Just unbelievable scenes at the end to score in such a dramatic way summed our season up
we just keep going and going until the end
I honestly thought we would win 3-0 I certainly didn’t fear Sunderland other than for the revenge or repeat element to the game and i always believe in repeat ,
Their fans It must be me because walking up Olympic way I had numerous ones giving it billy big bollox and saying remind me of a famous charlton player and your just a shit tin pot club from London
one saying where’s your valley gone ???
Then on the way out one saying any charlton fan here is an embarrassment well that worked with me and I challenged him on his comment and asked him to explain it
he said if Sunderland has won he would still be inside singing
I told him that I had seen the players on the pitch doing their bit and they had now gone off the pitch so why would I be in there
when I want to go and celebrate with friends and family in London now
and that you can’t get no more embarrassing than a fat northern bird shitting in the fountain at trafalgar sq
i am putting mackams on the list of muggy fans
Newcastle Sunderland coventry
nobby fans
Sorry but I am just not having that said without replying.
All the Sunderland fans I met after the game were just brilliant.
Outside Wembley I quickly came across a couple of guys who wished us well and took the defeat in a manner that I would find difficult to do myself.
I then had to console a 14 year boy who was in tears but still came up to us to congratulate us.
We then went to Trafalgar Square where I met some Sunderland fans who gave me a beer and we had a good chat. One of them gave one of my boys his scarf and apologised for not having a 2nd one to give to my other boy!
One guy there had seen Sunderland play in seven Wembley finals and seen them lose every one. How hard is that to take? But still he was great with us and wished us the best.
On the way back home in France my eldest boy was crying at how kind they had been to him. My other boy was still wearing the scarf. They started virtually fighting over the scarf but I asked them if that is what the guy who had given it to them would want. I told them that those Sunderland fans had taught them a lesson yesterday: to be graceful in defeat, and not to shout and scream when things don't go their way. Those fans are a credit to their club, to football, and gave my boys a lesson in life. I thank them for that.
We have all three of us vowed to cheer on Sunderland next season when we watch Final Score.
Got back to Grantham about 8.30 starving so asked the other half to stop on way home. Walked into KFC in sleaford to see 2 Addicks ...then the manager comes out shaking my hand...bit twilight zone.
What the hell was Lee Bowyer doing in a KFC in Sleaford 3 hours after winning promotion to the Championship?
Wow. I'm only just now feeling remotely like back to normal.
What a day. So many emotions, so much pride, so much love for my team. I can't really remember the last time I cried, properly cried, but I did when that final whistle went.
A day that will live in my memory for the rest of my days.
Just needs Duchatelet to sell up and my world will be complete.
Sunderland fans feel Ross screwed up the last transfer window and is too negative and basically cost them promotion in the second half of the season.
I have a bit of a theory about this. If you are having a reasonably successful season in the Scottish Premier League, your "prize" is to play Celtic 4 times. I think the average Scottish managers mentality is "we'll build a Maginot line, defend like buggery, and maybe we'll get lucky and sneak a goal!"
When what Sunderland needed, (let's not forget, they're still getting parachute payments from the Premier League!) is a manager whose attitude is "Screw everyone else! We're going for an unbeaten season and do everybody 4-0!"
Wrong manager = wrong club.
Understand your theory, but he's never managed in the top league in Scotland. He took St Mirren from the bottom of the Championship (League 2 as it is down here) to winning it the next season. Was also Dumbarton's caretaker and assistant manager so come in Agent Jack your time is up😉
I woke up yesterday morning feeling sickeningly nervous and filled with a sense of dread about losing rather than any excitement about the possibility of winning. I really didn't think we would do it and especially in that fashion - this just doesn't happen to us. I, like I guess most, had completely given up on the idea of any goal coming and was very much set for ET.
