Where it all started...and groundhopping landmarks since...

Tottenham Hotspur 0 v 1 Charlton Athletic (Campbell 83). 

Football League Division One. Sunday 13th December 1987. White Hart Lane. Att: 20,393.

This was the day that ignited my passion for football. At the time, I had next to no interest in football, like my parents, and the only reason I went to this game was that my friends were going on this school trip.

On the way to White Hart Lane I said that whoever won that day, I would support for the rest of my life...and against the odds, with Terry Venables recently appointed as manager of Spurs and Charlton struggling at the foot of the table, it was the Addicks who prevailed, thanks to a controversial late goal.

Tottenham: Tony Parks, Chris Hughton, Mitchell Thomas, Vinny Samways, Chris Fairclough, Gary Mabbutt, Clive Allen, Paul Allen, Chris Waddle, Gary Stevens, Nico Claesen. Unused subs: Statham, Moncur. Manager: Terry Venables

Charlton: Bob Bolder, John Humphrey, Mark Reid, Steve Gritt, Peter Shirtliff, Steve Thompson, Andy Peake, David Campbell, Paul Williams, Andrew Jones, Paul Mortimer. Unused subs: Mark Stuart, Steve Mackenzie. Manager: Lennie Lawrence

Referee: Ray Lewis (Great Bookham, Surrey).

Short video highlights can be viewed by clicking here


First time watching Charlton at "home"

Charlton Athletic 1 (Reid penalty) v Wimbledon 1 (Gibson)

Football League Division One. Saturday 13th February 1988. Selhurst Park. Att: 20,393.

This was another school trip (fortunately, our Maths teacher was a passionate football fan, never shy of showing his love of all things Norwich City in his classroom but who arranged football outings for his classes), and by now I was taking advantage of every opportunity to attend football matches.

Charlton:  Bob Bolder, Steve Thompson, Mark Reid, John Humphrey, Peter Shirtliff, Mark Stuart, Steve MacKenzie, Paul Mortimer (Paul Williams 46), David Campbell, Rob Lee (Garth Crooks 46), Andrew Jones. Manager: Lennie Lawrence

Wimbledon: Dave Beasant , Clive Goodyear, Brian Gayle, Andy Thorn, Terry Phelan, Lawrie Sanchez, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise (Andrew Clement 46), Terry Gibson, Alan Cork, John Fashanu. Manager: Bobby Gould

First visit to a non-league ground

Bitten by the football bug, after my Maths teacher moved on and school trips were no longer organised, I started pestering my father to take me to games, and occasionally he relented and took me to a game, among them was this game...

Hastings Town 2 (Wayne Peacock, Stuart Dunbar) v 6 Coventry City (Brian Kilcline (pen), Dougie McGuire, David Speedie, Micky Gynn, Keith Thompson and Steve Livingstone)
Testimonial match, Wednesday 26th July 1989. Pilot Field. Att: ?

First groundhop on my own

Tonbridge 1 (Baber 41) v Yeovil Town 2 (Spencer 3, Shail 13). 
FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round. Saturday 26th October 1991. Longmead Stadium. Att: 1,483.

Getting tired of having to pester my very reluctant father, who I no longer lived with, to take me to games, I then started to make my own way to local games, starting with this game...

Tonbridge: Billy Thompson, Garry Wallace, Andy Bower, Lloyd Hume, Wayne Finch, Alan Baber, Roly Graham, Steve Clark, Lee Thompson, Ian Mawson, Paul Collins.

Yeovil Town: David Fry, Steve Harrower, Paul Batty, Mark Shail, Steve Rutter, Robbie Carroll, Brian McDermott, Robbie Carroll, Paul Wilson, Mickey Spencer, Peter Conning

Subs: Liam Dixon, Mark Boulton

Substitutes Used: Liam Dixon for Mark Shail

First time watching Charlton at The Valley

It was almost two years after Charlton returned to The Valley before I finally watched the Addicks in a proper home match, partly due to the limited capacity making tickets quite hard to come by. 

Charlton Athletic 1 (Whyte 13) v Swindon Town 0. 

Football League Division One (Second tier). Saturday 17th September 1994. The Valley. Att: 9,794.

Charlton: Andy Petterson, Steve Brown, Paul Sturgess, Keith Jones, Phil Chapple, Stuart Balmer, Shaun Newton, Garry Nelson, Colin Walsh, David Whyte (Alan Pardew 87), Mark Robson (Carl Leaburn 69). Managers: Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt

Swindon: Fraser Digby, Mark Robinson, Paul Bodin, Andy Thomson, Luc Nijholt, Shaun Taylor (Brian Kilcline 58), Wayne O'Sullivan (Austin Berkley 69), Keith Scott, Jan Åge Fjørtoft, Martin Ling, Kevin Horlock. Manager: John Gorman

Match highlights can be viewed by clicking here

First time watching an overseas club

In the early nineties, I very much wanted to take the opportunity of taking in my first taste of watching clubs from overseas, and the much derided Intertoto competition - derided as much by the participating clubs as anyone else - at least gave me a good way to take in some international football, being played relatively locally to me.

Tottenham Hotspur 0 v FC Luzern 2 (Campbell 83). 
Football League Division One. Saturday 24th June 1995. Goldstone Ground. Att: 2,497.

