Reproduced by kind permission of Rick Everitt
We will be commemorating David Whyte's contribution to Charlton in various ways tomorrow and this Voice of the Valley cover recalls how important his goals were in keeping the club afloat in the mid 1990s.
The article by Corinna Huxley
In the September 1997 issue of Voice of the Valley Corinna Huxley wrote a special tribute to Whyte following his departure (the first ever colour cover featured Clive Mendonca). She noted that the player's relations with Alan Curbishley were not of the best, something that was also evident from Curbs's ghosted autobiography. Apparently he swore at Curbs when he was taken off in a home game against Oxford.
Corinna started supporting Charlton in 1989, so she missed out on Killer's glory days. Of Whyte she wrote: 'He was always my hero, the name I first looked for on the teamsheet.' She pointed out that as well as scoring goals, Whyte scored them for other people. She argued, 'The fact that he ended up joint top scorer despite being dropped and injured indicates to me that he had an excellent goals-to-game ratio.'
Recalling a classic Whyte goal (one that he scored on my 50th birthday), she wrote: 'The last goal we will probably see from Whyte was the opportunist strike he made against Reading in January at Elm Park. The goalie fluffed a pass back from a defender, Whytie pounced on the mistake, went round the keeper and slotted the ball nonchalantly from about 20 yards, neatly bisecting two defenders on the way to the net. Oh how I jumped up and down after that goal! It was classic Whyte.'
'My favourite Whyte goal came two seasons ago at The Valley against Watford. A midfield player passed the ball forward, leaving the flat Watford defence in disarray. Whyte ran on to the pass and chipped the ball over the keeper from about 35 yards into the top right-hand corner of the Covered End. Fantastic.'
His later life was often troubled, but it is moments like that we will recall as we applaud his memory tomorrow.
3 comments:
I remember his balance goals came out of nowhere. I remember being in the full hungry covered end all of us the players the fans we all seemed to be as one and all baying for glory in the afternoon sunshine the pressure on the players was electric all of a sudden he got the ball on the edge of the area and has he done so many times in front of us put the ball in the back of the ,we all wondering even his own teammates even opposing players how the F*** has he done that. Me and my daughter were front row and he came towards us grinning from ear to ear gyrating in front of us looking up behind us in unison the whole of the covered end sang at the top of our lungs " DAVID WHYTE WHYTE WHYTE" he created magic , he gave us pure joy I often referred to him as the ballerina. He stood on the edge of the area with great balance working out how to unlock the defence, and to come from Greenwich borough to represent the Charlton Athletic and become its prolific goal scorer what a journey what a life thank you for the wonderful memories you gave us David thank you for your Magic r.i.p Legend
Here's my tribute to David Whyte: http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1186-september-2014/11872-david-whyte-s-goals-remembered-fondly-at-charlton
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