Tales from the crypt: The greatest comeback

Huddersfield team of the mid-1950s

And when Bobby Ledger was left unmarked to slot home the visitors fifth just past the hour mark the remaining fans would have wished even they had departed early to carry on with their Christmas shopping. With about 27 minutes remaining, one man down and four goals to the worse, there was no way Charlton could have given their fans an early Christmas gift.

But that was when all hell broke loose. Johnny Summers with his new shoes upped the ante.

The left-legged attacker first made an assist for Johnny Ryan and then scored his second with his right leg and Charlton 1-5 down after 62 minutes had reduced the deficit to 3-5 in space of just two minutes.

Huddersfield seemed shaken by this sudden Summers burst. They tried to hold him and Charlton to the scoreline but their resistance was feeble. The hustle and the sway of the opponents and the noise from an excited crowd was too much.

Ryan was now giving Jack Connor a torrid time and Stuart Leary and Summers were positively running amok down the Huddersfield right. In the end they crumbled under the pressure.

On 73 minutes, Summers completed his hattrick and five minutes later, he scored his fourth and the team’s fifth to level the match at 5-5.

Everyone present could feel what would happen next. And it did. With nine minutes to spare, Summers and Charlton completed the unlikely comeback sending the crowd into a wild frenzy. Even Bill Shankly, who would later go on to lead Liverpool to numerous trophies, seemed nonplussed.

But he would have been pleased when his side showed real character to mount a mini-comeback of their own. On the stroke of the 86th minute, Stan Howard equalised for Huddersfield although it had a stroke of luck attached to it as the shot deflected off Charlton defender John Hewie and went past Willie Duff into his own goal. The cliff- hanger match now stood finely balanced at 6 all.

But from the moment Charlton had equalized the match at 5-5, everyone could feel it would end only one way. The proverbial writing was already on the walls. With the clock winding down, in the last minute of the game, Summers launched one final assualt going past Tony Conwell and launched a cross into the box – Charlton’s other goal-scorer Ryan met it perfectly and put it past the Huddersfield keeper Sandy Kennon. 7-6 and the home fans were in raptures, not able to believe the improbable if not impossible comeback that they had witnessed.

There was just enough time left for the referee to re-start the game before he blew his whistle one final time calling an end to a game described as ‘Amazing, incredible, fantastic…‘ by a reporter at the time.

Shankly later described it as “one of the most amazing games I have ever seen“.

One can only imagine how devastated the Huddersfield players and fans would have been feeling at that moment. Perhaps they would have been wondering would it have ended differently if their rising star and future Manchester United legend ‘Denis Law’ had not been injured and had featured in the match.

It still remains the only occasion when a team has scored six goals and has ended as the losing side.

The Celebrations:

As expected, once the ref blew the final whistle the fans raced on the field to celebrate with their heroes. The Charlton players were chaired by the fans on their shoulders. The fans remained on the pitch celebrating. The players reappeared in the main stand to accept the congratulations. Naturally Summers received the bulk of the fulsome praise.

Unquestionably it is the greatest comeback ever seen inside a 90-minute game.