Well, some bloke mentioned it, but it wasn’t an especially memorable post. 
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Was on holiday in Austria in 1972 and met a Charlton fan in the hotel.Excellent.
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Think we found out the result about 3 days later when the Sunday papers arrived. It was like that in those days if you were abroad. Didn’t pay the inflated price for the paper just sneaked a look.
This has to be up there.
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What a day that was - it seemed like just about anything was possible. 4 points off the play-offs at Christmas, and relegated on goal difference on the final day of the season despite winning! Certainly a season to remember.
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Amazing to think back to just how out of touch you could get if you went abroad, or even for a holiday in this country. Different days. 
Not just holidays, either, I remember getting back from school in November '74 and asking my mom what the Walsall score was (Ashford away in the Cup, afternoon kick-off on a tuesday or wednesday) and she gave me One Of Those Looks, which translated as “I’ve better things to do than follow some daft football match, stop bothering me and let me get on with this ironing” and as WM and BRMB were hard to pick-up where we lived I don’t know when or how I learnt the result. Much easier nowadays.
Great story. Think I was still sneaking a quick look at the newspaper stands in the Greek Islands well into the 80’s.
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That was a great day, we hammered them, no idea how we managed to go 0-2 down.
A worthwhile mention for Gillingham away Graydon season, just because the 600 or so of us there would never have dreamed what would unfold that season. The 1-0 scoreline also poignant.
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The penalty, which Jimmy saved but the ref allowed Bobbins to take again, should never have been given. Tom Bennett did handle the ball, but only after he had been given a mossiv shove in the back, and his hands went up for balance which was when he touched the ball. But the injustice just made it all the sweeter when we turned it round. 
One of the things that people often forget about that season was that OG was one of our leading scorers until quite a number of games in - getting their first in that opening game.
Memorable (or rather mis-memorable) for a totally different reason was the L1 game against Tranmere at the start of 2013/14. Not only was it our 125th anniversary season but also the Football League’s (hence the FL125 logos all over Sky). Now technically (because of TV blood money) the season started on the Friday night with Sheff Utd vs Port Fail (2-0 to the Blades), but Saturday 3rd August was still treated as the opening day by everyone else.
We won our game 3-1 but the big thing about it was Craig Westcarr scored VERY early on - perhaps not our fastest ever goal scored but must be our quickest in a season opener. A bloke in front of me was saying he reckoned it was less than a minute, and my stopwatch was only just past the 60 seconds when I checked it after the wild celebration, but I believe Andy Poole who was doing the Twitter updates had it down as 2’ (i.e. second minute) rather than 1’.
Still, it was bloody fast and must have been the quickest one of the opening day - and, if not the first goal of the season because of the game the night before, still a feather in our caps … except for some reason the bloke doing the BBC updates put it down as 4’, which was repeated by many other agencies who publish results and stats (uncorrected to this day if you care to look it up) including on Sky Sports News that evening when they credited some other bloke in L2 as the fastest of the day with his coming after 2 minutes something seconds and kept showing and lauding his “first goal” all through that night. Westcarr’s was miles faster!!!
As you’ve probably guessed, it does still rankle with me - but the big thing I take from it is an example about how, even in this computer dominated age with actual film footage and eyewitnesses to prove otherwise, the “lie” of it not being the first goal of opening day that year can still perpetuated as “fact”.
In other words - don’t believe everything you read! 
(apart from what I’ve just written of course 
)
Another good one was Tranmere at home in 13/14.
A very comfortable 3-1 win. Should have been more.
It was the first time that Smith’s team began to look a class above others at that level. It was like two different sports going on. Ronnie Moore playing one from the previous century, Dean Smith playing one that managers at the very highest level would come to admire.
Another glorious opening day in the sun.
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Apart from the scandal of the “first goal on opening day”! 
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Simultaneously posting about the same game there AWT. Something in the air!
To be honest @P.T, I sometimes read your posts and think " did I write that?" as they are so similar to my own views and memories on things.
Funny you never see us together in the same room …
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Was that the game where the floors 2 go stand was closed because of a wedding?
The lower stand was open, not sure about the upper - and it was the day Sir Ray was there to unveil the 125 memorial on the side of the stadium.
I think it was shut. We were sat on the side so reckon that’s why. Think the very early start to the season (3rd August) caught the club out.
Found this footage of the game - definitely fans in the lower …
I remember enjoying the game. The night before I’d been to see Levellers in Salop (I think possibly the warmest gig I’ve ever attended), so it was a good weekend.
We do have a good opening day record over the last 20 years… just 4 defeats (3 if you don’t count Doncaster)!
2019 W 1-0 Northampton A
2018 W 2-1 Plymouth H
2017 L 0-1 Bury A
2016 W 3-1 Wimbledon H
2015 D 1-1 Oldham H
2014 D 1-1 Port Vale A
2013 W 3-1 Tranmere H
2012 L 0-3 Doncaster H (but first game was actually 1-0 win v Brentford in League Cup)
2011 W 1-0 Orient H
2010 L 1-2 MK Dons H
2009 W 1-0 Brighton A
2008 D 1-1 Yeovil A
2007 D 1-1 Carlisle H
2006 W 1-0 Rochdale A
2005 W 2-1 Rotherham A
2004 W 3-2 Port Vale H
2003 W 4-1 WBA H
2002 L 0-2 Ipswich H
2001 W 2-1 WBA H
2000 W 3-2 Rotherham A
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