68/69 season for me. We played some fantastic football that season just come up short in the bid for promotion. I can still name the players without having to think. Wright,Curtis,Kinsey, Reeves ,Went, Moore,Peacock,Gregory,Tees,,Treacy&Campbell
I've been watching Charlton since 1965, and my favourite season of them all was 1980-81 - when we were in the Third Division.
We were big fish in a small pond, with tough players like Nicky Johns, Steve Gritt, Phil Warman, Les Berry and Paddy Powell. Paul Walsh and the incomparable Killer dazzled up front - supported by Martin Robinson, whose superb skills are now rather forgotten.
We played with a swagger. We went to Oxford's poky little Manor ground on Boxing Day on a run of 17 games without defeat. And lost 1-0. The feeling among the fans was outrage: how DARE anyone beat us!
There were other characterful old-school grounds on away trips that season: Somerton Park, Newport County; Boothferry Park, Hull; Saltergate, Chesterfield; and Sealand Road, Chester - where we got tonked 4-0.
We led the division for most of the season - but wobbled alarmingly in February and won only four of the last 14 games. Still, we were promoted, in third place to Rotherham and Barnsley.
One other exciting aspect of 1980-81: we actually had a good run in the FA Cup. Started in the First Round at Harlow Town (aggro in the stands), and succumbed only in the Fifth Round - away at Ipswich, who were then leading the top tier.
Give me Killer and Paul Walsh over the hundreds of strikers we've had in the last 40 years!
Yes 80/81 is the one that sticks out for me to. Went to every home game and most away games. I was 15 and used to get bus from chislehurst to allowing common and then walk to the ground from there. My dad used to pick me up and they used to open the gates in the East terrace so he would get in for the last 10 minutes. Hales and Walsh! Yes the cup run i remember well and went to the Ipswich game which we lost 2-0. Ipswich were probably the best team in the country at the time. Loved that season. The premier years post 98 were great for different reasons and I still think of them as the good old days. Something about 80/81 though that really evokes memories for me. I am now in reverie about that time.
I think for me it was the period after the return to The Valley. It started with me being involved in forming the Maidstone Branch of the Supporters Club. Knowing that there were so many of us in Maidstone, I'd always had this idea that we should start something in the area and this came about with the help of Mick Everitt, and was a special time for a short while ...that then became the vehicle by which I started going to away games regularly with a good crowd of mates. As the 90s continued, a number of decent youngsters were coming through and it was clear we were on the verge of something special ...so def that 93-98 period. That promotion side was probably my favorite ever Charlton team.
First went in ‘78 but the golden years for me were the early 80’s - ‘90. Started going to away games in 82 and made made so many friends that I still see today. Started work in ‘84 so had the cash to start going home and away to pretty much every game.
The Lewis coach away games were a highlight, although the only downside was meeting @1905
Yes 80/81 is the one that sticks out for me to. Went to every home game and most away games. I was 15 and used to get bus from chislehurst to allowing common and then walk to the ground from there. My dad used to pick me up and they used to open the gates in the East terrace so he would get in for the last 10 minutes. Hales and Walsh! Yes the cup run i remember well and went to the Ipswich game which we lost 2-0. Ipswich were probably the best team in the country at the time. Loved that season. The premier years post 98 were great for different reasons and I still think of them as the good old days. Something about 80/81 though that really evokes memories for me. I am now in reverie about that time.
Very well said, KettsJohn. Those players were tough, you know. And the drama - remember Fulham away in the Fourth Round? Killer scored with a sublime shot over his shoulder with back to goal: a graceful arc that left the Fulham keeper gaping in amazement. And a few minutes later Killer got sent off for a bit of afters...
68/69 season for me. We played some fantastic football that season just come up short in the bid for promotion. I can still name the players without having to think. Wright,Curtis,Kinsey, Reeves ,Went, Moore,Peacock,Gregory,Tees,,Treacy&Campbell
Wasn't Keir in there somewhere or was it earlier?
Yes John Keirs & Dennis Booth were the 2 players who filled in the most when injuries arose.
I echo what Lord Flashheart said. Seeing first division football every week and going in to school the next day to get congratulated or beaten up.............those were the days.
