Saturday 29th March 2025. EFL League 1. At The Valley. Charlton Athletic (2) 4 (Matty Godden 1, Tyreece Campbell 17, 53, Lee Nicholls 60 OG v Huddersfield Town (0) 0. Attendance: 17,278 inc. 1,589 away fans
Charlton Athletic: Mannion; Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey; Small, Berry (Anderson 73), Coventry (McIntyre 86), Docherty (c), Edwards (Watson 73); Godden (Aneke 73), Campbell (Dixon 73). Unused subs -Bouzanis, Gilbert
Huddersfield Town: Nicholls (c), Pearson, Marshall, Wiles, Spencer, Turton, Evans (Kasumu 62), Taylor (Koroma 62), Balker (Ruffels 62), Roosken (Chirewa 75), Hodge (Hogg 46). Unused subs - Chapman, Sorensen
Every Picture Tells A Story: And here (above) is a colourised (and slightly weathered) one that forms a part of the historical archives decor, that adorns the exterior of the West Stand at the Valley, Floyd Road, Charlton, SE7. It shows the South African born Stuart Leary, in action against this afternoon's opposition at the Valley in 1957, in what was to become a quite famous game, during which: Huddersfield Town became the only team, in the entire history of the Football League, to score six times in one match and still finish up as the losing side.
It took place on December 21st 1957, when the Terriers, who at the time were managed by some bloke called Bill Shankly, visited the Valley to take on Charlton Athletic in a Second Division (AKA The Championship in new money) fixture. Early in the game the Addicks captain, Derek Ufton, had to leave the field injured, meaning that back in the pre-substitute era, the hosts had to play the majority of the game with ten men.
Huddersfield made the most of their numerical advantage and were 1-5 ahead as the game entered the final thirty minutes. Johnny Summers had already scored what was beginning to look like a mere consolation goal for the home side. But incredibly, he embarked on a proper smash and grab raid, netting four more goals in quick succession and also settling up two more, for fellow striker Johnny ‘Buck’ Ryan.
The Yorkshiremen added a sixth to their total with six minutes to go, but Ryan’s second goal was a last minute winner, that claimed both points for Charlton (three points for a win wasn't introduced until 1981). Ironically, on the opening day of the 1957-58 season, the Addicks had taken a three goal lead at Leeds Road, before the Terriers fought back to claim a 3-3 draw.
Now, I know that there are a bunch of stats-hungry anoraks out there, who will be waiting on me to furnish this tale with a few more peripheral details of the whole days events, surrounding the aforementioned game of association football, so here goes: Charlton Athletic (0) 7 (Johnny Summers 47, 64, 73, 78, 81, Johnny ‘Buck’ Ryan 63, 89 v. Huddersfield Town (2) 6 (Les Massie 27, Alex Bain 35, 49, Bill McGarry 51 pen, Bob Ledger 62, Stan Howard 86. Attendance: 12,535. Referee: Ron Warnke.
I’m led to believe that terrace chanting wasn't commonplace until a decade later, which is a crying shame, because a hearty retort of: ‘The referee’s an anagram of wanker!’ would have been a complete blast. I’d imagine, that Charlton station would’ve been fairly busy shortly after Bob Ledger had netted the visitors fifth goal. Though one must wonder how many people would’ve ‘fessed up’ to having missed seven goals through being so pessimistic and impetuous.
That said, I’ve still yet to meet anyone who ever admitted to leaving the recent epic Addicks v Ipswich Town 4-4 draw early. Y’know the one: 29th October 2022. 2-2 at ‘full-time’, after the hosts had fought back from falling 0-2 behind (at which point their manager at the time, Ben Garner, was red carded). Then Ipswich scored stoppage time goals in the 91st and 94th minutes and subsequently took ages celebrating going 2-4 ahead and as a consequence even more time was tagged on to the end of the game.
During that added, added time, Charlton fought back twice (again) and netted in the 96th and 99th minutes, just after the person tweeting on behalf of the visitors had posted that they had actually won the game 2-4, whoops! If you look at the photos of those late, late goal celebrations, the crowd looked slightly sparse to say that 16,625 people were still supposedly at large inside the Valley.
Ed Sheeran had stayed put, but he would have done, because the bar in the executive box he was using to watch his beloved Ipswich Town was still open and apparently ‘Our Edward’ is a bit of a lad who enjoys a few beers.
Now, I know that there are a bunch of stats-hungry anoraks out there, who will be waiting on me to furnish them with a few more peripheral details of the whole days events, surrounding the aforementioned game of association football, but I’ve already spent enough time pandering to their needs for one day. So sling your hook(s) and get y’selves on Soccerway or Wikipedia.
