John Rawling has done a programme on Radio 4 Extra on the 1998 Play-Off Final. Spine-tingling stuff. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007kvvs I'd love to hear the recollections of those who were there that day.
I remember the pre match battered sausage, looking up at the TV in the chippy and they were previewing the game. At that point, and at that age, I didn't really comprehend how big this was. I wish I could have appreciated it more being honest, but am always honoured I got to be a part of that day. At Wembley, I will always remember the noise. It was nothing like the times at the Valley (or even current England matches) where the crowd just falls flat, there was a constant 'hmm' noise on the odd occasions we weren't singing. To this day, I can't eat a battered sausage without thinking of 25th May 1998. Odd how the mind works.
The thing I remember about this most incredible game was leaving Wembley at full time. A succession of Sunderland supporters on the train back shook hands and said 'well done'. Real class. I doubt I will ever go to another game like it in terms of excitement and tension. Only the Leeds/Ipswich/Chelsea play off games in the mid 80s were similar.
I have only ever cried twice at a Football match, once was the first game back at the Valley and the other time was the play off final against Sunderland. After the game getting the coach back from Wembley and almost everybody on the coach was shell shocked and quiet. Walking back home with my daughter carrying the flags and getting hooted by the motorists. It was the highest I have ever felt after a Football match and it has never been matched.
I can remember as an 7 year old listening to it on the cheap strangely coloured radio we had with all of my family in the bedroom of our old house in Barnehurst. I seem to remember it being Jonathan Pearce so I assume it was on 1548 Capital Gold. I'd only ever been to one Charlton match before that; I think it was the season before at home to Grimsby the winter after Euro 96... So Charlton in the FA Premier League, the biggest league in the country of which me and my brother had been wearing the official clothes and pyjamas of for years from Marks and Spencer (the only frivolities of our childhood!), was huge. I essentially became a proper Charlton fan after that with the MESH shirts and going to more and more matches. Does that make me a glory hunter?
No! I had a white EURO 96 top from Marks with two navy blue stripes on the sleeve, and the EURO 96 logo in that horrible felt material like the Redbus logo was in. I still had it up until a few years ago. Do you remember how all football tops used to be really scratchy and itchy and affordable then?
No! I had a white EURO 96 top from Marks with two navy blue stripes on the sleeve, and the EURO 96 logo in that horrible felt material like the Redbus logo was in. I still had it up until a few years ago. Do you remember how all football tops used to be really scratchy and itchy and affordable then?
Utterly draining - very strangely subdued waiting for the tube afterwards. I think that was partly because we were mixed with the Sunderland fans and we realised the shoe could so easily have been on the other foot so it seemed inappropriate to be too smug. All very surreal and weird. Soon snapped out of it back in The POW in Blackheath though!