Penalty shoot outs, like the Donny one, are pretty much the peak of excitement/stress/drama in football - but whilst they're make or break, when you're in those you've slowly adjusted your mindset as extra time ticks down and the pens are taken, and you're at least vaguely mentally prepared in that moment that it's about to be decided and over one way or the other. But the manner of yesterday, a goal which was really out of the blue (especially given how tired we had looked for most of the last 20 minutes) to just suddenly win it and that's it - it's the last kick, you're promoted, the hell of rochdales and fleetwoods and checkatrades is really over - I couldn't really take it in. After the initial pandemonium (which seemed to last for ages - I was expecting at least a couple of minutes of nailbiting defending before the end but the goal literally transitioned immediately into the final whistle), I just stood and held my head in my hands to try and process what had happened.
There were so many great moments in the day; Green Man before the game, Box Park post-match, London Bridge post-post match; seeing SO many Charlton fans both in the ground and across London; being sat in the block right below Chrissy Powell; seeing Curbs and Bowyer together. And today has been a wonderful footage/media binge.
It's hard to rank this against 98, and I don't think there's a need to put one above the other. This one just feels different rather than better or worse; more about relief than pure joy - and I didn't see this one coming. For most of the season I simply didn't believe, really thought there was no chance - it was only when we beat Luton that I started to seriously think actually we might be able to do it. It's crazy to look back at how poor we were in those February fixtures in front of an empty Valley with a threadbare 11 bereft of quality only a couple of months back and to then end like we have.
I wasn't about for the Lennie Lawrence promotion but it feels like this was essential to preserve the future of the club in a similar way to that one, rather than the beginning of a joyous almost stolen adventure. And achieved in similarly unbelievable circumstances - Bowyer has worked absolute wonders in ludicrous circumstances.
Anyway, we've done it. Yesterday and Donny were memories we'll have forever. And I've never got over Powell; my ultimate hero and I've always held on to the hope of getting him back one day. But with yesterday, and with Bow and Jacko - with that, I think I might just about have come to terms with it.
Now, please, please f off Roland and please please Charlton, PLEASE - whatever and whoever is around the corner, players, managers, owners - never, ever take me back to the horrendous, ugly, miserable, cold, lonely, deprived, rainy, windy, muddy, depressing and derelict pit of a division that is League One.
Amazing day. I say day, I was pretty much only there for the game. Made the mistake of going by coach. Started regretting it early on in the week. Took far longer than it should to get to Wembley, only had time to get in and grab a pie to eat while watching the game. Just like in 98 I didn't expect us to win. Thankfully the game made up for missing out on build of the day.
Can't remember 90 minutes going by so quickly. Couldn't believe it when we conceded in the way we did, after the shock of that goal I thought we must at least have an equaliser in us.
Bowyer got his decisions spot on, with Sarr on a yellow card and Sunderland getting down our left side he didn't risk him getting sent off. Switching from the back 3 and moving Bielik into midfield helped us in the second half. Around the 65th minute my dad talked about getting Williams on soon, and I had been thinking the same. I thought he'd come on for Parker, but taking Pratley off was the more attacking switch. Didn't take him long to make an impact and win a few free kicks.
At the time I didn't feel there was much in it, it could have gone either way, but without either team creating many clear chances. Would have loved Parker to get the winning goal, we were wondering why he tried that flick instead of just hitting it.
Time was running out and I said something around this being our last chance and the perfect time to score. We didn't take it, but soon after I was saying similar - one more chance. Don't think I can describe that feeling and the reaction when the goal went in. Perfect timing, so late on that even Charlton couldn't mess it up by that point.
Having a 3 year old and a 1 year old and living 60 odd miles away I've been watching us on iFollow in the last two years other than the home play-off games and yesterday. It's meant I've still felt like I've been part of it and been able to enjoy watching this team, but nothing beats being there.
Hopefully it won't be long until my son gets the bug. If Bowyer gets the chance to build on this he can be what Curbs was to me when I started going in the 90s. I haven't been able to go to a game with three generations of family since 2001/02. I'm hoping we're not waiting another 21 years to play win at Wembley again, would love to get the chance for three generations to experience that together again.
So as a complete contrast to yesterday, I meet up with my mum and sister at Nyman's, a National Trust property in West Sussex. I decide to wear my Charlton shirt and no one bats an eyelid for an hour or so, until a bloke comes up to me and says, 'You were at the match, yesterday, weren't you?' And suddenly remembering this stranger's face, I reply, 'Yes, you were sitting in front of me. We hugged when Bauer scored.'
