3 In A Row.

Swindon Town 0 - Charlton Athletic 3.


How long ago that rather embarrassing spanking, at home, by high flying Brighton seems now.

Tonight, Charlton won their third game 'on the spin' as the pundits say.
Nine points from nine, (or nine points from twelve if we include the Brighton game), has sent most Addicks into a far more positive place when concerning the way our season is heading.

An early strike from Jackson was the club's 5000th league goal but it was Joe Anyinsah's header that really looked to have put Charlton in command, only six minutes after the restart.

Paul Benson continued his rich vein with the wrapping up goal on 74 minutes.
There was no chance of blowing it this time from a 3-0 position and Charlton ran out worthy winners.

There's now a break for Cup Action before the visit to Peterborough.

I'm really looking forward to Barnet now.
I've no idea how many people will be travelling from South London but it's sure to be more than the 429 who braved travel chaos in London to head to Swindon tonight.

Well done to all who made the trip and I hope your journey home isn't too awful.

Charlton - Swindon thoughts

I've just returned from a Sunday morning amble around the district.

I don't normally head to the Valley unless it's a match day or I need to pick up tickets for away games but somehow this morning I was drawn over there.

Despite tickets for our crunch game with Swindon Town, (tomorrow, 7:45pm), having been on sale for around 2 weeks in one form or another, I was (pleasantly) surprised to see a steady flow of punters turning up to buy tickets.

One feller seemed to be holding at least 5 as he walked away from the Commercial Centre*

*That's the ticket office to you and me.

The picture was taken at 10:20 am and though it's not heaving, I was surprised to see anyone there at all.

While we have clearly been seen by many as a big fish in League one, we also seem to be constantly beating ourselves up over attendances at the Valley.

The fact is, we are highly unlikely to be selling out the Valley again unless we start to climb up the divisions.
We might get close, but I feel 27,000+ is asking too much for us while we are a team in League 1.
Other teams from one or even two club towns and cities might manage it but we have far too much local competition.

As a one off, tomorrow evening should generate a large gate but I still don't think a sell out is likely.

As for the game against Swindon, they are in the driving seat and we need to let them know we want it more than them right from the off.

I'd be prepared to come away from the Valley disappointed if I truly believed that everyone had tried their hardest and there was nothing more that could have been done.
After the Norwich game I was proud to support Charlton, even though we had lost.

I'm hoping of course that we can beat Swindon, I know it's more than possible.

However, should the season end tomorrow evening I don't want a Summer of 'if onlys'.

I want to remember a brave performance with everyone fighting for the cause and the crowd being supportive, even if we go behind.

Half Time Break

Swindon Town 2 - Charlton Athletic 1


Our 'live on television' jinx continued last night in the countryside of Wiltshire.

I had a deep sigh of relief typing the score just now. We are still in the tie, despite being battered for much of the game.

We were a very second best for the first half at the County Ground but I consoled myself with a half time pint of Fuller's London Pride.

Swindon had thrown everything at us, yet we had remained firm, not least due to some fantastic stops by Darren Randolph.

We could hold our heads up. As the away side our role was to soak up the pressure.

Those of us in the Rose of Denmark on Woolwich Road, gasped in disbelief as Nicky Bailey beat the 'keeper, only for his swerving long distance shot to come spinning back off the post.

No sooner had we thought our luck was turning than a poorly defended cross beat everyone, for Charlie Austin to score.
The country boys went mad, only to be sent into ecstasy, (XTC for all you 80's kids!) less than ten minutes later when Danny Ward caught us napping at the back and accelerated past our defenders.

2-0.

Bugger.

The Rose of Denmark became a seething mass of ugliness as angry patrons shouted their displeasure.

I exchanged SMS messages with Crispy.
We both felt the tie was now dead.
Ketts, (at the County Ground), stated he felt it was now even more important we scored so we'd have at least something to bring back to London.

The Rose of Denmark erupted when a long hoof by Randolph was raced onto by Deon Burton.
He showed bravery to beat the onrushing 'keeper to the ball and nod it into the yawning goal.

(The gods of symmetry sent London Pride onto my trousers and then Crispy announced he'd nearly wet himself.)

The rest of the game was a far more cagey affair with Swindon worried they were going to blow it and Charlton worried to leave too many gaps at the back.

Swindon should really have restored their 2 goal cushion late, late into added on time when Vincent Pericard managed to miss an absolute sitter, sending his free header against the base of Randolph's upright.

Phew.

I walked home feeling mightily relieved that Swindon weren't out of sight.
They most certainly looked the better side and had far more shots on target, yet we had far more corners and our possession in the second half, according to Sky, was at times a 60:40 advantage.

Swindon will be on a high after their impressive performance.

However, it's only half time and we have at least another 90 minutes to earn that trip up the Jubilee line from North Greenwich.

