Ten Years Ago: record crowd delays kick off

The kick off the match against Notts County (now in the bottom division of the Football League) on 4th March 1995 was delayed for fifteen minutes because of the record crowd (13,868), prices having been slashed to a bargain level.

Not everyone was happy about the special promotion. Chris Parkes had to answer a series of moans in the programme, one of which was 'How can I concentrate on watching football with all those kids screaming and moving about?' His response was, 'We are trying to capture that generation of support we had lost whilst in exile at Selhurst Park and Upton Park. These kids are our life blood.'

My notes on the match recall, 'Charlton had to battle agaisnt Notts County, and Salmon made some excellent saves, but Mortimer put us 1-0 up [on 31 minutes], a lead we were able to retain.' Salmon was elbowed by a County sub just after he came on.

The programme included an interview with 'Sweaty' Balmer, who was said to have 'forged a solid partnership with young Richard Rufus.' Balmer commented on Rufus, 'He has good pace and is an aggressive tackler.'

For some reason there were no trains from Charlton Station after the match. With no North Greenwich tube in those days, I walked up the hill and got a 53 bus to Trafalgar Square, re-living a journey of my youth.