My Dad grew up in Welling and used to go to the odd game with his brother in the 50s. He started taking me in around 1980 as we lived in Blackheath. Always stood on the old East Terrace. Plenty of space for me an the other kids to run around when we got bored.
Didnt used to go to Sellhurst that often as I was playing a lot of sport at school, but have been going pretty much without fail since we came home.
First taken in early 60's by my dad when I was a little kid, but don't remember too much apart from this massive ground! Started going with my mates from Cherry Orchard Estate in Charlton from late 60's onwards. Stood behind the goal at South Stand for 1st season watching the Covered End and remember seeing during every match the crowd in the covered end open into a circle while some poor sod got checked in the middle! Following season onwards the covered end was our home and then source of many memories. Started going regularly to away games in early 70's and in 74-75, I recall attending something like 60+ games, from pre-season friendlies, 3rd division games, FA Cup (Chelmsford & Peterborough away) & League Cup (including the 5-1 away at Old Trafford after a great day when we started in a pub in Eltham High Street), culminating in promotion at the valley against Preston on a brilliant tuesday night in front of about 25000 fans, after we went down by a goal in the first few minutes - what a night! And then to sum the season up about 100 of us went to Tunisia in May 75 for the Sahara Beach tournament with Charlton, Millwall, Swindon & Bournemouth - great memories there as well, Harry Cripps just transferred to Charlton, evenings in the night-club with Cripps, Kitchener, Hales etc. Now in the East Stand where I've been with my son for a few years - still miss the old Covered End though!
Started when my dad took me out one Saturday in November 1967. My recollection of why dad chose Charlton is different to that of LittleSis, and it was because the local Irish priest took him when they lived at Shooters Hill after emmigrating from Ireland.
Usually the only reason he took me anywhere was to get my hair butchered in Crayford, whilst getting splinters in my arse on the bench they put on the seats. Or when he wanted to buy me shoes, ok more acurately sandals!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So when he said we were going out, sheer dread filled this young head. We stopped at the Bus stop by Duckets Bridge so I knew it wasn't hair butchering, shit sandals it is then and I started hatching my plan to lose them at the earliest opportunity.
But as the 96 sailed through Bexleyheath and beyond, the mind was racing. has the old man gone barking, is he taking me on some strange route to Ireland, will we ever return? After what seemed like an eternity we got off at what I now know to be Woolwich and waited for another bus a 177 it was and that's when the old man finally revealed that we were off to watch football and Charlton.
Now as a kid who only knew football from watching on the TV and playing in the garden, the only Charlton I knew was Bobby, I had his picture on a Brook Bond poster I'd been given and knew he was the dogs nuts alongside best, Law, Kidd, Stepney, Sadler. Blimey I thought and as I entered through the turnstiles and made my way to the railings right behind the goal in the Covered End, I was awestruck. Although I don't remember I apparently asked my Dad when Bobby Charlton was coming out as I hadn't recognised him on the pitch. the words stupid boy and this is Charlton Athletic were the response by all accounts.
But it mattered not, the spectacle of live football, the crowd noise, the excitement and supporting a team that none of my mates did had me hooked and still does.
Dad stopped going and taking me because of his work, but every other Saturday, I'd ask for the money to go and from the age of about 9 and 10 was regularly travelling to the Valley, either on my own or with a friend called Mark who I managed to persuade to come with me.
Short suspension of going whilst I tried to pursue my own footballing dream :-) Injuries and not being good enough put paid to that and so it was, off to smellhurst and upton parks and eventually back home with Littlesis and dragging dad back into the fold.
I remember taking Littlesis to that Spurs game, what a baptism of fire that day was.
Parents moved to the area from somewhere near Palace (before I was born) in 1956 to catch the old First division games so a narrow escape for me.
I first went to a Tranmere game in the early 70s (not sure which year) and was a regular in time for the 74/75 promotion year with brothers and school friends.
Why Charlton - no other club comes near though thought about it when we nearly went but in '84
It's been in the family. My Dad and Grandad supported them as children. My Dad remembered going to the Blackburn 3-4 defeat which denied us promotion back in the mid-fifties. He took me to my first game back in Oct 1983 when I was 5. Went fairly regularly from about 1986 onwards to Selhurst Park with my old man sitting in the empty Arther Waite. Used to have to mick ripped out of me at school for supporting (and going to watch) such an unfashionable team such as Charlton. Everyone else was the predictable mix of Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool or Man United. I didn't care though. They could stick their glory hunting antics. My bi-weekly cup final was seeing Charlton at home against Bristol Rovers or Hull or Plymouth at Selhurst or Upton Park in front of 4,000 people and I absolutely loved it. I went to the last game against West Ham at Selhurst and indeed the last game at Upton against Newcastle. I much preferred Upton myself. Found myself going more and more as the bug took hold of me! Then finally went most Saturdays to the Valley and most London and midland away games. My supporting days hit their peak about 1998-99 when I missed only 4 games in that season cups included. Nowadays I go when I can (when I'm not reffing) and usually catch 1-2 away matches a season (money permitting). My love for the club however has never waned and never will. CAFC
Why Charlton? God, I've asked myself that a few times over the past 2 or 3 seasons!
Was always going to be Charlton. My Grandad and dad were both Charlton and as soon as I started taking an interest in football (the '86 World Cup) I found myself the proud owner of a Charlton kit. My dad took me to my first game in the 86/87 season. I lucked out really as it was the home victory over Everton, Melrose bagging a hat-trick. To be honest, the score and game were a bit of an irrelevance - from the second I walked up the stairs and saw the pitch I was in awe - totally hooked (unfortunate that it was Palace's pitch that I saw but I didn't know any better at the time!). I nagged my dad into taking me to the next 'home' game (I don't think he took a great deal of convincing!) and we found ourselves going more and more that season until it was just accepted that if Charlton were at home, we went.
