Were you at Eastville 39 years ago today ?
On 18 November 1978 you will have seen a remarkable match. Rovers 5 Charlton Athletic 5.
Rovers were going for an eighth consecutive home victory and Charlton boasted an unbeaten away record, but nothing indicated the ten-goal thriller which was to unfold.
After Dick Tydeman had put the visitors ahead on fifteen minutes, Paul Randall responded with two quick goals so that Rovers led by the half-hour mark. In the four minutes leading up to half-time, though, Keith Peacock created goals for Martyn Robinson and Mick Flanagan and Rovers trailed 3-2 at the break.
Flanagan put Charlton two goals ahead after forty-nine minutes and, though David Williams, shooting through a ruck of players eight minutes later, narrowed the gap, Robinson’s second goal, after sixty-three minutes, restored the visitors’ two-goal lead. After Peter Aitken’s shot was saved just three minutes later, Randall completed his hat-trick and Williams equalised from the penalty spot after a sixty-eighth minute foul on substitute Paul Hendrie.
Rovers’ second 5-5 draw in league football, the first being against Exeter City in November 1934, had seen ten goals in a frenetic fifty-three minute spell in the middle of the match.
With thanks to Mike Jay for the detail.