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The week that was - 29th May 1987. Charlton 2 Leeds Utd 1

First Division Play-Off Final replay. Charlton Athletic *2 (0) (Shirtliff 113, 117) Leeds United *1 (0) (Sheridan 99) *AET 90 mins 0-0. St Andrews, Birmingham. Att 18,000.

Charlton: Bolder, Humphrey, Reid, Peake, Shirtliff, Miller, Gritt, Lee, Melrose (Stuart 96), Walsh, Crooks.

Leeds: Day, Aspin, McDonald, Aizlewood, Ashurst, Ormsby (Edwards 44), Stiles, Sheridan, Pearson, Baird, Adams.

Referee: Alan Gunn (Burgess Hill).

Booked: Baird and Shirtliff after a second half flare up that followed a Baird tackle on Bolder. Miller for disputing the free-kick that lead to Leeds' goal. Aizlewood for deliberate handball (completing a hat-trick of bookings against his former club in the play off games)

Skipper Shirtliff scored two goals in a game for the first time in his career.

I think that's about it for this season folks. If you have any games you want mentioned next season for any particular reason, send me a whisper and I'll try and fit them in.
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Comments

  • just want to say thanks and commend you for a great addition to the site

    it is not only appreciated by those that were there and can reminice but also for the younger lads, helps me get a sense of where we have come from and the uniqueness of our football club
  • Well said the boat,these posts always bring back memorys and are also very imformative for the younger supporters,i even find them of interest as they can jog my memeory, being from the older Generation my memeory is not always clear? Keep up the good work home and away.
  • goose pimples whenever i watch shirtliff's goals...... was anyone else on the coach back to well hall ...
    we got suck in a traffic jam on the way back home down M1 or M6 and a leeds coach was beside us on the motorway , as we all started giving them the thumbs down and laughing at them the nutters on the leeds coach jumped out of the emergency exit and started running towards our coach !!
    We all went a bit quiet on the coach until the driver swiftly moved onto the hard shoulder and sped off.
    We then pulled into a service station further on and there was another coach of leeds nutters, the driver asked if we wanted to stop and everyone told him to drive on...i'm sure there were people who must have been dying to use the toilet but didn't want to risk their lives!!
  • what you going to do in the summer months H&A?!
  • I think that the club should retrospectively award bravery medals to all 2,000 Charlton fans who attended this game!!!

    I was only 14 at the time and my old man would not have let myself and my brother go anywhere near it.

    Even now, I must admit, that in the same circumstances I'd have reservations about going because the 10-1 outnumbering in the odds just ain't that much fun....

    On the other hand, being there for Shirtliff's (anyone else remember the expose on him in the Sunday papers in the 88/89 season?) goals would have been well worth it!!!
  • tell you what though look at the posters above. One of them died last year.
  • [cite]Posted By: Goonerhater[/cite]tell you what though look at the posters above. One of them died last year.

    bloody hell that's frightening. God bless the Boat.
  • RIP Adam indeed.
  • oohaahmortimar yes i was there god that was hairy do you remember seeing the players also ?
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  • Great game...
  • Fantastic game (actually it was pretty crap). I can remember sitting down on the terrace after we went 1-0 down in extra-time thinking thats it we're done. One of my mates said we're attacking so I stood up and Mr Peter Shirtliff scored. All of us (in our little corner) went ape-shit. The mood of the Leeds fans changed from one of noisy celebration to stunned silence. When the second goal went in the congas had already stopped and then they were trying to pull down the fences.

    A great night out.
  • I couldn't go. I spent the day trying not to think about it. Hid myself away from radio and TV. At sometime after 9.00pm there was a knock at the door. It was my Dad who had been driving around Bromley listening to the radio. He told me the score was nil nil with a few moments left. I told him I couldn't/wouldn't listen to the radio - my nerves couldn't stand it.

    We sat in my lounge and put on the TV to catch the end of the 9.00 oclock news. It was an extended programme due to the election coverage. They gave the score in extra time with Leeds winning 1-0. I nearly had a seizure. The final result was promised at the end of the programme. I sat their in silence biting my nails trying to take the election twaddle. Finally the result came through 2-1. I shouted so loudly it could have been heard all the way to St Andrews. We danced around the house like a couple of ten year olds.

    Good old ITV carried the Yorkshire TV (Leeds biased) highlights which were shown after 10.30pm. How great it was to be able to watch them knowing the result. I remember the camera focussing on John Humphrey and Paul Miller celebrating at the end. God I wish I could have been there although I always doubted my heart could stand it until the Mackems game scotched that feeling.
  • edited May 2008
    I was tied up at work and arrived home close to midnight ignorant of the result. I immediately looked at teletext and saw that we won and realised that highlights were about to be shown on Thames television. I hurriedly tried to avoid doing a Rod Hull when adjusting my aerial which was set for TVS as it was then and ignored 'er indoors moaning that I'd woken up both her and the girls!

    I then watched snowy but decipherable highlights thinking it strange that we were wearing blue. Shirtliff rightly got most of the praise but from the highlights I saw Gritty was absolutely everywhere closing people down.

    It was a momentous win for the future of our club. Had we gone down I wonder whether we'd be here today.
  • I was on cricket tour, in West Germany ( as it was then) of all places. We played against the RAF and Army at bases like Wedberg and Rhineharland. We listened to the replay on SW radio, BBC World Service.
  • [cite]Posted By: LenGlover[/cite]It was a momentous win for the future of our club. Had we gone down I wonder whether we'd be here today.

    Agreed Len. Where would we have ended up? This was before Richard Murray came along.
  • [cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]goose pimples whenever i watch shirtliff's goals...... !!

    i get them when he knees Iain Baird in the head. Great footballing moment cos Baird was one 'orrible **** and didn't want to know after that.
  • [cite]Posted By: Ledge[/cite]
    [cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]goose pimples whenever i watch shirtliff's goals...... !!

    i get them when he knees Iain Baird in the head. Great footballing moment cos Baird was one 'orrible **** and didn't want to know after that.

    I know Ian Baird and his family quite well. Been on holiday etc with them. Have to say on the pitch he did seem nasty. Away from football he is one of the funniest people I've met. I do take the piss though about those play-off games.

    Just to say he's now manager of Eastleigh in the Conference South.
  • great account BFR
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  • Nice one BFR
  • yeah great read that was bfr, nice one
  • BFR said it all there I reckon - funny, I clearly remember a fan (BFR?) asking OB the way to the station after the game, remember thinking I wouldn't fancy that walk one little bit. I went on the coach to this one and we got back about 3.30 in the morning, managed to get some kebabs in Welling (off the last half inch of meat - I'd survived St Andrews, so no kebab could kill me that night) and went into my mates house to watch it on video. Rolled out to go home and the sun was coming up, slightly surreal, but the feeling that night/morning was as good as Wembley I reckon. I often wonder if the club would have kept going if we had gone down that year, because at the time there was no return to the Valley on the cards at all.
  • edited May 2008
    I worked on the railway at the time. A mate and myself went by train which broke down half way there. We waited ages to get another engine to pull us all the way.
    Getting to the ground was ok.
    I can recall running around like mad when the second goal went in, and giving everybody hugs! I don't think I have seen such a big crowd that was loud one minute, go silent so quickly.
    Then the walk (or run) back to the station knowing that if we stopped we'd get a good beating, and not knowing if the people looking at us was Leeds or Brum....either way we would suffer!!!! Also hoping that the Police held the train, which they did thank god.
  • BFR said it all there I reckon - funny, I clearly remember a fan (BFR?) asking OB the way to the station after the game,

    ............

    It may have been, we were held back for a around 20-30 minutes as the players came out, Bolder virtually stripped himself throwing boots, his top and gloves etc into the crowd and on leaving the ground I had no idea how to get back to the station. I'd met some friends at the match, they'd travelled up by car and were parked near the Charlton end and anyway there was no room to take me anywhere, let alone back to Birmingham New Street and it's fair to point out they had no inclination to do so either. At that point I was knackered, hoarse from the singing and because I'd climbed the wall in the carpark before the match I had no idea of how to get around the carpark to get back to the station, and of course the Leeds end was between me and the station, meaning I'd have to negotiate several thousand pissed off and very possibly violent with it fans and Leeds fans at that time had a reputation matched only by Leicester, Millwall and Chelsea and maybe one or two others for talking with their fists which I'd discovered of course on the way down to the ground. if they were like that before the match I really didn't want to meet them after. Hey I made it, but another day...
  • I went by coach and after the game they had all gone. I asked the OB and they said dunno, nothing to do with them. I said look pal we're about to get murdered here and they wouldn't have moved unless you lot told them. Reluctantly he found out where they had been moved to.
    I also remember losing a contact lense when the coach arrived back at Catford and had to drive back to Bromley one eyed at 3am. The good old days :-)
  • Went up by train and got there about 5-10 minutes after getting a cab with a Leeds fan.

    Can't remember too much about the game (except the goals!)

    Got a lift home from a mate afterwards and got stuck on the motorway for ages. Still managed to keep awake long enough to watch the recorded highlights when I got home.
  • Oh so different from the Sunderland game and 23 years ago.
  • Being there, the sense of elation was stronger even than for the Sunderland final.

    Probably to do with the dire shape the club was in, it felt like defeat could have been the end.

    I still watch the highlights occasionally, just to relive those memories.
  • I still think this is the most important game I've ever seen. Was living in Crouch End as a student at the time and trained it on my own and, like BFR, walked to St Andrews. Very bizarre atmosphere at times but a great ending. The thing that always sticks in my mind is Bolder throwing his gloves into the crowd. I had no trouble getting back to the bullring but was horrified to see a train pulling out of the station with a BR guard saying 'sorry lads, that was the last train to London' fully expecting 400,000 Leeds fans (or so it appeared) to descend on the station at any time. Fortunately another train turned up and we got back to Euston at silly o'clock (tubes had stopped) and I very happily walked back to North London.
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