Play-off hero Shirtliff recalls heroics against Leeds United

What an epic match that was, great, great memories, the atmosphere was crackling with Leeds animosity and ended with Leeds fans I saw on way out in tears, great side we had then full of battlers and a great manager.

Valiantphil said:

PS was one of our great post war skippers.

Up there with Hewie, Bailey, Peacock, Kinsella and JJ in my supporting lifetime.

I reckon we outnumbered the Leeds fans at St Andrews

Big William said:

oohaahmortimer said:

I reckon we outnumbered the Leeds fans at St Andrews

In our enclosure we certainly did.



:-)

Not even sure about that.

Nerve racking night but we had some great characters in that side who were not going to give up our first division place,was still fairly confident even when Sheridan put them one up in extra time.Went by coach,very slow journey home,but several times we were crawling alongside the team coach and clearly some alcohol had been consumed by the team,as they exchanged pleasantries with the fans.Leeds fans were ok,but they did try and break down the fencing round the pitch at the end of the game.Spoke to some at a service stop on way home,they were fine.

Four of us in car departed Swanley about11am having got Bill out of his sick bed. Bill,s wife having picked up his tablets saw our car shot by and Bill waved her goodbye for the next 18 hours.
Found a quite pub in Birmingham to have pre-match drink no LEEDS or Charlton fans insight.
Still didn,t have the heart to tell Bill he could have watched the match highlights on ITV later that night. Not one of us would have missed this match with the whole season depending on it.
So the game was played out and as Peter Shirtliff has told me without this result just maybe the next few years would have seen the end of Charlton as we know it.
Left Saint Andrews 5minutes after game had finished and found a pub in Nuneaton to have a drink in,when the landlord found out we had been too the match,it was alock in and we left pub about 3pm being waved off by very happy Coventry fans that Charlton had done the business over Leeds.

Bills wife was not very happy when he got home just after 5am on Saturday morning.

Went to this match with my brother, my old man and his next door neighbour (and maybe Ron the fireman) (can't remember). I reckon there were about about 2,000 of us, and about 20,000 Leeds fans. As I remember we were much the better side. But you just knew that when John Sheridan got a free kick for them, that he was gonna score. The ground erupted. I had that horrible sinking feeling that the lucky b------s were gonna win against the run of play.

However we fought like tigers and deserved our equaliser. I'm pretty sure there were fences at this time. It was a very volatile atmosphere and when PS scored the winner we went berserk. About 20,000 angry Leeds fans looked over at us, and I honestly thought they were going to scale the fences.

Once we left St Andrews, we decided we would drive to a pub about 10-15 mins away from the ground. Thought it was best as there shouldn't be any disgruntled Leeds fans about. We decided however not to show our colours (scarves etc, more than shirts in those days) just in case. So we walk into this pub, where immediately my old man decides to hold his scarf aloft singing Charlton, Charlton. There was a couple of seconds deafening silence, after which there was much cheering and well done boys from the local Brummies. They hated the Leeds fans with avengence.

When you've spent many "lean years" supporting supporting Charlton, it's games like this that make it all worth while.

A wonderful night. As Shirty said, we played high quality and patient football and justice was finally done. A real tribute to the players’ character and Lennie’s management skills in such a highly pressurised environment.

A great captain. His performance against Leeds at Elland Road - his first game back after a long injury lay off - was absolutely immense in a real cauldron.

There was certainly no shortage of bottle in Lennie’s sides - as amply demonstrated at Stamford Bridge nearly a year later. Happy days.

oohaahmortimer said:

I reckon we outnumbered the Leeds fans at St Andrews

Didn’t even outnumber them in our own seats, remember being walked round into the terrace by police after Leeds ‘stormed’ the turnstiles and sat in our seats !

Nothing beats that night. Maybe nothing beats that season.

We were probably down if we lost to Newcastle away (won 3-1); down if we lost to QPR (won 2-1); down if we lost to Ipswich in play-off (0-0 and won 2-1); down if we lost to Leeds (1-0, 0-1, 2-1).

When Shirtliff scored the diving header, I went on a mazy run around the concourse at the top of the terrace....even legged it in one end of the open-air khazi and out the other. There were people hiding in there because they couldn't watch the last few minutes!

All the pubs around the ground were closed but we stumbled across one in between the factories that had a chink of light coming through the door. We knocked and were greeted by a load of Blues fans. We couldn't buy a drink....they were all so happy that we'd beaten Leeds! Got out of there about midnight and the Blues fans gave us a lift to New Street, where we got a very late train.

MuttleyCAFC said:

I recall Bob Bolder coming over to us and we all threw our scarves at him. He collected quite a few that night!

Yeah walked off wearing a jock strap and scarves!

Legged it to the coaches in a disused factory's grounds. 15 coaches all lined up behind each other. A Mexican wave from the first coach went down all the coaches . Great scenes.

Left about 40 mins after the final whistle. Saw some Leeds at the service station. A transit van of Leeds resorted to kicking our coach as they overtook us on the motorway at 70 mph!.

Watched the highlights at 4am round a mates house and only then did we find out Peter scored both goals as it was so dark in the ground. Absolutely epic night.

I was too young to go (lived in Horsham at the time)... went to the first game at Selhurst. The roar for Jimmy's goal seemed to on forever. Remember going back via Thornton Heath to avoid the Leeds fans and then when the train then pulled in to Selhurst loads piled on !! There were Leeds fans on the train all the way back as far as Crawley... Great game, great memory. What being a Charlton fan was all about..

MuttleyCAFC said:

I recall Bob Bolder coming over to us and we all threw our scarves at him. He collected quite a few that night!

Still got one of his gloves from that night (somewhere in the loft). Promised it for the museum when I find it.

Remember being stuck in traffic on the M1 and got out the car to sing and dance about like fools in the fast lane - everybody in that traffic jam seemed as pleased as us that Leeds hadn't won.

As others have said one of the greatest nights of my life and a thoroughly deserved victory.