Parky knows what we have to do.

Attack! Attack! Attack!

We need to push forward and show the same kind of purpose shown recently against Norwich and Leeds.
I'd give Mooney the shove, bring in Forster, (who apparently 'always' scores against Swindon), move Bailey into the middle and Kyel Reid onto the left, sacrificing Racon.

Just my opinion of course but we all know there's no point in sitting back.

Home advantage worked for Swindon, we need to make it work for us too on Monday night.

See you there!

Casual Rating
Deon Burton for his bravery and Darren Randolph for his stops are earning the Lacoste polo this time. Well done fellers.

The dreaded Primark novelty slogan tee shirts are going to the supporters of Swindon.
 -The television close ups of their crowd made it look like they all have loyalty cards at budget shopper paradise Matalan anyway ;-)

I can't have been the only one who found the incessant 'clackety clack' from their strange cardboard contraptions unbelievably annoying.
Grrr!

Charlton (9 men) 2- Swindon (12 men?) 2.

A proud record at the Valley was upheld yesterday.

Most of us are aware that 'Fortress Valley' has not been breached since March 2009 but another record, going back much further, was kept intact due to Llera's last gasp lob over the onrushing David Lucas.

Crispy's daughter Hannah was present for the visit of the Swindon Robins and she has the enviable record of never having seen Charlton lose!

Get her a Season Ticket Crispy!

As the clock ticked into added on time, we all feared the inevitable.
The scenes of jubilation around 3 sides of the Valley really did come from deep inside our souls after what had seemed an unlikely comeback only moments before.
 I defy anyone not to scream like a banshee after experiencing anything similar.

Charlton started off the game completely in control. Burton missed an absolute sitter when he headed over the bar from an unchallenged position.
Burton has been 'Mister Consistency' lately but yesterday he not only let himself down, he also let his team mates down.

The referee had an absolute stinker yesterday.  He sent Sodje off after only 20 minutes, though for around 10 of those he had been off the pitch anyway having his head stitched up.

Sodje's challenge may have been 'wild' but as Crispy said at the time, perhaps his reputation for getting sent off preceded him. The straight red did look harsh but these things happen. It seemed an odd position to perform a last gasp challenge, (just outside the opposition penalty area), but SS dived in and didn't get much of the ball. The referee made no friends but it was an understandable decision.

The referee was at least half to blame for Burton's dismissal.
Had he had his eyes open, he would have seen Akpo Sodje clearly fouled inside the penalty area.
Burton decided he would remind referee Miller of his duty to control the game, rather than just jog around, trying to work off his Christmas dinner. Burton was duly carded.

Shelvey put the Addicks one nil up with a very well placed shot from distance and despite their superiority in numbers, Swindon were chasing shadows.

Unfortunately, with only 5 minutes of the first half to play, Burton had a moment of madness and made the most obvious attempt at pushing the ball past the keeper with his hand.

The referee put down his white stick and gave Burton his obligatory second yellow card, meaning we were down to 9 men.

At 10 against 11 players, I still felt we had more than enough for a very poor Swindon side. With 2 players having an early bath it was going to be tough leading to impossible.

The second half should have been a walk over for Swindon but they created very little. They scored 2 goals but neither came from stroking the ball around in an attempt to tire our side, they just came from us not having enough players to cover all the options in our own penalty area.

Parky should be praised for really giving it a go and sending on Dickson, McKenzie and Wagstaff to give us some bite and legs up front.

The game seemed to be up as the clock touched 90 minutes.
I thought to myself that we may have lost but we haven't really been beaten. Despite being 2 players down, we had fought and showed resilience that none of the Charlton Pardew teams even hinted at.

Then the most dramatic of endings that had supporters hugging and high fiving all around the Valley.

Swindon should be ashamed of themselves.

A Casual Rating
The Lacoste polo shirt is being awarded to all the Charlton players, (except Sam Sodje and Deon Burton), who ran and ran and made us all proud to 'be Charlton'.
The crowd were, as usual, fairly slow to get started but by the second half, were really getting behind the team despite the setbacks.

The Primark novelty slogan tee shirts are awarded to Sam Sodje and Deon Burton for losing us the extra 2 points.
At 11 v 11, Charlton would have won at a canter against a poor side. As it was, it became a very tough game.
The referee is getting another Primark tee shirt.
He entered into the spirit of the Disney link up with Swindon by being completely Mickey Mouse.
He might have had little choice with the sendings off but for the rest of the game he was almost Swindon's best player.
He broke down Charlton attacks to stop play, he waved play on when there were obvious fouls and throughout the entire game, never gave Charlton the benefit of the doubt in a 50:50 decision.
Even had he not reduced Charlton to 9 men, he still would have been complete pony.