Top Ten Goals

Everyone has a favourite game, player and goal, but how many of us take the time to compile a top ten?

Well in my industry (like many others) December is a quiet month so in 2006 a Spurs colleague of mine and I decided to list out favourite ten goals of all time. I had intended to publish these over the summer, but I never quite got round to it.

I have now dug out the emails and just for completeness I will list the Spurs fan's list also. Sadly we have very few FA Cup winning goals, and certainly none during my life time, but I suspect that you Addicks out there will enjoy reading my list more than that of the Kent Yid.

Both of these lists have been printed as they were originally written, so you’ll have to excuse the grammar, spelling and language. Also when reading my list please remember that I don’t go to many away games, I have only included goals I actually saw live and I have only been going to watch Charlton since 1980. I’ve also taken out my nickname at work so as to avoid the confusion. NYA, don’t bother to ask as I’m never going to tell you!

The Spurs list:

10. Glen Hoddle v Man U in 1978/79 League Cup match (a beautiful volley from the edge of the box)

9. Glen Hoddle v Notts Forest 1979/80 (cant remember exactly) super volley again from the edge of the box

8. Glen Hoddle v Watford early eighties, a beautiful chip from the right hand edge of the box straight over the keeper's head (he didn't bother moving)

7. Gary Lineker v Sheffield Weds away. Perhaps his only goal where he smacked it from outside the box. Went like a rocket into the top corner.

6. Garth Crooks v Wolves 1980 Semi final replay at Highbury. Raced onto a thru ball by (yes you've guessed it, Glen Hoddle) and his sheer speed made the Wolves defence look pedestrian. Then he leathered it into the corner. We were on our way to Wembley..

5.Paul Gascoigne v Portsmouth 1991 quarterfinal. Beat 3 players and scored on a real sh*t pitch. Pure class

4. Micky Hazard v Notts Forest circa 1981/2 through ball he took on his chest on the run two defenders around him but he calmly half volleyed it into the top corner past Shilton's despairing dive.

3. Robbie Keane v Blackburn last season. rec'd a throw in on the edge of the box. Controlled it and beat 3 players before slotting it past the keeper.

2. Paul Gascoigne v Arsenal at Wembley in the 1991 semi. free kick from somewhere outside the stadium and thrashed it past Seaman - 1:0 and we're on our way to Wembley (again)

1. Ricky Villa v Man City - Nuff said. Pure brilliance and yes we won the cup again!

Kings Hill Addicks all time top ten goals.

10> Carl Leaburn – Southend – March 1993. No Top Ten of Charlton goals would be complete without a Leaburn entry, and this one really does deserve to be here. He accepts the ball on the edge of the box with defenders flying in from all angles. Now if you don’t remember Leaburn he was 6ft 6in, and his legs were about 6ft 2in. Thus he looked gangly to say the last. Almost all of his goals came from his head, apart from a back heel fully four feet in the air (but this was a bit lucky). Anyway as the defenders fly in he turns the ball from his right to his left, back to his right, back to his left, then again he turned the ball onto his right and slots home our second goal in what turns out to be a 2-0 win. It was away, and I actually went. The goal was not so magnificent, but it seemed like ages that he controlled the ball at his feet before he scored.

9> Andy Jones – Luton - Feb 1990. The ball was lumped forward and the keeper came out, and as the ball fell it was clearly not going to come down, so Jones kind of chipped it with his head and it must have gone 10 foot in the air before it came down under the bar with the Keeper chasing back and getting no where near the goal.

8> Alex Dyer – Bristol City – March 1991. He actually scored two goals in the same game, one a proper goal scorer’s goal. Pushed the ball past the keeper and then ran past and scored, and then his entry in the Kings Hill Addick Top Ten. He came in from the left, and then bent the ball round the goal keeper and into the top corner. Do you remember the goal John Barnes scored against Everton about the time Dalglish left? You should, they showed it dozens of times. Well it was just like that. There were about 5,000 at Selhurst that day. Great shame.

7> Alan Pardew – Southend – April 1994. The day the East Stand opened. We managed to fall 3-1 behind, then at 3-2 Pardew picked up the ball just inside his own half and proceeded to run all the way to the Southend penalty area where he chipped the keeper to make it 3-3. He also scored our fourth goal, to ensure our comeback, but it was his first goal that makes it into the Kings Hill Addick’s Top Ten.