In my day Charlton fans were pretty few and far between at school and I took a lot of stick for it but I could never understand how you could consider yourself a proper football fan if you just picked one of the top teams and 'supported' them by reading about them in 'Match' or 'Shoot!'. Even now, rather immaturely, I dismiss anyone's views on football unless I know that they support a club properly.
My grandad returned to the fold in between bouts of illness and one of my happiest memories of him is dropping him back at my nan's after the Play Off final. That day my grandad was suffering from the initial symptoms of the prostate cancer which would unfortunately lead to his death, he was very ill and shouldn't really have gone to the game. Much to my nan's dismay he wasn't budging though and came with us, I'll never ever forget dropping him off - as my nan opened the door her face dropped, he looked gaunt, pale and exhausted, just as she was about to tell him he shouldn't have gone he declared that he'd just had 'the best day of his life'!
I still travel to games with my dad (though stopped sitting with him in favour of sitting with mates about 10 years ago) and have barely missed a home game in the past 20 years. I also tend to make between 5 and 10 of the aways a season.
I've moaned a lot and lost some of my passion over the past 2 or 3 seasons, both due to the way Charlton have been playing and how the Premiership is ruining our game in general but every now and again I walk up those stairs and see that pitch and get the same feeling I did when I was seven.
I love the club, always will and the more this relegation battle goes on the more I'm starting to rediscover my passion for it too.
great post. totally agree with the "only taking comments by 'real' fans seriously"
anyone that claims to be a liverpool fan having never been to anfield, or a arsenal fan that hasn't been to the emirates or doesn't know that jt was from there doesn't deserve an opinion about charlton or football for that matter. i just nod and move on.
I have a red faced convo about this subject most monday mornings! once a chelsea fan, new sales manager here, give it to me, giving the 2-0 fingers after we lost to reading, i went mad all red faced, the geezer aint been bridge all year, and he has the cheek to give it after i trapsed up there spending all my hard earned watching it. a bit later he came down to my print room and apologised! he since turned out to be a top geezer! But i had the very same convo yesterday with this plastic man yoo fan, never been OT, nor a football match, he comes in singing chelsea's name coz they beat us, i went mental at him. He wont even look at me now!
First game for me was in 68 when we beat Oxford 1-0 ( I think) I started going when my mate's dad started taking me and his son to games back then. I can still remember him going through the programme for me and pointing out all the players as he read out their names, and telling me a bit about them too. He was a top bloke, who really took an interest, my own dad had long gone by then, and he knew I loved football, and it was going to be the only way i would get to see a game. Even now when I think about how he was I can get quite choked about it.... And the interesting thing was I was a bit of a QPR fan at the time, but after a couple of games, Charlton soon became a much more real team because I actually got to see them play, and every time I went through the turnstiles to the East stand I got that buzz of anticipation. I can remember clearly having the sense that the ground and some of the fans felt like a bit of a throwback to an earlier time, mixed in with the new breed of supporter who wore their Docs and would be up for aggro if it appeared. Football was going through quite a transition at the time, it was when cup finals meant something and football on telly was a real treat. And i used to take a rattle the size of a cricket bat, that could have taken out half a dozen fans if they'd got too close when I eventually managed to swing it. I think it may have started life as the prop shaft for a spitfire :) And each match I would really want a hot dog, but it took me 2 seasons before I went round and got one. Or it was Percy Dalton's finest in a paper bag. And sometimes we would win and play great, and sometimes there would be empty terraces and we would be awful and lose But i was hooked. And at certain points in your life other things get in the way, because they have to, but one of the better parts of life is still waking up in the morning and knowing it's a match day. I may be older but it is still the same old buzz walking down Harvey Gardens.....
No family history of supporting Charlton, in fact everyone is from North London, so it's either Spurs or Arsenal, but I resisted the urge, moved to London from Folkstone when I was 4, and spotted the Valley, so knew I lived near a ground, but still without a club. Finally got to go in Early 85 against Spurs, taken by a Spurs supporting uncle, but I knew the future was Red and White, and became a Charlton supporter.
Went to Selhurst more and more, and then became a ST holder when we moved to Upton Park, now biten and smitten. Bloody football
Also no family history of supporting charlton, one side of the family is strong Rangers from Glasgow, and the other i have no idea. However i moved to Kinveachy Gardens ( SE7 for you Kent people ), and my old man took me to a few games andI fell in love with them, despite the fact that most of my mates are millwall and i have to take the whole ' family club' stick.
My first game i beleive was ( not sure which season ), probably 98,99 ish was a 2-0 home win over Wimbledon, with Pringle and an OG on the scoresheet if i remember correctly.
Used to sit in the Jimmy Seed with my best mate and his dad before moving to North Upper G-Block, where i now reside, when they made the extension, I am 16 and because my old man had no real interest in charlton i have only been a ST holder for 5 seasons now since i have been old enough to go on my own.
I love the club, and we might not stay up this year, but i will be there to see us next season whatever happens FACT.
Blimey must of missed this thread. Mmmm Why Charlton? Plain & simple Fourth Generation Addick so purely for family reasons. Dad used to take me over to the old Valley East Terrace Halfway up Halfway line with my Grandad & Cousins from around 1982. First game though was many years before at the Priestfield for a 1-0 Charlton win against Gillingham with a certain Mr Peacock scoring the winner, which made me burst into tears as I was scared of all the noise the CAFC fans made after the goal (So I am told). Got more into it just as we left the Valley & probably became more of an addict in the Selhurt & Upton Park years. Missed the first game back at Valley as was now playing Semi pro footy & only really attended games when I could. My retirement from serious football & moving out to Kent 5 years ago enabled me to start going regularly again. I have promised to never leave them in the lurch again.
