Monday 19 August 2019

Team of 1980-81. Where are they now?

The Football League Paper took a look yesterday at what happened to the Charlton players of 1980-81.

For most of the season the Addicks led the table. A 15-match unbeaten run put them in pole position to return to Division Two as champions at the first attempt. They had to settle for third place after winning just four of their last 14 games.

Steve Gritt, now back at The Valley as a scout, said that looking back there is no doubt they should be disappointed not to have won the league. 'We got to Christmas and lost at Oxford which stopped the run. The pressure of trying to keep that run going got to us, we had the players to do it but towards the end of the season we made it hard for ourselves.'

The nail in the coffin of the Addicks' title hopes were four defeats at the start of April. They lost at home to Huddersfield Town and Portsmouth as well as title rivals Rotherham United and Fulham. 'There is no reason why our form should suddenly gone like that,' added Gritt. 'Nerves kicked in maybe. And when we went to Rotherham they thrashed us. But we achieved promotion at Carlisle which was quite a good ground for us. We wanted to finish properly in front of our fans so it was good to beat Gillingham.'

The players

Martin Robinson is now working in hotel management. Gary Churchhouse later moved to Queensland where he worked as a manager in the electrical and communications industry. Nicky Johns goalkeeper won two promotions with Charlton and became Football in the Community Officer at Crystal Palace.

Jeff Wood goalkeeper who managed Brighton and Gibraltar. Now has a soccer school in Spain and is the head coach and technical director of Marbella United. Frank Clark a striker who was a glazier by trade and after running his own company worked for Glass Masters in Bromley. Steve Gritt was assistant manager of Ebbsfleet United until 2018. Ian Salter has been head coach of a number of clubs in Scandinavia after settling in Denmark where he worked as an English teacher.

Phil Walker has worked as a personal trainer and had his own soccer school in West London. Paul Lazarus settled in Helsinki, Finland. Derek 'Killer' Hales ran a pub and was a PE teacher. Lawrie Madden became a journalist and university lecturer and now runs his own media consultancy. Peter Shaw had worked in IT and is now product writer developer at Covea Insurance in Kent.

Colin Powell was groundsman until 2014 is now a school escort. Tony Hazell a central defender who was a fibre optics engineer for British Telecom. Johnny Ostergaard was also an ice hockey international, he has run a coffee shop in his native Denmark. Mark Bailey later managed Brighton, OFI Crete, Fisher Athletic and Leatherhead. He became Portsmouth's reserve team manager and scouted for Wolves. Paul Walsh won a Division One title with Liverpool. Has been a player's agent, a property developer and now working in the media.

Richard Wilson managed Jaro in Finland but then joined the Metropolitan Police. Dick Tydeman worked for the Prudential before becoming a taxi driver. Viggo Jacobsen ran a café in Denmark and has worked at the Lynettien sewage treatment plant. Phil Warman ran a pub, worked for a security company and in customer services for BMW. Keven Dickensen the left back has worked in facilities for Spanish bank BBVA.

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