sad but true, what decided it for me was, at about the age of 9 or 10, i wanted to go to a match and it was one bus to the Valley and two to Selhurst
Lucky escape eh!
I remember planting myself in front of the TV watching rubbish wrestling & muddy Rugby League until the final score came on & my really important task of writing down every full time score for my brother & for my Dad to check his pool's. I'd hold my breath every time the Charlton score came through as it would determine my brothers mood.
My elder sister put pay to my brother ever wanting to take me to Charlton. My Dad had stopped going. So I had to make do with watching games on the box. So I never felt any real allegiance to a team apart from Liverpool as I marvelled at their skills (an Auntie bought me a scarf back from Anfield & because she bought it for me I instantly went off them, strange).
I suppose I have to thank my brother's future wife for me supporting Charlton. Not because he turned into a complete softy once they got together but her family were QPR fans & they went to a few games which made me finally pluck up the courage to ask if I could tag along. Once there it was no contest. Being little I don't remember a hell of a lot about the games but just remember the dead peanut shells on the floor, the patting on the head from old blokes as I tried to get past to get the best view, that mural on the walk back that seemed so colourful, being whisked up onto someone shoulders when Spurs stormed into the East Stand.
I had to wait until I was 17 and had my own money before I could go myself. Funny, I deliberately didn't go with my brother but dragged my Chelsea supporting boyfriend all the way to Sellout. After that I never looked back. Even used to go on my own if I couldn't find anyone to go with. Especially at Upton Park, many an evening game I went straight from work & would be supping a pint on my own in the Boleyn (just call me Billy).
After time the Killer clan grew & even our Dad came back. Our Mum was even dragged to the Play Off Final!
I tried to give it up once, but after missing two seasons I was hell to live with & told to go back in no ucertain terms.
If you go back enough it was our Uncle who was the first Charlton supporter but Dad insisted on checking out the other teams before he settled. All I can say is thank god Crystal Palace isn't actually in Crystal Palace (still moans about the walk from Crystal Palace to Selhurst to this day) & that Millwall had women spectators whose comments turned the air blue!!!! (little did he know his daughter would speak the same language in the future ;-) )
Charlton til I die!
Indeed.
People become fans of our club in different ways, and in many cases it can be through seeing that particular team. As many people have mentioned here, they got into Charlton by seeing them as a kid. All the kids that come in that might not care now, may start to care in the future if they see the club more and more. Admittedly it will be more difficult if we do go down, but I think the struggle we've been having this year may endear us to some of the kids coming to see a one off game.
I went to see Charlton V Huddersfield in the playoff season (1-0 Mark Bright) as one of those kids through my football team. The only player I knew that played for Charlton before the game was John Robinson. I can tell you that after that game I was a lot more interested in how Charlton did.
Now nearly 10 years on, theres certainly no way that I could ever not care about Charlton, and consider it as much "my" club as anyone else.
'73 first day, with my dad and grandad. Had been an Arsenal fan before. Charlie George's goal in the FA cup final was why. First ever match was Arse V leicester finished 0-0. Bored to death. Then went to the Valley. Loved it, used to go to the Stones club before and after saw the players after (and sometimes before) the game. Saw Jim Davidson and his mates kick the hell out of some Stoke fans in the car park one year, if I remember rightly Davidson held the drinks while his mates got stuck in. Went to more away than home games when we went to Shithurst. Loads of great memories over the years. Now take my 3 kids to the matches all season tickets holders.
It seems to me that other supporters have no idea what ist like to support a real club. Best club in football, maybe not the best team but the best club!
Mind how you go!
mind you im a bit pissed and emotioantl.
tee hee
your week just got better then.................& now it's the weekend!
Bring it on!!!!
anyway here's mine... when i was young girl my dad took me to West Ham for a couple of seasons, saw curbs and Merv play . But liverpool were my team, Daglish and co - i never forget the day liverpool game to play at west ham, my dad put me on his shoulders so i could see my heros and when he tried to move me higher up his back he didnt realise he was under a steel boulder and jumped up and banged my head quite a few times. some geezer next to him had to tell him he had knocked me out... Never went back.
Anyway I forgot about football for many many years until i happened to be in australia working on a building site. Being female trying to fit in with the lads they asked me who my team was and i racked my small brain and thought, i know, my local team. So piped up with Charlton. Luckily the lads on site didnt know too much about charlton (scousers) and obviously nor did I but i followed it through with yes charlton are my team. Ended up working with a few charlton out there funnily enough.
Anyway i came home and then thought I better start looking up this team and plus my sister had moved to charlton church lane so i became a follower. I followed the team results but not much else then plucked up courage to buy a ticket, charlton v brentford jan 96 with a few mates. (i know - janet come lately) and It bloody got snowed off. very disppointed but we decided to get on with our day planned and carried on drinking - it ended up with me getting a punch to the back of the head by a bloke in the "Who'd a Thought it" very late that night... how he could have mistaken me for a mouthy bloke i dont know... but it didnt put me off. never.
anyway then i went off abroad again and was away for play off final and have only had a season ticket for the last five years which is bad for a person my age but i dont care. I love my club.
would loved to have seen your dad's face when he realised he'd knocked you out
bet he had to say a few hail marys after that!!!
Once i had decided that was cafc only, i sporadically went to the valley, not all the time tho. I remember a time when i was about 14 or 15 and my above mentioned bro took me to pompey home game on boxing day, nelse got the winner to make it 2-1 (if memory serves correct) anyway i had a couple of pints after match in the bugle, possiby my first football related pizz up, well lagged up, and my step dad had to lift up my face every so often as i kept falling asleep into my cold meat and mash, oh and i spewed loads!!
