Thursday 15 December 2011

Biggest away following since Old Trafford?

News that Fulham F A Cup ticket sales went through the 4000 mark yesterday with the first home game since they went on sale to come, suggests we might just sell our entire 7000 allocation. I am getting mine this morning if I get a chance en route to the City.

It has set me thinking about large Charlton followings away from home during the years. Invariably they have come in cup competitions and I immediately think of the Man U F A Cup 6th Round game in '94 when we took 10,500 up to the Theatre of Dreams. We lost 2-1 of course, a match I watched from my then home in Singapore. I believe we took c 6000 to Ashton Gate in the previous round.

Wembley aside in the Play Off Final, I remember the near 7000 we took to Palace the year they gave us the entire Arthur Waite in the Premier League and the circa 6000 at Ayresome Park in the latter rounds of the League Cup. London derbies saw some healthy Premier League followings but allocations were invariably limited to three or four thousand.

Could this be our largest away following in the capital? Did we take more to Arsenal in '69? There were plenty at the Battle of the Bridge in '88 but well shy of 7000.




7 comments:

  1. Whilst it is hard to verify I am certain that CAFC took between 15,000 and 20,000 to Arsenal in 1969 - I was there on the North Bank with several thousand other Charlton fans - Hence the song "We took the North Bank", which was popular for several sesaons thereafter. The gate, I seem to recall, was well over 50,000, and we were, at the time, on a magnificent high, having had several seasons of relegation battles in the old Division 2 prior to Eddie Firmani taking over as manager. We had previously beaten Palace 2-0 away in a Cup replay in front of 38,000 (having drawn at home in front of 30,000) and had just beaten Brian Clough's Derby County 2-0 in the league in front of 30,000 at the Valley in a top of the table clash. Those were heady times. In fact in all of my 50 seasons of watching Charlton that the was the most exciting by far. The team also boasted my all time favourite player - Alan Campbell.

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  2. didn't we lose 3-1 to ManU?

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  3. Didn't we lose 3-1 in that game? Schmeichel sent off just before half time. Hughes and the Kanchelskis scoring. Leaburn with a consolation.

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  4. thought we took a few thousand to the Riverise when we played Boro in the quarter finals of the Lague cup about 6 years ago?

    remember the 1/4 final at Old Trafford well - thought at half time we were going to do it - until the 47th minute when they scored....


    Pembury Addick

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  5. We took over 5000 with the club paying for train/coach and subsidising air travel for Operation Riverside and Operation Ewood filling away ends on both occasions. Lost both but still have the stubs and the boarding passes - very happy memories and hope a repeat not so far away in the future.

    Jon Kool

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  6. Funnily enough ,my mum had a clear out of my old stuff at her house and we stumble across the programme for the man utd qtr final game. Interesting to note that giggs was playing & on the penultimate page Beckham is listed as a squad player. Some of my strongest footy memories are from that game: cantona puffing his chest out - what seemed like inches away from us on the terrace - in response to some charlton baiting; the away end erupting at the red card & my friend's still got a scar on his hand when he fell over on the terrace at that moment, and the tremendous atmosphere we brought including an impromptu boogie on the terrace at half time. It was some day!

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  7. Funnily enough ,my mum had a clear out of my old stuff at her house and we stumble across the programme for the man utd qtr final game. Interesting to note that giggs was playing & on the penultimate page Beckham is listed as a squad player. Some of my strongest footy memories are from that game: cantona puffing his chest out - what seemed like inches away from us on the terrace - in response to some charlton baiting; the away end erupting at the red card & my friend's still got a scar on his hand when he fell over on the terrace at that moment, and the tremendous atmosphere we brought including an impromptu boogie on the terrace at half time. It was some day!

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