6> Shaun Newton – Ipswich – May 1998. Play off semi final second leg. We won a very, very close first leg 1-0 away with an own goal. And Danny Mills had been sent off and was suspended for this game. The roof had been taken off the West Stand as it was being rebuilt. This was actually after the regular season had finished. So the scene is set. Now, Shaun Newton is a right footed player, plays on the right wing. He doesn’t score many goals, a few for a winger, but not many. We had been the better team, but were a bit nervous. We hadn’t let a goal in for 9 (nine) games, but we hadn’t scored many. After about 35 minutes Newton picks up the ball on the right wing, and he cuts inside. Clearly everyone is willing him to play a neat ball into the box for Mendonca (remember him? He scored 45 goals in 89 starts for Charlton). However, he pushes past the fullback, across the box, then from absolutely no-f***ing-where he smacks it with his left foot and it flies into the top left hand corner. Great goal. And it broke Ipswich. They just gave it up, and we just cantered through the last hour in the warm May evening.

5> Scott Parker – Leeds – December 2002. We were in a bit of trouble that season, and we were 4^th from bottom when we beat Man City away then Blackburn at home. Then Leeds away. Leeds had had a bad season, and they were in a bit of trouble themselves. Harry Kewel put them in front a couple of minutes before half time. In the second half we chased and chased the game, but with little success. Then with 10 minutes to go Kevin Lisbie scored to give us a chance of a point at Elland Road, the team that had been in the semi-final of the Champions league just a season before. Then in injury time Parker ran through the Leeds defence and slotted home the ball from about 8 yards. 2-1. We actually went on a run of 5 games (making 8 all together) that left us safely in 12^th position where we finished that season.

4> Paul Mortimer – Chelsea – October 1989. Picks it up on the left, and beats two players before lashing at the football like it just banged his missus and from 30 yards out, and 20 yards left of the goal, and it flies past the keeper to sneak inside the top right corner. 3-0. After the game Mortimer went on to declare that Charlton were fed up of all this relegation stuff (after fighting a relegation battle for three years) and predicted that we were not going to be in a relegation dog fight that season. Ten months later we were relegated.

3> Shaun Bartlett – Leicester – April 2001. The ball dropped from the right hand side to just outside the 6 yard box on the left, and Bartlett just volleyed it into the net. This was the Match of the Day Goal of the Season. ‘Nuff said.

2> Tahar El Karkouri – Arsenal – January 2005. Free Kick. Even though the goal was scored at the valley it was taken from somewhere deep inside a house in Bagdad. Who said Saddam Hussein didn’t have rockets that could reach London?

1> Paul Mortimer – Norwich – October 1988. This was away, I went on the “Football Special” train on my own to this game. I was 17. I stood behind the goal on my own, and we were 2-1 in front when Paul Mortimer decided to dribble past at least 4 players and score a magnificent goal. His close control of the ball was the best I’ve ever seen in a Charlton shirt. For the record he scored at least 3 more goals like this, and I probably could have made a top five with just him, but this one was the best because of the circumstances in which he scored it. Although the one he got against Bradford live on TV in out 4-1 win was only just piped at the post.

Also rans:

Robert Lee - Newcastle - September 1988 We went down to ten men and were losing into injury time, and the ball seems to drop in front of Robert Lee about 25 yards out, and he just whacks it through the bodies in the box and it takes a couple of slight deflections and it’s 2-2.

Jason Euell - Arsenal - Nov 2001 We were in 3-1 in front, and Jensen played a ball behind the famous back four, and Jason ran on to it and took it wide and slotted it home. Not a magnificent strike, but he looked that day like a proper striker. Ian Rush would have been proud of that goal. And of course it was Charlton’s 4^th (that’s FOURTH) goal at Highbury. Which is nice.

Richard Rufus - Sunderland - May 1998 After over 300 appearances Rufus waited until the 86^th minute to score our equaliser at Wembley. He was the best Centre Half the club has ever had, and it was a crying shame when he had to retire at 28. And the goal couldn’t have been scored at a better time. Fantastic!