Family legend has it that my dad's great aunt and one of her daughters used to go to Charlton in the early years and it was rumoured that one of them had a heart attack during a game (i guess we all do at most games these days) not sure if true could just be a family story.
My dad lived in Catford and started going during the 50's until the royal airforce took him around the world until he came back in the mid/late 60's when for some bizare reason went down Millwall for a couple of seasons with his mates, probably because he lived just around the corner in New Cross. He soon saw sense and reverted back to Charlton around 1968 even taking my mum (who hated football) to a game late in the 68/69 season. As she was pregnant with me i could claim that as my 1st game but otherwise it would have to be Charlton v Oldham last game of 76/77 season when my dad finally relented and took my brother and me.
The ground looked huge back in them days to a 6 year old who mucked about throwing bits of the crumbling east terrace at his brother but something stuck and we started going regularly over the next few seasons with my dad getting us in for free by telling the turnstile operator i was only a littlun and lifting me over the turnstile gate. We had our 1st season tickets by the 80's and saw the ups and downs over the years, started travelling away from about 1985 (think our 1st one on the coaches was 5-0 defeat to Oxford), the football specials - Carlisle away for promotion, the campaign to get us back to the valley and as the name suggests seeing this small waif like genius of a footballer mesmorise us for 17 games.
I started playing when i left school about 1988 and found i was alright and played in the southern amateur league but i missed going and when my heart wasn't in playing anymore came back to the Valley around 1995'sh and been going ever since. However football isn't quite like it used to be and my interest has wained over the last couple of seasons so much so that i didnt have a season ticket last year.....premiership survival football isn't all its cracked up to be... have a season ticket again this year and to be honest the footballs not much cop and i enjoy the pre match beer more.
Pards is impressing me tho and perhaps we'll get out of it but its a big ask... i'm more interested in scuba diving and family these days but every time i say thats it and dont go for a while i miss it however bad...... i guess its in the blood....
Coming from a South London family with split loyalties I used to go to see Palace some weeks, Charlton other weeks and occasionally Bromley and even Dulwich Hamlet. I even went to Millwall a couple of times, it really depended who was at home that week and who they were playing. But although I went to Palace a fair few times I just couldn't ever get behind them, or get in any way passionate about them, and my visits to Millwall were pure curiousity, I went twice with a mate and never again. In those days I used to go with my father who was more of a Palace fan than an Addick, and my lack of support for Palace led me increasingly to cheer secretly for whoever Palace were playing and if Palace and Charlton were both at home 99% of the time we'd go to Charlton. That lasted up to about 1980 or so by which time I started going to matches on my own, despite Palace being the team of the eighties and all that I stopped going to Palace at that point, in favour of Charlton. Unlike some here I never hated them, it was literally that I just couldn't be bothered about them, and I still feel the same way now, an awful ground, and a god-awful pitch, plus the place always seemed to have its own chilly micro-climate, maybe just me but I associate Selhurst Park with dreary cloudy days. Also by luck I fell in with a few Charlton supporting mates and that and East Terrace, was that until that fateful day...
Strangely my father followed me (isn't it supposed to work the other way around?) - the whole Noades thing ripping Charlton off when we ground shared finally ended any lingering support he felt for Palace and for the last two decades he's been solidly Charlton. After I moved to Germany and my brother got sick he stopped going, and I don't think he's been for several seasons, of course it doesn't help that he retired down to Dorset. One day I'll be back and I'll get him the best seat in the house.
It's been a long haul, many ups and downs - and here we are again, yet another relegation battle to endure. But I've no regrets about following the Addicks over this time, there have been many good memories and I always liked the fact that we are who we are, and there always seemed to be something different about Charlton, ok at times it was masochistic dragging myself along and watching teams with money to burn running rings around our blend of home grown youth players and those rescued from footballing obscurity, but that was part of the fun and the charm. Over the years many people associate Charlton with me - unlike those who support the bigger teams I was the curiousity - a Charlton fan, and the only one they knew or ever met. The whole glory hunting thing I could never understand. What does a league championship mean to a Surrey based fan of Man U or Liverpool who has never lived in the City of the team they support? How do they get a kick out of watching and following "their" team, and then sloping off back home after to Warlingham or wherever? These last few years in the Premiership have been glory years for Charlton and all the sweeter to me at least for being able to associate the club to a community I know and to having followed them through thick and (mostly) thin. That in itself is priceless.
Will we escape the drop this year? Who knows, I think we've left things a little late and we need Wigan to screw up and possibly Sheffield United and/or Man City, and hope that West ham continue sliding. But Pardew seems to have got the team firing again and if we do go down it'll be fighting rather than lamely slipping away without a fight as looked the case earlier in the season. Our destiny isn't really in our hands, so that makes it tough to call. I've seen enough promotions and relegations to know that we'll be back, we always have done, and in Pardew we have a great manager to build and lead a new team, West Ham will rue the day that they sacked him (well they are already) and I think in a year or two if we go down we'll be back.
When I was a small boy I supported Leeds, then Derby, then Liverpool. In the 80's I supported Arsenal and went to Highbury to see top divison football.
Sky and the Prem really got me into soccer.I supported Man Utd in the 90's, but I switched to Charlton when they went into the Prem.
Next year I'll probably go back to supporting Arsenal. Nice soft seats there.
[cite]Posted By: DJ Davey Dave[/cite]When I was a small boy I supported Leeds, then Derby, then Liverpool. In the 80's I supported Arsenal and went to Highbury to see top divison football.
Sky and the Prem really got me into soccer.I supported Man Utd in the 90's, but I switched to Charlton when they went into the Prem.
Next year I'll probably go back to supporting Arsenal. Nice soft seats there.