Forgetting the football side of it for moment, I look back fondly on the early to late 80s when I hung around with the B Mob. Travelling to far flung shitholes where we had to watch each other’s back. A tight knit group, often going out on the piss Friday night before an away game or sat night after a home game
Forgetting the football side of it for moment, I look back fondly on the early to late 80s when I hung around with the B Mob. Travelling to far flung shitholes where we had to watch each other’s back. A tight knit group, often going out on the piss Friday night before an away game or sat night after a home game
As someone who started going in the mid-90s I'd go with the obvious Premier League years, the first few years we were up there - very closely followed by Chris Powell's team that won League 1.
Just can't beat the number of times you could go into secondary school and give it out to Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea fans (sadly not Man Utd) because little-old-Charlton had stuffed them. Charlton 1-0 Arsenal in our first season back up (Nelson Vivas penalty saved by Deano) really stuck as the first time I saw us beat a team like that... although I think we beat Liverpool with a Keith Jones winner a couple of seasons before.
I felt more connected with our League 1 team for sure, but to start seeing our players appear in Premier League Panini packs from 98-onwards and beat the big teams was the stuff of dreams at my age then.
My golden era was 1992-2004. We were on an upward trajectory - getting the valley back, the crowds and team getting better and better - we were properly 'on a journey' then we hit the glass ceiling.
My golden era is from 5 December 1992 to 25 May 1998. We returned to The Valley and step by step, with the fans and the club in perfect harmony, we improved the club on and off the pitch, culminating in that wonderful day at Wembley when we won our place in the Premier League for the first time.
I've had 57 years on a roller coaster but if asked to choose just one of the peaks then it would be the joy of going to The Valley and seeing MY beloved club competing, sometimes successfully, against the best English football had to offer during the Curbs Premiership years. It took 35 years to happen for me and is highly unlikely to happen again in my lifetime, even if we do have a club to support still when football starts once more.
96-98 when we first started going, culminating with the playoff final. Second spell probably 2002-2009, when I had a season ticket between university and going away for a year then starting a family. Loads of memories of both spells, even if one was an ascent and the other a descent.
Forgetting the football side of it for moment, I look back fondly on the early to late 80s when I hung around with the B Mob. Travelling to far flung shitholes where we had to watch each other’s back. A tight knit group, often going out on the piss Friday night before an away game or sat night after a home game
fun times !!
I know it's not PC now but it was the off the field activities from 1970 til the late 80s that provided laughs, friendships and a few black eyes and broken noses. Wouldn't change it for the world though.
I went to all the Selhurst games but it was always negated by the lack of other supporters for me and of course the awful surroundings. The Curbishley years were the golden period most of us will be most fond of and I am no exception.
I do fondly recall the period when we had Powell, Hales and Flanagan but our defence was beyond crap then.
For me it would be around 98-04. I was young when we first got to the Premier League but I still remember the Play-Off Final feeling like it was scripted because things that dramatic just don't happen to little teams like Charlton. Then the whole Prem relegation season managed to feel brave and glorious instead of miserable and depressing, because we weren't even expected to be there anyway and we turned in some great performances. The following season we were just a murder machine, though my main memory of the season is waiting patiently for Charlton to finally be on Sky Sports, especially because of their brilliant form and finally hearing that the match against Huddersfield would be on April. We lost 1-0 during a 7 game winless streak, because ultimately we were still Charlton. From there we just became a model club; intelligent, frugal signings, good characters in a squad greater than the sum of its parts and a real feeling of respect from other clubs in the country for how we went about our business. Charlton were a family club, everyone's second favourite club, and a team who every year would manage to find that brilliant value signing, or re-purpose someone else's cast-off into a decent Premier League footballer.
The way we were in that period for me is just the perfect way for a football club to be; slowly building a squad of people you're proud to have associated with your club, selling the best ones for bigger money than you got them for but always managing to replace them with a new player so you didn't really miss them. Powell was close to doing the same and I loved 2011/12 but that all ended far too quickly. I'd say the golden period for me ended in 04 because Parker going really knocked the stuffing out of me. Even though he was just one player it felt like we had to rebuild psychologically a lot after that and it feels like a separate period followed and eventually led to our demise
We had a top side during that period, some good players, but more importantly ones who gave their all and were completely united with the club and fans
Finishing 7th in 91/92 was a top achievement, one which doesn't get enough credit when you consider we were groundsharing, had no money, and were under rookie managers.
