Football Away Days: Charlton Athletic and The Valley

Back this past December I had the most serious of ankle breaks, not only has it been a real inconvenience that means I am now 3% Robocop, but it also meant that I'd gone almost four months without embracing the unique experience of live football. However, last month I got back on the horse starting with a local visit to Bristol Rovers, to witness their resurgence under Steve Evans, and now I've got our latest football away day on the board.

Originally, the plan was to visit Luton Town and the unique setting of Kenilworth Road, but after they made the most of their reprieve in the Football League Trophy and reached the final (going on to win it under the guidance of Jack Wilshere), a new destination was needed for our agreed weekend. This led us to (south) east London and the historic home of Charlton Athletic at The Valley, as we knocked off another ground in our unlikely quest to join 'The 92 Club'.

For many football fans of my vintage, they will remember Charlton for their era under Alan Curbishley and the two promotions to the Premier League that he achieved, with the latter one seeing The Addicks become part of the top flight establishment between 2000 and 2007. However, the past twenty years has been a case of several ups and downs as they've yo-yoed between the Championship and League One without ever really threatening a return to the top tier. Last season was one of the highs as the club escaped League One, via the play-offs, after spending five years in the division, and this campaign has predictably seen Nathan Jones priority to be a case of consolidating that promotion.

That being said, if you look back to the mid-eighties, it's remarkable to see The Valley in the flesh today when you consider that the stadium was abandoned between 1985 and 1992 (stop around the 23:30 mark on the video linked above, and the scene from where we sat was surreally different thirty-eight plus years ago). At the start of the eighties the club was in serious financial trouble and in 1984 the club were taken control of by a consortium of supporters, but with the ground still under the ownership of the previous regime they lacked the money to implement the upgrades needed to satisfy safety regulations. The result ended up being that Charlton entered into a groundshare agreement with Crystal Palace and began playing at Selhurst Park.

With the emergence of the chairman Roger Alwen, the club regained ownership of The Valley in 1988, but it would take another three years of fighting with the Greenwich Council before Charlton would finally get the go ahead to redevelop the ground. The impetus being the remarkable scheme where supporters created the 'Valley Party' to contest the local elections of 1990, when they secured 14,838 votes and were the fourth largest party. Eventually, on December 5th 1992, The Addicks were back at their spiritual home when they kicked-off against Portsmouth.

Moving on from this fascinating past, our visit to watch Charlton Athletic saw them welcome mid-table Preston North End (PNE), whilst the hosts still feared immediate relegation back down to League One. Travelling to the ground took a bit more planning than usual, as once we were at Paddington Station we still faced a trip on the tube, via the spectacle of Canary Wharf, and then a bus from North Greenwich (with a glimpse of the Millenium Dome/O2 along the way). On the plus side, the bus ride dropped us off within a five minute stroll of the stadium, up Ransom Walk and through a pair of railway arches, through which The Valley emerged in all its glory.

Sadly, there wasn't time to navigate our way to the nearest pub, The Royal Oak, and so we settled on a pint of cider after I secured my programme and we had navigated our way to the Alan Curbishley stand. Inside the ground, we made our way down to the third row from the pitch edge and basked in the occasional sun when it could get past the clouds. It should be noted that PNE brought with them an impressive number of away fans, with their contingent filling the vast majority of the Jimmy Seed stand off to our left. A number of them were dressed up with bowler hats, and it's only in writing this up that I learnt about the annual Preston tradition of 'Gentry Day', to remember fans no longer with us.

Charlton started the game in a confident mood and hit the post in only the fourth minute. An inswinging, right-footed cross from Tyreece Campbell on the left, was met by Joe Rankin-Costello and his targeted downward header looked destined for the goal, before bouncing back up from the left hand post and into the grateful arms of the Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen. However, Rankin-Costello was not to be denied and in the eighteenth minute he gave the hosts the lead. A long throw-in from the right came into the penalty area and was nodded on by the defender, only to drop perfectly at the feet of the onrushing Charlton midfielder who seamlessly swept it in from eight yards.

Two minutes later and Campbell was again involved, drifting in from the left he cut inside the box and forced a save with a low, curling effort. Despite the fast start by Charlton, PNE had also threatened, and the lead for the home side only lasted seven minutes before the visitors struck back through a looping heading into the top left corner by Lewis Dobbin. The goal was simple, quick and excellently executed, thanks to a great, deep cross from Brad Potts into the centre of the six yard line, one that stemmed from his throw-in and the ball immediately being laid off for his first time pass.

Preston continued to probe for the rest of the first half, but after an eventful first half-hour both sides seemed happy to reach half-time at 1-1. At which point I caught up with my two friends and found that they were sampling the food on offer around the back of the stand. One went for a portion of southern fried chicken and skinny chips, which came in around £12 but was well received, meanwhile the other went for a very reasonably priced hot dog and onions (about £6-7). In hindsight I should have gone for the dog too, rather than the £8.50 I splurged on a surprisingly bland double-cheeseburger from the van near the club shop.

With the second half in full swing, Preston carried more of a threat than the hosts and came close to taking the lead when Daniel Jebbison got onto the end of a low cross to the near post and saw his finish flash past the post. Charlton did not heed the warning though and soon after, in the sixty-fifth minute, the visitors took the lead. It came from a home attack that broke down on the edge of the Preston box and became a scintillating counter-attack that saw the Charlton defence facing a three on two deficit driven by a surging run from Dobbin. His lay-off to a flying Brad Potts, to his right, was hit first-time past Will Mannion, into the opposite corner, from twelve yards out, as two Charlton defenders converged on him; the whole move took barely ten seconds.

The remainder of the game saw both sides huffing and puffing, as Charlton pushed for an equaliser and Preston looked to exploit the counter-attack again. However, the closest either team got to adding to the scoreline was the hosts, when the on-loan Jayden Fevrier managed to dribble between two players on the left and found his way into the penalty area. His low pass across the six-yard box rocketed off of an attempted clearance and Iversen prevented a calamitous own-goal with his chest, before the ball ricocheted away.

Aside from this clear chance, Charlton and Preston lacked the clinical edge to add any more drama, with misplaced passes or tame efforts on goal being the result. On reflection, PNE just about deserved the win, but it was a shame that Charlton were unable to take more advantage of that opening quarter of the game when they were on top.

Still, in the subsequent few weeks since our visit to The Valley, The Addicks have just about done enough to cement their promotion from last season and to keep themselves in the Championship for the 2026/27 campaign. Nathan Jones will hope to build towards Charlton looking further up the table and the avoidance of another relegation fight. Meanwhile, as we travelled back across London towards our train home, we were satisfied with crossing off a ground steeped in history that had fought back from the brink of destruction, thanks to people power and a refusal to accept no for an answer.