Benson stuffs the Franchise

Charlton Athletic 1 - MK Franchise 0

Paul Benson scored, with only 5 minutes remaining, to rescue a very average game from finishing as a 0-0 snorefest.

There were few incidents in the first half, though many people believed MK Dons should have been reduced to 10 men after Lee Martin was impeded while heading towards goal.

Personally, I felt the yellow card was about right but tonight's ref was unfortunate to receive some flack from the crowd that was left over from the appalling display we witnessed on Saturday.

The game tonight was not a classic.

Jon Fortune returned to first team action at the Valley in place of Llera who missed the chance to play against his old mates from Buckinghamshire.

The game only sprang to life after the introduction of Kyel Reid.
We could all see from the stands the runs and positions Benson had been taking up when he peeled off from the defenders, only for the ball never to arrive.

Perhaps during his time on the sideline, Reid had seen this too as he attempted to cross earlier than anybody else in a red shirt had managed all evening.

On 85 minutes, an early Reid ball to Benson was tucked away with a low shot into the left corner.

A 1-0 win that at times seemed most unlikely.

The points haul from the last 2 games doesn't look bad - a win and a draw bringing in 4 points.

I think most people would have expected the win to have been against the Daggers but their draw tonight at Colchester shows they are on an improving run.
We are now on equal points with 6th place and only 2 points off second spot.
It's all to play for, nothing has been decided yet.

So, all set for Brentford.

A Casual Rating.

Well done to Paul Benson.
He's now broken his duck so the pressure will hopefully be off a little.
I do hope the team start to help him play to his strengths by picking up some of his moves and crossing early.
Benson gets the Lacoste polo for his efforts.
I'd like to offer another to whoever decided to play the Stone Roses before kick off.
Well done that man!

The Primark novelty slogan t-shirt is going to whoever forgot to put the money in the meter serving SE7 tonight, leading to a mass powercut. The Rose of Denmark served by candlelight and many other local businesses must have lost money as they were forced to close.

Mugged

Charlton Athletic 2 - Dagenham & Redbridge 2

Ok, it's not like we've never drawn at home to Dagenham before.

Even in those heady days under Curbs we managed to make a right horlicks of it and needed a second attempt to see them off in the FA cup.

Todays draw was a completely different affair.
We entered the field of play in the same division, (which only shows how far we've fallen.... etc etc blah blah drone drone.)

Crispy couldn't make it today, being away in Belgium.

Early on, I sent him an update declaring the game to be a 'turkey shoot'.
It was so one sided we could have been 3 or 4 up before Llera finally headed us into the lead from a corner.

The rest of the first half was more of the same.
However, rather worryingly, Charlton just couldn't get the ball into the net again, despite owning the ball and rarely letting the Daggers have a kick.

The turning point for me came as we were wondering what the queue was like in the bogs and deciding if the now Autumnal temperature was cool enough to warrant a cup of something warm in a few moments.

We could almost touch half time when for possibly only the 5th time in the first period, the Daggers managed to get the ball into the Charlton half.

From my (rather good) view in the East stand, there then seemed to be a Dagenham player launching himself rather hopefully into space and then the referee pointing to the spot.

It seemed such a laughably poor decision we almost forgot to have a moan.

The (appalling all game) East stand lino, who must have had the best view of all, refused to get involved and suddenly from being 1-0 up and cruising, we were exiting at halftime with the score 1-1.

Over halftime, it would seem that Parky gave the referee Jon Moss the benefit of his wiser world view and got himself sent off.

Throughout the second half, Moss was almost the Daggers best player. He obviously had an axe to grind against Charlton so our booing him and Parky's outburst really were counterproductive.
 I was almost shocked he didn't try and make a blocking move or tackle himself, he seemed so keen to stifle our attacks.

One example of many shockingly crap decisions was when Akpo Sodje was being held by the arm so he couldn't run onto a through ball. He tugged and tugged to escape but he couldn't free himself.
Moss blew for a foul and awarded a free kick........ for the Daggers!

Charlton weren't quite so in command in the second half.
Worner had to pull off some smart saves to keep the score at 1-1 but Charlton were still having much more possession and many more, (reward free), attacks.