I was born and brought up near Wimbledon, although neither of my parents are from London- the only connection with the place was that my Grandma's family are all from the Greenwich area. Because of this, in my formative years i was taken to Greenwich many times to visit various folks. Charlton were playing at Selhurst Park at this point and, being a bit slow on the uptake, I only really worked out Charlton were actually from 'the Greenwich peninsular' when I was about 11, as a result I developed a soft spot for the club .
At that age, I didn't really follow any team, being more interested in particular players (people like Bryan Gunn, Neville Southall, Bruce Grobbelaar etc- see a theme developing?!). Anyhow, to cut an uninteresting story short, in 1993- something clicked- I finally realised that Charlton was the team for me- I can't pinpoint an exact event that triggered this, although I do remember Shaun Newton scoring against Notts County from about 30 yards for some reason.
My football supporting grew as it became patently obvious that trying to play football for anything more than enjoyment was simply not possible! There are some great stories on this thread, and next to them I probabaly seem like a bit of a plastic. I can't profess to have been out drinking with Derek Hales (although a friend of mine once bumped into Chris Powell in Woolworths) but, wherever I am in the world I will always remember seeing ships being unloaded at Lovell's Wharf on a summer's afternoon and Charlton will always be my club.
As a sort of footnote, I recently found out there were several Addicks in my family around the 1920s-40s. There was also one Millwall- suppose every family has its black sheep!
[cite]Posted By: DJ Davey Dave[/cite]When I was a small boy I supported Leeds, then Derby, then Liverpool. In the 80's I supported Arsenal and went to Highbury to see top divison football.
Sky and the Prem really got me into soccer.I supported Man Utd in the 90's, but I switched to Charlton when they went into the Prem.
Next year I'll probably go back to supporting Arsenal. Nice soft seats there.
LOL Chirpy!
It would be funny if it wasn't true. My brother was in the same year as Chirpy at Crown Woods. Said he switched teams every week depending on who was winning and always called Charlton a "shitty litte team". ;-)
My dad was from the greenwich/blackheath area.He went to Halstow road & Charlton schools and was a regular at the Valley as a kid. He always talks about the 7-6 game & Stuart Leary etc... Also he was sorting out some of my Grandads stuff and found some letters with there address in Floyd road, which shocked my dad as he never new that (they didn't speak much). My dad used to take my brother more than me, but the first game i remember was when we beat WHU 1-0 Gritt. 78. I only remember it as there was loads of people there, normally there weren't that many. I would say i became hooked early 80s, my dad used to take me and a couple of mates (one of them matt goss from fanzone).I did have a little thing for Manure, but grew out of it!!
I stumbled upon the club visiting (from Canada) a family member who lived in Docklands at the time. Saw Dean Kiely's sending off against Fulham the day that West Ham went down, and loved the atmosphere, and the feel of the club. I love the fact that Charlton feels like a club for the supporters, and not a money-churning franchise as most of the rest of the upper leagues seem to...I'm sure this is naive of me, but that's why!
Growing up I lived in a street which had quite a few older lads who supported different teams and with who I could tag along with .The Charlton fan took me to my first game at The Valley in 1979 but then I also got taken to other clubs by other neighbours to the likes of Dartford and Gillingham.This continued until I reached pub drinking age when I got in with a crowd who went Charlton home and away and that was that.This coincided with the Selhurst era and many drunken journeys on the Charlton train 'special', plus loads of aways.Good days even though it was shite club-wise.Hooked. Hardly missed a game in exile but then in my 20's I travelled a bit and spent time overseas. I would describe Charlton as my first girlfriend with whom I popped my football cherry to before cheating and dabbling elsewhere ,gaining no satisfaction, ultimately returning to my first love, The Addicks, to settle down and marry :-).
I was always into football as a youngster, and played for a local club and went to a 'coaching club' run by a guy who has since travelled to the USA coaching. When I was about 9 or 10 a guy named Paul Burt and I went for a trial at the academy. Unforunately I didn't get in, but he did and was released 2 seasons ago from the academy. This gave me my first taste of Charlton. Shortly after I went up with the coaching club as part of a training session at Sparrows Lane, and then went to see a game afterwards....home to Tranmere I think. And after that I just got hooked.
[cite]Posted By: folder[/cite]Looking at the yoof and the new supporters we have attracted over the last few years I often wonder how they feel about the club...have they got the same affiliation to the club as the long sufferers : ) is it just the lure of relatively cheap premiership football which brings them along - or is it the sense of belonging...wanting to will your team on to win against the odds...does it ruin their whole weekend when we perform without passion or make them smile till their faces ache when we win??
reading this inspired me to copy and paste my first post on here...
This is my first post here, I've enjoyed reading this board for a while but never felt inspired to join in.
But with regular talk on here of "true fans" I though it might be interesting for people to hear the views of someone who possibly wouldn't be regarded as one.
So let me introduce myself, I'm a 32 year old male and 5 years ago I wasn't a Charlton supporter... that's right folks, I'm a Johnny come lately.
Let me explain... I've always loved football but grew up in deepest Kent with a dad who didn't follow football, my Arsenal mad Grandad occasionally took me to a game but I never felt any great affinity towards them.
So other than a vague flirtation with Liverpool and Wimbledon when I was at school I've never felt loyal to a particular club.
In my early 20's I moved to New Cross and having paid off my students debts I had disposable income for the first time.
I'd always liked the idea of having a season ticket but wasn't sure where to get one, a few of my mates supported Spurs and Chelsea but that didn't interest me really.
Eventually a work colleague persuaded me to get a season ticket at Charlton, now I'll be brutally honest, I said yes for 3 reasons:
1: it was cheap
2: it was Premiership football
3: it was local
So I went along and sat in my new seat in the lower North, I have to admit I've got a shocking memory so I can't remember who we played
but what I do remember is not knowing who the hell any of the players were (other than Jason Euell) and that we lost... but I was hooked.
