The Greatest Game In Panorama

I hate Saturdays without football, but Saturdays without football due to a postponement is even worse! I struggle to focus, and as a family man with two young kids, that goes down badly, especially with the missus, who just gets more and more annoyed with me as I mope around. It’s always the same. Anyway, that’s not the point of the post. I’ll work my way back in the good books by Tuesday.

On Sunday afternoon, my thirst for a ‘Charlton fix’ was satisfied by me digging out my small photo collection of the 1998 Play-Off Final. It had been some years since I set eyes on them. The images, taken with a dodgy disposable camera (no camera phones in them days), depict the time period of the 5 or so hours I stood/sat/stood/sat/stood....and so on....in my position behind the goal.

Being reasonably creative, I realised early on that by linking the photos here and there, I could make a panoramic image of the very view I had of the game, looking outwards across the vastness of the old Wembley Stadium. The quality may not be great, but you must consider that this panoramic image was pieced together from no less than 8 individual images. It will be good enough to have printed and framed. The wife will get the hump again, but this time I won’t care. I wear the trousers in my house when she’s out! Naturally you don’t get the full effect in the small area I can post the image on (although you can click on it to make it slightly bigger) but none the less thought I’d share that image with you all.

Noted in a recent Europe-wide poll as the 19th greatest game of football ever played, and voted elsewhere in the top ten greatest games ever played at the old Wembley Stadium, I feel honored to have been there. Surprisingly, it doesn’t make me lament the demise of Charlton any more than I already do: rather, I know enough of the beautiful game to realise you need to experience the lows to add the correct value to the highs.

Our time will come again.

Come on you Addicks!