Once i was around 15 16 i started to go to all home games and some away games, for some reason i remember reading away (puked on wendy perfects coach up hungover, she loves me!), norwich away, stood next to this insane ipswich fan who hated norwich and liverpool in the cup, great times! Some great times in the f block, also the east stand blck B i think (glass half empty might no that, as i was sat right near him)!
Another great memoir was obviously the play off final, went with 6 pals, not all cafc but they all loved it, i think paul bacon sarnie's ol man got me the tickets (not sure tho) but this was a great day out, getting back to charlton for another pint in the bugle, cars driving past honking horns et al! In the prem that year i had an ST in the jimmy seed, it was great, we had our own songs and everything! then after we got relegated i still had my jimmy seed ST, but work stopped me from seeing alot of the games, so i gave it up! then i didnt return till 2003, when i got another st, even tho i worked a week on week off in the print, home games i was always on shift! Since then i been a regular again.
Anyways loadsa good memories from me, although i strayed to the old den for a couple of years, i am still and always will cafc till i die.
Anyway, 3-4 years later he started taking me along - my first game was at The Valley, and I think we won, though can't remember opposition or score. Dad was also kind (foolish?) enough to take me to Chelsea once or twice - but only when it didn't clash with Charlton. Gradually I started going to all the matches with him, and a year or two later announced from the back of the car 'OK, Dad, I give up, I'll support Charlton.' And haven't looked back since.
I last told this story publicly at my Dad's funeral just over a year ago - I'll always be grateful to him for helping me choose the right team eventually!
From Bromley, neither parents really interested in football. When I was 11/12 got taken to my first game. Think it was QPR at home in the season we went back up. Enjoyed it and went to a couple more games like Spurs at home in the cup and Dagenham.
Then when I was 13/14 started to go weekly and I was hooked.
we both got a liking for charlton when mark penfold started to play. as a friend of the family, we used to watch him in the youth team at sparrows lane, and when he got into the 1st team we would watch him at the valley.
we switched back to mainly watching utd when mark broke his leg. i apolagise in advance but 1 of (not the) my best moments watching football was as a 11 year old going to old trafford (1982) for the visit of juventus. seeing the likes of dino zoff, paulo rossi, michelle platini and boniek in the flesh and not in a sticker book was amazing. it wqs 1-1 with alan davies scoring for utd (he later topped himself).
any way within a year i wanted to go football on my own so the only way my dad would allow that was to go charlton with my school mates, which i did. and haven't stopped since.
Told my wife that if our son didn't like football that was fine but if he did he would be a Charlton fan. He does and he is.
My first game was aged 8 in 1968 3-3 against QPR. At the time I supported Chelsea copying my best mate who supported them. I saw quite a few games in 1968/9 season when we finished third behind Brian Clough's Derby and some poxy team from Selhurst.
I saw Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge once, yet I had been many many times to the Valley. I suddenly realised that Charlton meant more to me than a bunch of Flash Harrys from the Fulham Road. That was it. Never the same again.
I can understand why kids end up supporting Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. which is why its so important to encourage them to come and watch us as early as possible. Once bitten, forever smitten!!
My school got free tickets to a game at Selhurst and I was hooked from there, fair play to my Dad, he used to take me to games at Selhurst and Upton Park despite the fact he'd rather be at Stamford Bridge.
I've had a Season Ticket since 96/97 season
Been a season ticket holder ever since.
Even before I took an interest in football I'd always hoped we'd do well, simply because I've lived in Charlton all my life.
I was in love with Charlton the first time I saw them - good job n'all, since my whole family has been Charlton supporters since the early twenties.
To be honest, probably like many other fans, I'm slowly falling out of love with football - the money, Sky, the constant overdose of it on the telly etc etc - but I will always love Charlton - even if I stop going one day.
It finally got too much for me over there - all the stupid backbiting and mulitple personaliIty disorders could handle, but it was getting near enough impossible to post anything without it timing out!
We (Mum, Dad, Me, Little brother) lived in the staff flat in the clubhouse, so as a 4 year old lad I got to see the players train every day, and even have the occasional 'kickabout' with them - One of the few vivid memories I've still got from back then is getting hit in the stomach by a Martin Robinson howitzer that strayed off course. Honestly, I can still see it coming straight at me, and not being able to do a thing about it except brace for impact..
Of course, those kickabouts paled into insignificance in comparison to the fun of hitching a ride on the tractor and mowing the grass, but they were alright I suppose
Watching my old man and Paddy Powell knock golf balls about the place is another memory I've got. It's strange how these very mundane things stick in your mind..
Anyway, to cut the story short my sister arrived in August 81, and that was that - a new and better paid job for the old man was necessary, and us leaving paradise (it was to me anyway) soon followed.
I ain't really got much to remember those times - a wage slip, a few pictures and some Charlton momentos (team sheets from the notice board, a 79/80 shirt, a pennant or two) is all I've got, but I'm grateful to have had that year or two. It's a pretty unique way of "finding your club"..
Then my grandad became ill and stopped going, then Selhurst happened, and that was it. When I was a bit older I went to Selhurst and Upton Park a few times with mates from school (£3 Junior Red tickets, puddle at the bottom of the Arthur Wait...), used to listen a lot on the radio (remember listening to Ronny Rosenthal whup our arses at Selhurst on Capital Gold) and always used to buy Voice of The Valley.
But by the time the return to The Valley happened I'd turned 18, drifted out of the fold, was more into music, couldn't afford it anyway, so became an armchair fan. And stupidly, I binned a whole load of VOTVs as well. Duh.
And then at the end of the 90s, I fell in with a football-going crowd once again, I started earning decent money at long last, so I started going regularly from the beginning of the 1999/2000 season, and match-going started to replace gig-going, and got bitten straight away. Got a half-season ticket after that, and the rest is history.
(And now I think I have football and music in a perfect balance.)