After taking over the management of a team which had finished bottom of Third Division (South) in 1932-33, Jimmy Seed’s immediate priority was to lift morale, halt the slide and begin a systematic re-building process. A satisfactory fifth place finish in 1933-34, only two points behind promoted Coventry City, represented a solid start but gave little warning of the record-breaking run of success which would catapult Charlton from the Third Division to the First Division within two stunning seasons.
A sobering 2-1 loss to Cardiff City kicked off the 1934-35 campaign but was quickly followed by five consecutive victories as The Addicks found their form. On October 27th, a 2-1 victory over Clapton Orient at The Valley announced the arrival of marksman Ralph Allen, who claimed both of the goals on his way to a club record of 32 league goals in 28 games. Allen’s brief Charlton career statistics featured 48 goals scored in only 54 games.
The Third Division championship was clinched with an eight-point margin over Reading, the prolific Allen receiving stout scoring support from Harold Hobbis (15), George Robinson (12) and Jimmy Wilkinson (10) as 103 league goals were rattled in. But it was the debuts of two players destined to become legendary Addicks, which added even more significance to the season.
A native of Simonside, Co. Durham, flame-haired goalkeeper Sam Bartram’s iconic status was established over 22 seasons with the club, during which he made 623 first team appearances, interrupted by World War Two. Seed and Bartram became synonomous with Charlton Athletic, their departures under vastly different circumstances in 1956 signalling the end of a rampaging era. Still revered as the most popular player ever to wear the famous red shirt (or green roll-neck in his case), Sam’s statue continues to guard the ground he helped to make famous.
Prematurely balding forward Don Welsh joined from Torquay United, quickly assumed the captaincy and served with distinction during Charlton’s most productive period. His major accomplishment was to lead the team to the first two post-war Cup finals. He also earned several England international caps, an honour which was scandalously denied his charismatic teammate.
Running Manchester United close (one point separated them) in the race for the 1935-36 Second Division title, the Addicks made triumphant work of their brief stay in the division, securing promotion to the First Division with a nervy 1-1 draw at Port Vale in their last league game. Scorer of the vital goal was ever-present left winger Hobbis, one of 23 he contributed during their barnstorming progress. Both Bartram and Welsh were by now regulars in the side.
Completely undaunted by their lofty surroundings, Charlton distinguished themselves in their inaugural season in the First Division with a second place finish to champions Manchester City. Disastrous defeats by Derby County (5-0) and Chelsea (3-0) in March meant they finished three points behind City but they had fared rather better than Manchester United, who were relegated back to Division Two. A worthy successor to Allen had been found, meanwhile, in George Tadman, who scored 11 times in 29 league games on his way to a three-season record of 47 goals in 87 games. He added three in six Cup ties and was bureacratically denied two more league goals in the aborted 1939-40 campaign.
Having set their standards so high, Charlton could be said to have gone backwards with a fourth place finish in 1937-38 but rallied to place third in the last completed season before the war. Their meteoric rise was the stuff of comic book fantasy and it’s a matter of conjecture where it might have led them but for the belligerent interruption of Hitler and his testicularly challenged henchmen.
Qualification for two Wartime Cup (South) finals at Wembley, the first lost 7-1 to Arsenal, the second a 3-1 victory over Chelsea, were harbingers of their historic appearances in the 1946 and 1947 peacetime finals. The first cup run featured, for the first and only time in the FA Cup, two-legged ties, during which Charlton became a quiztime teaser by becoming the only club to have lost a cup-tie but also to have reached the final; in the third round, they beat Fulham 3-1 at The Valley, before losing the second leg 2-1 at Craven Cottage. In an emotional first Cup final for seven years, they were outlasted by Derby County 4-1 after extra time, with Welsh international wing-half Bert Turner making history by scoring at both ends.
In 1947, the year it became personal for your author, Charlton proved to be the scourge of the North on their way back to Wembley. In successive rounds, they beat Rochdale (3-1), West Bromwich Albion (2-1), Blackburn Rovers (1-0) and Preston North End (2-1) before confronting moneybags Newcastle United ( with Jackie Milburn and Len Shackleton in their ranks) in a dramatic semi-final at Elland Road. With half the team stricken overnight by food poisoning, the heroic Addicks took the Tynesiders apart 4-0 with goals from Tommy Dawson, Welsh (2) and Gordon Hurst. In the 85th minute, their ecstatic supporters serenaded them with an impromptu rendition of the current hit song, which just happened to be “Give me five minutes more”. Two-goal Welsh later collapsed in the dressing room.
The 1947 Cup Final, played in blistering heat at Wembley on April 26th, suffered in comparison. Readily forgotten by all but its modest participants (not to mention an undeserving 10 year old kid from Downham who, to date, has declined to apologise to the fan he deprived of a coveted ticket), a dire game was limping to a dreaded replay until, with seven minutes of extra-time remaining, Bill Robinson crossed from the right, Welsh managed a faint, headed touch and free-scoring Scottish left winger Chris Duffy nearly burst Burnley’s net with a volley struck with a right foot normally used purely for balance. In an era noted for self-consciously restrained celebrations (“let’s not forget the plucky losers!”), Duffy’s hysterical reaction was ground-breaking. Running manically downfield, he hurled himself headlong into the welcoming arms of left back Jack Shreeve to commune with the big Geordie. Regardless of its aesthetic limitations, the 1947 Cup Final remains, for the hopelessly hooked kid we agreed earlier not to mention, the best game of football ever seen by mortal man. And he’ll fight anyone who says different.
At which high point, we conclude Part Two of Charlton’s potted history. More stormy chapters, involving Johnny Summers, decline, recovery, eviction, South Norwood, local politics, Colin Walsh, further Wembley heroics and beating Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury are expected to feature in the next instalment…