Charlton Athletic 0 - 'Boro 0
I'd been watching the Ryder Cup and had to tear myself away from events up in Scotland to head to the Valley for the visit of 'Boro.
For long periods of the first 45 minutes I wished I hadn't bothered.
Many of the away fans had enjoyed an HMS RoD style journey to the game via a Thames pleasure boat. They certainly looked and sounded well refreshed once they made it to the Jimmy Seed stand.
This is not to be considered anything other than a personal view and there will be many people who will think I'm way up my own bum when I say it but Middlesborough has over the years become my baseline assessment for crap towns.
Everyone has their own views on places.
I grew up chuckling at the comments by WC Fields who at every opportunity poked fun at and noted the lack of excitement and beauty to be found in the city of his birth, Philadelphia.
He quipped that on his grave stone he'd like to have "I'd rather be living in Philadelphia" and that a first prize in a competition was a week in Philadelphia, second prize was two weeks in Philadelphia etc etc.
Needless to say, I spent what was quite possibly the time of my life and loved very nearly every minute of my time living in the City of Brotherly Love so it's all down to personal preference.
Having said that, Middlesborough has become my own lowest of the low in a long line of places I'm glad I don't live.
There'll be many (thousands) of people who love it there but I didn't.
As a football team, they've given us the run around over recent years and we haven't beaten them since Darren Bent was leading the line for us.
They also sold us the biggest of pups, (though actually he came on a free transfer), when Jimmy Floyd Piggybanks waddled into the Valley to collect vast amounts of cash for doing quite a lot of pointing at positions on the pitch he'd like the ball to be delivered, then failing to get his gargantuan rear end to travel anywhere near said position.
I can recall absolutely nothing of note about the first half except I was getting rather tetchy about the referee. It took him half an hour to make a decision in Charlton's favour.
Middlesborough were 100% on top though but luckily they were very poor in front of goal.
The half time break will probably have to be filed under 'One For The Dads' as a group of pretty girls stretched, pouted, shook their hair and played a rather over elaborate game of Ring a Roses in front of the Family Stand.
I've nothing against pretty girls, (natch), but it did seem rather 'Palace' and not really what I want to see at the football.
Maybe it's the future but I don't like it.
Having said that, I'd rather have a whole troupe of dancing girls waving their bits at half time than have to endure the G*al M*s*c that seems to be all the rage at clubs with fans who have to be told when to and how to cheer.
The second half started much like the first, though Charlton gradually came back into it and probably should have won.
The final quarter of an hour was highly entertaining, in complete contrast to the rest of the afternoon.
Key incidents included Wiggins being Karate kicked in the same manner as the plump Palace fan who annoyed Eric Cantona, leading to Adomah getting a second yellow card.
The referee got himself into a bit of a fix as he seemed to be sending off the 'Boro player while also saying he'd won a free kick, so we had a good chant about his parentage until we realised he just didn't know his arse from his elbow, or in fact the way the teams were kicking when doing his arm signal.
Bikey had a rather foolish player run into him.
He obviously came off worse, as I would do if I ran into a parked Ford Mondeo.
I wouldn't try to claim the Mondeo had deliberately clattered me though.
The 'Boro fans saw it differently of course and booed him whenever he played the ball.
The pantomime season started early as the Charlton support cheered his every touch and the atmosphere got a bit lively.
Adam Clayton is still the nasty piece of work he was at Huddersfield.
He went around trying to remove player's shin pads with his studs just as he did for the Yorkshire team.
We had a smile remembering how it took Dale Stephens, who nobody would ever remember as an 'enforcer' to put him back in his box.
Stephens really should have been given a red card that day but it was pure karma that he didn't after all the 'previous' Clayton had got away with over 3 or 4 fixtures.
New Charlton player Bulot hit the inside of the post with an acrobatic effort. It deserved a goal but it wasn't to be.
In the closing minutes of the game, Wiggins and Wilson both came close, Wilson's shot in particular had me already up on my feet celebrating but some tremendous last ditch defending from 'Boro kept Charlton out.
At half time I couldn't see us getting anything from the game unless we changed things around.
At full time, I was disappointed the 3 points hadn't been grabbed.
So, having traveled to Lille to see 'les Dogues' of LOSC grab a point in an actually quite exciting 0-0 draw with Montpellier last Sunday, I now saw my second 0-0 in a week.
I can't imagine Charlton's next fixture at Norwich will be 0-0, though that would be considered a massive success.
Still unbeaten heading to the end of September?
I'll go for that.
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