CLIVE IS NOT COOL FOR CATS
THERE’S usually drama when there’s a place in the Premier League up for grabs at Wembley.
In the play-off final in 1998, there were eight goals, a family divided – and an epic penalty shoot-out.
Clive Mendonca grew up in Sunderland supporting the Black Cats and found himself playing for
Charlton against the club he loved.
He remembered his family telling him: “We hope you score – and you get beat.” And his sister and wife were celebrating midway through the first half.
They had bet on Mendonca opening the scoring – and there was a chance his goal would prove to be the winner.
Charlton had kept clean sheets in their previous nine matches – a run of results that had led to them being branded ‘boring’ – but within 15 minutes of the match restarting they had conceded twice.
Niall Quinn read Nicky
Summerbee’s intentions and reached his near-post corner first to level the scores five minutes in, then Kevin Phillips used the outside of his boot to put the Black Cats ahead with his 35th goal of the season.
Mendonca levelled for Charlton but, two minutes later, Sunderland were ahead again.
Quinn was on target, rifling home at the far post for 3-2 and that was how the scoreline stood with five minutes of the match remaining.
Charlton found an unlikely saviour in Richard Rufus as the defender headed in his first goal for the club to send the match into extra-time.
The Black Cats regained the lead nine minutes into extra-time – Summerbee blasted them into a 4-3 lead – but the advantage lasted only four minutes as Mendonca (above) completed his hat-trick for 4-4.
Sunderland left-back Michael Gray said: “It was like a basketball match... end-to-end.” It continued during the penalty shoot-out.
Despite the pressure, the first 13 penalties found the back of the net.
Charlton led 7-6 and Gray dragged himself from the centre circle to make what he would call the longest walk of his life looking to level the scores.
“I was just praying the goalkeeper went the other way,” he remembered – but Charlton keeper Sasa Ilic went the right way to comfortably keep out Gray’s tired spot-kick.