Quarter Final Failure

Sheffield United 2- Charlton Athletic 0.

The dust has now settled and I can put my thoughts in order with regards last weekend.

The final score pops up on my iPhone.

Phwooaaar!!

If you were there on Sunday, you know what happened.

If you weren’t, and you’re reading this, then it’s highly likely you were either watching the events on BT sport or you were following the game on t’wireless.

5,300 followers of Charlton made it up the M1 for a midday kick off on a Sunday, when public transport wasn’t an option on the day.

Oop North.

Oddly, pre game, I didn’t speak to anyone who fully believed we were going to edge past Sheffield United. The best most people were prepared to acknowledge was “we have a chance”.

In truth, we really shouldn’t have been there at all.

I sat next to Hungry Ted at the Oxford game, shrugging my shoulders as Charlton performed the traditional CCCC – (Charlton Cup Competition Capitulation), players trudging in at the break 2-0 down.

That should have been it.

A Yann inspired comeback gave us breathing space to try again at their place. Then we went up to Huddersfield, then Sheffield Wednesday, both places I was expecting us to get a whupping.

Yet somehow Charlton won through.

So we found ourselves in a Quarter Final. One game from Wembley.

New Wembley is a place our neighbours Palace and Millwall have both recently had days out. Just maybe we could have one too?  

The last 8 of the FA cup had been unchartered territory since I flew from Gatwick, on a Charlton chartered plane, to see us play at ‘Boro.

We took a ludicrously large following that night considering the distance.

As ever, the Charlton support left the ground downcast after Jimmy Floyd Piggybanks had shown he was just ‘too good’ for us.

“If only we had a player like him”, I remember thinking.

History was to prove me a pretty bad judge.

Charlton are not a ‘big’ team.

We don’t win cups and we don’t generally perform that well in the league. We are a mid table second tier club who have at times, over achieved while at others looked rather hopeless.

Nobody is going to support Charlton in this city if they are a glory hunting pot chaser.

Despite this, we have a healthy support, though it’s obviously dwarfed by the Premier League clubs.

A 'proper' football stadium. I rather like Bramall Lane

Despite my protestations all week that I ‘knew’ we’d lose, I also knew that it was our best chance to visit Wembley in a long time.

I wasn’t alone in this. That’s why so many people felt hurt and upset at the rather feeble performance on Sunday.

At half time, the only kind thing to say was that as poor as we were, Sheffield United weren’t punishing us and at least we weren’t losing.

I said to Crispy and Ted that I believed the first goal would be the winner. Neither side looked like scoring at that point.

Harriot missed (what looked from the other end of the ground) an absolute sitter with the ‘keeper on walkabout. He only had to get the ball on target.

He didn’t.

That was our chance. Within a few minutes, United had scored, then scored a killer (jammy) second goal within another minute,when the ball deflected off Wood.

Game over.

Sheffield United looked like world beaters, Charlton looked like a team who were just begging for the referee to call time.

The Blades were worthy winners and deserve their day at Wembley.

As ever, Charlton had taken me to the closest point, where I almost let myself believe something good might happen, then ripped it away when it was within touching distance.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

When was the last time we took a ‘large’ following and the team responded?

I remember being in a crowd over over 4,000 Addicks at Leyton Orient in League 1 when we roared the team to victory.

Is that it?

Pretty pathetic really.

 I strolled into work on Monday morning to be met by caring and understanding people who all expected me to be rather downcast.

I wasn’t.

I’d had a rather exceptional weekend away with friends.

Charlton Boys on patrol. L-R Al, Me, Crispy, Jim. (Bolts and Ted out of shot). Photo by Ted.

If it hadn’t been for Charlton Athletic, it’s highly unlikely we’d have all been up in Sheffield on a Saturday night, enjoying what the city has to offer.

'interesting' artwork on the wall of the DaDa bar

We drank some of the finest beers I’ve had in a while from some great pubs, that weren’t hampered by the London prices we are used to paying.

When was the last time someone handed you a fiver and expected you to buy two drinks with it?

Before last weekend, I think it was about 1992…. ;-)

A round of 6 beers, (some of them rather show off craft efforts) could be paid for with a £20 note.

My kind of town.

We talked rubbish, we drank beer, we laughed, we attempted to buy each others clothing, (hi Bolts), we found a curry house where none of the staff were Asian, we rapped Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash to the annoyance of taxi drivers and finally went back to our hotel to sleep it off, safe in the knowledge we had a huge breakfast buffet to get stuck into in the morning.

A glorious sunny Sunday morning in Sheffield.

Then we went to the football………………

Jackson Does It Again!

Charlton Athletic 1 - Sheffield United 0.


For the first 20 minutes of the game today I thought Sheffield United were the better team.

They came to London and most certainly had a go.
The park the bus tactics of Tranmere or Oldham weren't for them and they played some good stuff in the early exchanges.

Charlton hadn't really got going when a free kick was awarded for a foul on Hollands around 20 yards out.

We debated if Jackson would be the taker or maybe Yann Kermorgant would be given a chance to reprise his effort at Yeovil.

