My son works with Leroy Ambrose, myself and two of my sons were his guests in Crossbars on Saturday. Thoroughly top bloke that kept me amused with his stories of his three seasons at Charlton, which brought back many memories for me. In his three seasons, he actually played under three different managers, Nelson, Bailey and Mullery. There was one particular story that he told me that hopefully he wont mind me sharing with you.
Leroy was a youngster in the early eighties and of course Derek Hales was top dog at the club at the time. This particular day the first team were training at the Valley and doing circuits of the pitch. Hales was not training that day and was sitting in the stand watching, wearing his trademark sheepskin coat. As Leroy passed, Hales shouted to him ''oi Leroy, see them pigeons in the centre circle, I want you to throw a couple of stones at them''. Now with Leroy being one of the younger ones and Halesy someone you didn't cross, he proceeded to throw a couple of stones at the pigeons. As the pigeons began to fly, Hales did no more that pull a shotgun from his sheepskin and start to shoot the birds. A very flustered Alan Mullery came racing over to get Halesy to stop. I very much doubt you'd see something like that at training now! Made me chuckle.
So what with a full house, a cracking result and great company, I had a brilliant day out Saturday.
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Still goes on!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1361057/Ashley-Cole-accidentally-shoots-fan-Tom-Cowan-air-rifle-Chelsea-training-ground.html
And good job for Mike Flanagan the pigeons were around!
Does anybody know if Derek Hales really is writing a biography? Stories like this will make it a very entertaining read!
He can still play a bit too.
He was chuffed to meet someone that remembered him playing for Charlton and chatted for quite a while.