For the first few games I just enjoyed watching Premiership football but as I started to get to know the players names and join in the singing
I unexpectedly started to genuinely care about them winning.
I got a fair amount of ribbing from mates about "latching onto a team" so late on in life and it took a few seasons until I would say I was a Charlton supporter if asked,
not because I was embarrassed to follow Charlton but more because I felt like a bit of a fraud at first. But now I'm proud to support my team.
Anyway, what I want to say is that I wasn't there at Selhurst, I didn't go to the play off game at Wembley but I still think I'm a valuable fan.
I never miss a home game (league and cup) and money permitting I try to get to some away games each season (not easy now my disposable income has been replaced with a huge mortgage),
I still sit in my same seat in the north lower and sing my heart out every game. I love Charlton and the thought of not having a season ticket is utterly unthinkable to me.
If I ever have children, as soon as they are old enough, they will have season tickets too (whether they like it or not!).
As for the new season, I have to say that I'm ridiculously excited about it, to the point where I'm dreaming about football most nights and driving my girlfriend insane talking about it,
to be fair to her she is humouring me and the other day even managed a genuine sounding "oh no, you really hate Tottenham though don't you?" after we sold Darren.
I can't wait for the new season to start, I couldn't give a monkeys about seeing Chelsea or Man UTD, all I care about is watching Charlton and I'm more excited about Scunthorpe at home on the 11th than I have been about any game for years.
When it looked like we may get relegated, renewing my season ticket was never a doubt, the possibility of a free season in a years time is a fantastic incentive but didn't affect my decision, it just confirmed why I love this club so much.
The Premiership had lost it's excitement as far I was concerned, I was bored with it and I was bored with our team. I trust Alan Pardew and I believe he is building an exciting team of young players who might actually care about playing for Charlton.
What struck me in my first season at the Valley was how many games we won through sheer grit and determination, by giving the other team no space at all,
chasing lost causes and flying into every tackle like our lives depended on it, I think within a couple of seasons that ethic seemed to have disappeared completely, maybe I just caught the end of it.
I'm sure I'll get a few replies saying "you won't feel the same after a season of dire Championship football",
well maybe I will or maybe I won't but right now I'm more positive about watching Charlton than I have been for long time and I can't wait to know what it feels like to have the chance of actually competing for a trophy.
And finally I just have to say that I thought the atmosphere at some of the games last season was the best I had experienced at the Valley in my 5 years.
I really hope we can follow that through to this season too, as you can tell it makes a difference on the pitch.
Fair play to anyone who has read my entire 9 paragraph waffle!
I just wanted to point out that not all Johnny come lately fans are a waste of space and that some have even stuck around for the Championship.
Dan, great post. I agree wholeheartedly with the spirit of it, and I'd like to think that that's the kind of post I'd be able to make, were I a local...
Huge family(numbers not weight) 50 cousins. From Bermondsey to Erith now all over World. Nans brother managed the Spurs. Grand dad remembered the Woolwich rejects in Plumpstead. All my Uncles and Aunts went to the Valley at some stage. Have pic of two of my aunts in Wembley Way 1947. Dad took me the valley when i was 9. I was hooked at once. Went to most home games with him and a few away. I remember my first season ticket, piss poor looking thing but i was so proud of it. Then as i got older i went with mates and stood on the Coeverd End. Loved it to bits.All yoof think they are indistructable but it was like being in a clan. "Bollox we r charlton" was our mantra. Of course the blood, the hospital, the cells, the pain at u werent indistructable. I remember i was 100 % going to Aus but being anaughty boy at CAFC meant i couldnt go(my life couldnt have been any better though as it panned out). Was in Valley Away be4 the club banned em. My member number on Valley Gold was in single figures. Brought shares both times they were issued. Was at Sell Out and Upton park. At the clear up day and Woolwich Town hall. Yet i know i am one of the "types" the club no longer wants. I think back and miss the peeps from the Covered End and the B-Mob. Im proud to have been part of it and not ashamed. I think often of Steve Bains, Jimmy garret,Micky Mac,Ian P, and Big Ds. All dead all "herberts" and all were there in the dark days. happy to say i knew them and stood on the terraces with them.Sometimes i smile when i look at an old hoolie with kids kids / gran kids and think if they only knew what you did at Walsall away in 1973 !!! I guess i may not go to every game these days and very few away. I hate todays pro footballers and the PC rubbish at the grounds, but CAFC are part of who i am . No one can take that away by a written law. Its in me. I will always go to the Valley , there has only ever been one club for me. never understood how people moved from clubs. Funny but at the age of 50 it still surprises me how much it hurts when we are beaten or play awful.
Comments
Didnt used to go to Sellhurst that often as I was playing a lot of sport at school, but have been going pretty much without fail since we came home.
Now in the East Stand where I've been with my son for a few years - still miss the old Covered End though!
Usually the only reason he took me anywhere was to get my hair butchered in Crayford, whilst getting splinters in my arse on the bench they put on the seats. Or when he wanted to buy me shoes, ok more acurately sandals!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So when he said we were going out, sheer dread filled this young head. We stopped at the Bus stop by Duckets Bridge so I knew it wasn't hair butchering, shit sandals it is then and I started hatching my plan to lose them at the earliest opportunity.
But as the 96 sailed through Bexleyheath and beyond, the mind was racing. has the old man gone barking, is he taking me on some strange route to Ireland, will we ever return? After what seemed like an eternity we got off at what I now know to be Woolwich and waited for another bus a 177 it was and that's when the old man finally revealed that we were off to watch football and Charlton.
