Watched my nephew play for Man City against Charlton at the Valley sitting with his family, who are Charlton supporters, with away player complimentary tickets. Strange feeling. His dad hoped for a draw with his boy scoring. Was a draw but instead of scoring he upended Lisbie to give away a penalty for Charlton's first goal.
Done it twice. Once in the corporate seats at Chelsea, when half way through the first half I got a text from a charlton supporting mate which read "Turn to the bloke behind you and say 'Your team is sh1t and you are a c**t. Let me know what happens'".
Other time was the first leg of the playoffs vs Leeds at Selhurst when a college mate got tickets from his brother - they were both Leeds fans. I almost burst when Melrose's goal went in.
Watched my nephew play for Man City against Charlton at the Valley sitting with his family, who are Charlton supporters, with away player complimentary tickets. Strange feeling. His dad hoped for a draw with his boy scoring. Was a draw but instead of scoring he upended Lisbie to give away a penalty for Charlton's first goal.
Read this thread and started me chuckling, you see I had the great pleasure to spend a snowy evening in the company of assorted "characters" on the halfway line "nuff said" at the snap together box that is home to the struggling blue smear at the end of Ilderton Road. To explain I worked in Deptford and printing was more than pushing a button back then so a last minute sprint got me to the ground but not in our end, so in with the funsters I went. The full details are here - http://www.charltonlife.com/discussion/12661/the-week-that-was-tue-5th-december-1995-millwall-0-charlton-2 for those too young to know what it feels like to beat them. Before the game the table stood like this but events that night led to the greatest collapse ever known. http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1995-1996/table/1995-12-03
Highlights included three generations of malformed creatures screaming abuse at Uwe Fuchs which mainly consisted of Fuch off Fuchs you caaaaaaant. So I decided to help them out by modifying this to Fuch off off off off off as though the misfiring fucher had committed a terrible foul instead of delighting me with his incredibly poor performance. When Kim scored the abuse and howling that went on was so great that I could shout as loud and incoherently as I liked - twice. Great pleasure was had in asking with heartfelt sincerity all those around me whether anybody could believe that the Wall could be letting Charlton take the piss. At the end of the game my vehement criticism of Millwall players all night especially Keller and Rae had earned such respect from my neighbours that a couple of big lads asked if I would be at Sunderland on Saturday, "After that!" I replied with such scorn and derision that they told me not to be so down although 'kin Charlton would be going on about it for ages they told me. Smack one on the way home they advised me as they fuching deserve a slap anyway. For those that don't know
Read this thread and started me chuckling, you see I had the great pleasure to spend a snowy evening in the company of assorted "characters" on the halfway line "nuff said" at the snap together box that is home to the struggling blue smear at the end of Ilderton Road. To explain I worked in Deptford and printing was more than pushing a button back then so a last minute sprint got me to the ground but not in our end, so in with the funsters I went. The full details are here - http://www.charltonlife.com/discussion/12661/the-week-that-was-tue-5th-december-1995-millwall-0-charlton-2 for those too young to know what it feels like to beat them. Before the game the table stood like this but events that night led to the greatest collapse ever known. http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1995-1996/table/1995-12-03
Highlights included three generations of malformed creatures screaming abuse at Uwe Fuchs which mainly consisted of Fuch off Fuchs you caaaaaaant. So I decided to help them out by modifying this to Fuch off off off off off as though the misfiring fucher had committed a terrible foul instead of delighting me with his incredibly poor performance. When Kim scored the abuse and howling that went on was so great that I could shout as loud and incoherently as I liked - twice. Great pleasure was had in asking with heartfelt sincerity all those around me whether anybody could believe that the Wall could be letting Charlton take the piss. At the end of the game my vehement criticism of Millwall players all night especially Keller and Rae had earned such respect from my neighbours that a couple of big lads asked if I would be at Sunderland on Saturday, "After that!" I replied with such scorn and derision that they told me not to be so down although 'kin Charlton would be going on about it for ages they told me. Smack one on the way home they advised it as it they fuching deserve a slap anyway. For those that don't know
Done this loads, more especially in the old days with less segregation anyway. Often interacted with opposition fans and not hidden that I was Charlton, the exception being Millwall away, Mintos first game, last minute Millwall 1-0. I have often based my view of the other clubs on the attitude of their supporters towards me, so places where I've thought the other supporters were ok have been;
Wolves Norwich Chesterfield Peterborough Arsenal Orient Portsmouth Southend Barnet Port Vale Sheffield United Brentford Yeovil Liverpool
Places where the opposition supporters have been absolute dickheads to me have been:
Chelsea (physically threatened) Crystal Palace Fulham Wycombe Luton Plymouth Colchester (attacked) Walsall Bristol City Birmingham Derby Aston Villa Manchester United
By far the best opposition supporters I have encountered were Leyton Orient, and the worst one was a particularly nasty Wycombe Wanderers fan who simply wouldn't let go.
