IT'S NEVER OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS...

The most amazing League match ever? At half time in the Second Division match between Charlton Athletic and Huddersfield Town on Saturday 21st December 1957 things looked bleak for the home side. Charlton were down to 10 men with centre-half Derek Ufton suffering a dislocated shoulder after 17 minutes - no substitutes in those days - and were behind with goals by Les Massie and Alex Bain for the visitors. Johnny Summers pulled one back for Charlton two minutes after the re-start but in the 49th minute Alex Bain scored again for the visitors as did Bill McGarry from the penalty spot after 51 minutes and Bob Ledger added a fifth 11 minutes later.

So with Charlton 1-5 down and one man down with less than half an hour remaining many Charlton fans in the 12,535 crowd took the opportunity for some last-minute Christmas shopping. They missed a Christmas miracle. Two minutes after Huddersfield's fifth goal it was back to 3-5 with goals from Buck Ryan and Johnny Summers. Summers then added three more in eight minutes to put Charlton 6-5 ahead. With four minutes remaining Stan Howard equalised for the Yorkshiremen before Buck Ryan hit the winner for the home side with seconds remaining. An amazing 7-6 victory for Charlton - the only time that scoreline has been recorded in the Football League.

Mind you, Charlton were no strangers to amazing scorelines at around that time. On Saturday October 22nd 1960 they drew 6-6 with Middlesbrough at the Valley - only the second time that scoreline has been recorded in the Football League. Three weeks previous to that Johnny Summers hot another five goals in the 7-4 home victory over Portsmouth. In November 1959 they suffered their worst-ever League defeat - 1-11 at Aston Villa - while six weeks before that they had lost 4-6 at Plymouth. Amazingly the following season two more 6-4 results against Plymouth - winning the home match on Boxing Day 1960 6-4 but losing the return match played a day later at Home Park 4-6. Those were the days!

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Another amazing fight-back in the Second Division in the 1957/58 season. With six matches of the League season left Lincoln City looked certs for relegation - they were bottom of the table, five points adrift of the club above them (with only 2 points for a win) and had only won five league matches all season. In fact they had lost their last nine matches and it it was 18 league matches since they last won but remarkably they won their last six matches of the season to escape the drop by a single point. Lincoln's results that season.

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Some 2500 Peterborough United fans headed home at half time when the home side ended the half  0-4 down to Cardiff City on Boxing Day 2009 in a Championship match. They missed the come-back of the century with the match finishing 4-4.

A few other older notable fight-backs in the League....

Sunderland were 1-5 down at home to Liverpool at half-time in a First Division fixture on Saturday January 19th 1907 but fought back to draw 5-5.  Two years later on Saturday 4th December 1909 it was Liverpool who were on a hiding, losing 2-5 at half-time at home to Newcastle United. But at the full-time whistle they had turned it round to a 6-5 victory.

Hull fans were streaming out of Boothferry Park on Boxing Day 1970 when the Tigers were 1-4 down to Sheffield Wednesday with just 8 minutes to play of a Division 2 fixture. Hull fought back to draw 4-4 - and they hit the woodwork in the last minute.

On QPR's artificial pitch at Loftus Road visitors Newcastle United were 4-0 at half-time in a First Division fixture on Saturday September 22nd 1984. By the time of the final whistle it was 5-5.

At Fratton Park on New Years Day 1985 Portsmouth took a 4-0 half-time lead over Fulham before the Londoners fought back to draw 4-4.

At St Andrews on Easter Monday (April 12th) 1993 Birmingham City led Swindon Town 4-1 in a First Division fixture with just 30 minutes remaining - but Swindon were 6-4 winners at the final whistle.

At Villa Park on Wednesday February 22nd 1995 Aston Villa led Leicester City 4-1 with just 13 minutes remaining of the Premiership match but the visitors fought back to draw 4-4.

In a First Division fixture on Saturday March 9th 1996 Barnsley were beating Ipswich Town 3-0 with just 6 minutes of the match remaining - but the visitors fought back to draw 3-3.

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A giant-killing act looked on the cards at Brisbane Road in December 2010 when non-leaguers Droylsden had a 2-0 lead over Leyton Orient in an FA Cup Second Round replay with less than 15 minutes left - and Orient were down to 10 men. But as the front cover of their programme stated, Leyton Orient were the come-back kings. At the end of normal time the score was 2-2 with the equaliser coming in the 89th minute. Amazingly during the 30 minutes of extra time Leyton Orient scored another six goals without replay with hat-tricks from Jonathan Tehoue and Scott McGleish. So Leyton Orient won 8-2 with both sides ending the match with just 9 players each.

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Manchester United's 'Busby Babes' youth side won the first five FA Youth Cup competitions but Chelsea must have fancied their chances of winning the 6th final. They beat Wolves 5-1 in the first leg of the final - but lost 1-6 in the second leg! FA Youth Cup Finals.

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'It's never over until the fat lady sings' is a proverb which means that no outcome should ever be assumed. It dates back to the 1874 opera Gotterdammerung by Richard Wagner. The 'fat lady' is Brunnhilde and her aria is the end of a 15 hour suite. It is believed that it was first used in a sporting context in the United States in 1976. Now that's going to be the only mention of opera in this website.... I think!

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