Now as a kid who only knew football from watching on the TV and playing in the garden, the only Charlton I knew was Bobby, I had his picture on a Brook Bond poster I'd been given and knew he was the dogs nuts alongside best, Law, Kidd, Stepney, Sadler. Blimey I thought and as I entered through the turnstiles and made my way to the railings right behind the goal in the Covered End, I was awestruck. Although I don't remember I apparently asked my Dad when Bobby Charlton was coming out as I hadn't recognised him on the pitch. the words stupid boy and this is Charlton Athletic were the response by all accounts.
But it mattered not, the spectacle of live football, the crowd noise, the excitement and supporting a team that none of my mates did had me hooked and still does.
Dad stopped going and taking me because of his work, but every other Saturday, I'd ask for the money to go and from the age of about 9 and 10 was regularly travelling to the Valley, either on my own or with a friend called Mark who I managed to persuade to come with me.
Short suspension of going whilst I tried to pursue my own footballing dream :-) Injuries and not being good enough put paid to that and so it was, off to smellhurst and upton parks and eventually back home with Littlesis and dragging dad back into the fold.
I remember taking Littlesis to that Spurs game, what a baptism of fire that day was.
I first went to a Tranmere game in the early 70s (not sure which year) and was a regular in time for the 74/75 promotion year with brothers and school friends.
Why Charlton - no other club comes near though thought about it when we nearly went but in '84
My love for the club however has never waned and never will. CAFC
Was always going to be Charlton. My Grandad and dad were both Charlton and as soon as I started taking an interest in football (the '86 World Cup) I found myself the proud owner of a Charlton kit. My dad took me to my first game in the 86/87 season. I lucked out really as it was the home victory over Everton, Melrose bagging a hat-trick. To be honest, the score and game were a bit of an irrelevance - from the second I walked up the stairs and saw the pitch I was in awe - totally hooked (unfortunate that it was Palace's pitch that I saw but I didn't know any better at the time!). I nagged my dad into taking me to the next 'home' game (I don't think he took a great deal of convincing!) and we found ourselves going more and more that season until it was just accepted that if Charlton were at home, we went.
In my day Charlton fans were pretty few and far between at school and I took a lot of stick for it but I could never understand how you could consider yourself a proper football fan if you just picked one of the top teams and 'supported' them by reading about them in 'Match' or 'Shoot!'. Even now, rather immaturely, I dismiss anyone's views on football unless I know that they support a club properly.
My grandad returned to the fold in between bouts of illness and one of my happiest memories of him is dropping him back at my nan's after the Play Off final. That day my grandad was suffering from the initial symptoms of the prostate cancer which would unfortunately lead to his death, he was very ill and shouldn't really have gone to the game. Much to my nan's dismay he wasn't budging though and came with us, I'll never ever forget dropping him off - as my nan opened the door her face dropped, he looked gaunt, pale and exhausted, just as she was about to tell him he shouldn't have gone he declared that he'd just had 'the best day of his life'!
I still travel to games with my dad (though stopped sitting with him in favour of sitting with mates about 10 years ago) and have barely missed a home game in the past 20 years. I also tend to make between 5 and 10 of the aways a season.
I've moaned a lot and lost some of my passion over the past 2 or 3 seasons, both due to the way Charlton have been playing and how the Premiership is ruining our game in general but every now and again I walk up those stairs and see that pitch and get the same feeling I did when I was seven.
I love the club, always will and the more this relegation battle goes on the more I'm starting to rediscover my passion for it too.
Come on you Addicks!
anyone that claims to be a liverpool fan having never been to anfield, or a arsenal fan that hasn't been to the emirates or doesn't know that jt was from there doesn't deserve an opinion about charlton or football for that matter. i just nod and move on.
I started going when my mate's dad started taking me and his son to games back then. I can still remember him going through the programme for me and pointing out all the players as he read out their names, and telling me a bit about them too. He was a top bloke, who really took an interest, my own dad had long gone by then, and he knew I loved football, and it was going to be the only way i would get to see a game.
Even now when I think about how he was I can get quite choked about it....
And the interesting thing was I was a bit of a QPR fan at the time, but after a couple of games, Charlton soon became a much more real team because I actually got to see them play, and every time I went through the turnstiles to the East stand I got that buzz of anticipation.
I can remember clearly having the sense that the ground and some of the fans felt like a bit of a throwback to an earlier time, mixed in with the new breed of supporter who wore their Docs and would be up for aggro if it appeared. Football was going through quite a transition at the time, it was when cup finals meant something and football on telly was a real treat.
And i used to take a rattle the size of a cricket bat, that could have taken out half a dozen fans if they'd got too close when I eventually managed to swing it.
I think it may have started life as the prop shaft for a spitfire :)
And each match I would really want a hot dog, but it took me 2 seasons before I went round and got one. Or it was Percy Dalton's finest in a paper bag.
And sometimes we would win and play great, and sometimes there would be empty terraces and we would be awful and lose
But i was hooked.
And at certain points in your life other things get in the way, because they have to, but one of the better parts of life is still waking up in the morning and knowing it's a match day.
I may be older but it is still the same old buzz walking down Harvey Gardens.....
Went to Selhurst more and more, and then became a ST holder when we moved to Upton Park, now biten and smitten. Bloody football
My first game i beleive was ( not sure which season ), probably 98,99 ish was a 2-0 home win over Wimbledon, with Pringle and an OG on the scoresheet if i remember correctly.
Used to sit in the Jimmy Seed with my best mate and his dad before moving to North Upper G-Block, where i now reside, when they made the extension, I am 16 and because my old man had no real interest in charlton i have only been a ST holder for 5 seasons now since i have been old enough to go on my own.
I love the club, and we might not stay up this year, but i will be there to see us next season whatever happens FACT.
