Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic Football Club (also known as The Addicks) is a professional association football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. Charlton was founded on 9 June 1905.

Charlton Athletic Football Club (also known as The Addicks) is a professional association football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. Charlton was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the South-East London area, including both East Street Mission and Blundell Mission, combined to form Charlton Athletic Football Club.

The club is based at The Valley, where it has played at since 1919, apart from one year in Catford, during 1923–24, and seven years at Crystal Palace and West Ham United between 1985 and 1992.

Charlton turned professional in 1920 and first entered the Football League in 1921. Since then, it has had four separate periods in the top flight of English football; between 1936 and 1957; 1986 and 1990; 1998 and 1999, and 2000 to 2007. Historically, Charlton's most successful period was the 1930s, when the club's highest league finishes were recorded, and the 1940s, when the club reached the FA Cup final twice, winning in 1947.

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History

Charlton Athletic were formed on 9 June 1905 by a group of 15 to 17 year old boys in an area of Charlton which is no longer residential, near where the Thames Barrier is now. In the club's early years of existence, its progress was hampered by the nearby presence of Woolwich Arsenal F.C. (now Arsenal), which was one of the largest clubs in the country, and Charlton spent the years preceding the war playing in local leagues. Woolwich Arsenal's move to North London in 1913 gave Charlton an opportunity to develop, and they became a senior side by joining the Lewisham League. After the First World War, they joined the Kent League for one season (1919–20) and then becoming professional, appointing Walter Rayner as the first full time manager. They were accepted by the Southern League and played just a single season (1920–21) before being voted into the Football League. The club's first Football League match was against Exeter City in August 1921, which was won 1–0. In 1923 it was proposed that Charlton merged with Catford Southend to create a larger team with bigger support. In the 1923–24 season Charlton played in Catford at The Mount stadium and wore the colours of 'The Enders', light and dark blue vertical stripes. However, the move fell through and the Addicks returned to the Charlton area in 1924, returning to the traditional red and white colours in the process. Charlton finished second bottom in the Football League in 1926 and was forced to apply for re-election which was successful. Three years later the Addicks won the Division Three championship in 1929 and they remained at the Division Two level for four years. After relegation, Jimmy Seed was appointed as manager and three years into Seed's reign, the Addicks had gained successive promotions from the Third Division to the First Division in 1936.

In 1937, Charlton finished runners up in the First Division, in 1938 finished fourth and 1939 finished third. They were the most consistent team in the top flight of English football over the three seasons immediately before World War II. This continued during the war years and they won the "war" cup and appeared in finals. They remained in the First Division, and were finalists in the 1946 FA Cup, but lost to 4–1 to Derby after extra time. The Addicks made amends when the reached the FA Cup final again in 1947. This time they beat Burnley 1–0, Chris Duffy scoring the only goal of the day. In this period of renewed football attendances, Charlton became one of only eleven English football teams to average over 40,000 as their attendance during a full season. The Valley was the largest football ground in the League, drawing crowds in excess of 70,000. However, in the 1950s little investment was made either for players or to The Valley, hampering the club's growth. In 1956, the then board undermined Jimmy Seed, and Charlton were relegated the following year.

From the late 1950s until the early 1970s, Charlton remained a mainstay of the Second Division. Relegation to the Third Division in 1972 caused the team's support to drop, and even a promotion in 1975 back to the second division did little to re-invigorate the team's support and finances. In 1979–80 Charlton were relegated again to the Third Division, but won immediate promotion back to the Second Division in 1980–81. Even though it did not feel like it, this was a turning point in the club's history leading to a period of turbulence and change including further promotion and exile. A change in management and shortly after a change in club ownership led to severe problems, such as the reckless signing of former European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen, and the club looked like it would go out of business. In 1984 financial matters came to a head and the club went into administration, to be reformed as Charlton Athletic (1984) Ltd. But the club's finances were still far from secure, and they were forced to leave the Valley just after the start of the 1985-86 season after its safety was criticised by Football League officials. The club began to groundshare with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and this arrangement looked to be for the long-term, as Charlton did not have enough funds to revamp the Valley to meet safety requirements.

Despite the move away from the Valley, Charlton were promoted to the First Division as Second Division runners-up at the end of 1985–86, and remained at this level for four years (achieving a highest league finish of 14th) often with late escapes, most notably against Leeds in 1987, where the Addicks triumphed in extra-time of the play-off final replay to secure their top flight place. In 1987 Charlton also returned to Wembley for the first time since the 1947 FA Cup final for the Full Members Cup final against Blackburn. Eventually, however, the Addicks fell to relegation in 1990. Manager Lennie Lawrence moved to Middlesbrough in 1991 and was replaced by rookie joint managers Steve Gritt and 34-year-old Alan Curbishley. The pair had unexpected success in their first season finishing just outside the play-offs, and 1992–93 began promisingly and Charlton looked good bets for promotion. However, the club was forced to sell players such as Rob Lee to secure a return to The Valley, which eventually happened in December 1992. Less than three years later, however, new chairman Richard Murray appointed Curbishley as sole manager of Charlton.