Tottenham: Chris Day, Mark Newson, Owen Coll, Ian Sampson, Jamie Clapham, Alan Pardew, David Byrne (Simon Spencer 83) Gerry McMahon, Kevin Watson, Steve Slade, John Hendry (Simon Wormull 74)
Manager: Gerry Francis
FC Luzern: Beat Mutter Pavel Karpf 46), Herbert Baumann, Stefan Wolf, Manfred Joller, Peter Gmür, Thomas Wyss, Johnson Bwalya, Maurizio Melina (Oliver Camenzind 64), Petar Aleksandrov, Agent Sawu, Martin Fink
Manager Jean-Paul Brigger

First match watched outside of England:

Studying at university in Wales provided a good opportunity to take in plenty of Welsh football, starting with this match at Park Avenue....

Aberystwyth Town 1 v Cwmbran Town 1  

League of Wales. Wednesday 1st November 1995. Park Avenue. Att: ?

First match watched overseas:

My university studies also provided me with the opportunity to take in plenty of games in Germany, across the state of Thuringia to be precise, starting with this third tier game.

Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1 (Ronny Hebestreit 37) v FC Chemnitz 0  

Regionalliga Nordost. Sunday 12th October 1997. Steigerwaldstadion. Att: 1,560.

Erfurt: Steffen Kraus, Jens Große, Heiko Nowak, Nico Scheller, Michael Schmidt, André Tews, Dimitrije Dimitrijevic, Christian Ertmer (Samuel Ebi Taubmann 64), Ronny Hebestreit, Nico Heinrich (Piet Schönberg 57), Steffen Knäbe (Recardo Egel 59)

Manager Jürgen Raab

Chemnitz: Steffen Süßner, Torsten Bittermann, Ivica Gvozden, Jano Hennig, Ingo Hertzsch, Thomas Laudeley, Hendrik Liebers, Jörg Schmidt, Alexander Tetzner, Mirko Ullmann, Amir Osmanovic (Frank Bauer 80)
Manager Christoph Franke
Referee: Joachim Haack

First international match watched

From a distance, living in  mid Wales also offered the opportunity to pay a visit to Anfield, where the Welsh national team were playing during the construction of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Wales 0 v Denmark 2 (Jon Dahl Tomasson 84, Stig Tøfting 89)
Euro 2000 Qualifying, Wednesday 9th June 1999. Anfield. Att: 10,956

Wales: Jones, Jenkins, Barnard, Robinson, Melville, Coleman, Speed, Saunders, Hartson, Hughes, Giggs. Subs: Symons, Legg, Pembridge, Bellamy, Page, Williams, Crossley.

Denmark: Schmeichel, Colding, Henriksen, Hogh, Heintze, Goldbaek, Nielsen, Gronkjaer, Molnar, Joergensen, Sand. Subs: Olsen, Nielson, Frandsen, Toefting, Sorensen, Tomasson, Frederiksen.

Referee: Amande Ancion (Belgium)

Match highlights can be viewed by clicking here

First England match

England 3 (Wright-Phillips 11, Rooney 32, Rahn 33 og) v Estonia 0
Euro 2008 Qualifying, Saturday 13th October 2007. Wembley Stadium. Att: 86,655.

England: Robinson, Richards, Campbell, Ferdinand (Lescott 46), Ashley Cole (Neville 49), Wright-Phillips, Gerrard, Barry, Joe Cole, Rooney, Owen (Lampard 70).
Subs Not Used: James, Bentley, Crouch, Defoe.

Estonia: Poom, Kruglov, Stepanov, Piiroja, Jaager, Rahn, Klavan, Dmitrijev, Lindpere, Kink (Viikmae 62), Saag.
Subs Not Used: Aksalu, Allas, Reim, Rooba, Barengrub, Terehhov.
Booked: Rahn, Lindpere.
Referee: Nicolai Vollquartz (Denmark).

Video highlights of this match can be found by clicking here.



First time seeing 10 goals in a (senior) match

Newhaven 10-0 East Preston 

Lee Robinson 13, 17, 46, Ebou Jallow (pen) 38, Joe Dryer 38, 56, 64, 73, Craig Bunch 50, Callum Connor 87
Southern Combination League Premier Division, Saturday 7th November 2015, Fort Road, Att: 64

Newhaven: Jake Buss, Conor Sidwell, Scott Dartnall, Jayson Sowter (Chris Geer), Ryan Knight, Adam Kneller, Lee Robinson (Callum Connor), James Rhodes, Ebou Jallow, Craig Bunch (Ryan Walton), Joe Dryer. Unused subs: Scott Edwards, Olly Davies.
Booked: None

My blog report on this match can be viewed by clicking here.

Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here.

Highest scoring game

Eastbourne Town 10 v 2 East Preston
Eastbourne scorers :Crabb 5, 15, 16, Capon 26, 36, Pogue 43, Derby 45, Tate 59, 90, Camara 85,
East Preston scorers: Harding 32, 72 (pen)
Southern Combination League Premier Division, Tuesday 16th February 2016, The Saffrons, Att: 112

Highest run of goals - 30 in three games
07.11.15 Newhaven 10 v 0 East Preston Southern Combination League Premier Division
10.11.15 Hailsham Town 1 v 8 Lewes Sussex Senior Cup Second Round
14.11.15 Edgware Town 9 v 2 Brimsdown Spartan South Midlands League Division One

Streak of fewest goals - 1 goal in four games

26.10.02 Hastings United 0-0 Kettering Town FA Cup 4th Qualifying Rnd
02.11.02 Cambridge United 1-0 Swansea City League Division 3
09.11.02 Woking 0-0 Barnet Nationwide Conference
21.12.02 Welling United 0-0 Dover Athletic Doc Martens Premier