My dad lived in Catford and started going during the 50's until the royal airforce took him around the world until he came back in the mid/late 60's when for some bizare reason went down Millwall for a couple of seasons with his mates, probably because he lived just around the corner in New Cross. He soon saw sense and reverted back to Charlton around 1968 even taking my mum (who hated football) to a game late in the 68/69 season. As she was pregnant with me i could claim that as my 1st game but otherwise it would have to be Charlton v Oldham last game of 76/77 season when my dad finally relented and took my brother and me.
The ground looked huge back in them days to a 6 year old who mucked about throwing bits of the crumbling east terrace at his brother but something stuck and we started going regularly over the next few seasons with my dad getting us in for free by telling the turnstile operator i was only a littlun and lifting me over the turnstile gate. We had our 1st season tickets by the 80's and saw the ups and downs over the years, started travelling away from about 1985 (think our 1st one on the coaches was 5-0 defeat to Oxford), the football specials - Carlisle away for promotion, the campaign to get us back to the valley and as the name suggests seeing this small waif like genius of a footballer mesmorise us for 17 games.
I started playing when i left school about 1988 and found i was alright and played in the southern amateur league but i missed going and when my heart wasn't in playing anymore came back to the Valley around 1995'sh and been going ever since. However football isn't quite like it used to be and my interest has wained over the last couple of seasons so much so that i didnt have a season ticket last year.....premiership survival football isn't all its cracked up to be... have a season ticket again this year and to be honest the footballs not much cop and i enjoy the pre match beer more.
Pards is impressing me tho and perhaps we'll get out of it but its a big ask... i'm more interested in scuba diving and family these days but every time i say thats it and dont go for a while i miss it however bad...... i guess its in the blood....
Strangely my father followed me (isn't it supposed to work the other way around?) - the whole Noades thing ripping Charlton off when we ground shared finally ended any lingering support he felt for Palace and for the last two decades he's been solidly Charlton. After I moved to Germany and my brother got sick he stopped going, and I don't think he's been for several seasons, of course it doesn't help that he retired down to Dorset. One day I'll be back and I'll get him the best seat in the house.
It's been a long haul, many ups and downs - and here we are again, yet another relegation battle to endure. But I've no regrets about following the Addicks over this time, there have been many good memories and I always liked the fact that we are who we are, and there always seemed to be something different about Charlton, ok at times it was masochistic dragging myself along and watching teams with money to burn running rings around our blend of home grown youth players and those rescued from footballing obscurity, but that was part of the fun and the charm. Over the years many people associate Charlton with me - unlike those who support the bigger teams I was the curiousity - a Charlton fan, and the only one they knew or ever met. The whole glory hunting thing I could never understand. What does a league championship mean to a Surrey based fan of Man U or Liverpool who has never lived in the City of the team they support? How do they get a kick out of watching and following "their" team, and then sloping off back home after to Warlingham or wherever? These last few years in the Premiership have been glory years for Charlton and all the sweeter to me at least for being able to associate the club to a community I know and to having followed them through thick and (mostly) thin. That in itself is priceless.
Will we escape the drop this year? Who knows, I think we've left things a little late and we need Wigan to screw up and possibly Sheffield United and/or Man City, and hope that West ham continue sliding. But Pardew seems to have got the team firing again and if we do go down it'll be fighting rather than lamely slipping away without a fight as looked the case earlier in the season. Our destiny isn't really in our hands, so that makes it tough to call. I've seen enough promotions and relegations to know that we'll be back, we always have done, and in Pardew we have a great manager to build and lead a new team, West Ham will rue the day that they sacked him (well they are already) and I think in a year or two if we go down we'll be back.
Charlton till I die....
Sky and the Prem really got me into soccer.I supported Man Utd in the 90's, but I switched to Charlton when they went into the Prem.
Next year I'll probably go back to supporting Arsenal. Nice soft seats there.
LOL Chirpy!
At that age, I didn't really follow any team, being more interested in particular players (people like Bryan Gunn, Neville Southall, Bruce Grobbelaar etc- see a theme developing?!). Anyhow, to cut an uninteresting story short, in 1993- something clicked- I finally realised that Charlton was the team for me- I can't pinpoint an exact event that triggered this, although I do remember Shaun Newton scoring against Notts County from about 30 yards for some reason.
My football supporting grew as it became patently obvious that trying to play football for anything more than enjoyment was simply not possible! There are some great stories on this thread, and next to them I probabaly seem like a bit of a plastic. I can't profess to have been out drinking with Derek Hales (although a friend of mine once bumped into Chris Powell in Woolworths) but, wherever I am in the world I will always remember seeing ships being unloaded at Lovell's Wharf on a summer's afternoon and Charlton will always be my club.
As a sort of footnote, I recently found out there were several Addicks in my family around the 1920s-40s. There was also one Millwall- suppose every family has its black sheep!
It would be funny if it wasn't true. My brother was in the same year as Chirpy at Crown Woods. Said he switched teams every week depending on who was winning and always called Charlton a "shitty litte team". ;-)
Also he was sorting out some of my Grandads stuff and found some letters with there address in Floyd road, which shocked my dad as he never new that (they didn't speak much).
My dad used to take my brother more than me, but the first game i remember was when we beat WHU 1-0 Gritt. 78. I only remember it as there was loads of people there, normally there weren't that many.
I would say i became hooked early 80s, my dad used to take me and a couple of mates (one of them matt goss from fanzone).I did have a little thing for Manure, but grew out of it!!
I stumbled upon the club visiting (from Canada) a family member who lived in Docklands at the time. Saw Dean Kiely's sending off against Fulham the day that West Ham went down, and loved the atmosphere, and the feel of the club. I love the fact that Charlton feels like a club for the supporters, and not a money-churning franchise as most of the rest of the upper leagues seem to...I'm sure this is naive of me, but that's why!
Hardly missed a game in exile but then in my 20's I travelled a bit and spent time overseas.