Most of the others have been broadly neutral experiences.
Sat in the home end at the Goldstone with a mate (no it's not what you are thinking). The banter from the Brighton fans was actually quite good natured given the circumstances. The highlight was watching my fellow addicks at the other end celebrate what I think was the first Charlton corner of the game in about the 80th minute like we had won the cup.
I returned some years later to the Goldstone to witness Robert Lee hit a second half winner and realised that the bloke next to me going mental as well was none other than Karl Howman of brush strokes fame.
Worst one for me was on boxing day a few years ago when we played West Ham.
I had left it too late to get tickets and had decided to give the game a miss until I got a phone call from my step son saying did I want his father-in-law's season tickets for the game as he had been out on Christmas day, got pissed and was unwell. I jumped at the chance and took my other son with me.
We ended up losing 5-0 or 5-1, I can't remember, but that was the worst 90 minutes of football I have ever suffered in amongst all those Hamsters. In fact in the end we had to get up and cheer the goals so they didn't suspect we were wronguns!
I watched the Rotherham match amongst the home fans (I watch quite a few games there) .. when they equalised my neighbour, a grizzled old farmer who sits with his three large sons turned to me and said 'sorry about that, but we deserved it' .. I was REALLY touched .. Rotherham, close to Leeds and Sheffield geographically, light years away in manners and attitude
Anyway, I was wondering, whose got some good stories of sitting in the wrong end that didn't end up in someone getting beaten up or like those massives who were in the NU the other day!?
When I was based in Scotland back in the late 1970's, my oppo, Gerry took me to a Rangers vs Celtic match at Hampden Park (Ibrox was being redeveloped at the time).
Now, Ged was one of the world's nicest blokes. Easy going, passive, top bloke in all respects until, that is, he put a green and white scarf around his neck. When he did that, some sort of transformation took place. Another person took over.
So, there I was, watching the game amongst the Celtic fans when Rangers scored a superb goal. A real corker of a drive from thirty yards, beat the keeper all ends up and screamed into the roof of the net. There's me totally forgetting where I was, going "Bloody great goal. T'riffik strike, mate....." Then I realised I was the only one shouting. And not only that, I was doing it with a distinctly English accent.
Ged took me quietly by the arm and led me away quietly murmuring in my ear that if I wanted to live, I'd shut my mouth, look down at the ground and move quickly and quietly as far away as possible as quickly as possible. Already I could hear growling, Glaswegian voices saying "Who dat..?" "Who him?" "Bring him here, I want tae kill him".
Gerry saved my life that afternoon, but as he said later, if he'd known that would turn out to be the winning goal, "I'd have left ye's tae it, ye English basta.."
He didn't ask me to go to any more Celtic vs Rangers matches with him. Strange, that.
Watched my nephew play for Man City against Charlton at the Valley sitting with his family, who are Charlton supporters, with away player complimentary tickets. Strange feeling. His dad hoped for a draw with his boy scoring. Was a draw but instead of scoring he upended Lisbie to give away a penalty for Charlton's first goal.