Today's game then: I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite a while. In more recent times, Huddersfield have had a good history of decent results at the Valley and despite suffering a few ropey results of late, they got back to winning ways, spanking Crawley Town 5-1 fourteen days ago, at the John Smith’s Stadium, before having a sabbatical last weekend during the international break.
How Nathan Jones must have been wishing that his Addicks side could've had the day off too, instead of the off day they did have. As covered elsewhere on this (sometimes, almost) neutral Substack blog of mine, Charlton were turned over 3-0 at Peterborough United the last time they played, so today would be a good indicator of whether they have what it takes to bounce straight back, in a game against a strong visiting side, who are (apparently) also play-off contenders.
In the event, the Addicks intensity, relentless high tempo , urgency and efficiency to win each and every challenge out on the field of play this afternoon, made the Terriers look completely toothless and very ordinary indeed. I genuinely felt embarrassed for the 1,589 visiting supporters who’d made a round trip of over 400 miles to watch their team being given a football lesson today (we’ve all had days like this and know what a sickener they are). By the way, those travelling fans were a credit to their club today and a pleasure to spend a large part of the afternoon in the company of.
But football is a results based industry and sometimes you have to take the sentiment attached to the game out of the equation. Yet still one couldn't help but feel sympathy and empathy towards those who had made the effort to travel ‘many miles’. Although it’s a debatable whether some of their players didn't have the inclination to put a shift in, or if Charlton’s excellence made them look completely crap in comparison to their own exertions.
If the Addicks could have tapped in to this level of performance earlier in the season, they wouldn't have been playing catch-up with the three teams above them in League 1, as the season gallops towards the finishing line. They would’ve been right up there in amongst them, in the thick of things, at the very least. Of course, mathematically, there is an outside chance that Charlton could still catch Wycombe and Wrexham up (they still have to play both of them away from home later this month), but last week’s reversal might have thwarted that aim and put such a prize a whisker too far out of reach.
Straight from the get go, the hosts set about Huddersfield like a ravenous goal hungry pack. Just thirty seconds after the game kicked off the feast began. And by the time the game had reached it's conclusion, had become a sumptuous four-course banquet. We’d barely had time to take our seats, when the starter course arrived. Just thirty seconds in Radinio Balker miscued a clearance, allowing Thierry Small to deliver a cross into the visitors area, that Matty Godden powered past Lee Nicholls with a glancing header.
Charlton were rampant and wouldn't allow the Terriers to settle on the ball for a second, as they battled their way forward in pursuit of a second goal. And it duly arrived in the 17th minute, when Luke Berry intercepted another wayward clearance and headed the ball into the path of Tyreece Campbell, who dragged it forward past two retreating defenders before firing an angled shot across Nicholls just inside the far post.
Huddersfield continued to chase shadows until the interval, after which time you could be excused for wondering if the hosts might now choose to shut up shop and rest on their laurels. But, the Addicks were still greedy for more and right at the start of the second half both Campbell and Berry kept Nicholls busy as he struggled to keep the score down.
But Campbell was unplayable today, terrorising the Huddersfield defence from both flanks with his trickery… and he fired home a third on 53 minutes, which was quickly followed on the hour mark when Greg Docherty’s crashing shot rebounded off the bar onto Nicholls and ended up in the goal. To compound Nicholls’ frustration it was awarded as an own goal.
The Addicks kept the happy Valley crowd entertained with some quite scintillating football, passing and moving at will, while their lacklustre opponents looked on bamboozled. Alas the visitors didn't have a Johnny Summers type amongst their ranks and today was going to be remembered for Charlton’s dominance and not for any unlikely high-scoring comeback, like that encounter in days of yore.
“We’ve had the ball!” Sang the Huddersfield fans as the eightieth minute approached, a gallows humour moment from the hardcore who’d toughed it out until the bitter end. I felt their pain. Having been there, done that and got the cynical outlook on life, borne out of such miserable days out, travelling to support a team that hadn't warranted my loyalty, financial outlay and allegiance.
Hats off to Charlton today. They were superb in all departments and quite the opposite to everything they had (and hadn't) been the previous week. The last-minute headed backpass from Lloyd Jones was a moment of comedy gold to bring the curtain down on a riveting afternoon of entertainment. Full Time: Charlton Athletic 4 v Huddersfield Town 0
If anybody suspects that I am guilty of bigging Charlton up and over-exaggerating just how well they played today, might I politely suggest that you ask anyone who was present, of either denomination (or them there neutral types 😉), what happened here this afternoon, they’ll confirm that everything I’ve said is true.
And as if by magic, if you are wondering why there is a flag flying in my garden, it's to mark the very rare occasion, that even the LNER trains back ‘oop north on the ECML, were running and on time this afternoon.