Dec 5
Happy 30th anniversary Back to The Valley Day.
We’ll ignore how the team did their very best to bury any memories of a wonderful time in our history on Saturday. A penny for the thoughts of those real Charlton legends including the peerless Roger and Heather Alwen who had to sit through that tosh.
Please click for moreI love this team, they really don’t give a flying do they? They will go toe to toe with anybody.
What an immense couple of games, and it would have been mortifying to walk away again with another fully undeserved defeat.
West Brom are a very good side, and were very good going forward on the counter, yet our team of bandaged up warriors stood strong and once again made their mark on this great league. With 9 men injured and Leko unavailable, we had a subs bench with four academy players on it, yet, again Bowyer was able to put out a team and strategy onto the pitch that gave our opponents a real headache all afternoon.. a bit like our magnificent noisy fans behind the goal.
25 years ago. Doesn’t seem possible but the Addicks welcome Portsmouth, befittingly the team we have played the most in our history, back to The Valley tomorrow afternoon in a wild quirk of fate. Thanks EFL for actually doing something right.
That Saturday 25 years ago is ingrained in my memory. My brother and I and a couple of mates were at Barnsley the week before and that was a carnival atmosphere on their away open terrace.
However getting tickets for the 8,337 sell out wasn’t easy. My Mum, brother and I were season ticket holders at Upton Park, but my Dad, who was getting a little disillusioned with it, wasn’t so sadly he missed out on the game, but the rest of us went with my mates.
The original Back to The Valley shirt was beautifully simple, but also underlined how little money the club had in those days to throw around as every penny went on getting our spiritual home ready for the homecoming that memorable day almost 25 years ago.
The club with Hummel, who have been a great partner so far, have combined along with supporters to produce a one-off anniversary kit for the Portsmouth 25-year Back to The Valley game, and they’ve done a good job.
Chicago Addick 