Having beaten Sheffield Wednesday from the Premiership 2-0 and Brentford 3-2 both at The Valley, the Addicks made a midweek journey to Anfield for this rearranged 5th round tie.
F.A. Cup 5th Round Liverpool 2 (1) (Fowler 12, Collymore 59) Charlton Athletic 1 (0) (Grant 87) Anfield Att: 36,818
Liverpool: James, Jones, McAteer, Wright, Babb, Collymore (Rush 79), Barnes, Scales, Thomas, McManaman, Fowler. Unused subs: Harkness, Warner.
Charlton: Salmon, Brown (Grant 60), Stuart, Jones, Rufus, Balmer, Robson, Leaburn, Robinson, Nelson (Newton 78), Bowyer. Unused sub: Ammann.
Referee: Jeff Winter (Stockton on Tees)
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I arranged a 76 seater double decker coach from Sevenoaks, sold out within four days and had loads of people nagging me for tickets/travel - my, how times change for these 'big' fixtures now.
Traffic problems meant we got to our seats spot on kick off - it must have been an amusing site seeing 76 Addicks trotting along Row A of the Anfield Road End right behind the goal.
Got an official letter from Charlton about a fortnight later saying how naughty we were to have alcohol on board our coach and not to let it happen again. I wrote back and suggested that by the time we hit junction 21A of the M6 there was no alcohol left on board, so what was the problem.
Never did get a reply.
I will never forget the roar from the Kop when Fowler (at his peak in those days) ghosted in to head in that cross from McAteer, bloody unbelievable noise they made.
Still, the boys never gave up and, if you look at the team closely, you can see the nucleus of our great promotion team starting to be formed.
Grants goal was one of the conteders for Goal of the Month. We had a little flurry for the last couple of minutes and a little penalty shout (well I shouted anyway).
I went on the coach too and got back to Maidstone about 4.00am. A memorable night.
Anyone know how many we took? I'd guess 3 - 4,000?
College next day was a bit of a blur.
Playing at grounds like that didn't happen every week for the like of Nels and i remember him coming over over and milking the applause after the game.
but the Boardman baiting made the trip worthwhile!!!
Seemed to take ages to get there, and I will never forget the atmosphere - so much anticipation, and seeing the likes of Fowler and Collymore in the flesh was so strange, as this was the time when we were regularly being undone by the likes of Jan Arge Fjortoft (sic) and Brett Angel!!!
It was the first proper game we had been in since the infamous Old Trafford 1/4 final two years earlier, and I remember thinking how good it was to be back in the big time again, rather than visiting the footballing outposts of Peterborough or Stockport.
Some real CAFC legends in that line-up as well, and I think that five of them survived for the Sunderland POF game 2 1/2 years later - which shows that the spine of the team was there.
Interestingly looking at Liverpool, not only were there no foreign players in that team, but their entire thirteen were English born - how times change!
PS: I am fully aware that John Barnes was born in Jamaica, before anyone gets pedantic, but he did play for England with great distinction for many years so can be excepted!
- We were near the front and during the minute's silence someone let out a massive fart at the back which had the whole block in stitches.
- Every time McManaman got the ball it was scary. There'd be a huge roar whenever they were breaking, it was definitely more impressive than Old Trafford 2 years before.
- I think Liverpool fans were throwing coins after we scored, they were definitely getting mouthy. That seemed really unncecessary when we were a small club on our big day out, getting a consolation goal.
- I was overjoyed and proud to see Kim Grant's goal make Match of the Day's Goal of the Month competition, I missed the results so I called up the BBC to see if he'd won. Alas, it wasn't to be.
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/mel-c-sing-when-youre-winning
Kim Grant's goal was fantastic.