Outclassed

Charlton Athletic 0 - Nottingham Forest 2

So, "Where have you been?" is the question precisely nobody has asked me since my last post.

To answer the question, I've still been at all of the CAFC home games, a few aways, plus a trip to Lille to see LOSC, a few exciting non football day trips and stopovers blah, blah blah......

In an effort to fight off the label 'ex blogger', I'm now scratching my head and wondering how I used to just pick up my MacBook and tickle the keys to produce a posting.
It seems a little too much like a chore just now.

Yesterday was one of those 'typical' Charlton supporter days.

Over the years, I've become used to the pre/post match meet ups and libations being the best part of a day, -the happiness only tempered by having to watch my team balls it up for a period sometime in the middle.
The Rose of Denmark was full of familiar faces on both sides of the football sandwich.

Luckily for me, I have the ability to retain the joy of a win for the rest of the weekend but a defeat is fairly quickly consigned to the "Ah, sod it, there'll be better days" department of my brain.

As a Season Ticket holder at the Valley, that's quite a useful quality to have this term.
Four from seventeen is not the kind of record to be flagging up when you're trying to promote next season's sales, so good luck to whoever it is that has to come up with a groovy gimmick to get the half hearted supporters committing to more of the same.

Forest arrived yesterday, high on the dismantling of Huddersfield just a few days before.
We should have been equally confident after an unexpected but totally deserving win away at Leicester the same night.

It quickly became evident that there was only one team in it.

It wasn't us.

An established Championship side with skill and guile throughout, Forest barely had to get out of first gear to dispatch a weak and error strewn Charlton performance. Barely an attack from those in red all game and any transference of possession to Charlton was usually just a precursor to one of our heroes giving it straight back again.

Games Charlton have lost recently have usually been rather unlucky, where just one or two moments of skill or bad judgement have decided a game where we had at least been making some decent chances.

This was not the case yesterday.
Charlton were still at 0-0 but being outfought all over the pitch when the turning point came.

***Now I'm writing this without looking at any television pictures so I fully admit I may have got it wrong, but from my view, Halford had been annoying Kermorgant all afternoon with snidey kicks and shoves. When he came in quite aggressively, then shielded the ball away from Yann, the Frenchman waved his leg a bit. It wasn't an attempt to clatter him, just a frustrated swing of his boot.
(I repeat here, I could be wrong).

What happened next though I'm 100% sure of.
Halford reacted like the frightened housewife seeing the mouse in her kitchen in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, launching himself skywards, falling with a twist, then ascending from the floor with anger to square up to Yann, pushing him in the chest.

So far, a yellow card each seemed to be the correct decision and let's get on with the game.

The Forest players had other ideas and came in on mass, bundling into Yann, pushing and shoving, pointing and gesticulating.

Oddly, the linesman over on the other side of the pitch was the only official who seemed to know what had happened and after a discussion with our hapless referee, Yann was off.

Well done to the Forest players. They'd completely bought that red card with all their chicanery. Halford got off scot free which did seem rather wrong, especially as he had promoted the whole melee with his over reaction and pushing of Kermorgant.

We'd probably have lost even with 11 players but with 10 it was just a question of how long we could hold out.
We were unlikely to be producing much upfront with our major threat now luxuriating with his Lynx shower gel beneath the west stand.

The fact that Charlton managed to hold the score to just 2-0 was very pleasing, especially with Andy Reid dictating play with some amazing through balls for his colleagues.

The goals when they came were disappointing.
The first came after another fantastic Reid pass but the scorer seemed to pull Wagstaff back in order to get the space he needed to shoot.

The second came when the referee decided there was no foul on a bundled over Dervite and let play continue.
 The referee was not to blame though for the goal 10 seconds later. A tame shot bobbled through to Hamer who didn't even need to dive. He could have just taken a step to his right and scooped the ball up.
Unfortunately he didn't, then let the ball squirm out of his grasp for the easiest tap in goal you've ever seen.

Hamer has been a strong player for us this season and has made some point saving stops but he was at fault for this goal and he was at fault for the 1-0 defeat at Hull.

