20 Years; 20 Players: No.11 Derek Hales
Continuing on with my selection of 20 Players that hold such great memories to me. All this to celebrate my 20th Blogging anniversary.
Next on my register a man who I think would appear on any Charlton fan from the 1970’s and 80’s list. No. 11 is Addicks’ legend Derek Hales.
Killer, Killer, Killer….
15th November 1975. My first ever Charlton Athletic game. We played Sunderland at The Valley. We lost, and Derek Hales was sent off for kicking out at one of their players. He scored too, but from that day Hales was forever written into my own catalogue of heroes.
Hales was a very distinctive player in the way he looked and in the way he played. Strong as an ox and as hard as nails. The big beard and mass of curly black hair, the famous swivel and shot with his lethal left foot. Hales scored all kinds of goals, but nearly all from within the 18-yard penalty box.
Then there was that famous thrusted clenched fist whenever he scored each one of those 168 goals.
Signed from Luton Town for £4,000 in 1973, he was sold for a handsome profit when he moved to Derby for £330,000 in December 1976. It was no surprise, but still gut wrenching to read about it in the morning paper.
Yet Killer returned in the summer of 1978 from West Ham for £80,000 and it was like he’d never left as the goals in a Charlton shirt continued to flow.
I have to mention the famous punch up with Mike Flanagan in an FA Cup game against Maidstone in January 1979. They were both sent off, and the club exonerated Flanagan and sacked Hales. It was a low point for the club at the time.
The board eventually reinstated Hales, but Flanagan then refused to play and was sold to Palace. Incredibly in an ‘only at Charlton moment’ Flanagan was resigned in 1984 by Lennie Lawrence, and he and Hales played together again for a couple of seasons.
He moved to Gillingham at the end of his career and retired at the age of 35. I believe he still lives on the Isle of Sheppey long giving up the pub he used to run in Lower Halstow.
Hales was a complex character and his programme profile back in 1979 still remains one of the grumpiest ever written, yet he is still hero-worshipped down at The Valley, by those lucky enough to see him play and those younger that only know him by handed down osmosis.
Appearances 368, Goals 168 (1973 – 1976, 1978 – 1985)
I was married in a registry office as originally I was wed in a country that was not legally recognised (Hungary) . At the end I pulled out my phone to take a photo and the registrar noticed I had a Charlton phone cover with number 7 (Paddy Powell) . She told me she was Derek Hales’ wife. I left the place buzzing, my wife still thinks it was because of the wedding!
Haha. Great story, Nick.
Brilliant piece CA. There has never been anyone like Killer before or after his career at Charlton. His buccaneering style of play was a joy for every Addick who had the pleasure to watch him play.
Buccaneer. I love that. Hales was a true a buccaneer 🏴☠️
I never got to see Killer in action, but I was always aware of his legend. My older brother told me all the stories, including the Flanagan incident. Hales was one of my inspirations for always wanting to grow a beard, which I finally grew(once I was able) and still have(knocking on twenty years now!)…
Last I heard, he was working as a caretaker, in a school in the Medway region, and was a lovely man, according to a friend whose child went to that school!
We’ve had better strikers than Derek Hales (Darren Bent springs to mind immediately), but none so close in my affections as “Killer”,. Only Yann Kermogant runs him close. For someone of his build, Halesy had amazing acceleration and got into goal-scoring positions purely because he was quicker to see and reach them than anyone else.
Les – he was so quick over 5 yards and had a wonderful eye for goal. Not sure he moved much beyond the half way line and the penalty box though – much to Mike Flanagan’s chagrin 🙂
Through those somewhat lean years of the seventies. Derek Hales was what kept me turning up every home game.
The Flannagan incident apparently stemmed from a simmering training ground row, with Flannagan getting increasingly fed up of doing the hard yards up front and getting little or no thanks from Hales who did little work off the ball yet demanded the ball get played into him. Eventually things came to a head…
At Gillingham apparently his training regime consisted of doing as little work as possible, frequently he turned up with a shotgun to shoot the rats under the main stand.
And after the pub venture failed it was rumoured he was driving for meals-on-wheels.
SP – he also worked at a school as a PE Teacher.