What a weekend! Stayed for 2 nights in an Airbnb in Hammersmith. Had the most delicious curry (traditional street food style) on Saturday night in a delightful place called 'Patri Hammersmith'. Sunday was fantastic with family in the North Star on Finchley Road and then of course the game! Not sure I've experienced anything like that at a football match? It even gives 98 a run for its money when you take into account our current off field situation. Now, sadly, I've just come back down to earth with a bump (literally)!! I've just landed back in Riyadh!!
What an absolutely magnificent day from start to finish. For those lucky enough to be there, the memories will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
We certainly don’t do things the easy way, with the most ridiculous own goal - make that any goal - I’ve seen Charlton concede in my 51 seasons of watching them. Absurd goals are conceded from time to time in big games (e.g.in both last season’s Champions League Final and in the World Cup Final) but what a terrible start. The team deserve a lot of credit for recovering from that early gut punch. It would have been an absolute tragedy for Dillon and Naby - two of our standout performers in the second half of the season - if it had proved decisive.
Overall, I thought it was a relatively low quality game, with few chances at either end, save for Charlton’s equaliser, which was sublime. Sunderland were pretty pedestrian, rarely threatened (other than Leadbitter’s first half shot) and I thought that we moved the ball better in midfield once we got over that shaky opening 15-20 minutes.
Playing three at the back wasn’t working and Naby was being exposed for pace down the left side. We were missing Bielik’s power and surging runs in midfield and, in any event, didn’t need an extra defender to deal with strikers like the desperately average Charlie Wyke. That said, would Purrington have been popping up at the far post for his goal if we’d been playing a flat back 4 ? Maybe, maybe not.
The change of shape and substitutions helped us to gain a greater measure of control, Pearce was rock solid at the back and Jonny Williams injected real momentum with his direct and skillful dribbling after he entered the fray. That said, the game had extra time written all over it before that explosion of total ecstasy 6 seconds from the end of added time - followed by another moments later when the ref blew for full time. Just incredible.
We went to the Wembley Box Park post-match where the DJ belted out a series a anthems and the entire game was shown again on a giant screen. Much beer was taken and a great time was had by all.
A wonderful atmosphere and one that should help get Charlton into the blood of a good number of the many youngsters in attendance.
For me, yesterday surpassed ‘98 and that is a statement that you don’t make lightly. It was just an incredible day. The train down was rammed with Mackems and I admit having a giggle at their banter, proper good natured supporters and made having to stand from York bearable. Kings Cross has changed a bit since I was last down in London so I was a bit disoriented, felt mugged at the cost of a travel card, but made my way to Wembley without any hitches. Stepping out of the tube and seeing Wembley way already awash with supporters, buzzing. Finding my way to the Green Man to meet up with mates, sweating my tits off by the time I got to the top of that bastard hill. Taking twenty minutes to find the guy who had my ticket and not being able to relax until I saw his smiling face. Sharing beers with people I’ve known since I was the lad who came down form Yorkshire and those I’ve known not so long but are still my Charlton family. The atmosphere in that garden was incredible, a perfect aperitif for what was to come. Haven’t been to Wembley since ‘98 so took in the ‘new’ and was impressed. By the time I got to my seat the ground was full and I stood and marvelled at our support, something just felt different. Game starts, the noise and anticipation then the mishap. The what just happened moment and a collective pause, an ‘ok, that wasn’t ideal’ thought and we went again, supporters who wouldn’t stop believing. The game itself won’t go down as a classic but I for one don’t care about that. The bottom line is we did it. That winner in the dying seconds caused absolute scenes that I’ve loved watching back today to fully appreciate them because I lost all train of thought and just reacted on emotion and adrenaline at the time. Feeling feelings that you don’t get to experience that much if you’re just an average human working to pay the bills. The post game celebrations inside the stadium raised the hairs on my neck, the unity, the bond between the players and the management team evident, the connection between us in the seats and those players as strong as I’ve ever known it. Lee Bowyer, what can I say that hasn’t already been said. What he’s achieved in the time it’s taken him, immense. Admitted in the past I never took to him as I have to others but he’s now up there in my eyes. The bloke is a top, top fella. Feeling a tad tired and emotional exiting the stadium I decided to give the pub a swerve - my legs, quite frankly couldn’t face another trekking mission - said my goodbyes and headed home, my head buzzing with fresh memories. Even having to stand on the return to York couldn’t dampen my mood although I didn’t interact with the dispirited Sunderland lads near me, choosing to instead look out of the window as the train passed through the English countryside, processing what I was feeling. I got home and had a couple of large vodkas to wind down. That took a bit longer than expected but the crash eventually came. I fell asleep grinning.