As a goalkeeper, there is nowhere to hide.
He realised he'd dropped a clanger and for the next 10 minutes he looked a complete liability. He'd lost his cool and I was sure he was going to do something stupid.

The game ended with probably around half of the announced attendance still inside the stadium.
So many people had left it seemed more like a home game for Forest.

They brought a large following who were up for it.
It's not the nearest club to the Valley but they packed out the Jimmy Seed like few other clubs have done this season.

I like Forest. They are a 'real' club with 'real' supporters. They've had the amazing European adventures  that I remember cheering them through via (rare in those days) televised games as a schoolboy.
They've also had the downward spiral of relegations that we know so well, yet they still retain that 'Big Club' aura that more recently successful clubs will never attain.

I was very impressed with Forest yesterday, though I must say I was bitterly disappointed by the abundance of tights being worn by their players.

I can't imagine ex Forest hard man (and fan of excellent music) Stuart Pearce would have let that go on if he'd still been around the dressing room.
Primark novelty slogan t-shirts are being awarded for that discrepancy, with the Lacoste polo going, of course, to our ex hero Andy Reid.

Bring on Burnley!

Yeeeeeeessssss!!!

Watford 3 - Charlton Athletic 4

I'm often reminded just how little I know.

On New Years Eve, a brief chat with a Charlton supporting neighbour had me pontificating sage like, (on the back of a defeat to Ipswich and a draw against Derby).

"I don't know why I'm bothering to go to Watford.
We are going to get over run in midfield and I really can't see where our goals are going to come from".

Hmm.

We didn't just score, we scored 5, (though one was chalked off for an invisible infringement from our end of the ground).

As has been highlighted elsewhere, Watford have changed from being a team famous for a rather agricultural approach in the way they hoofed the ball forward and clattered opponents with their elbows and shoulders.
Their current mode of playing the game is certainly slightly more easy on the eye but totally despicable and absolutely everything I despise about the modern game.

Watford are lucky to have some fantastically skilled and pacey players on loan to them.
These players should have had me purring with admiration while also feeling a touch jealous that we hadn't managed a similar link up with Italian club Udinese and others.

As it was, I felt proud to be following a team who while being no angels, certainly don't use trying to cheat as a way of beating their opponents.

Forestieri got sent off for 'slipping' (HAHAHAHAHA) in the penalty box at The Valley.
He has learned nothing in the intervening months.

If he tried to stay on his feet he'd be a world beater.
Unfortunately, his way of playing was to push the ball into space, run onto it and hope he got 'touched' so that as those idiots on MOTD would say, he'd be 'entitled' to go down.

No he wouldn't.

It's cheating and completely anti football.

If it had just been Forestieri who wanted to stretch the rules, it might have been almost acceptable but unfortunately there were incidents all over the pitch.

I lost count of how many times players in yellow fell to the floor, holding their face after challenges were made.

I loved Zola as a player.
I've always really disliked Chelsea but I was able to see through the veil of distrust to admire his honest skill and endeavour.

This makes it all the more distasteful to witness Watford's current tactics.
He's obviously coaching the team to cheat.

Shame.

Sometimes events were so amateurish in their execution, I almost forgot to be angry.

Step forward number 5, (Neuron?) who walked into the back of Fuller, then threw himself to the floor, attempting to get him sent off.

The same cheating basket was touched so minimally around chest height, yet fell to the floor as if he had been shot, holding his face.

His mum must be so proud.

The game itself was one where we went behind according to the script I'd predicted, then equalised, then went ahead, then lost it a bit and went behind before finally Captain Jackson sent the Addicks behind the goal into raptures with a powerful header.

Due to the dubious tactics employed by Watford, it felt so sweet to give them a beating.

I loved the fact that the two attitudes on display had ended up with, in my opinion, the 'right' one prevailing.

In general, our players looked to stay on their feet.
Fuller could have gone down 3 times in one move but didn't, then laid on the perfect cross for a goal.

Pritchard was being clattered but he didn't lie down and cry.

