For a while I have wanted to write a regular blog, but have lacked the time and inspiration to do so, after a 6-hour drive up the M1 here is my first attempt! I am sure there are much more detailed accounts of this season, such as Colin Cameron’s wonderful book, Home and away with Charlton Athletic 1920-2004, but this is my personal take on that wonderful season, the players and the management involved. The previous season the Addicks had been relegated, after one season from the premier league, but the sale of Danny Mills to Leeds United not only allowed Alan Curbishley the finance to keep the rest of the squad in tacked, but also added to it with signings such as Dean Kiely, Greg Shields and later Andy Todd. The season started at the Valley with a thumping 3-1 beating of promotion rivals Barnsley, followed up by Richard Rufus’s first Valley goal in a 1-0 victory over Norwich. Indecently it meant that his first 3 career goals where at Wembley, in front of the Kop at Anfield and in front of the covered end!! That was followed up by defeat at Craven Cottage, in a match that is still vivid in my memory for the half time introduction of a certain Scott Parker, this wasn’t his first appearance for the club, but was the first time I saw him heavily influence a match, but the truth be told, it was only the stand out performance of, ex Bury, keeper Kiely that kept the score down. Back at the Valley 10 man Charlton over came 9 man Bolton in a match that is worth a mention due to the fact future team mates Stuart and Todd were sent off for fighting each other! A win come back win, due to a Hunt double, at Sheffield United was followed by a draw at Tranmere before Hunt’s first hatrick of the season put pay to Stockport County. 2 wins, a draw and a defeat at Ipswich took the Addicks into the middle of October near the top with a game in hand over most of the teams around them. The next month saw a bore draw with WBA, when Hunt had a good chance in the first minute and the next 89 were awful to watch! Another win over Tranmere was followed by defeat at St Andrews courtesy of a Brian Hughes effort (I wonder what ever happened to him!!). Martin Pringle replaced the injured Mendonca on a very cold night in Crew and hit the second in a 2 nil win, to keep pace near the top of the table. Still Mendoncaless the Addicks saw of Walsall, 2-1 and on his return Grimsby 5-2, in a match that was notable for another reason. Rufus, who before the season started had only scored 2 goals in his career, who scored twice, was denied a hatrick by the bar and a clearance off the line. The next match at the Valley had a massive attendance of 20,043, the highest of the season and biggest in the first division that day. Manchester City where the visitors and inspired by a over weight, gobby young keeper and a farm yard animal stole a one nil victory. Look where there are now! Curbs boys quickly put the disappointment of that defeat behind them 3 days later with a victory over Swindon at the County ground. I would tend to give this sort of match many inches but it was poignant to me personally. Firstly the train home was cancelled and the police forced us to be locked in a pub until the next train arrived and had a free cab back home from central London. How they got enough black cab drivers to go “south of the river, at that time of night”, is another question! Secondly Swindon had a tall elegant midfielder who out shone Charlton’s pair of Stuart and Kinsellla, the only time all season I saw this! He dominated from box to box and scored with a clinical finish, from a pitch long move he started. Knowing of their fragile finances Charlton’s travelling fans where full of talk that we should sign this lad, it turned out he was on loan from West ham and would later go on to play for England and in 3 Champions league finals!!! The next 4 games saw 3 draws and a defeat, to big spending Blackburn, which had this Charlton fan thinking of another playoff season. Then 3 things happened, the third of these draws, nil each at QPR saw Clive Mendonca start a game for the last time. Then it was Christmas day, the day after Charlton fans were transported to dream world. Crystal Palace, the stripy Nigels, from Croydon, rocked up to the Valley on boxing day. True to form struggling Palace took the lead inside the first minute. You could feel the optimism drain out of the covered end. After 12 minutes John Salako equalised in front of the fans that used to love him. When Martin Pringle added a second 90 seconds later all that optimism came flooding back! After a roller coaster quarter of an hour the