Johnnie Jackson stepped up and proved (to ex CAFC Miguel Llera among others), that last weeks perfect strike wasn't in any way 'lucky'.

Last weekend at Sheffield Wednesday, Jackson picked the spot in the top corner to the 'keepers left.
This week it was top corner, to the right.

I never thought I'd see a better Charlton free kick taker than Claus Jensen.
It now seems Claus has been equalled.

The rest of the half was quite a lot of huff and puff but neither side managed to find that final killer moment.

The second half came to life with around 15 minutes to go.
Charlton's Daryl Russell and United's James Beattie came on as substitutes.
We chuckled when Crispy christened Beattie 'Maureen Lipman'.

Little did we know that both players would be making brief appearances.

Russell came in for a couple of harsh challenges, nothing too strong but enough for the very fussy referee Deadman to hand out yellow cards.
Soon after, what seemed to be a well timed challenge, this time by Russell, had the referee waving his red card.
Astounded wasn't the word for it.

Having seen the incident again and checked @MiserableOlGit's picture, it really does seem to me like a decision that was perhaps made in haste when a deep breath might have been needed.

Red card?

In the aftermath of pushing, shoving, pointing and posturing I'd completely missed 'Maureen' getting stuck in.
He was shown the red card too.

We had absolutely no idea what he'd done but we were pleased that if we had to go down to ten men, then United had suffered the same fate.

After the game, some pretty graphic pictures emerged of Beattie trying to become the South London strangler.

He only has himself to blame.

The final 5 minutes and added on time weren't as nervy as they might have been.
The defence stood solid and even though the Yorkshiremen pushed forward, they hadn't brought their shooting boots.

Chris Powell was applauded from the pitch, the referee was given the bird from all four sides of the Valley.

A Casual Rating.

Sheffield United are the best side to come to the Valley in my opinion.

 It's a shame for them that they left pointless, yet the anti football of Oldham etc. have managed to grind out draws.

Johnnie Jackson is my MOM for his wonder goal and naturally is receiving the Lacoste polo.

Charlton weren't quite clicking today.

The defence are working well as a unit, the link play between midfield and the forwards is fine and the forward runs of Wiggins, Solly and Green are going well too but it just isn't quite flowing properly.

This all means nothing of course as Jackson's superlative free kick was good enough to win any game, at any level.

I'd settle for 1-0 wins in a similar fashion over the next few months but I still think there's more to come from this team.

Ref Watch.

Mr. Deadman arrived with a reputation for handing out cards and he didn't disappoint on that score.

He lost control in the final stages when both teams were angry at the sendings off and attempting to kick lumps out of each other.

I hope he's not on the list for another Charlton game and that is probably my final word on the subject.

Charlton Too Hot For The Blades.

Blades 0- Addicks 2.

As London basked in the most glorious heat wave today, how did I choose to spend my precious free time?

Wearing just a pair of shorts, I lay on a towel, spread out on the sofa, with a cooling fan clattering near my head.
My MacBook was 'tuned' to the commentary provided through the Charlton website and I had a large bottle of Sprite to work my way through.

I'd started off thinking I'd sit outside to listen to the game but after a short walk to buy a newspaper and then a trip to the bins, I realised I'd be more comfortable indoors.
Phew, What A Scorcher!

I heard Gravesend had broken the record temperature for October, touching 29.9C.
The lady on television had helpfully explained that because Gravesend is 'near London', it often comes top of the the temperature charts, as London's warm air is blown down to Kent where it arrives at the town.

Needless to say, South London itself was unseasonably warm. Going through the area around Blackheath Standard (in my air conditioned car) felt like cruising around a Mediterranean village in high season such was the prevalence of short dresses, summer shirts, shorts and flip flops.

Up in Yorkshire a well refreshed Charlton crowd were certainly 'up for it' if the various twitter messages were to be believed.

The first half, just as at MK Dons, was largely forgettable from an Addick perspective.
It seemed as if Sheffield United were the better side and probably should have been at least a goal up at the interval.

The game changed when Hayes came off for our new Breton hero, 'Kermit' Kermorgant to score with his first touch.
The commentators had been suggesting Green should come on for an out of sorts Waggy but Sir Chris had a moment of inspiration and sent the Frenchman on instead.

The #cafc hash tag went into meltdown, only for it to happen all over again a few moments later when BWP scored our second, after what sounded like a bit of a defensive cock up.

We reminded each other he's "Better than Shaun" and I could clearly hear those 1000 plus Addicks at Bramall Lane agreeing with the sentiment.

Despite our recent record when defending two goal advantages, Charlton managed to hold on, (to the delight of the worldwide Addicks using their 140 characters to continue praising the team).

In added on time, United could have scored a consolation but managed to hit the post instead.

At the beginning of the week, I'd have been most excited if a crystal ball gazer had let on that we were about to gain 4 points from two tough away games, only conceding once, (and even then not from open play as MK relied on a penalty).

We are now sitting pretty at the top of the pile, 5 points clear of our nearest rivals.

Heady times for Charlton supporters.