What a day, and I am honoured to have spent it with so many of you. It was what makes Charlton who we are and let’s people know who we could possibly become if they take the chance. There’s no other club like us.
Imagine if Bowyer had £4m to spend in the last transfer window!
I would have been happy just keeping KAG. I think we would have gotten the necessary 4 points to have gone straight up. It all worked out, though, in the end.
Sad to see people slating Parker on the marks thread. He was a makeweight signing, who would never have been expected to play in the semis, and final, but he played his part when thrown into the deep end. In the final he did nothing wrong, without being brilliant, but won the free kick that lead to the winner. We might not see him in a Charlton shirt again, but if we don’t, ta for giving it your best shot Josh. And I’d be happy if he stayed tbh.
Agree 100% with everything up to last sentence. Parker put a shift in which i loved but he wouldmt even score in a brothel. We are in huge trouble if we see him in a charlton shirt next year if we are honest.
If that's scrappy then long may our scrappy football continue
Can't imagine how they could see that as scrappy. The second one, more than fair enough. But we've done that well this year, we've scored some great goals and we've scored some real scrappy ones.
That play on the left between Aribo and Cullen to set up the cross from which Farmer Paddy scores is far from scrappy.
What a weekend! Stayed for 2 nights in an Airbnb in Hammersmith. Had the most delicious curry (traditional street food style) on Saturday night in a delightful place called 'Patri Hammersmith'. Sunday was fantastic with family in the North Star on Finchley Road and then of course the game! Not sure I've experienced anything like that at a football match? It even gives 98 a run for its money when you take into account our current off field situation. Now, sadly, I've just come back down to earth with a bump (literally)!! I've just landed back in Riyadh!!
You poor sod. Two weeks in Riyadh was the worst two weeks of my life.
I was in 552 a block away from the Mackems and an old boy in a flat cap and two hearing aids was offering them out for most of the game.
Can you hear the Sunderland sing? I can’t hear a fucking thing!
No, seriously, I can’t hear you. I think I forgot to charge my hearing aids.
I was in block 143 and thought that at times they were louder than us.
For long periods of the 2nd half they definitely were making more noise (they got their roar going). Our crowd seemed strangely subdued for a while but it built up towards the end!
I think overall - before the game was decided, we were the loudest. It was a game with a lot of tension and there were spells where it subdued both a little, but we dusted ourselves off and went back at it better than them. Maybe they were more tense than us.
What a weekend! Stayed for 2 nights in an Airbnb in Hammersmith. Had the most delicious curry (traditional street food style) on Saturday night in a delightful place called 'Patri Hammersmith'. Sunday was fantastic with family in the North Star on Finchley Road and then of course the game! Not sure I've experienced anything like that at a football match? It even gives 98 a run for its money when you take into account our current off field situation. Now, sadly, I've just come back down to earth with a bump (literally)!! I've just landed back in Riyadh!!
You poor sod. Two weeks in Riyadh was the worst two weeks of my life.
You get used to it mate. Especially at the end of each month!
What an absolutely magnificent day from start to finish. For those lucky enough to be there, the memories will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
We certainly don’t do things the easy way, with the most ridiculous own goal - make that any goal - I’ve seen Charlton concede in my 51 seasons of watching them. Absurd goals are conceded from time to time in big games (e.g.in both last season’s Champions League Final and in the World Cup Final) but what a terrible start. The team deserve a lot of credit for recovering from that early gut punch. It would have been an absolute tragedy for Dillon and Naby - two of our standout performers in the second half of the season - if it had proved decisive.