Under his sole leadership Charlton made an appearance in the playoffs in 1996 but were eliminated by Crystal Palace in the semi-finals and the following season brought a disappointing 15th place finish. 1997–98 was Charlton's best season for years. They reached the Division One playoff final and battled against Sunderland in a thrilling game with ended with a 4–4 draw after extra time. Charlton won 7–6 on penalties, with the match described as "one of the finest games ever seen at Wembley", and were promoted to the Premier League. Charlton's first Premiership campaign began promisingly but they were unable to keep up their good form and were soon battling relegation. The battle was lost on the final day of the season but the club's board kept faith in Curbishley, confident that they could bounce back. And Curbishley rewarded the chairman's loyalty with the Division One title in 2000 which signalled a return to the Premiership. After the club's return, Curbishley proved an astute spender and by 2003 he had succeeded in establishing Charlton in the top flight. In the 2003–04 season, Charlton spent much of the campaign challenging for a Champions League place, but a late-season slump in form, combined with the sale of star player Scott Parker to Chelsea, left Charlton in 7th place, which was still the club's highest finish since the 1950s. However, Charlton failed to build on this achievement and Curbishley left two years afterwards in 2006, after 15 years as manager.

In May 2006, Iain Dowie was named as Curbishley's successor, but was sacked after twelve league matches in November 2006, with only two wins. Les Reed replaced Dowie as manager, however he too failed to improve Charlton's position in the league table and on Christmas Eve 2006, Reed was replaced by former player Alan Pardew. Despite an improvement in fortunes, Pardew was unable to keep Charlton up and relegation was confirmed in the penultimate match of the season. Shortly afterwards the Addicks were linked with a foreign takeover, but this was swiftly denied by the club. More recently, on October 10, 2008 Charlton received an indicative offer for the club from a Dubai-based diversified investment company. However, the deal later fell through.

On November 22, 2008 Charlton suffered a 5-2 loss to Sheffield United at home, which meant that the club had gone eight successive games without a win and had slipped into the relegation zone. Later that day Alan Pardew left Charlton by mutual consent. Matters did not improve under caretaker manager Phil Parkinson, and a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United saw the Addicks four points adrift at the bottom of the Championship as 2009 dawned, under threat of their first relegation English football's third tier for 29 years.

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Supporters

The bulk of the club's support base comes from the London Boroughs of Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley and also north-west Kent. Charlton are rare among football clubs, in that they reserve a seat on their directors' board for a supporter. Any season ticket holder can put themselves forward for election, with a certain number of nominations, and votes are cast by all season ticket holders over the age of 18. The current director is Ben Hayes, who was elected in 2006 and will last until 2008. The role is, however, set to be discontinued as a result of legal issues and replaced by a fans forum. Charlton's most common nickname is The Addicks. Among the theories on the origin of the Addicks name are that it was the south-east London pronunciation of either 'addict' or 'athletic'. However, the most likely origin of name is from a local fishmonger, Arthur 'Ikey' Bryan, who rewarded the team with meals of haddock and chips.

The progression of the nickname can be seen in the book The Addicks Cartoons: An Affectionate Look into the Early History of Charlton Athletic, which covers the pre-First World War history of Charlton through a narrative based on 56 cartoons which appeared in the now defunct Kentish Independent. The very first cartoon, from 31 October 1908, calls the team the Haddocks. By 1910, the name had changed to Addicks although it also appeared as Haddick. The club has had two other nicknames, the Robins, adopted in 1931, and the Valiants, chosen in a fan competition in the 1960s which also led to the adoption of the sword badge which is still in use. The Addicks nickname never went away and was revived by fans after the club lost its Valley home in 1985 and went into exile at Crystal Palace. It is now once again the official nickname of the club.

The fans' favourite chant is entitled "Valley, Floyd Road" (Floyd Road being the address of the stadium) and is sung to the tune of Paul McCartney's "Mull of Kintyre". The team run out to "The Red, Red Robin" and the version played is one by the Billy Cotton band first recorded in the 1950s. A number of versions have been recorded, however this version is now well established.

Records

Goalkeeper Sam Bartramis Charlton's record appearance maker, having played a total of 623 times between 1934 and 1956. But for six years lost to World War II, when no league football was played, this tally would be far higher.Keith Peacock is the club's second highest appearance maker with 591 games between 1961 and 1979. Charlton's record goalscorer is Derek Hales, who scored 168 times in all competitions in 368 matches, during two spells, for the club. Counting only league goals, Stuart Leary is the club's record scorer with 153 goals between 1951 and 1962. The record number of goals scored in one season is 33, scored by Ralph Allen in the 1934–35 season. Charlton's record home attendance is 75,031 which was set on 12 February 1938 for an FA Cup match against Aston Villa. The record all-seated attendance is 27,111, The Valley's current capacity. This record was first set in September 2005 in a Premier League match against Chelsea and has since been equalled several times.