Throughout this current football season, my colleagues and I on the Charlton Athletic 30th Anniversary ‘Back at The Valley’ Committee have co-ordinated a number of dedicated events to commemorate that emotional day in December 1992 when, after seven years in exile, first at Selhurst Park and then Upton Park, Charlton Athletic hosted Portsmouth at The Valley, winning 1-0 thanks to Colin Walsh’s early strike. It’s therefore fitting that our last event, which is taking place on Saturday 20th May, will be a ‘Legends Match’ against ‘Portsmouth Legends’, kick off at 1.00pm. My grateful thanks to Tony Male for all his help in co-ordinating the Portsmouth squad for next Saturday and a huge thank you to ‘Mr Charlton’, Keith Peacock who has worked tirelessly to put together the Charlton squad. I would also like to thank the sponsor of next week’s game, Keith Wisdom of KW Developments, for his generous support.
Our 30th Anniversary events have included a special Q&A evening last October in association with the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust, featuring key figures from ‘The Valley Party’ – who did so much to enable the club to return to The Valley – along with then Chairman Roger Alwen and Director Martin Simons; a commemorative Dinner at The Valley in December, attended by former players, directors and staff from 1992; a number of matchday activities at the 30th Anniversary match against Cheltenham Town last December, attended by seven members of the squad that beat Portsmouth, 30 years ago to the day and coming right up to date, last Friday (12th) we staged a very successful (if somewhat wet!) Golf Day at The London Golf Club.
As well as being Chairman of the 30th Anniversary Committee, I am also extremely proud to be an Ambassador of Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT), which is also celebrating 30 years of community work at Charlton Athletic. From those early days in 1992 CACT has now become one of the biggest, best, and most respected community trusts in sport.
In fact, CACT’s social value for 2021/22 equates to a staggering £49,606,939.00, which means that for every pound invested, CACT delivers £9.52 of social value.
It has been an honour and a pleasure to have been the Chair of the 30th Anniversary Committee; so with one event left to stage, I hope as many people as possible will come and join us at The Valley on the 20th and cheer on the ‘Legends’.
I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of our event sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to stage these events and to say a personal thank you to all my colleagues on the 30th Anniversary Committee for all their hard work , dedication and support.
Steve Sutherland
Chairman, 30th Anniversary ‘Back at The Valley’ Committee
Tickets for next Saturday’s match can be purchased here: