You're v welcome if you and pals want to sign-up for the Scotland group - check the article in opening post, or drop me a DM. Quite a few of us travel regularly to games. I'm assuming you're still based up here?
PS We lost 7-0 at Brighton, 7-1 was a few years earlier away to Luton...
yes we are based up here, and always have been, we’re all Dundee born
and bred, there was a saltire flag above us at Wembley, I’ll take it was
you guys, I’ll give you a shout next time we’re travelling, but the
west coast line runs different from ours for trains and airports we use
are Edinburgh or Aberdeen, and on a rare occasion the Dundee one
Thanks - good to know how to contact you. We're not all west coast - even one in Shetland! So far mainly English exiles now settled in Scotland for whatever reason. We'll keep you in mind for when we need to charter the plane for Charlton's European tour...I'm sure Edinburgh would work as the launch pad.
“It can feel a bit isolated sometimes as a Charlton fan in Scotland"
I feel the same and I live in Woolwich! Can we get something like this set up down here?
You make a good point. How would a fan find out if there is a supporters group near them?
Maybe a list of groups with contact details could be a page on the official site? Not only will it allow fans to join an established group, I think it would encourage others to start one if there is not a group near them and they would already have a list of contacts who can help them. A simple travel group would be a great start to setting up things.
Ive lived in north greenwich and woolwich for 6 years, and I rarely see a charlton shirt around. Ive bumped into more spanners fans in fact, got heckled by one at Morrisons Thamesmead a few weeks back when I went shopping with a Charlton jacket on!
tbh the largest gathering of Charlton fans Ive seen in my time here was after we won at Wembley in 2019. I went to the Great Harry after I got home for a beer and a burger and it was full of us. There was even a big Charlton flag put up in there, but I think the landlord is a Charlton fan? I think the landlord of the anchor and hope is Charlton too.
I see a ton of Arsenal/Man U/Chelsea shirts of course, and it annoys that they have a football team on their doorstep but would still rather watch the prem on telly.
Theres a large migrant population in this part of London and I dont think anything below the top 5 of the prem really registers with them. With no family background in the area for them they wouldnt have a mum or dad to take them to Charlton like many on here, so youre starting from scratch with that demographic really. Perhaps the club could do more to promote itself to the locals.
I know we have FFAF but that really just gives Charlton fans a chance to bring mates who support other teams along for a game.
A very effective thing back in the 90s was giving kids a new Charlton shirt if they gave in any other clubs shirt. Eltham Park soon had many more Charlton shirts than before. This coupled with kids for a quid and a wonderful community project soon upped the numbers and went a long way to filling the gap left by the lost generation of kids when we were at Selhurst and the Boleyn.
Also the kids season tickets were only £10, which had the double whammy of getting the kids in plus their parents. This led to my support for Charlton.
Talking of Scottish fans, does anyone know if a guy called Alistair still goes, lived in charlton.
- Think you mean Alastair Allen? (Loud when under the influence). If so, the answer is I haven't seen or heard him at a game for a few years now. He still lives down by the station as I understand it but I haven't seen him for two or three years and he was always about in Charlton...
I didn’t know his surname, but a regular back then, dark hair, sounds like him after a beer, good bloke, funny with it
That's him. Went to see us play at Cambridge United over twenty years ago. After another grim performance and a miserable day, about 15 of us drifted through the city looking for a pub but they were all closed to visiting fans or closed as we arrived. Eventually we found one that was open and the young bar maid had taken the first orders when the Landlady appeared and it was clear she wouldn't have served us but it was too late. As we all sat down with our beers, Alastair sat at a piano and opened the lid. She shouted, "please don't sit at the piano if you can't play it." There were a few students in the pub with their pints and books and we all looked on. Much to everyone's amazement, he tore through a tune on the piano and began an impromptu song all about our day out. It was brilliant and included a couple of lines about being decent fans looking to commiserate after another depressing defeat and being shunned by the locals and misjudged by the Landlady. At the end he got a thunderous round of applause including the students and the embarrassed Landlady. We all got served a second drink....
Any excuse to post this photo again. Me in the back row with the highest hand. Taken in Bordeaux in 1998 before the Norway game. Duncan Shearer should have been playing for Scotland but somehow he wasn't picked. He travelled with us instead to support his country.
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We're not all west coast - even one in Shetland! So far mainly English exiles now settled in Scotland for whatever reason.
We'll keep you in mind for when we need to charter the plane for Charlton's European tour...I'm sure Edinburgh would work as the launch pad.