I've thought about this and can't really pluck any era out and say it was my 'golden age'. Looking back, I have had a few. I hadn't realised in the slightest, though, that my 'golden years' teams have generally been built around strikers. So, I would split my vote amongst the following:
Late 60s/early 70s - the era of Ray Treacy, Matt Tees and Arthur Horsfield Late 80s: Jim Melrose et al mid 00s: Paolo di Canio and Darren Bent (though they never played together) early 10s: The Chris Powell management era (with, of course, Yann Kermorgant)
I'm not sure where the 70s went - I guess I was playing myself in those years and too busy with other distractions to have made Charlton my golden era.
I'd agree with the OP. I loved the Selhurst teams; Humphrey, Melrose, Crooks, Leaburn, Williams, Bennett, Pates, Miller, Mortimer etc etc. I was doing most of the aways then too and saw all the memorable ones, except Chelsea 1-1 draw!!!! (I'd just been made 1st XI cricket captain, so felt obliged to do that instead!!!)
In our 1986-87 season, our little group of about 3 or 4 decided we would do a pub crawl before every home, working our way week by week, down from Victoria Station to Selhurst. It took ages, as we did every pub we could see through Victoria, Battersea (that was interesting, even on a Sat morning!), Clapham Junction, Balham (The Balham Hotel was a bit lively) etc etc. I don't think we finished it until sometime the following season. We used to turn up lashed but still able to remember the games! Very very occasionally we could sneak into the Clifton Arms by the Holmesdale End literally just before kick-off, as I'm not sure it was ever really open to Charlton fans?
After that crawl was exhausted, we embarked on another one; attempting some sort of route from Charlton to Selhurst. I know one day, we got a bit involved in the Deptford/New Cross area somewhere and had to jump in a black cab to make kick-off. I seem to remember a tiny pub, I think in Deptford, that had a circular pool table. You twisted it round to your standing position each time because there was no room to walk round it!
I also really loved my early period at The Valley 1982 to 1985 (especially 1982-83). Simonsen, Hales, Johns, Robinson, Lennie, Gritt.....classic games, Chelsea, Wolves, Ipswich, Bolton and often classic fightbacks.
The First Division days in the 80s at Sainsbury's were the start of my regular attendance at Charlton matches and my first season ticket (on the Arfur Wake Terrace). That was also a period when I was a regular at away matches, normally on Betty Hutchins' coach from Bexleyheath with my mate Gavin. It says something that a large number of the grounds that I visited in those days are no longer in use!
My favourite player comes from that era - Johnny H - and, although we were often bumbling along at the foot of the table we had wonderful players (skilful and battling) in our side: Bolder, H, Reid, Shirtliff, Morts, Mickey B, Big Carl, Paul Williams.
In 1990 I went off to uni in Norwich and although I made the occasional visit to The Valley I didn't resume season ticket ownership until the 1999-2000 Div Two-winning season even though by that stage I was permanently resident amongst the North Folk of East Anglia.
I started going regularly in the season we left The Valley and left for uni 9 months after we went back, so my Golden period was almost completely bookended by the last game and the first game back. Went regularly "home" and away for those seven years.
Its now nearly 30 years since I went regularly but this bloody club and this bloody website dominate a disproportionate amount of my time. My kids are proud wearers of Charlton kit a couple of hundred miles from The Valley...
Comments
We were big fish in a small pond, with tough players like Nicky Johns, Steve Gritt, Phil Warman, Les Berry and Paddy Powell. Paul Walsh and the incomparable Killer dazzled up front - supported by Martin Robinson, whose superb skills are now rather forgotten.
We played with a swagger. We went to Oxford's poky little Manor ground on Boxing Day on a run of 17 games without defeat. And lost 1-0. The feeling among the fans was outrage: how DARE anyone beat us!
There were other characterful old-school grounds on away trips that season: Somerton Park, Newport County; Boothferry Park, Hull; Saltergate, Chesterfield; and Sealand Road, Chester - where we got tonked 4-0.
