Forget Paris, Forget Venice, Forget the Lord John Pub in Stroud – there is no where more romantic than the The New Lawn to spend Valentine’s Day.

If you are lucky the opposition will be wearing love heart coloured red shirts to mark the occasion.

Charlton finished 13^th in League 1 last season.

They are currently in 12th position on 37 points.

Their results have improved under their new manager.

Recent Results

Charlton  1 Fleetwood  2

Exeter  1 Charlton 2

Charlton 1 Bolton 2

Charlton 2 Barnsley 0

George Dobson

Defensive midfielder Dobson joined Charlton in July 2021 and was their player of the season. He previously played for Walsall and Sunderland having started his career at West Ham.

Jack Payne

Goal scoring midfielder Jack Payne joined Charlton in July 22. The 27-year-old, who netted 13 goals and provided six assists for Swindon Town in League Two last season, has signed a two-year contract with the Addicks following the expiry of his contract with the Robins. Payne has won promotion from all three EFL divisions and made 28 appearances for Huddersfield Town in 2016/17 as the Terriers earned promotion to the Premier League.

In the transfer window Charlton signed free agent defender Michael Hector who had left Fulham in the summer and midfielder Gavin Kilkenny on loan from Bournemouth. He spent the first part of the season on loan at Stoke where he worked with current Charlton manager Dean Holden. Full back Matt Penney has come in on loan from Ipswich.

Charlton Athletic signed forward Jesurun Rak-Sakyi on a season-long loan from Crystal Palace. The 19-year-old began his career in Chelsea’s academy before joining Palace in 2019.Rak-Sakyi made two Premier League appearances last season and also scored 18 goals for Crystal Palace Under-23s to make him the joint top scorer in Premier League 2. He has also been capped by England U20s and scored on his debut. He has just signed a 5-year deal with C Palace.

Jo Wollacott

On 7 August 2019, Wollacott joined FGR on loan from Bristol City for the 2019/20 season He made his debut in professional football six days later, saving a penalty as he kept a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw ironically with Charlton in the EFL Cup, before going on to finish on the winning side in the penalty shoot-out after saving another penalty. He played 10 times in total for FGR.

On 12 February 2021, Wollacott joined then L1 side Swindon on a seven-day emergency loan deal. In June 2021, Wollacott signed for Swindon on a one-year contract.

On 23 June 2022, Wollacott joined Charlton on a three-year contract following the expiry of his contract at Swindon Town.

Josh Davison

On 18 October 2019, Davison sealed a move to then Championship side Charlton until the end of the season and made his first-team debut during a 2–2 draw with WBA, just a week after signing for the Addicks.

On 24 October 2020, Davison joined Woking until January 2021. On 13 January 2021, it was reported that Davison’s loan had expired at Woking and he had returned to Charlton Athletic with the view to a loan move to a L2 club. Six days later, he joined FGR on loan until the end of the season. He played 20 times for FGR and scored 3 goals.

On 24 January 2022, Davison joined Swindon on loan for the rest of the 2021–22 season. In July 2022 Davison left Charlton and joined Wimbledon on a 3-year contract.

FGR’s David Davis (now on loan at Solihull Moors) played 5 matches on loan at Charlton in 2020.

The Charlton mascot is named Harvey (after Harvey Gardens alongside the ground). The man on the left of the picture on the phone is calling security. There is another mascot called Floyd named after the ground’s address – Floyd Road.

The Charlton Forum can be found here – Home | Into The Valley Forum (proboards.com)

Dean Holden 

 The club finished the 2020/21season in seventh place but started the following season by winning only two out of 13 League One matches and were in the relegation zone when Nigel Adkins was sacked on 21 October 2021. After a successful spell as caretaker manager, Johnnie Jackson was appointed manager in December 2021, but he was also sacked after finishing the season in 13th. Swindon Town manager Ben Garner was appointed as his replacement in June 2022 but was sacked on 5 December 2022 with the team in 17th place Dean Holden was appointed manager on 20 December 2022.

