Sunday 1 March 2015

Happy Returns?

Charlton Athletic 3 Huddersfield Town 0



The Football for a Fiver lapsed fan / never been a fan but fancy a bargain, crowd packed out the Valley yesterday.
The only spaces I could see were in the Jimmy Seed stand where the Huddersfield fans had also taken advantage of the £5 offer. 
There was an air of anticipation pre game.

The return of Chris Powell to his spiritual home went as well as could be hoped for. 

We got to applaud him as he walked to his (unfamiliar) dugout, he paused to shake hands with many old friends and looked up to see a banner across the other side of the pitch in the East stand with the simple message, "Thanks Chris", then 95% of Charlton supporters stood to applaud him in the 3rd minute.

The people who consider themselves to be 'better fans' than the rest of us were free to keep their arms folded and scowl throughout the minute of applause and then we got on with the game properly.

Football for a Fiver has had a rather 'mixed' history.
What often happens is we invite lots of people back to the Valley, then remind them why they don't come anymore.

Yesterday was different. 
Chris Powell had a thoroughly miserable return while those Fiver Folk certainly got value for their money and were given plenty of reasons why they might consider adding a few more fixtures to their calendars.

Huddersfield started brightly and had obviously been given instructions to try and quieten the bumper crowd.
It was all very even until Cousins and JBG performed a rather obvious 'run over the ball, then your mate lashes it in' free kick routine.

The regular supporters and their Johnnie Come Lately neighbours rose as one and bobbed about like joyful dolphins.

The Ref for a Fiver was constantly being fooled by the rather pathetic Am Dram diving and rolling of Vaughn, who I remember as quite a decent player not long ago. 
Surely he doesn't need to add this cheating to his arsenal of skills?
On one occasion, just in front of us, he leapt forward, arching his back and snapping his head back, pretending he had been given the kind of nudge Giant Haystacks might have performed.
There was absolutely no contact whatsoever and he should be ashamed of himself.

Huddersfield were out of it almost as soon as the second half started when Tony Watt wriggled to make the space then doubled Charlton's lead.

The Charlton team then started to, (excuse my French), quite royally take the piss.

The ball was passed about, Huddersfield not really looking too keen on getting it back.

It got worse for them. They had a lifeline back into the game when Henderson managed to pull off a ridiculously good save, the Huddersfield supporters already up and celebrating the 'goal' he managed to deny.

They were still feeling crestfallen when Tony Watt picked up the ball, ran with it- showing strength to maintain possession, then wellied the ball high into the goal.

Three- nil.

Huddersfield then let their manager down. They really just wanted to go home. Charlton could have scored three or four more but we were all rather content with the score as it was.

One of their blokes, (Robinson?), completely lost his head, having 2 attempts to clobber whoever was nearby. He really had no interest in the ball. He went chasing madly, attempting to send people into the stands, completely disregarding any pretence of being a footballer.
This was just assault.

The Ref for a Fiver really had no choice. It was a red card all day. 
Oddly he called the player towards him who just shook his head and walked away…….

RfF then had to chase the naughty boy half the length of the pitch to wave a yellow card???
Surely, even if the original offence had only been worthy of a yellow, the additional petulance should have seen him getting first dibs on the shower gel?

The game ended with Charlton now really, really taking the piss.
The crowd shouted 'ole' as our team stroked the ball about, Huddersfield still not caring.

There was one passage of play when I counted over 20 passes, not going anywhere, just keeping the ball before a Huddersfield player attempted an interception.

So, happy days at the Valley.

A few beers were quite necessary after another 3-0 win.

What's going on?

If it's Guy Luzon I'm prepared to taste the humble pie and say well done. 
This of course doesn't mean I'm forgiving or forgetting the shambles and untruths surrounding his appointment but now he's here, we have to support the team, if not the regime.

So, see you on Tuesday. 
I'm predicting a crowd around 10,000 less than yesterday!

3 comments:

Phil said...

Spot on about that booking Marco. A ref shouldn't go chasing a player. He should stand his ground until the player comes to him. He was poor as you identified, the booking of Cousins was in particular an awful piece of officiating.

TOWIWoolwich said...

Another great post mate. I hope some of the bargain hunters fork out for some more games. But, even if they don't, I think footy for a fiver is a Good Thing. Also, the footy is expensive for a family, so hopefully some people made a day of it and took their kids for a rare treat. And the treat was 3 goals, so happy days!

CA Addick said...

I agree on giving Luzon some credit. The process was not of his making and am sure was happy being paid on gardening leave.

For sure it is a different team with more energy and set up better and the big bonus of being able to score which we have not had for sometime.

And the big bonus is seeing Millwall 11 pts away:)

CA Addick