Done it a few times but the worse was at Highbury when we drew 0 0 in our first PL campaign. Sat with a guy from work in the clock end, right next to the away fans. Got pelters off my mates for the whole game. Was getting so many funny looks (mainly because I couldn't stop laughing) that I had to tell the people sitting around me that I was charlton. Luckily they saw the funny side, although thinking about it they were Arsenal so f*** em.
The Old West Stand at Chelsea when we lost 3-0 in the FA Cup (1995), went with my brother in law and his mates....the stench of dope was overwhelming.
That was probably me.
Didn't Gavin Peacock score one of their goals?
Yes he did, early on off the underside of the crossbar. Very similar to the more recent Fulham cup game in that they scored early then we played well for most of the match without any luck, before the home team scored some late goals to leave us with the bitter taste of injustice. Also sat among the Chelsea fans in a strange temporary stand behind one of the goals that was open to the elements. Bunch of fickle condescending hurray Henry's, all looking down their nose at little Charlton, for which reason I took particular pleasure when we successively did them over in the early noughties.
Other memorable away days among the home crowd: - Boxing Day 76(?) for Tony Burman's late equaliser at the old Den - back at the Den with a Millwall supporting schoolmate for our rare 2-0 win a few years later - at White Hart Lane with a Spurs supporter for the 1-1 cup draw in Jan 85.
All the above made it difficult to hide my true allegiance.... and if Mike Flanagan's last minute shot at Spurs had ended up the other side of the post, it's unlikely I'd be here to tell the tale.
Done it a few times, usually due to going with opposing friends with season tickets. Particularly remember Southampton away when Parker scored his two worldies to get us back to 2-2 from 2-0 down - at least l could stand up and pretend l was applauding quality oppo goals. Gutted when they scored in the last few minutes - l just stayed sitting.
Also a couple of Derby aways, a 0-0 and the 2-0 when Hunt and Pringle scored. Tried to keep it on the down-low, but some no-mark still put chewing gum on my seat and messed up my nice coat. Lucky l was there with my then girlfriend or l'd have laid him out. Though his Dad would have killed me as he was the proverbial brick one and the little git was about 10. He still got off lightly though.
Best one was obviously our 4-2 at Highbury. Though l've bored CL a couple of times with my match report on this so won't post the link from the week that was thread...
I am in a box at Portman Road tonight and have been told i shouldn't have any bother celebrating if Charlton score, although I'm not sure they understand how mad I would go if we did with they did to us at The Valley a few weeks ago!
I have sat with the opposing fans a few times during the Premiership days. Arsenal (5-3), Chelsea (0-1), Tottenham (2-2) and West Ham (0-1, 0-2 & 5-0) to name a few.
The best one for me was Leicester away in 1999 when Mendonca equalized in stoppage time to make it 1-1 and ran to the corner flag where my dad and I were both jumping around forgetting we were in the home end. Mendonca kissed his badge and gave us a wave which will always being a great memory!
Sitting with away fans is a rite of passage that we all have to take. In a way it's a surprise that Spielberg hasn't made a film about it. Enjoy your evening.
Stood on the halfway line at the old Den in the Mike Bailey era...Nobody bothered us TBH (even Bollox avoided being nutted that day) although we didn't over-advertise the fact we were addicks. The locals were more interested in giving the linesman stick ("who's having your old girl this afternoon") after he wrongly gave Millwall offside in the first half. It seemed to work, he gave everything their way after that as we cruised to our usual defeat down there.
I was on the Ilderton Road end in 1976-7, completely lost it when Tony Burman equalised for us in the last minute. There wasn't an away enclosure as such in those days and there were plenty of Charlton about, just not where I was standing. I think the Lions assumed I was some sort of Old Bill agent provocateur and left me alone.
Done a few of these... West Ham (the 9 second Melrose goal) won 3-1 Forest (Eddie Youds winner) won 1-0 Arsenal (crazy 5-3 game) lost 5-3 Everton (Graeme Stuart cheered around the ground for scoring our consolation goal) lost 4-1
This last one sticks in my mind the most - (I might have told the story before) - but as each goal went in, I hid my disappointment less and less, to the point that I sat arms folded with a face like thunder when the fourth went in. When GS scored his penalty, I stood up and punched the air and all the blokes around me just had a laugh with (at?) me as they loved Stuart and were home and dry anyway. Nice fellas actually.
