When Charlton Athletic spent £700,000 for a striker from Grimsby Town in the summer of 1997, they thought they had found a talent. But what they probably didn’t understand was that Clive Mendonca would quickly become a club icon. Charlton spent the 1990s reinventing himself.
Financial concerns led the team to leave The Valley in 1985, and they spent seven years sharing Selhurst Park and Boleyn Ground while supporters campaigned for the club to return, which they did in 1992.
By this point, they had established into Division One of the Football League (now the Championship). They finished sixth in 1996, qualifying for the play-offs, when they lost a tense semi-final to former landlords Crystal Palace 3-1 on aggregate.
The squad needed to be replenished by summer 1997, and one name stood out. Mendonca began his career at Sheffield United, but he established his reputation at Grimsby Town, where he scored 18 goals in the 1996/97 season. He agreed to transfer from Blundell Park for a cost of £700,000.
Mendonca was an immediate success at The Valley.
Mendonca had an instant influence when he arrived to The Valley. Mendonca, who is powerful, nimble, and good with both his feet and his head, began scoring goals for joy and finished the season as the division’s joint-third highest scorer, trailing only Kevin Phillips and Pierre Van Hooijdonk and tied with Kevin Campbell with 23 goals. Exalted company, indeed.
Mendonca’s goals helped catapult his squad to the top of a highly contested division. Charlton finished the regular League season in fourth position with 88 points, trailing Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough, and Sunderland. This meant a play-off semi-final against Ipswich Town, which they won 2-0 on aggregate to set up a match at Wembley Stadium against Sunderland, the team Mendonca had supported as a child, for a place in the Premier League.
He included himself in both the Charlton and Wembley history books.
Sunderland began the match as slight favourites to win, having finished two points ahead of Charlton in the League that season. However, as was customary at the time, these play-off finals tended to ignore scripts.
Mendonca scored to give Charlton a 1-0 half-time lead, but five second-half goals forced the game into extra time at 3-3, with Mendonca restoring Charlton’s lead after a Kevin Phillips equaliser, and Sunderland regaining the lead 3-2 before a late Richard Rufus goal forced an extra thirty minutes.
Nicky Summerbee gave Sunderland a 4-3 lead nine minutes into extra time, but Charlton quickly responded. Mendonca scored his third goal five minutes later, bringing the score back to 4-4. He didn’t understand it at the time, but he became the last player to score a hat-trick for a team at Wembley Stadium before it was demolished four years later.
With the score level 4-4, the match went to a penalty shootout, which proved to be as exciting as the preceding 120 minutes. Mendonca converted the first Charlton penalty and then executed a posture that has become part of Charlton lore. After the first 13 penalties were converted, Lionel Perez saved Michael Gray’s weak kick, and Charlton advanced to the Premier League. It’s little surprise that it was dubbed “the greatest play-off final ever”. Mendonca received death threats over his festivities.
Injury cut short his career, but his legend at two clubs had already been guaranteed.
Mendonca scored three goals in Charlton’s 5-0 victory over Southampton on the first day of the 1998-99 season, marking the club’s return to the top division after a seven-year hiatus. However, as injuries began to bite, his first-team appearances became more limited, and he finished the season with eight goals in 24 games. Charlton was demoted to 18th place in the Premier League.
| Clive Mendonca at Charlton | ||
|---|---|---|
| Season | Appearances | Goals |
| 1997/98 | 40 | 23 |
| 1998/99 | 24 | 8 |
| 1999/2000 | 19 | 9 |
Figures from Transfermarkt
He’d been dealing with a reoccurring back problem since before the play-off final, and by the middle of the 1999/2000 season, he had reached his limit. His final appearance for Queens Park Rangers was a week before Christmas 1999, though his retirement was not officially announced until 2002.
Clive Mendonca only stayed at Charlton for a short time, but his Wembley hat-trick and penalty pose cemented his place in club history. He was not forgotten in Grimsby, however. It’s unusual for a player to top the ‘legends’ rankings at two different teams, but he did. He will not be forgotten at Charlton or The Valley, despite the fact that his stay in London was shorter than anticipated.
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