Overall, I thought it was a relatively low quality game, with few chances at either end, save for Charlton’s equaliser, which was sublime. Sunderland were pretty pedestrian, rarely threatened (other than Leadbitter’s first half shot) and I thought that we moved the ball better in midfield once we got over that shaky opening 15-20 minutes.
Playing three at the back wasn’t working and Naby was being exposed for pace down the left side. We were missing Bielik’s power and surging runs in midfield and, in any event, didn’t need an extra defender to deal with strikers like the desperately average Charlie Wyke. That said, would Purrington have been popping up at the far post for his goal if we’d been playing a flat back 4 ? Maybe, maybe not.
The change of shape and substitutions helped us to gain a greater measure of control, Pearce was rock solid at the back and Jonny Williams injected real momentum with his direct and skillful dribbling after he entered the fray. That said, the game had extra time written all over it before that explosion of total ecstasy 6 seconds from the end of added time - followed by another moments later when the ref blew for full time. Just incredible.
We went to the Wembley Box Park post-match where the DJ belted out a series a anthems and the entire game was shown again on a giant screen. Much beer was taken and a great time was had by all.
A wonderful atmosphere and one that should help get Charlton into the blood of a good number of the many youngsters in attendance.
Imagine if Bowyer had £4m to spend in the last transfer window!
Imagine if we'd spent £3m on Will Grigg.....
Losing Grant was a blow but others stepped up and goals were scored by other people (Igor, Pratley, Sarr, Pearce, Bauer, Purrington, Bielik, Dijksteel) plus Taylor and Aribo got their mojos back and went on great scoring runs.
Wanted to wait until I'd seen the highlights in the cold light of day before any analysis but it's all been said on this thread already. It wasn't the greatest quality game (our equaliser excepted!) but given what's at stake was never likely to be.
What was obvious, watching the game again, was how much more we wanted it and what a shift every single one of them put in. Conceding such a horror goal so early could have knocked the stuffing out of us but this group of players, with the backing of our fans who were outstanding all game, genuinely do seem to be playing for the shirt. And that's a rare thing in the game these days...
Comments
THANK YOU! That one was for you yesterday. Thank you for your unbelievable support. Enjoy the moment. This is what OUR Charlton is all about
#cafc
All the Sunderland fans I met after the game were just brilliant.
Outside Wembley I quickly came across a couple of guys who wished us well and took the defeat in a manner that I would find difficult to do myself.
I then had to console a 14 year boy who was in tears but still came up to us to congratulate us.
We then went to Trafalgar Square where I met some Sunderland fans who gave me a beer and we had a good chat. One of them gave one of my boys his scarf and apologised for not having a 2nd one to give to my other boy!
One guy there had seen Sunderland play in seven Wembley finals and seen them lose every one. How hard is that to take? But still he was great with us and wished us the best.
On the way back home in France my eldest boy was crying at how kind they had been to him. My other boy was still wearing the scarf. They started virtually fighting over the scarf but I asked them if that is what the guy who had given it to them would want. I told them that those Sunderland fans had taught them a lesson yesterday: to be graceful in defeat, and not to shout and scream when things don't go their way. Those fans are a credit to their club, to football, and gave my boys a lesson in life. I thank them for that.
We have all three of us vowed to cheer on Sunderland next season when we watch Final Score.
What a day. So many emotions, so much pride, so much love for my team. I can't really remember the last time I cried, properly cried, but I did when that final whistle went.
Just needs Duchatelet to sell up and my world will be complete.
Penalty shoot outs, like the Donny one, are pretty much the peak of excitement/stress/drama in football - but whilst they're make or break, when you're in those you've slowly adjusted your mindset as extra time ticks down and the pens are taken, and you're at least vaguely mentally prepared in that moment that it's about to be decided and over one way or the other. But the manner of yesterday, a goal which was really out of the blue (especially given how tired we had looked for most of the last 20 minutes) to just suddenly win it and that's it - it's the last kick, you're promoted, the hell of rochdales and fleetwoods and checkatrades is really over - I couldn't really take it in. After the initial pandemonium (which seemed to last for ages - I was expecting at least a couple of minutes of nailbiting defending before the end but the goal literally transitioned immediately into the final whistle), I just stood and held my head in my hands to try and process what had happened.