Defender Dean Holden had a career which began at Bolton in 1998 and ended with a two-year stint at Walsall from 2012 to 2014,. Over that sixteen-year period, he amassed 369 league appearances, representing ten clubs and scoring 22 goals. He moved in to coaching with Oldham in November 2014 and spent time as manager from February 2015 until May 2015. Holden joined Bristol City in November 2016 as assistant manager to Lee Johnson. Following Johnson’s departure on 4 July 2020, Holden was placed in caretaker charge before being given the role on a permanent basis. He was sacked by Bristol City in February 2021. In April 2021, Holden joined Stoke as assistant manager.

Charlton are the only club to win the FA Cup having lost a match – the semi-final was a two-legged affair.

Charlton Athletic Football Club was founded on 9 June 1905. Their home ground is The Valley. For many years, the Valley was one of the largest Football League grounds in Britain, with its highest maximum capacity of 75,000. Its current capacity is 27,111. Charlton have played there since 1919, apart from one year in Catford, during 1923-24, and seven years as lodgers at Crystal Palace (the first official ground sharing arrangement in the Football League in 36 years) and West Ham between 1985 and 1992, due to financial issues, and then safety concerns raised by the local council. The club’s fans formed the Valley Party, nominating candidates to stand in local elections, in a bid to return the club to The Valley.

Early in the the 1985/6 season Charlton left the Valley. A rumour that gold had been founded under the pitch at the Valley proved false.

Charlton turned professional in 1920 and first entered the Football League in 1921. Since then, the club has had four separate periods in the topflight of English football: 1936–1957, 1986–1990, 1998–1999, and 2000–2007. Historically, Charlton’s most successful period was the 1930s, when the club’s highest league finishes were recorded, including runners-up of the First Division in 1937. After World War II, Charlton reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing in 1946, and winning in 1947. Charlton won the 1947 final 1–0 after extra time, with Chris Duffy scoring the winning goal. For the second consecutive year, the ball burst during the match; both incidents were later put down to the poor quality of leather available after World War II.

The club’s traditional kit consists of red shirts, white shorts, and red socks. When the club was first formed, they borrowed shirts from then near neighbours Arsenal who at that time played at Woolwich Arsenal. Their most commonly used nickname is The Addicks. Rumour has it that players of old had a meal of haddock before games and Addick is slang for this fish.

Substitute 1: On 21 August 1965, Charlton’s Keith Peacock became the first substitute used in the Football League when he replaced injured goalkeeper Mick Rose after 11 minutes of an away match against Bolton. Peacock’s autobiography was titled ‘No Substitute’.

Substitute 2: The Who’s May 1976 concert at the Valley, part of their By Numbers Tour, was the loudest rock concert of all time – 126 db. measured at a distance of 32 metres. Support acts included Lou Reed, Humble Pie, Bad Company, Lindisfarne & Dave Mason.

First Choice – Laurie Cunningham has generally been recognised as the first black player to play for England at any level. Recent research has shown that in fact this honour goes to Benjamin Odeje who played for England Schoolboys at the age of 15. Right winger Benjamin played in England Schoolboys 1-0 victory against N Ireland in front of a crowd of 70,000 at Wembley in March 1971. Odeje played for Charlton’s youth team. He never, though, played any League football but did play for Hendon, Clapton & Dulwich Hamlet before subsequently coaching at QPR and working as a PE teacher.

Cosmic! – In the long-running BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Rodney Charlton Trotter is named after the club.

It is implied in some episodes that Rodney is though a Chelsea supporter. In one episode Del remarks that ICI have dropped a point, to which Rodney replies that “Chelsea dropped three on Saturday!” In a later episode he takes Victoria to see a football match at Stamford Bridge.

Perhaps the most unlikely Charlton supporter is tennis player Bjorn Borg – supposedly his Father saw Charlton play and liked the fact they wore baggy shorts.

Other sports people who support Charlton are Dame Kelly Holmes – 2 gold medals at the Athens Olympics – and snooker player Steve Davis.

Musicians who support Charlton include Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz, Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze, Alan White – the drummer from Oasis, singer Mika, & Lee Ryan from Blue.

Comedian Jim Davidson & comedian/presenter Sue Perkins.