I would describe Charlton as my first girlfriend with whom I popped my football cherry to before cheating and dabbling elsewhere ,gaining no satisfaction, ultimately returning to my first love, The Addicks, to settle down and marry :-).
reading this inspired me to copy and paste my first post on here...
This is my first post here, I've enjoyed reading this board for a while but never felt inspired to join in.
But with regular talk on here of "true fans" I though it might be interesting for people to hear the views of someone who possibly wouldn't be regarded as one.
So let me introduce myself, I'm a 32 year old male and 5 years ago I wasn't a Charlton supporter... that's right folks, I'm a Johnny come lately.
Let me explain... I've always loved football but grew up in deepest Kent with a dad who didn't follow football, my Arsenal mad Grandad occasionally took me to a game but I never felt any great affinity towards them.
So other than a vague flirtation with Liverpool and Wimbledon when I was at school I've never felt loyal to a particular club.
In my early 20's I moved to New Cross and having paid off my students debts I had disposable income for the first time.
I'd always liked the idea of having a season ticket but wasn't sure where to get one, a few of my mates supported Spurs and Chelsea but that didn't interest me really.
Eventually a work colleague persuaded me to get a season ticket at Charlton, now I'll be brutally honest, I said yes for 3 reasons:
1: it was cheap
2: it was Premiership football
3: it was local
So I went along and sat in my new seat in the lower North, I have to admit I've got a shocking memory so I can't remember who we played
but what I do remember is not knowing who the hell any of the players were (other than Jason Euell) and that we lost... but I was hooked.
For the first few games I just enjoyed watching Premiership football but as I started to get to know the players names and join in the singing
I unexpectedly started to genuinely care about them winning.
I got a fair amount of ribbing from mates about "latching onto a team" so late on in life and it took a few seasons until I would say I was a Charlton supporter if asked,
not because I was embarrassed to follow Charlton but more because I felt like a bit of a fraud at first. But now I'm proud to support my team.
Anyway, what I want to say is that I wasn't there at Selhurst, I didn't go to the play off game at Wembley but I still think I'm a valuable fan.
I never miss a home game (league and cup) and money permitting I try to get to some away games each season (not easy now my disposable income has been replaced with a huge mortgage),
I still sit in my same seat in the north lower and sing my heart out every game. I love Charlton and the thought of not having a season ticket is utterly unthinkable to me.
If I ever have children, as soon as they are old enough, they will have season tickets too (whether they like it or not!).
As for the new season, I have to say that I'm ridiculously excited about it, to the point where I'm dreaming about football most nights and driving my girlfriend insane talking about it,
to be fair to her she is humouring me and the other day even managed a genuine sounding "oh no, you really hate Tottenham though don't you?" after we sold Darren.
I can't wait for the new season to start, I couldn't give a monkeys about seeing Chelsea or Man UTD, all I care about is watching Charlton and I'm more excited about Scunthorpe at home on the 11th than I have been about any game for years.
When it looked like we may get relegated, renewing my season ticket was never a doubt, the possibility of a free season in a years time is a fantastic incentive but didn't affect my decision, it just confirmed why I love this club so much.
The Premiership had lost it's excitement as far I was concerned, I was bored with it and I was bored with our team. I trust Alan Pardew and I believe he is building an exciting team of young players who might actually care about playing for Charlton.
What struck me in my first season at the Valley was how many games we won through sheer grit and determination, by giving the other team no space at all,
chasing lost causes and flying into every tackle like our lives depended on it, I think within a couple of seasons that ethic seemed to have disappeared completely, maybe I just caught the end of it.
I'm sure I'll get a few replies saying "you won't feel the same after a season of dire Championship football",
well maybe I will or maybe I won't but right now I'm more positive about watching Charlton than I have been for long time and I can't wait to know what it feels like to have the chance of actually competing for a trophy.
And finally I just have to say that I thought the atmosphere at some of the games last season was the best I had experienced at the Valley in my 5 years.
I really hope we can follow that through to this season too, as you can tell it makes a difference on the pitch.
Fair play to anyone who has read my entire 9 paragraph waffle!
I just wanted to point out that not all Johnny come lately fans are a waste of space and that some have even stuck around for the Championship.
CAFC
Dad took me the valley when i was 9. I was hooked at once. Went to most home games with him and a few away. I remember my first season ticket, piss poor looking thing but i was so proud of it. Then as i got older i went with mates and stood on the Coeverd End. Loved it to bits.All yoof think they are indistructable but it was like being in a clan. "Bollox we r charlton" was our mantra. Of course the blood, the hospital, the cells, the pain at u werent indistructable. I remember i was 100 % going to Aus but being anaughty boy at CAFC meant i couldnt go(my life couldnt have been any better though as it panned out).
Was in Valley Away be4 the club banned em. My member number on Valley Gold was in single figures. Brought shares both times they were issued. Was at Sell Out and Upton park. At the clear up day and Woolwich Town hall. Yet i know i am one of the "types" the club no longer wants. I think back and miss the peeps from the Covered End and the B-Mob. Im proud to have been part of it and not ashamed. I think often of Steve Bains, Jimmy garret,Micky Mac,Ian P, and Big Ds. All dead all "herberts" and all were there in the dark days. happy to say i knew them and stood on the terraces with them.Sometimes i smile when i look at an old hoolie with kids kids / gran kids and think if they only knew what you did at Walsall away in 1973 !!!
I guess i may not go to every game these days and very few away. I hate todays pro footballers and the PC rubbish at the grounds, but CAFC are part of who i am . No one can take that away by a written law. Its in me. I will always go to the Valley , there has only ever been one club for me. never understood how people moved from clubs.
Funny but at the age of 50 it still surprises me how much it hurts when we are beaten or play awful.