There were so many great moments in the day; Green Man before the game, Box Park post-match, London Bridge post-post match; seeing SO many Charlton fans both in the ground and across London; being sat in the block right below Chrissy Powell; seeing Curbs and Bowyer together. And today has been a wonderful footage/media binge.
It's hard to rank this against 98, and I don't think there's a need to put one above the other. This one just feels different rather than better or worse; more about relief than pure joy - and I didn't see this one coming. For most of the season I simply didn't believe, really thought there was no chance - it was only when we beat Luton that I started to seriously think actually we might be able to do it. It's crazy to look back at how poor we were in those February fixtures in front of an empty Valley with a threadbare 11 bereft of quality only a couple of months back and to then end like we have.
I wasn't about for the Lennie Lawrence promotion but it feels like this was essential to preserve the future of the club in a similar way to that one, rather than the beginning of a joyous almost stolen adventure. And achieved in similarly unbelievable circumstances - Bowyer has worked absolute wonders in ludicrous circumstances.
Anyway, we've done it. Yesterday and Donny were memories we'll have forever. And I've never got over Powell; my ultimate hero and I've always held on to the hope of getting him back one day. But with yesterday, and with Bow and Jacko - with that, I think I might just about have come to terms with it.
Now, please, please f off Roland and please please Charlton, PLEASE - whatever and whoever is around the corner, players, managers, owners - never, ever take me back to the horrendous, ugly, miserable, cold, lonely, deprived, rainy, windy, muddy, depressing and derelict pit of a division that is League One.
Can't remember 90 minutes going by so quickly. Couldn't believe it when we conceded in the way we did, after the shock of that goal I thought we must at least have an equaliser in us.
Bowyer got his decisions spot on, with Sarr on a yellow card and Sunderland getting down our left side he didn't risk him getting sent off. Switching from the back 3 and moving Bielik into midfield helped us in the second half. Around the 65th minute my dad talked about getting Williams on soon, and I had been thinking the same. I thought he'd come on for Parker, but taking Pratley off was the more attacking switch. Didn't take him long to make an impact and win a few free kicks.
At the time I didn't feel there was much in it, it could have gone either way, but without either team creating many clear chances. Would have loved Parker to get the winning goal, we were wondering why he tried that flick instead of just hitting it.
Time was running out and I said something around this being our last chance and the perfect time to score. We didn't take it, but soon after I was saying similar - one more chance. Don't think I can describe that feeling and the reaction when the goal went in. Perfect timing, so late on that even Charlton couldn't mess it up by that point.
Having a 3 year old and a 1 year old and living 60 odd miles away I've been watching us on iFollow in the last two years other than the home play-off games and yesterday. It's meant I've still felt like I've been part of it and been able to enjoy watching this team, but nothing beats being there.
Hopefully it won't be long until my son gets the bug. If Bowyer gets the chance to build on this he can be what Curbs was to me when I started going in the 90s. I haven't been able to go to a game with three generations of family since 2001/02. I'm hoping we're not waiting another 21 years to play win at Wembley again, would love to get the chance for three generations to experience that together again.
Small world.
Highlights About 5 mins in.
Sunday was fantastic with family in the North Star on Finchley Road and then of course the game! Not sure I've experienced anything like that at a football match? It even gives 98 a run for its money when you take into account our current off field situation.
Now, sadly, I've just come back down to earth with a bump (literally)!! I've just landed back in Riyadh!!
We certainly don’t do things the easy way, with the most ridiculous own goal - make that any goal - I’ve seen Charlton concede in my 51 seasons of watching them. Absurd goals are conceded from time to time in big games (e.g.in both last season’s Champions League Final and in the World Cup Final) but what a terrible start. The team deserve a lot of credit for recovering from that early gut punch. It would have been an absolute tragedy for Dillon and Naby - two of our standout performers in the second half of the season - if it had proved decisive.
Overall, I thought it was a relatively low quality game, with few chances at either end, save for Charlton’s equaliser, which was sublime. Sunderland were pretty pedestrian, rarely threatened (other than Leadbitter’s first half shot) and I thought that we moved the ball better in midfield once we got over that shaky opening 15-20 minutes.
