Chesterfield 0 - Charlton Athletic 4.

There's not much that can be added by me to this absolutely thumping score line.


I wasn't at Chesterfield this evening.
I listened to the game on CAFC player.


The final score is not up for debate but there is still some conjecture, at the time of writing, over the scorers.

Some news reports, including the BBC, give BWP 3 goals and Skip Jackson the 1.

1. Wright-Phillips 43′, 56′, 66′
2. Jackson 58′.

The official Charlton website only gives Bradley 2 goals.

Those who were there, all seem to think one of BWP's goals will be given to that rather unfortunate player, Owen Gohl.


If you want to feel extremely proud and maybe a little warm inside, just take a glance at the current league table.
Make a note of how far ahead of 3rd place we are!


Of course, chickens aren't being counted but it would need a most horrible sequence of results for us to miss out on promotion now.


At the start of the season, I was really hoping for a Play Off place.
Now take a look at the points difference between Charlton and 7th place!
It's looking very good.


Roll on the weekend when I'll be heading down to Bournemouth with around 2,000 other Addicks.
Maybe BWP will finally get his hat trick?

Charlton Get Revenge.

Charlton Athletic 2 - Stevenage 0.

We were lead to believe that the Charlton players were really looking forward to the game today.

The fixture had been highlighted by a few of the team members, as a chance to put something right that had gone wrong.

Having been at our game at Stevenage, I recall both teams missing chances but Stevenage running out winners due to a most comical deflection.

We weren't really outplayed on the day, just 'out lucked'.
It was our first defeat, (of just two so far!) and stung our support and team.

Today was a completely different scenario.

The Football for a Fiver promotion meant the visitors sold out their 1,300 allocation and talk in the build up was all about how big the Valley attendance would be.

We were packed in like sardines today and it was fabulous.
It felt like the last few seasons of the Curbs era.

I was slightly worried about the visit of Stevenage.

I needn't have been.

They looked fairly organised, big and strong, keen to push forward but ultimately toothless.

There were to be no jammy deflections today to hide their wayward shooting.

On another day Charlton would have been 2 or 3 up by half time.

BWP managed to head over the bar when it appeared any kind of contact would have sent the ball goalbound.
There was a cast iron penalty that was denied as a nudge in the back prevented what may have been Jackson from heading the ball in at the far post.

I wasn't too stressed by the 0-0 scoreline at half time as we had made so many chances, I was sure we would score soon.

I was proved right when Morrison sent in an absolute screamer from distance, less than 5 minutes after the restart.

Happy days.

The majority of the 26,546 crowd rose as one and applauded a shot that was too hot for the impressive Day to keep out.

When Stevenage went 1-0 up at their place, they attempted to waste time, pack their defence and hope they could hang on to what they had.

Today, Morrison's strike was the chance for the Charlton players to relax a little and push forward in search of more.

Nobody could begrudge BWP celebrating wildly after scoring the games second.
It was his first time troubling the scoreboard since playing away at Brentford, back in November.

He took his chance really well, though there was a deflection off a defender to slightly take the gloss off it.

Unfortunately, that was as far as it went for Bradley.
He looked certain to score on 3 or 4 more occasions but came out second best to 'keeper Day.
BWP has never scored a hat trick.
He could have had 5 or 6 today but it didn't fall for him.

Now he's got that goal, I'm assuming BWP will start banging them in regularly again.
(Watch out Chesterfield).

A satisfying home win in front of the biggest crowd of the season.
Not a bad day at all.

A Casual Rating.
Today was a fun day out for many people but I'm not sure how many will have been tempted to come again at full price.
A couple of thousand perhaps?

It would be good if we could start regularly edging our crowds up towards 20,000 again.

The Lacoste polo is heading to Morrison for his absolute leathering of the ball to open the scoring.
He also didn't put a foot wrong in defence.

I would have to be completely heartless not to also send one to BWP.
His tireless running for space has finally paid dividends after many games of trying.
Well done Bradley.

The Primark novelty slogan t-shirt is going to the East stand lino.
Charitably, I'll say he may have had the sun in his eyes but we all know he was completely clueless.

