BY RICK EVERITT
Some folks have been on the pitch, however none of them thought it was throughout.
When the ultimate whistle blew on the finish of final Thursday’s noisy, anxious, ugly League One play-off semi-final, Charlton followers climbed over the boundaries from all 4 sides of The Valley.
The celebrations have been raucous, and maybe to outsiders felt untimely. A capability crowd had simply seen Charlon squeeze previous Wycombe Wanderers to safe a spot towards Leyton Orient at Wembley on Sunday and a one-off shot at promotion again to the Championship.
That’s the least the hyperactive Nathan Jones and his gamers deserve for a season which developed terribly from December onwards.
The transformation was as surprising because it was outstanding, as if a sudden second of inspiration had allowed the Addicks boss to finish a perplexing puzzle of choice and ways.
These have been a memorable and extremely fulfilling 5 months for Charlton supporters.
However the larger query, which might solely be provisionally answered this weekend, is whether or not the lengthy distress of watching the Addicks over the past decade, and even since 2006 when Alan Curbishley stop as supervisor within the Premier League, is lastly ending.
Jones not too long ago referred to media-darling promotion rivals Wrexham as a “circus”, a jibe the Welsh membership’s followers joyfully embraced by taunting the Addicks supervisor with it when the groups met on the Racecourse Floor.
Nevertheless, Charlton supporters know all too effectively that it’s their membership which has been a circus since no less than 2014, and one the place clowns have usually held centre stage.
That’s the solely clarification required for the truth that the Addicks have spent the final 5 seasons, and eight of the final 9, within the third tier – the membership’s worst efficiency because the Nineteen Twenties, when it had solely simply joined the Soccer League.
The truth that the sell-out dwelling help on Thursday was 5 occasions that of the quantity who had turned out to cheer on Wycombe within the first leg demonstrates the extent of Charlton’s long-term ineptitude.
Like most different League One golf equipment, the Chairboys have an honest historical past however nothing on the Addicks’ scale. That doesn’t depend for a lot over 90 minutes, but it surely does play a serious half over time in figuring out the scale of a membership’s fanbase and its spending energy.
Charlton couldn’t compete this time period with massive spending Birmingham Metropolis and Wrexham, who took the highest two locations.
That they had no credible excuse for trailing in behind the likes of Northampton City, Exeter Metropolis and Stevenage 12 months in the past.
The house turnout at The Valley final Thursday, and in earlier weeks, tells a happier story. It confirmed the enduring resilience of the membership’s help and the chance for the newest possession, a big contingent of whom have been current to witness all of it for themselves.
So too have been Curbishley, Lee Bowyer and Lennie Lawrence, the three managers to have overseen profitable play-off campaigns, and a bunch of different heroes from the final 40 years.
The 80-year Keith Peacock, the as soon as and eternally skipper, was there. So was Patrick Bauer, who scored the stoppage time Wembley winner in 2019. There was Colin Walsh, who scored the primary aim again at The Valley in 1992, and one other ex-manager Johnnie Jackson, now Wimbledon boss and dealing with his personal play-off problem towards Walsall on Monday.
This was an event to be cherished and in addition an evening of hope, not simply of success on Sunday however that one thing new and thrilling can nonetheless be constructed on the foundations laid by those that took the membership dwelling and into the Premier League, and others lengthy earlier than that.
This might not be an distinctive Charlton workforce, within the mould of Chris Powell’s 2012 League One champions and even Lee Bowyer’s 2019 facet. That makes reaching the play-off last much more of an achievement by the supervisor and the gamers themselves.
However few may query the flexibility and sharp instincts of aim machine Matt Godden, or fail to see the non-public growth of Tyreece Campbell, the menace posed to defenders by Thierry Small or the proud management of vice-captain Lloyd Jones.
After the ultimate whistle went final week, I finally clambered on to the Valley turf too. It’s precisely 50 years since I did so on that memorable evening in 1975 when Andy Nelson’s workforce secured the membership’s first promotion because the Second World Warfare. Then, as now, the Addicks had endured an extended hangover since dropping their long-term top-flight standing 18 years earlier.
No Charlton facet has clinched promotion at dwelling since. This is able to be the third to take action at Wembley. The return of second-tier soccer to SE7 can be an essential staging put up in restoration, simply because it was half a century in the past, however as then not a conclusive second in itself.
Nonetheless, and whether or not the workforce wins on Sunday or not, the membership feels in higher form than it has lately. That’s already one thing to have fun.
PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS
