Celebration was due even before Wembley final

This article was first published in what turned out to be the final issue of the South London Press on Friday, May 23rd - two days before the Addicks went to Wembley for the League One play-off final. 

Some people were on the pitch, but none of them thought it was all over.
When the final whistle blew at the end of last Thursday’s noisy, anxious, ugly play-off semi-final, Charlton fans climbed over the barriers from all four sides of The Valley. 

The celebrations were raucous, and perhaps to outsiders premature. A capacity crowd had just seen Charlon squeeze past Wycombe Wanderers to secure a place against Leyton Orient at Wembley on Sunday and a one-off shot at promotion back to the Championship.

That is the least the hyperactive Nathan Jones and his players deserve for a season which developed extraordinarily from December onwards. The transformation was as unexpected as it was remarkable, as if a sudden moment of inspiration had allowed the Addicks boss to complete a perplexing puzzle of selection and tactics.

These have been a memorable and highly enjoyable five months for Charlton supporters.

But the bigger question, which can only be provisionally answered this weekend, is whether the long misery of watching the Addicks over the last decade, or even since 2006 when Alan Curbishley quit as manager in the Premier League, is finally ending.

Jones recently referred to media-darling promotion rivals Wrexham as a “circus”, a jibe the Welsh club’s fans joyfully embraced by taunting the Addicks manager with it when the teams met at the Racecourse Ground. However, Charlton supporters know all too well that it is their club which has been a circus since at least 2014, and one where clowns have often held centre stage.

That is the only explanation required for the fact that the Addicks have spent the last five seasons, and eight of the last nine, in the third tier - the club’s worst performance since the 1920s, when it had only just joined the Football League.

The fact that the sell-out home support on Thursday was five times that of the number who had turned out to cheer on Wycombe in the first leg demonstrates the extent of Charlton’s long-term ineptitude. 

Like most other League One clubs, the Chairboys have a decent history but nothing on the Addicks’ scale. That doesn’t count for much over 90 minutes, but it does play a major part over time in determining the size of a club’s fanbase and its spending power.

Charlton couldn’t compete this term with big spending Birmingham City and Wrexham, who took the top two places. They had no credible excuse for trailing in behind the likes of Northampton Town, Exeter City and Stevenage 12 months ago.

The home turnout at The Valley last Thursday, and in previous weeks, tells a happier story. It showed the enduring resilience of the club’s support and the opportunity for the latest ownership, a significant contingent of whom were present to witness it all for themselves.

So too were Curbishley, Lee Bowyer and Lennie Lawrence, the three managers to have overseen successful play-off campaigns, and a host of other heroes from the last 40 years. The 80-year Keith Peacock, the once and forever skipper, was there. So was Patrick Bauer, who scored the stoppage time Wembley winner in 2019. There was Colin Walsh, who scored the first goal back at The Valley in 1992, and another ex-manager Johnnie Jackson, now Wimbledon boss and facing his own play-off challenge against Walsall next Monday.

This was an occasion to be cherished and also a night of hope, not just of success on Sunday but that something new and exciting can still be built on the foundations laid by those who took the club home and into the Premier League, and others long before that.

This may not be an exceptional Charlton team, in the mould of Chris Powell’s 2012 League One champions or even Lee Bowyer’s 2019 side. That makes reaching the play-off final even more of an achievement by the manager and the players themselves. 

But few could question the ability and sharp instincts of goal machine Matt Godden, or fail to notice the personal development of Tyreece Campbell, the threat posed to defenders by Thierry Small or the proud leadership of vice captain Lloyd Jones.

After the final whistle went last Thursday, I eventually clambered on to the Valley turf too. It is exactly 50 years since I did so on that memorable night in 1975 when Andy Nelson’s team secured the club’s first promotion since the Second World War. Then, as now, the Addicks had endured a long hangover since losing their long-term top-flight status 18 years earlier.

No Charlton side has clinched promotion at home since. This would be the third to do so at Wembley. The return of second-tier football to SE7 would be an important staging post in recovery, just as it was half a century ago, but as then not a conclusive moment in itself.

Still, and whether the team wins on Sunday or not, the club feels in better shape than it has in recent years. That is already something to celebrate.

Rick Everitt