Charlton Athletic struck gold with Grimsby Town transfer - it sealed place in Wembley history | OneFootball

When Charlton paid Grimsby £700k for Clive Mendonca in 1997, they perhaps didn't realise that he would end creating history..

When Charlton Athletic paid £700,000 for a striker from Grimsby Town in the summer of 1997, they knew they were getting a talent. But what they probably didn't realise was that, over a relatively short period of time, Clive Mendonca would become an icon of their club.

The 1990s were a decade of reinvention for Charlton. Financial issues forced the club out of The Valley in 1985, and they would spend seven years sharing Selhurst Park and Boleyn Ground while supporters agitated to get the club home again, eventually achieving this in 1992.

By this time they were in Division One of the Football League - now the Championship - and settled. They finished sixth in 1996, qualifying for the play-offs, where they lost a highly-charged semi-final to former landlords Crystal Palace 3-1 on aggregate.

The squad needed replenishment by summer 1997 and one name stood out. Mendonca started his career at Sheffield United, but it was at Grimsby Town that he made his name, particularly with the 18 goals he scored for them in the 1996/97 season. £700,000 was the agreed fee for him to move from Blundell Park.

Mendonca was an immediate hit at The Valley

Mendonca had an immediate impact upon his arrival at The Valley. Powerful, agile, and good with his feet as well as his head, Mendonca started scoring goals for fun, ending the season as the joint-third highest scorer in the division, behind Kevin Phillips and Pierre Van Hooijdonk and level with Kevin Campbell with 23 goals. Exalted company, indeed.

Mendonca's goals helped to propel his team towards the top of a very competitive division. Charlton ended their regular League season in fourth place on 88 points, behind 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 date at Wembley with Sunderland - the team Mendonca had supported as a boy - for a place in the Premier League.

He wrote himself into both the Charlton and Wembley history books

Sunderland started the match as narrow favourites to win, having finished two points above Charlton in the League that season. But as was fairly common at that time, these play-off finals had a tendency to ignore any scripts.

Mendonca scored to give Charlton a 1-0 half-time lead, but then five second-half goals forced the game into extra-time at 3-3, with Mendonca restoring Charlton's lead following a Kevin Phillips equaliser and Sunderland coming back to lead 3-2 before a late Richard Rufus forced an additional thirty minutes.

Nicky Summerbee gave Sunderland a 4–3 lead nine minutes into extra-time, but it didn't take long for Charlton to hit back. Five minutes later Mendonca completed his hat-trick to level things up again at 4-4. He wouldn't have realised it at the time, but in doing so he became the last player to score a hat-trick for a club side at Wembley prior to its demolition four years later.

With the score tied at 4-4, the match progressed to a penalty shootout which turned out to be as thrilling as the previous 120 minutes had been. Mendonca converted the first Charlton penalty, and struck a pose afterwards which has entered Charlton folklore. After the first 13 penalties had been converted, Michael Gray's poor kick was saved by Lionel Perez and Charlton were in the Premier League. Small wonder it's been described as "the greatest play-off final ever". Mendonca earned himself death threats over his celebrations.

Injury curtailed his career, but his legend at two clubs had already been secured

Mendonca marked Charlton's return to the top flight after an absence of seven years with a hat-trick, as part of a 5-0 win against Southampton on the opening day of the 1998-99 season. But as injuries started to bite, his appearances in the first team became more limited, and he ended that season with eight goals from 24 appearances. Charlton were relegated in 18th place in the Premier League.

Figures from Transfermarkt

He'd been struggling with a recurring back injury since before the play-off final, and in the middle of the 1999/2000 season he hit his limit. An appearance at Queens Park Rangers a week before Christmas 1999 turned out to be his last for the club, although his retirement from the game wasn't confirmed until 2002.

Clive Mendonca wasn't at Charlton for long, but his Wembley hat-trick and his penalty pose wrote him into their history books. He wasn't forgotten at Grimsby, either. It's not often that a player tops the 'legends' charts at two different clubs, but he managed it at both clubs. He won't be forgotten at either Charlton or The Valley, even though his spell in London turned out to be briefer than anyone had expected.