What can I say. There area few matches where I have to say "I Was There" being a Charlton fan, and tonight was one of them. Charlton Athletic FC, that little club from South London knocked out the 'He Big Spender's' Chelsea from the Carling Cup.
With a few changes, Perry out, Smertin out etc, I didn't have too much hope going into the game. A strong second half performance from Charlton when an unmarked John Terry appeared in the box in time for a corner and headed the home side one nil in front. I thought to myself that the match was over, despite only being one nil down, but obviously the Charlton players were not giving up that easily, a mistake backpass from Robert Huth meant Darren Bent could cooly slot home to equalise. We all went mental. 1 all at the interval.
A strong second half for both teams meant that Charlton could not score a winner and the game was taken into extra time. An achievement in itself.
Pretty poor extra time, with a couple of chances for each team, but the tired legs were showing, especially with El Kakouri spenind the last 5 minutes on the sideline with cramp. It was to be settled by a penalty shoot out.
Chelsea scored their first, and Benty scored ours. Stephan Andersen made an amazing save to deny Robert Huth for Chelsea's second. We scored all ours until the fouth, and so did Chelsea.
It all came down to Didier Drogba, miss it and Charlton win, score and the pressure is on our last taker. He slotted it home.
So up stepped Brian Hughes, calm and cool. Most of our fans couldn't bare to watch, me included. The Chelsea fans behind the goal are making noise, banging and waving. Hughesy steps up and WHACK INTO THE BACK OF THE NET, CHARLTON HAVE JUST KNOCKED CHELSEA OUT OF THE CARLING CUP
EFFING YES. Our little section of 3000 fans in the shed end erupted. I, myself, was running up the stairs, shaking everyones hand, hugging etc. It's like we had won the cup, we had beaten the Premiership Champions and also the first team to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since Morinho took over.
The atmosphere outside the ground was electric. I had a few Chelsea fans come up to me and shake my hand. We had done it. One of the best nights I had ever seen being a Charlton fan...
...now wheres my passport, we're going to Cardiff!
Man Of The Match:Darren Bent
stevie, we are a small club, i am a huge fan, yes i am sick of negative press but we ae a small club who beat the big guns. a david vs goliath story