It was ironic that after all the Nancyboy rolling around on the floor claiming elbows and palms in the face from the Italian softies, it was our own Lawrie Wilson who had to go off with a broken nose!

It took rather a long time to get home from Watford.
Transport was working fine, it was just that we all felt it necessary to ease our dry throats in Watford town centre and later Euston.

Thanks for a grand day out Crispy, Jim, Rod & Al.
Thanks too to the Charlton team.
A day to remember.

One final note of thanks must go to the referee, Trevor Kettle.
We've not had the best of relationships but yesterday, though he did fall for a few episodes straight from the RADA handbook, he was generally no worse than any other referee we've had and much better than most.

I really didn't expect to be saying that!

Happy New Year to all Addicks and others.

Grimacing in the Rain

Charlton Athletic 1 - Ipswich Town 2.




The score line hints at a close run game.
It wasn't.

Ipswich were handed the win in the first half by a lukewarm Charlton performance.
They didn't need to raise their game to beat a very poor Charlton effort that lacked any kind of spark.

Congratulations to the Ipswich supporters who made it to the Valley on a day when there were no tube trains running and overland trains were not stopping at Charlton.

We had a similar state of affairs when we played at Portman Road.
On that day the train line between London and Ipswich was being worked on.
I know this effected our turn out, even though it wasn't a nasty rainy day when people might want to stay at home with their families.

We should have been 3-0 down at halftime.

Frimpong made a stupid challenge- just the kind I was warned about by when he arrived by an Arsenal supporting friend- and Lee Martin who made a name for being a Tom Daley when he was on loan at the Valley didn't even need to pretend.

As solid a penalty as you could ask for.
(Nearly as solid as the one we were denied at Sheffield Wednesday).

DJ Campbell fluffed the kick though and we had a huge let off.

The two goals that arrived before the break should all have been defended better.
A bit of pinball in the Charlton penalty box and some sleepy defending meant the Half Time break couldn't come quick enough.

Stephens had our best chance.
A wonderful free kick curled around the wall to hit the base of the post.
Had Lady Luck not deserted us this season, the ball would have come back to an onrushing forward but of course, it returned at just the wrong angle to be useful.

Pritchard and Jackson appeared for the second half.
Jackson could have scored with his first touch.
He was just shaping to nod home an inswinging cross when Fuller got in his way and the chance was gone.

Pritchard was lively and linked up with Haynes well.
Solly had more chances to run forward as Ipswich looked to protect what they had.

When Solly was upended and Haynes stuffed the resulting penalty high into the net Charlton should have pushed on.
Ipswich looked rattled for the next 5 minutes but our players didn't look capable of taking the initiative.

The East stand linesman was in dreamland for much of the game, missing clear touches of the ball to award throws the wrong way and lifting his flag for offside even when defenders were covering.

As rubbish as he was, he had no effect on Charlton being beaten.

Ipswich are one of the weakest sides I've seen this season yet they didn't have to do much to grab the 3 points at the Valley.
They've improved 100% since Millwall Mick took over but I can still see them around the bottom come the end of the season.

Unfortunately, we'll probably be there too but as I said at the start of the season, anything better than relegation is what I'm after.
This is a consolidation season for us.

It's not as much fun as last year when nearly every game was one we were at least likely to win but that's what you get from moving up a division.

So, a poor turn out on a poor day to witness a poor performance.

There'll be better days.
We just have to Keep the Faith and remember what a fantastic season we had last year to get us to this position.

Season's Greetings

I've had a bit of a blogging hiatus over the last few weeks.

Since our game at Millwall, I've been ridiculously busy at work and home.
The prospect of spending time in front of the old MacBook, chucking out my platitudes connected to a draw against Brighton and two away defeats up North didn't figure too highly on my list of priorities.

Today is Christmas Eve and for the first time in a while I've had time to kick back and take it easy.

My main reason for writing something on here today is to say a big THANKS to all the Addicks (and followers of other clubs) who have taken the time to read my thoughts over the last year.

When I started this blog, I made a conscious decision not to include a counter recording how many hits I received.
I'm a fairly competitive person and I knew I'd end up writing stuff just to bump up my figures rather than because I had something to say.