Playing three at the back wasn’t working and Naby was being exposed for pace down the left side. We were missing Bielik’s power and surging runs in midfield and, in any event, didn’t need an extra defender to deal with strikers like the desperately average Charlie Wyke. That said, would Purrington have been popping up at the far post for his goal if we’d been playing a flat back 4 ? Maybe, maybe not.
The change of shape and substitutions helped us to gain a greater measure of control, Pearce was rock solid at the back and Jonny Williams injected real momentum with his direct and skillful dribbling after he entered the fray. That said, the game had extra time written all over it before that explosion of total ecstasy 6 seconds from the end of added time - followed by another moments later when the ref blew for full time. Just incredible.
We went to the Wembley Box Park post-match where the DJ belted out a series a anthems and the entire game was shown again on a giant screen. Much beer was taken and a great time was had by all.
A wonderful atmosphere and one that should help get Charlton into the blood of a good number of the many youngsters in attendance.
Kings Cross has changed a bit since I was last down in London so I was a bit disoriented, felt mugged at the cost of a travel card, but made my way to Wembley without any hitches. Stepping out of the tube and seeing Wembley way already awash with supporters, buzzing. Finding my way to the Green Man to meet up with mates, sweating my tits off by the time I got to the top of that bastard hill. Taking twenty minutes to find the guy who had my ticket and not being able to relax until I saw his smiling face. Sharing beers with people I’ve known since I was the lad who came down form Yorkshire and those I’ve known not so long but are still my Charlton family. The atmosphere in that garden was incredible, a perfect aperitif for what was to come.
Haven’t been to Wembley since ‘98 so took in the ‘new’ and was impressed. By the time I got to my seat the ground was full and I stood and marvelled at our support, something just felt different. Game starts, the noise and anticipation then the mishap. The what just happened moment and a collective pause, an ‘ok, that wasn’t ideal’ thought and we went again, supporters who wouldn’t stop believing. The game itself won’t go down as a classic but I for one don’t care about that. The bottom line is we did it. That winner in the dying seconds caused absolute scenes that I’ve loved watching back today to fully appreciate them because I lost all train of thought and just reacted on emotion and adrenaline at the time. Feeling feelings that you don’t get to experience that much if you’re just an average human working to pay the bills.
The post game celebrations inside the stadium raised the hairs on my neck, the unity, the bond between the players and the management team evident, the connection between us in the seats and those players as strong as I’ve ever known it. Lee Bowyer, what can I say that hasn’t already been said. What he’s achieved in the time it’s taken him, immense. Admitted in the past I never took to him as I have to others but he’s now up there in my eyes. The bloke is a top, top fella.
Feeling a tad tired and emotional exiting the stadium I decided to give the pub a swerve - my legs, quite frankly couldn’t face another trekking mission - said my goodbyes and headed home, my head buzzing with fresh memories. Even having to stand on the return to York couldn’t dampen my mood although I didn’t interact with the dispirited Sunderland lads near me, choosing to instead look out of the window as the train passed through the English countryside, processing what I was feeling. I got home and had a couple of large vodkas to wind down. That took a bit longer than expected but the crash eventually came. I fell asleep grinning.
What a day, and I am honoured to have spent it with so many of you. It was what makes Charlton who we are and let’s people know who we could possibly become if they take the chance. There’s no other club like us.
That is EPIC.
If someone knows how to patch that over the top of the Tv coverage we will have a winner
For long periods of the 2nd half they definitely were making more noise (they got their roar going). Our crowd seemed strangely subdued for a while but it built up towards the end!
Losing Grant was a blow but others stepped up and goals were scored by other people (Igor, Pratley, Sarr, Pearce, Bauer, Purrington, Bielik, Dijksteel) plus Taylor and Aribo got their mojos back and went on great scoring runs.
What was obvious, watching the game again, was how much more we wanted it and what a shift every single one of them put in. Conceding such a horror goal so early could have knocked the stuffing out of us but this group of players, with the backing of our fans who were outstanding all game, genuinely do seem to be playing for the shirt. And that's a rare thing in the game these days...