Extract from my diary…..
Sunday 15th November 1998
….in the evening I went back to The Valley to host the Charlton Players’ Reunion Dinner. I was in my element. All there in one room were most of my boyhood heroes and it was my job to host the evening and to make sure that everything went according to plan. I kept thinking how much my Dad would have loved to have been there and how proud he would have been of me.
Well over 400 guests were in the Millennium Lounge including 110 of Charlton Athletic’s former players. Great credit must go to John Rooke and Keith Peacock for the incredible job they did in arranging the attendance of all the players who attended.
They were all there, Firmani, Bailey, Glover, Campbell, Moore, Wright, Kinsey, Tees, Simonsen, Hales, Flanagan, Powell, Croker, Hewie, Allison, ‘Sailor’ Brown, Fell, Humphrey, Bolder, Pardew, Gritt, Went, Chapple, Jago, the list just went on and on.
Speeches were made by Derek Ufton, Keith Peacock, Peter Croker, ‘Sailor’ Brown, Alan Simonsen, Theo Foley, Steve Gritt, Lennie Lawrence and finally by Alan Curbishley.
I had a great night, one that I am proud to say I was part of and I’m just so glad that, despite my changes in career – leaving to join The Football League and now Swindon Town – I am still considered part of the family here at Charlton Athletic.
For me, a boy from Plumstead who grew up watching Charlton from the famous East Stand terrace, to host such a unique event was an incredible honour.
It really is a special club, and this was an extremely special evening.