I reckon we had about 12,000 Charlton fans there yesterday. Before the game I stood by the Bartram statue eating my customary pre match spam fritter and chips, and observed the Charlton fans around me. The vast majority were over 60, and similarly attired. They appeared to disembark en masse at around 1.30 from coaches that had borne them from deepest Kent. More shockingly, a group of them were rubber necking to see who got out of the cars in the car park...you were then greeted with the very 'odd' sight of seeing 60 something adults rushing up to get autographs and piccies (yes) with our flatulent, smug and complacent ex Board members. I say in all seriousness can we please drum this type of fan out of the Club. Greasy haired, breakfast on their chins, Kagool wearing weirdos. And so many of them. No wonder CP gets away with it.
You are being a bit unfair. They are the remnants of the highly successful marketing campaign of the valley express where we still feel it necessary to bus in all the whinging, sartorially challenged, Charlton lifers, who to be fair provide much needed revenue and spend all their pocket money on bovril and Chris Powell tartan blankets/diacalm gift sets. What really stood out for me yesterday was walking behind three middle age blokes (who you would not leave alone with your pets) walking along the Lower road, one said "come on, otherwise we will get caught at the level crossing by the late running 1.46 from Gillingham" I nearly went home there and then.
You want to drum them out because they are older than you? Or that they dress differently to you? Or because they are from Kent? I'd love to know how many of them rushed which ever ex board members you are talking about. You are likely to see the older fans of any club behind the main stand where it is more expensive and in general older people are likely to have more disposable income. When are you going to understand that the majority of Charlton fans support the manager? The Covered End Choir seemed to be declaring their support for Powell yesterday and few of them fit your description. I have very little time for the sycophantic attitudes of some of our fans to the previous regime nor for the current owners. I have more time for ordinary people from all sorts walks of life paying to come through the turnstiles. I imagine you would be offended by the look of me and mine, undeniably middle class, my mother in her seventies, in place of her husband, my father who is too infirm to come but has been a fan since the 40s when his father first brought him, my wife and my son a forth generation supporter. Not only that but we're from Surrey! The West Stand suits us because my mum can't stand easily any more and my boy is too short to see over a standing adult. Everybody enjoys their football and love the club. Sorry if we don't all conform to your identi-kit of a Charlton fan but we'll keep coming. The ground holds over 27000 and it used to rock when it was full. Not all of them were hardcore fans but if you want to get back there you'll have to accept a broad church. If you can't then get used to being a 2nd/3rd tier yoyo team, in which case why do insist on complaining about Powell who has at the very least already achieved that?
Vol, you appear to want to go back to the days when 5000 of us (on a good day) arrived at the old Valley to cheer on our 3rd division "stars". So I am amazed that you want Powell out as you tell us at every opportunity that , that is where he is leading us. Yes I do remember those days & I would rather have Championship football in a decent stadium & sit with a few "plastics". You need to make your mind up, do you want the "Faithful 5000" with crap football, in which case stop moaning, or do you want Championship with potential Premiership football now & again but possibly at a new ground at the Peninsular with a few plastics from Kent turning up ? . Your choice but please be consistent with what you want. You cant have a top club exclusive for the old guard true fans.
What I object too more than any other is the sanitisation of the valley. The place is a morgue. That is partly due the football we watch and the fans that want it to stay that way. Yesterday's atmosphere was awful. One bloke gets pissed up and is immediately thrown out. His crime, he tried to get some singing going. There us a compete sense of disproportion over Chris Powell. As far as I can tell the 'majority' of supporters that you talk about supporting Chris Powell do so for the wrong reasons, this club comes first, Powell is failing the club as a manager but as far as I can see, he is being kept in a job because of non footballing reasons. Nobody I know thinks he is a decent manager, nobody I know wants him to remain in his job. However, those people are reluctant to raise it as an issue because as my mate said "no doubt I will be singled out as some racist or right nutter" how comes Parky got it and Powell does not? Sentimentalism and political correctness seem to be the CV some fans look for, rather than the good of the club. I also take objection to not being able to smoke in some parts of the ground, sitting down, and getting served piss poor lager.
Out of interest how long do you have to be a season ticket holder before you accept a fan is a true fan, is it compulsory to attend half a dozen away matches per season as well & eat a healthy fritter before making your way to the covered end. Or can you go in a suit, sit in the West Stand, have a decent meal. and just attend 5/6 home games a season.
Yeah, was a bit of a confrontation at one point was expecting punches but it didn't... I did think it took the p!ss when they dragged him out 10 mins later after he was sat down and enjoying the game. And Smoking, although I don't smoke I do think there should be a small area somewhere, surely outside the E.Stand or by the stairs of the West Stand, not quite sure where in the N.stand though. I would love the ground to be converted like those in the Bundasliga where seats can be folded into the wall for standing but when needing to sit they can just be pulled out the wall. And can't stand lager so I don't need to worry about that.
in times when we are so skint, i'm surprised anyone is bringing up wanting rid of plastics. you think our football is sh1t now, wait till you see how we play with even less of a playing budget.
So in order to get the atmosphere back we should get rid of fans who are over a certain age and want to enjoy football in a different way to you? From what I understand the bloke who got kicked out was making up songs that nobody else knew and then trying to fight them when they didn't join in. I don't suppose political correctness even comes into it with regard support for Powell because the majority don't care what colour our manager is, the only people who seem to notice it are those who want him out. My reason for supporting him is that he won us promotion by a substantial margin and got us a ninth place finish when I'd have taken 21st last season, and is battling on with a weaker squad and that I'm not convinced that we'd get anyone better. I also am clear that the success under Curbishley came after a patient and loyal wait by fans and the club and some of the greatest successes in football have been achieved by giving the manager time. I personally supported to Parky wholeheartedly, by the way, I though he was unlucky to be replaced when he was. The sanitisation of the Valley, when did that happen? When we left it in the 80s, when we returned in 92? Did you complain then? What about when the Valley was rocking during the 1997-1998? Because a lot of Vol's Kagool wearers were there then. What about the League winning year that returned us to the Premiership in 2000? Was the Valley sanitised when Robbo brought us back to 3-3 against Man Utd or on Boxing Day when we buried Chelsea or when Lisbie scored the most unlikely hat-trick against Liverpool? Or has the atmosphere gone because we've got too few fans in the ground? The smoking thing is a red-herring it's the law; so's the sitting down. I don't know where you sit but if you go to the upper north you'll find other who want to and do stand throughout. The lager...really? Why shouldn't my 10 year old son and my 74 year old mum come to the Valley and be able to watch the game from a part of the ground where they can see the pitch all through the match? Or doesn't my family's four generations of support count as much because I'm more likely to drink bovril on Saturday afternoon than strong lager?
I don't entirely disagree with your argument about football for a fiver mate, but it will be picking us up some fans for the future and some MUCH NEEDED money. By the way Mike, you'll be able to identify me on the train back to Nigel-land with my family description just as I see you in your blue Tyson sweatshirt! #twitteraquaintances
Typical-I don't think you're happy unless you're rubbing someone up the wrong way. You may not like some of your fellow Charlton fans, but remember the wise words of our Dear Leader-"We're all in this together".
this is a one star thread. i've personally, welcomed seeing the oldies lately at the ground. i am albeit it shepherding my pregnant misses to the game and then from it. last thing i want to see is a bunch of skinheads with nothing do, fighting about singing songs. plastics pay the same as everyone else. i'm surprised @vol has even brung this up. you pay for the petrol in your car, i dont tell you where to drive when you do, so you shouldn't do the equivalent either
Hate to think what I am, season ticket holder but at uni and too poor to come down every week, yesterday's game was my first since Leeds and before Leeds I think it was Leicester ><