We led the division for most of the season - but wobbled alarmingly in February and won only four of the last 14 games. Still, we were promoted, in third place to Rotherham and Barnsley.
One other exciting aspect of 1980-81: we actually had a good run in the FA Cup. Started in the First Round at Harlow Town (aggro in the stands), and succumbed only in the Fifth Round - away at Ipswich, who were then leading the top tier.
Give me Killer and Paul Walsh over the hundreds of strikers we've had in the last 40 years!
The first season with Bent Murphy Rommedhal and Thomas.
What can I say. Born lucky.
fun times !!
Was Dennis your leader?
Just can't beat the number of times you could go into secondary school and give it out to Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea fans (sadly not Man Utd) because little-old-Charlton had stuffed them. Charlton 1-0 Arsenal in our first season back up (Nelson Vivas penalty saved by Deano) really stuck as the first time I saw us beat a team like that... although I think we beat Liverpool with a Keith Jones winner a couple of seasons before.
I felt more connected with our League 1 team for sure, but to start seeing our players appear in Premier League Panini packs from 98-onwards and beat the big teams was the stuff of dreams at my age then.
Edit: That, and the day we signed Yoni Buyens.
We returned to The Valley and step by step, with the fans and the club in perfect harmony, we improved the club on and off the pitch, culminating in that wonderful day at Wembley when we won our place in the Premier League for the first time.
I do fondly recall the period when we had Powell, Hales and Flanagan but our defence was beyond crap then.
Finishing 7th in 91/92 was a top achievement, one which doesn't get enough credit when you consider we were groundsharing, had no money, and were under rookie managers.
Late 60s/early 70s - the era of Ray Treacy, Matt Tees and Arthur Horsfield
Late 80s: Jim Melrose et al
mid 00s: Paolo di Canio and Darren Bent (though they never played together)
early 10s: The Chris Powell management era (with, of course, Yann Kermorgant)
I'm not sure where the 70s went - I guess I was playing myself in those years and too busy with other distractions to have made Charlton my golden era.
Had some money and spent it very wisely, new back four in Humphrey, Thompson, Pender and Reid, everyone played a part in the promotion season.
1968 to 1976
1980/1981
1994 to 2004
85-90
In our 1986-87 season, our little group of about 3 or 4 decided we would do a pub crawl before every home, working our way week by week, down from Victoria Station to Selhurst. It took ages, as we did every pub we could see through Victoria, Battersea (that was interesting, even on a Sat morning!), Clapham Junction, Balham (The Balham Hotel was a bit lively) etc etc. I don't think we finished it until sometime the following season. We used to turn up lashed but still able to remember the games! Very very occasionally we could sneak into the Clifton Arms by the Holmesdale End literally just before kick-off, as I'm not sure it was ever really open to Charlton fans?
After that crawl was exhausted, we embarked on another one; attempting some sort of route from Charlton to Selhurst. I know one day, we got a bit involved in the Deptford/New Cross area somewhere and had to jump in a black cab to make kick-off. I seem to remember a tiny pub, I think in Deptford, that had a circular pool table. You twisted it round to your standing position each time because there was no room to walk round it!
I also really loved my early period at The Valley 1982 to 1985 (especially 1982-83). Simonsen, Hales, Johns, Robinson, Lennie, Gritt.....classic games, Chelsea, Wolves, Ipswich, Bolton and often classic fightbacks.
My favourite player comes from that era - Johnny H - and, although we were often bumbling along at the foot of the table we had wonderful players (skilful and battling) in our side: Bolder, H, Reid, Shirtliff, Morts, Mickey B, Big Carl, Paul Williams.
In 1990 I went off to uni in Norwich and although I made the occasional visit to The Valley I didn't resume season ticket ownership until the 1999-2000 Div Two-winning season even though by that stage I was permanently resident amongst the North Folk of East Anglia.
I started going regularly in the season we left The Valley and left for uni 9 months after we went back, so my Golden period was almost completely bookended by the last game and the first game back. Went regularly "home" and away for those seven years.
Its now nearly 30 years since I went regularly but this bloody club and this bloody website dominate a disproportionate amount of my time. My kids are proud wearers of Charlton kit a couple of hundred miles from The Valley...