Oh Andy Hunt, He Plays Up Front

Some random surfing of various Charlton blogs and message boards led me to the well-written blog of none other than Andy Hunt, scorer of a quarter-century of goals in 1999/2000 and probably the club's best target man in living memory.

In many ways, that title-winning season was the one that set the foundations for the ongoing success we have had since - the Coca-Cola League today is littered with clubs that had one season in the Premiership and are now probably worse off than they were before their promotion (eg. Watford, Barnsley). Who knows what might have happened if Hunt's goals hadn't led us to the title, and straight back to the Premiership, with several games to spare?

A brief email to Andy requesting we exchange blog links was politely and swiftly answered (see links on right-hand side), and hence New York Addick now has a proud link on Andy's blog alongside others including his own wife Simone's (whose cute post below about her love for Andy is a nice touch).

http://simonesbelizeblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/my-love.html

Now I am about the same age as our former striker, but it doesn't stop me suddenly getting as excited as a five-year-old when an email popped into my inbox from 'Andy Hunt.' This was my last direct contact with a Charlton player since I wrote a letter to Mark Reid in 1986, informing him that he was my favourite player and that my teachers had warned me about writing his name all over my exercise books. Again a quick reply followed, with Mark advising me that my studies should take precedence over football (though thanking me for my kind words). When I subsequently secured a place at university just five years later, and with my parents and teachers overly eager to take some of the credit, the simple truth was that it was all down to a piece of advice from our former full-back (now driving instructor).

Back to Andy Hunt though, and you don't have to be a Charlton fan to be moved by his honest description of his struggle against Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (see link below), and the slow realisation that he would have to find other ways to fill his time.

http://escribbler.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-chronic-fatigue-syndrome.html

However judging from the photos on his blog, he hasn't really looked back and with the journey time to Belize far shorter thanks to my New York base, it's tempting to head down there to meet one Charlton's better ex-players, and certainly one of the most thoughtful.