My Dad went to Ipswich one time with his mate and sat in the home end, Charlton were 1-0 down at half-time but ended up romping to a 5-1 victory. Anyway he probably said something or other and ended up with a bloke in his 60's threatening him with his walking stick I'm sure my Dad was terrified......
I am in a box at Portman Road tonight and have been told i shouldn't have any bother celebrating if Charlton score, although I'm not sure they understand how mad I would go if we did with they did to us at The Valley a few weeks ago!
I have sat with the opposing fans a few times during the Premiership days. Arsenal (5-3), Chelsea (0-1), Tottenham (2-2) and West Ham (0-1, 0-2 & 5-0) to name a few.
The best one for me was Leicester away in 1999 when Mendonca equalized in stoppage time to make it 1-1 and ran to the corner flag where my dad and I were both jumping around forgetting we were in the home end. Mendonca kissed his badge and gave us a wave which will always being a great memory!
Aha, so you were responsible for their boys having a crack at us after the game!
Comments
Didn't Gavin Peacock score one of their goals?
Other time was the first leg of the playoffs vs Leeds at Selhurst when a college mate got tickets from his brother - they were both Leeds fans. I almost burst when Melrose's goal went in.
The full details are here -
http://www.charltonlife.com/discussion/12661/the-week-that-was-tue-5th-december-1995-millwall-0-charlton-2
for those too young to know what it feels like to beat them.
Before the game the table stood like this but events that night led to the greatest collapse ever known.
http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1995-1996/table/1995-12-03
Highlights included three generations of malformed creatures screaming abuse at Uwe Fuchs which mainly consisted of Fuch off Fuchs you caaaaaaant. So I decided to help them out by modifying this to Fuch off off off off off as though the misfiring fucher had committed a terrible foul instead of delighting me with his incredibly poor performance. When Kim scored the abuse and howling that went on was so great that I could shout as loud and incoherently as I liked - twice. Great pleasure was had in asking with heartfelt sincerity all those around me whether anybody could believe that the Wall could be letting Charlton take the piss.
At the end of the game my vehement criticism of Millwall players all night especially Keller and Rae had earned such respect from my neighbours that a couple of big lads asked if I would be at Sunderland on Saturday, "After that!" I replied with such scorn and derision that they told me not to be so down although 'kin Charlton would be going on about it for ages they told me. Smack one on the way home they advised me as they fuching deserve a slap anyway.
For those that don't know
http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1995-1996/table
All the best for the New Year.
I have often based my view of the other clubs on the attitude of their supporters towards me, so places where I've thought the other supporters were ok have been;
Wolves
Norwich
Chesterfield
Peterborough
Arsenal
Orient
Portsmouth
Southend
Barnet
Port Vale
Sheffield United
Brentford
Yeovil
Liverpool
Places where the opposition supporters have been absolute dickheads to me have been:
Chelsea (physically threatened)
Crystal Palace
Fulham
Wycombe
Luton
Plymouth
Colchester (attacked)
Walsall
Bristol City
Birmingham
Derby
Aston Villa
Manchester United
By far the best opposition supporters I have encountered were Leyton Orient, and the worst one was a particularly nasty Wycombe Wanderers fan who simply wouldn't let go.
Most of the others have been broadly neutral experiences.
Sat in the home end at the Goldstone with a mate (no it's not what you are thinking). The banter from the Brighton fans was actually quite good natured given the circumstances. The highlight was watching my fellow addicks at the other end celebrate what I think was the first Charlton corner of the game in about the 80th minute like we had won the cup.
I returned some years later to the Goldstone to witness Robert Lee hit a second half winner and realised that the bloke next to me going mental as well was none other than Karl Howman of brush strokes fame.
I had left it too late to get tickets and had decided to give the game a miss until I got a phone call from my step son saying did I want his father-in-law's season tickets for the game as he had been out on Christmas day, got pissed and was unwell. I jumped at the chance and took my other son with me.
