a great online article on the Fulham website. Great photos. Tried to spot Rocky and RF in a couple of them but to no avail! http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2011/May/CottageHistoryPart1.aspx
You're a cheeky b you are craving. Great pictures aren't they. I've said this once before, so excuse me, but it made a deep impression on me: my son turned around a few matches ago and said "I know you used to come with your dad, but do you know if his dad used to support Fulham? I said I didn't know, but he probably got the idea from somewhere as they lived in the area. Because if he did, says the boy, and maybe his dad did too, our family may have been here from the start. Quite possible, I had to admit, and also informed him that my mum's side of the family were Fulham too. I know it's trivial family stuff, but it made me feel even more a part of it all.
It's not as old as this, but did anyone else notice the Cottage in the tv show Lord Sugar tackles football? They wanted a clip of pre-Premier era football, so they could talk about the shiny new all-seater stadiums that Sky's money ushered in, and they showed us attacking the old Putney Bridge terracing, I would guess it was late 80s/early 90s, but I couldn't identify any individual players or the opposition. Nice to see the old terraces though - I remember standing on the Hammersmith End looking at the weeds on the Putney Bridge terrace and wondering if there was another terrace that big in such a state anywhere else.
Did you ever go to the old Valley commodore? That was a massive structure, shabby yet atmospheric in its way.
I've never been much of one for away games at other London clubs, for some reason, Rocky. My Grandad was a Charlton fan and I remember being taken to the old Valley once as a child, but I can't say I remember much about the ground. If I recall, Paul Walsh hit what I'm told was one of the goals of the season and I missed it as I had got a bit bored and was looking elsewhere.
I never went when it was packed, only when it was largely empty, and ghostly it was, especially when you had seen the pictures after the war when it was chokka.
I remember my Grandad pointing out Charlton's record attendance in one of my football books when I was a kid - 75,031 in an FA Cup game against Villa in 1938 (I've just looked it up). He proudly told me that he was the '1'. I've always had a soft spot for Charlton because of him. I went to University in Scotland, when we were in the lower divisions and there was no internet. It was almost impossible for me to find out anything about Fulham's matches beyond scoreline and goalscorers, so he used to cut Fulham match reports out of the London papers and post them up to me. Not sure that any of this is relevant to anyone else, but it seemed an appropriate place to bring it up. He was a lovely old man.
Yep, Charlton are similar to Fulham in lots of ways, a friendly club with deep roots in the community, hence the fight to return to the Valley. I've understood that better since moving to this part of London, and my son participated in some of the local schemes organised by Charlton. When he started to become aware at about 6 and stopped supporting Man U I asked him if he'd like to go to football with me - I'd gotten out of the season ticket habit. He liked the idea so I said should it be a local team or Fulham? I'd obviously phrased the question with the right emphasis, and in any case he has a good heart (sorry, he's my boy you know) and he chose the whites, so we became season ticket holders. I'd have accepted Charlton as I respect the club, but you can imagine how chuffed I was. If he'd have suggested Crystal Palace we might have had to turn to fox hunting. Another Charlton-Fulham story as I drone on. I went to the game at the Valley when Charlton went up, the season before us I think, we lost 1-0 although Charlton fans said we were the best side they'd seen down there that year. On the way out, the police held us up for ages, as if it were Chelsea v Millwall. Being of a certain age even then (i.e. at least as old as them) I had a right go at one of the coppers who got on the train I was finally allowed to board. Trouble at a Charlton-Fulham game indeed - justifying their overtime more like.
Rocky, I think we're turning into those two old blokes in the corner of the pub who everybody else avoids for fear of another lengthy lecture about 'the good old days'. I think it's your turn to buy the pork scratchings. Not sure I get the fox hunting reference. My Dad's a Palace fan, by the way - most of London gets a look in somewhere or other in my family's footballing loyalties.
It's just that round here no one but Palace fans likes them. I remember when we played them in the lower divisions and you paid over-inflated prices for a rubbish view. You'll have to think about the joke, never explain one is what I've learned.
Cravin Not sure but the photo showing our C/F taking a shot,with the goalkeeper in the foreground was I believe Arther Rowley,if so I was standing bottom right corner, (not in photo) but I think taken in the early 1950s . Incedently it would be interesting to find out how far back family connections at the Cottage goes. May have mentioned this before but my maternal grandfather,Fred Griffiths,worked on,what is now the Johnny Haynes stand around the turn of the century.
