My brother's 6th birthday present - a trip to The Valley - how unkind can parents be? Seriously I look at the team that day, and it is the one I would always recite, perhaps with Tutt in goal and Penfold as right-back, from my early days of being a Charlton fan. Most of those names are unknown outside of SE7 but not to me.

A fairly decent crowd of 10,345 including my whole family and LWT's Brian Moore precariously sat on a wooden platform high above the halfway line on the East Terrace. Moore, who died in 2001, would throw sweets down to us kids at the front and despite being a Gills fan, I always thought that he had a soft spot for the Addicks.

In those days of course, the next day's paper was the only media outlet for coverage of the game but a couple of times a season we would get chosen for Match of the Day or the London region's The Big Match and the Hull game was one of those rare occassions.

The game is almost entirely remembered for Derek Hales' hat-trick, his 2nd goal winning the 'Goal of the Season' award. Just like I had cause to remember Hales at my first ever game (he got sent off), my brother also went away from his debut game with the chant "Killer, Killer" ringing in his innocent ears.

Hales' first goal came in the 25th minute and he added to it 7 minutes later when Paddy Powell did a trademark lengthy run down the right touchine and with telepathic instinct picked out 'Deadly Derek' with a cross, Hales swivelled his whole body and volleyed into the roof of the net in one movement before giving a trademark fist to the covered end.

Hull's Chris Galvin pulled one back right on the half-time whistle and I remember it being quite open in the 2nd half with Billy Bremner pulling the strings for The Tigers, however Hales put the game out of doubt near the end with his third and sent us back home happy.

It was only early October and that was Hales' 2nd hat-trick of the season. He was later sold to Derby County after scoring 18 goals in 19 appearances that season leaving supporters again feeling the club lacked ambition. We finished the season 8th, four points off promotion but drew 16 games, 12 of those coming after Hales left. If only eh?

I have the match programme sat here in front of me. Richie Bowman was in the Portrait Gallery, an article on Hales stated that he had before the Hull game scored 26 goals in 28 games in Charlton colours and there was a call for witnesses to crowd violence following the West Ham v Charlton League Cup game a couple of weeks before, which resulted in a Millwall fan being killed by a train at New Cross station. A prelude to the ongoing rivalry between the two clubs.

Charlton: Wood, Berry, Warman, Hunt, Giles, Curtis, Powell, Hales, Flanagan, Bowman, Peacock.
Sub not used: Hammond

Hull City: Wealand, Daniel, De Vries, Bremner, Croft, Haigh, Nisbet, Hawley, Sunley (Staniforth), Hemmerman, Galvin.