Ref Watch.
Today's ref must have looked in the mirror while shaving and said to himself,
 "I really mustn't be swayed by the crowd at Charlton today".

Well, congratulations Sir, you were the epitome of the 'anti homer'.

Frustration at The Valley

Charlton Athletic 1 - Rochdale 1.

While walking home from the Valley this evening, I was thankful I could be back on the sofa so quickly.

The highpoint of my evening was catching the end of Blur's set on television, (playing just a stones throw away at the O2 Arena as part of the Brits extravaganza).

It could have been so different at the Valley.

Charlton had many chances but a combination of solid defending, good goalkeeping and the relative safety of barn doors meant half time arrived with the scoreboard being unmoved.

The second period was one of those annoying halves when you just know Charlton are only a whisker away from scoring a hatful, yet seemed incapable of scoring that first one to set the avalanche in motion.

Good goalkeeping again helped Rochdale's cause but really, it just wasn't our day.

Charlton haven't played with anything like the panache we were witnessing in the first 3rd of the season for quite a few games now.

That free flowing spirit is missing and results are being ground out.

Personally, I don't really care too much as long as we are in a position to leave this league at the end of the season but I'm really hoping for a little more enjoyment along the way.

It's not too much to ask.

Hamer had been a relative spectator until he had to pick the ball out of his net.

To say the Rochdale fans went wild would be an accurate description but it was rather like watching a celebration with the sound turned down. 

The picture at the top of this piece gives an accurate representation of their numbers having been taken about 3 minutes before kick off.

The Dale supporters deserved their chance to go crazy but it was short lived as Kermorgant scored a peach of a free kick only a couple of minutes later.

Surely we would now push on and win it?

Well, no.

Charlton limped towards the end of the game, never quite believing the ball was going to make it into the goal.

There were a couple of good chances, a goal mouth scramble where maybe 3 times the ball could have been poked in and a few more chances that made me shake my head as the referee decided rules had been broken in the build ups.

BWP had more efforts on goal today but again, his much desired first goal of 2012 has yet to arrive.

It was all just a little flat tonight.

On tonight's evidence, I'd imagine the scouts from Stevenage will be feeling an organised and disciplined performance on Saturday will be enough to take the points.

With one of the biggest crowds of the season expected in a few days time, it would be rather embarrassing to remind all those stay aways why they don't come anymore.

Let's hope for a rocking atmosphere on Saturday that hauls the team out of the present doldrums. 

Trannies 1- Addicks 1.

I missed very nearly all of the game yesterday, due to having a 'family day'.

With the games coming thick and fast, it didn't seem much of a hardship to forego the long trip up to the Wirral, or indeed, an afternoon giving myself an ulcer listening to the CAFC player service.

Of course, I couldn't pretend the game wasn't happening.
My iPhone has a way of interrupting all activities.

Even though I was helping my niece choose some new trainers, I still had the opportunity to exclaim a short "bugger!" as the ifooty app let me know we were 1-0 down.

The Marina at Brighton is a lovely place to while away the time, sipping long drinks, maybe a spot of shopping or having a snack.
Unfortunately, when the weather is poor, like most of England, it is a windswept, cold and miserable place.

I could hardly bring myself to have a look at the yachts, which I usually really enjoy, it was that soul destroying.

I returned to my sister and her family's home in time to listen in to the last 15 or 20 minutes.

It seems I happened upon our most impressive part of the game.

A strong finish always feels better than a poor one.

Congratulations to Michael Morrison. I've now seen his goal and he took it well.
The point he won us can be added to the pile as we push on towards our target of promotion.

I looked at one of the betting websites yesterday morning and by transferring odds to percentages, it would appear we are now assumed to be 95% assured of promotion!
It'll have reduced now I suppose after 'only' a draw but betting on Charlton to go up, really isn't the way to make any sort of money.

It's a short rest before we are all back at the Valley on Tuesday evening.

See you there, assuming the mad dash out of work goes to plan.

Jackson Breaks The Franchise Hearts.

Charlton Athletic 2 - Franchise 1.

It was a happy St. Valentine's Day for the Charlton supporters who received a pass to attend the game.

