Charlton 7-6 Huddersfield. English League Division Two,1957-58.
Charlton went into their Division two league match against Huddersfield on 21st December 1957 as strong favourites,all that changed when their captain was stretchered to hospital with just 20 minutes gone.The use of substitutes in English football was still 8 years away,so the injury was as bad as a sending off.The incident flipped the game in favour of the visitors and ten minutes later they took the lead.
They'd doubled their advantage by half time and a Charlton goal early in the second half seemed little more than token resistance to the home crowd,who were steadily drifting away due to the worsening weather.Their pessimism appeared to be rewarded as Huddersfield then piled on the goals and held a commanding 5-1 lead with just 30 minutes left.The omission of their up and coming young striker,Denis Law seemed fully justified.
As the pitch conditions continued to worsen a miracle materialised.Johnny Summers,Charlton's winger cum centre forward for the day added four more goals to his earlier strike and Johnny Ryan chipped in with another to see Charlton to a barely believable 6-5 lead with just 5 minutes left.Almost as astonishingly,Huddersfield then pegged the score back to 6-6,but Ryan completed the most dramatic of turnarounds when he turned Summers' cross into the Huddersfield net.
7-6 is about a 1 in 1.5 million occurrence,7-6 after playing for 70 minutes with ten men about a 1 in 2.5 million chance.The game has been charted in terms of success probability as three points for a win was still 23 years away and it's proponent was still winding down his career as a Fulham player.
Scorers.
Injury,Ufton(Charlton),21'
0-1,Massie,27'
0-2,Bain,35'
1-2,Summers,47'
1-3,Bain,49'
1-4,McGarry,51'
1-5,Ledger,62'
2-5,Ryan,63'
3-5,Summers,64'
4-5,Summers,73'
5-5,Summers,78'
6-5,Summers,81'
6-6,Howard,86'
7-6,Ryan,89'
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