The Exaggeration Game

Charlton Athletic 3 - Brentford 0.

Football supporters are fond of a massive dollop of hyperbole. 

We aren't born liars, we just like to lay it on a bit thick.

Only a few weeks ago, the less than massed ranks of the Rotherham support were announcing to whoever would listen that they are, 

"By far the Greatest Team, the World has ever seen!"

It's all just a verbal game. 

Nobody believes it for a second yet still it continues. 

"We're a fairly average second tier team who nobody outside our own postcode cares about," 

is closer to the truth for most sides but I can't see that particular verse catching on. 

Pre game yesterday, all I could foresee was a heavy spanking for the Addicks and yet more reasons to go home feeling totally despondent. 

Given just one of my companions agreeing with the suggestion, I'd quite happily have stayed in the pub for a few extra pints rather than heading over to the Valley.

I was comfy, why would I want to put myself through it?

The game on Tuesday against Norwich may have had a short spell when we scored two goals but nobody could argue the Canaries weren't streets ahead of our woeful bunch.

They deserved to win easily, even if the final score didn't reflect that. They were surely more than one goal better than us?

Fast forward a couple of hours yesterday and as far as any eavesdroppers are concerned, I'm piling on the superlatives, laden with dollops of exaggeration myself.

Asked by a Charlton supporting friend who wasn't at the game- and in all honesty hasn't been to the Valley since October, "What was it like?", my response was brief and to the point.

"Hundreds of times better than anything we've seen recently".

Those of us who were present at the Valley yesterday are the ones who know that just this once, that statement really is underplaying it.

Bogey Picked.

Brentford 0 - Charlton Athletic 1.

The Bees of Brentford.
The 'B' seemed to stand for Bogey as far as Charlton Athletic were concerned, especially when the fixture was taking place over in West London.

I'm pretty sure yesterday was my 5th visit to Griffin Park and until then, I was yet to witness a win for the Addicks.

My previous visits had taught me to bring a nice tasty Melton Mowbray pork pie in my pocket and to not expect much from Charlton on the pitch.
Without fail we have filled the away end but the raucous backing hasn't been converted into strong performances on the pitch.

"Here we go again!" I thought as Brentford completely dominated the first half and probably should have been 2-0 up by the interval.
The fact that the score was still 0-0 was completely down to our own good luck and some very Lisbie- esque finishing from Brentford.

Just before halftime, I moved from my position to the right of the goal and went in search Al who had messaged me to say he was at the other end of the stand.
It was no mean achievement but I spotted him along with a rowdy bunch of supporters who had made it to the game on a party boat from Greenwich.

Saying they had the air of over refreshment would be pretty accurate. There was a fug of alcohol hanging over the area as the ethanol escaped through their pores.
It was probably the drunkest football related crowd I've been a part of since watching Jack Charlton's Ireland beat Italy at the World Cup finals, USA 1994.

Unfortunately, I wasn't actually at the game, I was inside The Irish Centre Northampton, discovering long forgotten fake Irish ancestry as we all drank Guinness and tucked into stew that could hold a standing spoon.

From my new vantage point things seemed to improve.
Morrison showed admirable skill to escape a dicey situation and had me shouting "ole!".

In the second half the Addicks attacked the goal surrounded by our supporters. We had the perfect view of a pretty awful collision between goalkeeper Lee and defender Logan.

BWP had been haring in on goal and attempted to push the ball past the speeding 'keeper. The ball went wide but by then not many people were looking as it was pretty obvious there was something seriously wrong with Logan.

The medics from both teams raced onto the pitch and over 8 minutes elapsed before he was stretchered off, to the sound of sympathetic applause from all 4 sides of the ground.

The break in play rattled Brentford.
Soon after, Danny Green sent in a delicious low cross that only needed a touch from somebody to make it 1-0.

It came as no surprise to see it was BWP who bundled the ball over the line.

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!

The away end erupted in the way only a terrace of very tightly packed, refreshed, standing supporters can do.

It became a bit of a mosh pit for around 30 seconds and bloody marvellous it was too!

Could we hang on?

There were a few dodgy moments, not least when Skip Jackson crumpled down near to the advertising hoardings and Charlton kicked the ball out so he could receive attention.

After the long wait for Logan you'd have thought Brentford would have given Jackson the same courtesy but as he was already off the pitch, they just picked up the ball and attacked from the throw in.

Charlton were outraged.
The referee was powerless as no real offence had occurred but it did seem rather petty and really didn't show Brentford in a good light.

There were "a minimum of 10 minutes of added on time" for Charlton to see out when the clock hit 90 minutes.

It ended up being around 14 minutes as the ref had to sort out his paperwork when there was another case of Brentford losing their cool. So incensed were they at losing a game they probably should have won they went in hard, and late, on their old boy Hamer.

There was an outbreak of pointing, pushing and restraining but it was all what the pundits call 'handbags'.

Once that was over, the referee finally decided we'd all had our moneys worth and blew for time.

Three sides of the ground emptied pretty sharpish but the 1800+ Addicks stayed behind to applaud the team, have the team applaud them back and to sing about being "Top of the Leeeeaaague!"

A few pleasant pints in a pub at Kew before heading home just finished off a pretty good day.

Poor In The Paint Pot.

Charlton Athletic (B) 0 - Brentford 3.

If you saw this game, either live or on the tellybox, then you don't need me to report what you saw.

If you didn't see it then consider yourself lucky, unless you are a Brentford supporter.

Brentford scored within 2 minutes, were given a perfectly correct penalty and then in the second half put the game to bed, despite the linesman flagging for offside in the build up.