After two weeks without action, and that last game being a home draw, it was good to get back to winning ways.

Charlton won the game due to two moments of lunacy from Franchise players.

Mackenzie had already had a chat with the referee, leading to a yellow card, for going in excessively hard while attempting to win a header.

Most intelligent players would have taken it easy for a while and tried to keep their head down after the yellow.

Mackenzie chose to completely self destruct.

Franchise cleared the ball from their penalty area but Mackenzie decided to carry on playing the hard man towards Kermorgant.

He only has himself to blame.
He leaned forward and motioned to headbutt the Frenchman.
Kermorgant stayed on his feet but the damage was done.
(I can only imagine the reaction and rolling on the floor if it had been Nicky Bailey in big Yann's position!)

I'm not sure why but I hadn't followed the ball and saw it all as clear as day.
I was very surprised the referee had witnessed it but amazingly he did!

A red card and a penalty followed.
1-0, (Jackson).

Only a few moments later, Danny Green absolutely leathered the ball from around 40 yards out.
It hit the underside of the cross bar, and a goal mouth scramble finished with Alan Smith bringing down Jackson, resulting in penalty number two.

Jackson tried the other side of the goal with the same outcome.

2-0.

Unfortunately, 2-0 up against ten men meant that complacency spread like a virus through the Charlton side after the break.

The normally rock solid Morrison miscued time and again, players gave away possession and the simple things weren't done well.

Charlton were poor but good enough to win the game, despite Bowditch scoring a consolation goal with only 3 minutes to go.
Again, I felt Hamer may have stopped it but in fairness, he did manage a point blank save in the first half.

Had the visitors goal come sooner, it would have been a bit more of an anxious end to the evening.

A poor game that will soon be forgotten but the 3 points are very useful towards the ultimate prize of promotion.

A Casual Rating.
A low crowd which just goes to prove either
a) how romantic Charlton supporters are or
b) how under the thumb Charlton supporters are.

Franchise brought very few supporters but those that came seemed to be having fun, using the huge space available in the Jimmy Seed to do a conga and have a bit of a disco.

The Charlton support weren't really bothered, other than when the Franchise keeper appeared to carry the ball over his line.

The North Upper obviously weren't sure what had happened and needed things clarifying, so they chanted towards the linesman:

"Lino, Lino, your account?"
.... or something like that.

There were some average displays this evening but Danny Green is receiving the Lacoste polo, purely for his magnificent long range effort.
Skip Jackson can have one too for keeping his cool and scoring both of the penalties.

Ref Watch.
Referee Stroud could have given two penalties before he finally got around to awarding the first one.
I was impressed when he spotted the off the ball shenanigans.
We've certainly had worse this season.
I'll give him 7/10.
Franchise can't complain about the penalty decisions.


The league table certainly makes good reading just now.

Bluebell Railway.

This is just a quick post, attempting to keep everything ship shape and in order.

On Saturday, while many Addicks were bemoaning the rather late decision to delay our game up at Chesterfield, I had cakes on my mind.

We went for a trip on a steam train, for Afternoon Tea, to celebrate a very special person's birthday.

I know as an Addick I'm supposed to be a bit of a train spotter but it really and truthfully wasn't my idea.


I had listened carefully to the unbelievably obvious hints about "what I'd love to do one day" and got my act together to book.

Despite us being there to celebrate a birthday, with the date so close to February 14th it was assumed everyone was there as part of their Valentine duties.

Hearts and flowers were the order of the day but we didn't mind.

If you've never been to the Bluebell Railway, I heartily recommend it.

It's OFF.

It's another football free weekend for the majority of Charlton supporters.

The cold snap has claimed our fixture up at Chesterfield, meaning our rivals will get the opportunity to claw back some points, though obviously we will have the games in hand.

Personally, I feel it was rather poor form to expect a night of -10 C temperatures to improve the quality of the pitch.

Surely it would have been in everyone's better interests to call off the game yesterday?

My thoughts are with those 1,300 + Addicks, the players and club officials who had a completely wasted journey.

So, Tuesday it is then for our Valentine's day rendez-vous with the Franchise.

See you there, weather permitting.