As the game entered added on time again, Charlton finally made the breakthrough due to a well placed header from Jackson.

Charlton had seemed unlikely to get much from the game after Reid had left the pitch, injured, only minutes after entering play as a substitute.
Jackson pushed forward and Fry came on in defence.

At 2-1, the score wasn't really a true account of the game but I was willing to take the 3 points, despite all the missed opportunities to improve our goal difference.

Anyone who has been following Charlton for more than ten minutes would have been able to guess what happened next.

The Daggers went straight up the other end and Nurse finished off a really good move, bravely, at the far post.

2-2.
Bugger.

Despite his general crapness, we couldn't blame that one on the referee. It was just Charlton pressing self destruct again.

Wish I was in sodding Belgium.

A Casual Rating.

The Daggers team can all have Lacoste polos for being most certainly second best, yet still coming away with a draw. They've now scored their first, (and second) away goals of the season and have something to build on. Well done Daggers and good luck for the rest of the season, at least until we head over there.
Ross Worner can have one too for a confident performance and some very good saves.

The most useless in a long line of bloody awful useless tier 3 referees can have a whole collection of dreaded Primark novelty slogan tee shirts for his 'performance'.
I hope we never have him again.
It's my fault really. About 20 minutes into the game, Crispy's father and I remarked that the referee seemed to be having a 'good game'.
Almost instantly, he turned to excrement.

Right now, I'm really rather teed off with Charlton.

Just a little note for the pinboard at Sparrows Lane.
When you've just scored, in injury time, to take 3 points, maybe a spot of defending might be in order?

So, back on Tuesday for more of the same it is then.

25 Years on.

It's home to Dagenham in around 2 hours time.

We should be looking at 3 points but of course, this is Charlton we are talking about so nothing can ever be assumed.

It's also the 25th anniversary of the 'last game at the Valley'. 
I wasn't there on the day but I feel it is totally right and acceptable the club make a big fuss over something that really could have spelled the end of our club.

My own Charlton journey started during that time in exile at Norwood.

My friends and I used to decide on game we were heading to on a Saturday morning. 

We sometimes went to Wimbledon, (Plough Lane), sometimes Highbury, sometimes QPR and sometimes even Stamford Bridge.

Our default ground was always Selhurst Park when Charlton were at home, purely because we knew it was never a struggle to get in and parking would be fairly easy!

I started to care about the plucky team and when I moved back to this area after some time both abroad and away from the South East, I got sucked in BIG time.

I went to an evening game with Crispy when Charlton had been back at the Valley for about 18 months and I've never looked back.

Oddly, I probably wouldn't have started going if I hadn't become interested in Charlton while the team were stuck at Selhurst.

For most people, the exile was a hateful time but for me, it was a time when Charlton gained a new supporter.

Today will be emotional for many people.

As Curbs used to say in his programme notes, 

Let's hope we can be sent home happy.

Flukey Win

Charlton Athletic 1  - Notts County 0


This won't take long.

I said to a friend last night, if I think back to the hundreds and hundreds of Addicks games I've seen over the years, our encounter with Notts County yesterday would probably fall into the bottom 10 games.

It really was that bad.

The first half was woeful beyond belief with individual errors being compounded by bad decisions from both players and officials.

Both teams were pretty poor but if anyone deserved to be in front at the break it was County.

The much maligned Lee Hughes, fluffed his chances to stick one on those members of our crowd who were in no mood to forgive him for returning so speedily to his football career after taking a life and serving time in the Big House.

Hughes could have been back in the changing room at half time with 2 goals under his belt, or even a hat trick but for a lineman's flag.

Charlton were so bad I was regretting my decision not to buy a programme.
I attempted to check my emails but the signal in the East stand was so poor it took nearly 4 minutes for one to load.
It was still more entertaining than anything on the pitch.

The second half was more of the same.

Perhaps a turning point was Lee Hughes, (yes him again), blasting an undisputed penalty straight down the middle, only for Robbie Elliott to send it over the bar with a trailing leg.