next 75 drifted by. After a winless run of 4, shorn of their biggest goal threat, the Addicks were on a winning run of 1! The last televised game of the 20th century was away at Steve Bruce’s Huddersfield Town, unbeaten at home all season. Driving to the match from my brothers student digs in Manchester, Freddie Flintoff and Darren Gough were ripping through the South African batting line up in a test match, and we were freezing on the M62! Hunt and Robinson put us 2 to the good before a Marcus Stewart effort in the 80th minute set up a grand stand finish. From my point of view the result was soured by injures to Kinsella and Youds. That’s a winning run of 2! Notts Forest (3-0), Wolves (2-3) and Crew (1-0) were brushed aside before 2 away games at Norwich and Stockport. The previous time Charlton had played at Carrow Road Mendonca had started a goal spree with a hatrick, but even he would have been green eyed with what Andy Hunt was about to achieve! 3 unanswered Hunt strikes in Norfolk where followed by Fradin putting Stockport 1-0 up at Edgeley park, then the records began to tumble: Andy Hunt became the first Charlton player to score hatricks in successive away league matches and the first Addick to score one against the same opposition home and away in the same season! Winning run at 7! Hunt was goalless against Wolves, a game that marked the Valley debut of Matt Svensson, but Stuart and Steve Brown cemented a 2-0 win in front of another 20k plus crowd. Lone Johnny Robinson strikes saw off both Fulham and Sheffield United to take the winning run to 10 and opened up an 8 point lead at the top! Revenge was in the air as the Red Army marched north to Bolton in March, having been knocked out of the FA cup at the same venue the previous month, there was no sign of a repeat against a team including future Addicks Fish and Jensen. Late goals from Pringle and Hunt, again, wrapped up win number 11! The TV cameras followed the bandwagon to Walsall were Curbs team won game number 12. In an open game Charlton won 4-2 thanks to another Hunt double and 2 from Capitan Marvel Mark Kinsella. Win number 12! The next game at the Valley was a formality against bottom of the table Swindon. Before the game Charlton gave over a cheque to pay for Swindon’s youth team to play in the Milk cup, with was accepted buy former jockey Willie Carson. Swindon had one shot on target after about an hour! That didn’t stop them taking the lead through a rear Deano balls up after 5 minutes, where he somehow managed to roll an innocent cross into the back of the net. 1-0 to Carrickless, Swindon! Winning run 0! After this defeat I needed a skiing holiday in Andorra to cheer me up so I missed the televised game against Manchester City that ended in a 1-1 draw that increased the lead at the top to 13! Grimsby where again put to the sword at the Valley, 4-0, thanks, in part to Svensson’s first goal and Tiler’s only goal of the campaign. If the 12 game winning run was a Christmas present to all Charlton fans, Easter came early this year! As you will recall the winning run started at home against the Nigles. So on 25th of March 2000 hundreds of Charlton fans went to Croydon in expectation rather than hope of ending a winless run that had stretched back to 1935! A Palace team, including a certain A Cole, were beaten buy a single goal. The scorer, Charlton legend Paul Kitson with his first and only goal for the Addicks! For those that are counting, that’s away win number 12 and Kielys 19th clean sheet! TBC
Sky were at the Valley, next up, to see the First Division Champions Elect beat QPR 2-1 thanks to a late Scott Parker winner. A hard fought 2-2 at Port Vale increased the lead at the top to 14 points. 4 days later a yellow army landed at the city ground. With Charlton 1-0 up, thanks again to Andy Hunt, and Barnsley 2-1 down, Charlton were in the premier league next season! Then Chris Bart-Williams equalised and the 5200 travelling supporters had to wait another day. To mask the disappointment on the day it did mean we had amassed 89 points for the season, the most for a 3 for a win season and still only needed 2 points to go up! Huddersfield came, saw and conquered the Valley thanks to a smash and grab, then it was Good Friday at the Valley, never have I left a ground with such mixed emotions. The point, thanks to a Stuart goal, was enough to win promotion but a 4th game with out a win was hard to stomach. Had they taken their eye off the ball? But promoted we were. 2 limos where ordered from Floyd Road to Ewood park, a dozen or more of us pilled in and drank Champaign and watch the