DOWN the years Charlton fans have been blessed with some excellent histories such as Richard Redden’s Valley of Tears, Valley of Joy and Colin Cameron’s Home & Away.

But both are heavy, hardback A4 volumes, while other essential reads such as Battle for the Valley and The Valiant 500 are frustratingly out of print, so there was definitely a gap in the market for a different type of book about the Addicks.

Step forward Valley season ticket holder Matthew Eastley, who has helped to plug that gap nicely with this pocket size volume Charlton Athletic – On This Day: History, Facts & Figures from Every Day of the Year.

As the “on this day” title suggests, each of the 366 days of the year are covered with an interesting or historic occurrence.

On February 29 1936, for example, a dispute with the pools company meant Charlton’s opponents that Saturday were kept a secret until the day itself.

It turned out we were playing Swansea Town, not Swansea City as the book states, but nit-picking apart, this is an very good read. Many of the stories you may well already know, but regardless they are told well and with a passion of a fan.

Not only is the author a season ticket holder, he is a third generation Addick who met his wife to be in the Royal Oak.

There is a good balance between the historic matches and milestones and the frankly silly.

What about Darren Bent’s sandwich and the self inflicted injury which threatened to keep him out for six weeks? July 19 2006 in case you have forgotten.

Or the 1937 Christmas Day match at Chelsea when Sam Bartram was left on the pitch when the other 21 players and officials have given up due to thick fog.

Big Sam just thought his team-mates were putting the Blues under a lot of pressure until a policeman told him what had happened a full 10 minutes later.

And oh for the July days of 2001 when we could splash out £4m on a full back Luke Young at the same time as we were spending £9m on redeveloping the ground.

This book is the first of two similar titles by the same author.

The Charlton Miscellany, containing trivia, facts and figures, comes out next year but these 160 pages are more than good enough to stand on their own.

Looking for a Christmas or birthday present for the Charlton fan in your life?

Then this will do very well as a gift regardless of age.

Or just a fan who like to catch up on the club’s long and varied history?

This will do the trick.

Charlton Athletic – On This Day: History, Facts & Figures from Every Day of the Year by Matthew Eastley. Pitch Publishing £9.99.

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