With around ten minutes to go, Benson and Abbott were withdrawn for Akpo Sodje and new boy Joe Anyinsah.

Suddenly Charlton looked as if they'd been given a caffeine boost and were more lively than at any time all afternoon.

Racon, who had come on for the very, very disappointing McCormack at half time, sent a pass through to Anyinsah who (skillfully?) managed to blast the ball through the onrushing keeper's legs.

1-0 up after being absolutely appalling for about 80 minutes.
It's a funny old game.

The referee became very annoyed at Reid and Racon who held the ball in the corner to eat up added on time.
He became so annoyed, he decided not to award another corner they had won and gave a goal kick which lead to a rather lardy looking Ben Burgess having a last gasp chance to equalise.
Luckily for Elliott, he headed into his arms.

I don't think anybody at the game yesterday would believe the best team won.
I'd have been happy with a draw, such was the lack of ideas.

A Casual Rating

What a load of rubbish!
Our entire team, except Robbie Elliott, are being awarded the dreaded Primark novelty slogan tee shirt for the first half display. It was so bad, I'm struggling to find the words.
The Lacoste polo is being awarded to new boy Joe Anyinsah for his debut goal, we really didn't deserve.
Robbie Elliot can have one too for his penalty save.

It's my birthday today so we are going to pretend we are tourists and take the boat from Greenwich into town.

It'll be better entertainment than yesterday I hope.

Playing With Yourself?

Today we meet the 'Oldest Club In The World' at the Valley.

My schoolboy memory, (unchecked by google so I could be way off the mark), leads me to believe that Notts County are so much part of the history of our beloved game, the mighty Juventus took their black and white striped kit from the East Midlands club.

Being the first club in the world, really is a bit pointless.
Surely, it's a bit like being the first person in the world to have a telephone?

I'd say that being the second person to own a telephone is rather more critical to the sequence of events.

Who did Notts County play against when they were formed?

They really should have been known as Notts Onanists until they found some people willing to give them a kickabout.

It's my birthday weekend, (the 'big' day is tomorrow).
In recent years we've not won to help me celebrate.
Last year I believe Alan P*****w returned and Southampton managed a draw they didn't deserve.
Wolves gave us a bit of a stuffing the year before.

Unfortunately, I have to start my weekend by heading over to Beckton to pick up a parcel from my 'local' depot.
Local?
I've never had to go there before for a pick up. I've always just popped over to the Greenwich depot near to Sainsbury and been home again in not much more than 10 minutes.

If you fancy a preview of todays game, click here.
I'm hoping for a win yet somehow I believe we are still a team in transition. A draw at best with a loss just as likely is my rather morose view.
I really hope I'm wrong.

September 11th is always a day for reflection.
I cant believe it's 9 years since those horrific scenes in Washington, Pennsylvania and of course, New York City.
Lives were lost and ruined on that day which only makes my ramblings seem rather pathetic.

RIP.

Right, I'm off to East London.
Hope the tunnel is open.

Christian Forced To Take A Break

Unfortunately, Christian Dailly has been forced to take a break from first team duties for around 5 weeks.

The fact that his facial injury happened while playing in the worthless Paint Drying Cup only adds to my annoyance.

I don't know how far Jon Fortune is from easing into the vacant central defensive position but I hope it's not too long.
I do appreciate the skills of Big Mig Llera but I'm not sure he's the one to hold our rearguard together. He seems to play at a ratio of one very good game, a couple of mediocre games and then one stinker before he's dropped and the whole sequence starts all over again.

In other news, those 14 people who were planning on heading up to Milton Keynes for the next round of the previously mentioned PD cup, can now save themselves the effort.
I do like the Stadium:MK but I'm not racing out of work to head up there for a pointless fixture, now that Rupert Murdoch has decided to show the game live.

Get well soon CD.
"I want curly hair too."

It's MK Dons

The 'hot news' from Sky Sports News, (no longer available on Freeview), is that our heroes have been drawn away at Franchise FC in the next round of the Paint Drying Cup.

I'd guess the majority of people shrugged and then went back to their
Saturday morning chores upon hearing the news.