greatest game, on video. When Svensson brought down David Dunn in the area, it looked like his goal was in vain. When Carsley converted from the spot it looked even worse. With a late Lee Bradbury goal at Fratton park, the same player who had denied us the championship on Friday, had won us it on Monday, cue the party! I pity the small pub in Northamptonshire that was set a pone by 20 thirsty Addicks on their way home. The crowing of the first division champions happened at the Valley on 29th April 2000 in front of 20,043 people, the fact that we lost is irrelevant. That’s the story, who were the stars? Kiely: Magnificent between the sticks, that cock up v Swindon aside, was for the next 5 years. Mendonca: Only played 19 games this season, his last as a pro. Started the season with a hatrick, ended it a former player. What a goal record! Hunt: 3 Hatricks in a season, went on to start the next season on fire too, until the virus that he had hanging over him caught up with him. Rufus: Solid all season long, including Steve Bruce, it is my belief he is the best centre half never to play for England. Such a shame he is the 3rd player on this list to end his career early due to injury. Kinsella: Capitan marvel, box to box, never stopped running. Loved the punch in the air in front of the covered end. Sir Chris Powell: Class class class. Nothing else to say, defended like a demon, paired with Robinson on the left were heads and shoulders above the best of the rest. Thanks for reading, would love your feedback, PM or post away!!
Lovely little walk down memory lane there CAFC4ever. 99/00 was my second year as a Season Ticket Holder and because of the promotion straight back to the Premiership and the amazing run we had up until the Swindon game certainly makes it my favourite season following the club. Dean Kiely was imense that year and all following seasons for us. £1m was simply a bargain especially after what Sunderland paid for Craig Gordon and Man Utd for David De Gea
Nice - lots if memories. I remember flying in from a business trip early on the Swindon away game, and hacking it down the M4 to get to the game with 10 mins gone. Also still remember Carrick ran the game.
Lovely stuff. Nice one, 4ever. That was a great season. If I remember rightly, the club paid for all of the fans to travel to Port Vale? - and I missed the coach - the only match I missed that season. I also got a bit scuffed up outside a pub in Portsmouth. At 21 I thought could take on the world, so I offered to fight a rather large mob of Pompey fans three at a time. I dispatched the first trio and then ran out of steam. I was lucky to get out alive. Can you do a blog for the 97/98 season? The second play-off leg against Ipswich is still the greatest atmosphere I have ever known at The Valley. Thanks for the read.
Here's a funny story- but it needs ackworth to confirm. Did you try to get the 01/02 team back together for a reunion? Spoke to an ex player a couple weeks back who had been inundated with messages from a j.ackworth to form a reunion. Broke it to him softly what it meant.
Ponders, I'll do that season next week, was also during my home and away days, so went to most of the games that season as well.
Sorry, for it to be funny was that some RSVP'd to him saying they were up for it! My jaw dropped when I heard this.
I can see a rather freaked out Claus jensen and jj in a empty pub function room, eating cheese and pineapples wondering what the hell this guy is going on about!
Wasnt there supposed to be an properly organised evening a few years ago for the Wembley '98 team only for it to be cancelled due to some players being unable to make it. Am sure there was a promise from the club that they'd re-arrange??
Great post cafc4ever, happy memories of agreat season, though it was a shame we stuttered so badly at the end, instead of celebrating promotion and the title with resounding home wins. Hopefully we'll seal promotion this season at The Valley, with a victory! One overriding memory of the season would be the Andy Hunt song Oh Andy Hunt Oh Andy Hunt Oh Andy Hunt he plays upfront He's got a name like a woman's f**** Oh Andy Hunt he plays upfront
Cheers for all the positive feed back guys, it really is appreciated! Apart from the season already requested, what else would people be interested in reading?
A blog of a really long away trip, or a weekend stopover from start to finish, incorporating a description of the match, the banter and the atmosphere. There was a very fine video posted on 606 a couple of seasons ago of an away trip, but a written account would be great.
