Birthday legends

Happy birthday to Derek Hales and Allan Simonsen. I don’t think I ever knew they shared a birthday, but Killer is 68 today and Simmo 67. What a pair of legends they were.

The brilliant little Dane only played 16 matches after signing from Barcelona that made the 10 o’clock news. The gladiatorial Hales played in the red shirt 320 times in two different spells scoring 168 goals and is our all time top goalscorer putting him into Addicks folklore. Both played together in that 1982/83 season before Simonsen’s dreamy Addicks career came to an abrupt end as the club started to implode and couldn’t play Simonsen’s wages.

Hales and Simonsen were about as different as you could get but both stimulated great memories today. Happy birthday to you both.