It mattered not one jot.
Losing by 3 goals is no better or worse than losing by 2 in a knock out cup competition.
As a club, we often seem to save our very worst performances for the television cameras or the cups.

A minor cup competition, live on Sky, was always likely to be a bit of a high hurdle to clear.

I would have loved to have won this evening but I'm not too bothered about losing. The league is everything this season.
Well done to Brentford who showed last year they like to take this competition seriously. They obviously plan on pushing for Wembley this time too.

I saw us play Brentford 3 times last season- ( 2 times at theirs and once at the Valley). We failed to win any of those games.
After tonight, should we add games against Brentford to those on Sky, those in the North West and those in the cups as fixtures we often struggle in?

Let's hope the team can give Tranmere a good spanking on Saturday to make up for this evenings disappointments.

Bee Flat

Brentford 2 - Charlton Athletic 1.
I could tell it was going to be 'one of those days'.

Firstly, a stroppy blonde tried to push onto the train at Greenwich, secure in the knowledge that :
1) her posh accent
2) she looked good in a pair of tight jeans,
usually meant she got what she wanted.

She was most put out because the traveling public didn't part like the Red Sea, so she could get into a more comfortable position in a completely packed out carriage.

Not five minutes later, a rather wizened old Asian lady turned on a young man who was mildly reading a book while listening to his iPod.
He removed an earphone to enquire why she was prodding him and wildly waving.
Apparently, he had "No manners" and he had been pushing her.

He was balanced next to me so I knew she was mistaken.
I told him not to worry as she had completely made it up.
There followed a torrent of abuse where I was called a c*** and a  b****** by the coffin dodger.

Ah, the joys of Network South East.

The rest of the journey was pain free.
Plenty of familiar faces on the train out from Waterloo, who all managed to exit at Brentford just as the rain began to fall.

The sounds of Status Quo met us as we entered the ground.
Obviously it wasn't "Down Down" they were playing as it might have seemed rather harsh at the basement club.

The girl at the fizzy pop and pie stand couldn't count and tried to charge me 20p too much. In fairness she was very smiley and repeated 3 times how sorry she was when I pointed this out.

The Charlton end was packed out. There was an expectant atmosphere and our crowd were on good form.
Some youngsters were rather sneakily smoking some 'jazz woodbines' near me which mixed rather nicely with the smell of flatulence from the bloke in front.

The game kicked off and within seconds we were under the cosh.

Ex Addick Weston tormented Francis all afternoon.
Francis was all at sea against the pace and changes of direction he was subjected to. He may as well have stayed at home for all the use he was at defending.

We were 1-0 down after our players seemed more concerned about, (ex Millwall), Alexander blocking and pushing than making any efforts to stop him. A powerful drive into the roof of the net was no more than Brentford deserved.

The rest of the first half went by in a wave of Brentford attacks.
By half time it was 2-0 but it really could have been at least 3 or 4.

I'm struggling to recall a single meaningful Charlton attack until the last minute of the half.

The team received a rather 'mixed' response from our crowd as they trudged past us on their way to the changing rooms.

Martin had been awful and he was withdrawn at half time for Reid. Fry went off too and Abbott came on up front instead.

We looked more attractive and also more dangerous too after the changes.

Reid was the focus of everything good about Charlton and eventually his good work on the left lead to Wagstaff firing the ball home.
(I saw him shoot, I saw the keeper dive, unfortunately I didn't see the ball hit the goal as the surge of bodies on the terrace blocked my sight line.)

There was just too much to do.

Brentford thought they'd scored a third but the referee disallowed it. Still not sure why as it was up the other end.

Akpo Sodje came on to try and bulldoze an equaliser but it just wasn't to be.
He ran about a bit, then collapsed and was carried off by a couple of people, one of whom was possibly unused substitute Llera.

What a load of cock.

A Casual Rating.

Charlton really didn't deserve anything from a game they lost in the first half.
Our crowd turned up.
The team didn't.

Kyel Reid can have the Lacoste polo for his second half display. An honorable mention must also go to ex Addick Myles Weston who was almost unplayable in the first half, (admittedly against a very poor Francis).

The dreaded Primark novelty slogan t shirt is going to the previously mentioned Francis.
Out. Of. His. Depth.
......and this is tier 3.

The Joy of Six?

We are possibly on the cusp of history being made.

A win against Brentford on Saturday lunchtime, (live on Sky Sports), would make an unbeaten run of six league games,- better than last weeks best ever start to a Charlton season! Only a minor blip against Hereford in the 'Who Cares cup' has spoiled the perfect start to the season.

Brentford are famous for Greg Dyke, unbelievably Cameron Diaz and the lead singer of Hard Fi as celebrity fans.

Assuming that Cameron is a little busy to rock up at the Valley, it's ex Addick Charlie Macdonald I was looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately, it would seem he is in the middle of a fairly long term injury lay off so he won't be coming back to poke us in the eye.

Another of our ex-files, Myles Weston will be hoping to show us what we missed out on but it's Carl Cort who we should be most wary of. It wasn't so long ago that he was part of the 'humorous' Newcastle line up that became a punchline.

Newcastle are for it. Why? Bobby Robson Cort Bowyer Given Shearer Speed!

Not quite as good as Young Fish Costa Fortune but still not bad.

Brentford are struggling with injuries in defence which means I'm very optimistic of taking all 3 points. Our fantastic run of results has to end sometime but I don't see it being this weekend.

In summary, I see our team being far too strong in midfield for Brentford to compete. Our defence is becoming a well oiled unit and our attacking players against a make shift defence is just too juicy a prospect to miss.

I'm not expecting a walk over like we experienced against Tranmere but I can see a win, hopefully by more than one clear goal.