We ended up losing 5-0 or 5-1, I can't remember, but that was the worst 90 minutes of football I have ever suffered in amongst all those Hamsters. In fact in the end we had to get up and cheer the goals so they didn't suspect we were wronguns!
Done it a fee times with friends or in corporate/did box.
Best was jumping up in the Directors box when Todorov scored at Sell out. so did all the other Cafc directors and guests.
When I was based in Scotland back in the late 1970's, my oppo, Gerry took me to a Rangers vs Celtic match at Hampden Park (Ibrox was being redeveloped at the time).
Now, Ged was one of the world's nicest blokes. Easy going, passive, top bloke in all respects until, that is, he put a green and white scarf around his neck. When he did that, some sort of transformation took place. Another person took over.
So, there I was, watching the game amongst the Celtic fans when Rangers scored a superb goal. A real corker of a drive from thirty yards, beat the keeper all ends up and screamed into the roof of the net. There's me totally forgetting where I was, going "Bloody great goal. T'riffik strike, mate....." Then I realised I was the only one shouting. And not only that, I was doing it with a distinctly English accent.
Ged took me quietly by the arm and led me away quietly murmuring in my ear that if I wanted to live, I'd shut my mouth, look down at the ground and move quickly and quietly as far away as possible as quickly as possible. Already I could hear growling, Glaswegian voices saying "Who dat..?" "Who him?" "Bring him here, I want tae kill him".
Gerry saved my life that afternoon, but as he said later, if he'd known that would turn out to be the winning goal, "I'd have left ye's tae it, ye English basta.."
He didn't ask me to go to any more Celtic vs Rangers matches with him. Strange, that.
Other memorable away days among the home crowd:
- Boxing Day 76(?) for Tony Burman's late equaliser at the old Den
- back at the Den with a Millwall supporting schoolmate for our rare 2-0 win a few years later
- at White Hart Lane with a Spurs supporter for the 1-1 cup draw in Jan 85.
All the above made it difficult to hide my true allegiance.... and if Mike Flanagan's last minute shot at Spurs had ended up the other side of the post, it's unlikely I'd be here to tell the tale.
Also a couple of Derby aways, a 0-0 and the 2-0 when Hunt and Pringle scored. Tried to keep it on the down-low, but some no-mark still put chewing gum on my seat and messed up my nice coat. Lucky l was there with my then girlfriend or l'd have laid him out. Though his Dad would have killed me as he was the proverbial brick one and the little git was about 10. He still got off lightly though.
Best one was obviously our 4-2 at Highbury. Though l've bored CL a couple of times with my match report on this so won't post the link from the week that was thread...
I have sat with the opposing fans a few times during the Premiership days. Arsenal (5-3), Chelsea (0-1), Tottenham (2-2) and West Ham (0-1, 0-2 & 5-0) to name a few.
The best one for me was Leicester away in 1999 when Mendonca equalized in stoppage time to make it 1-1 and ran to the corner flag where my dad and I were both jumping around forgetting we were in the home end. Mendonca kissed his badge and gave us a wave which will always being a great memory!
West Ham
Chelsea
Not sure how I survived really. Got headbutted at Millwall though.
I was on the Ilderton Road end in 1976-7, completely lost it when Tony Burman equalised for us in the last minute. There wasn't an away enclosure as such in those days and there were plenty of Charlton about, just not where I was standing. I think the Lions assumed I was some sort of Old Bill agent provocateur and left me alone.
West Ham (the 9 second Melrose goal) won 3-1
Forest (Eddie Youds winner) won 1-0
Arsenal (crazy 5-3 game) lost 5-3
Everton (Graeme Stuart cheered around the ground for scoring our consolation goal) lost 4-1
This last one sticks in my mind the most - (I might have told the story before) - but as each goal went in, I hid my disappointment less and less, to the point that I sat arms folded with a face like thunder when the fourth went in. When GS scored his penalty, I stood up and punched the air and all the blokes around me just had a laugh with (at?) me as they loved Stuart and were home and dry anyway. Nice fellas actually.