I can of course, check up very easily on how many people have swung by, as well as whereabouts on planet Earth they were sitting but I don't have this information on general display.

Today, I was astounded to read that over 1,300 people had clicked onto Charlton Casualty between midnight and 2pm, even though I hadn't written anything for ages.

So again, thankyou everybody and roll on the 'Tractor Boys' on Boxing Day.

Happy Christmas.

A South London Love In.

Millwall 0 - Charlton Athletic 0.

Sometimes, as the calendar swings into December, you are forced to acknowledge the neighbours you try to forget for most of the year.

You may even find yourself having to visit them, if only to remind yourself what it is about them you find so repellent.

They of course think of you as soft, well spoken nerds, only concerned with the minute details of life.

You look down on them for still having that pile of dog crap on the living room carpet, 3 weeks after it was dropped.

On a totally unrelated subject, yesterday Charlton went to Millwall.

Now Millwall have a reputation for being pricks but yesterday, before kick off at least, they seemed to be making the right noises and had decided to call the game Jimmy's Day.

Millwall had their biggest crowd for a generation, (remember families have a quick turn around in those parts), and there was barely a gap to be seen at the Tool Box beyond the areas forcibly kept empty.

Before the game started, I noticed there was something 'different' about the Charlton support.
Nobody seemed even remotely intimidated by the feral locals.

When they sang "No one Likes Us" we joined in, pointing out exactly why.
When they did their "Miiiiiiiiillllll" chant, we joined in, adding Joey Deacon style hand movements.

Charlton are a family club.
We pride ourselves on having women and children as part of our support, as well as welcoming new comers from everywhere.

Yesterday, there was barely a woman to be seen near me and certainly no children.
Around 3,500 mostly blokes, all intent on giving it back.

This Charlton crowd were not going to be a push over.

The teams came out and I realised i was in the thick of it when a few seats away a red smoke bomb went off.
The taste stayed with me for a while.

I'm not a fan of smoke bombs but I can't deny it looked absolutely magnificent.

Yes, it's childish and dangerous and copying the Italians, (not to mention those from Norwood ) but for 40 seconds or so, it was the focus of the entire ground.

The Millwall fans were livid.

The game itself is easy to summarise.

Millwall, as the home team and on an unbeaten run were in command for long periods.
Charlton, without the suspended Morrison and injured Fuller had set themselves up to 'not lose'.

Many would say Charlton parked the bus and it wouldn't be too far from the truth.
The Charlton performance was all about solid defending and this was done in spades.

Charlton rarely threatened the Millwall goal.
Millwall were by far the better team yet ended it with just a point.

A point away from home is never a bad result and when our previous diabolical performance at the same venue is added into the mix, it felt like a win.

We could have nicked it of course with a couple of breakaways but they came to nothing.

With around 8,000 day trippers added to the regular Millwall support they had to learn quickly what to shout.
They seem to have decided upon "Handball!" which was bellowed with gusto whenever the ball went off the deck, near a Charlton player.

Their players seemed to have a problem with gravity too.

Comical.

When the game ended, it felt good.

We hadn't crumbled and could leave with our heads held high.

A few more coloured smoke bombs were launched at the pitch which seemed to wind up the Danny Dyer wannabes to our left.

We had green laser pointers shone in our eyes, bottles and coins thrown at us as well as a few seats.
Needless to say, there were missiles returned and for a while it got a bit lively.

Last time we went to Millwall, we were penned in after the game.
This time there was no such event.

We came outside the ground, into the darkness with the Charlton support bellowing "We're the Red and White Army".

This was no time for shrinking violets.

As the two sets of supporters converged, I bumped into Jim and we hastily decided upon a drink.
We snuck away from the main body of Charlton support, heading directly into the mass of Millwall.

We kept our eyes down as we went by a self styled Millwall 'general' commanding their support to "Stick together" and seek out the Charlton.
He could barely focus he was so full of anger.

Silence from us as we walked through the hundreds of Neanderthals, all hopping mad that Charlton had come to their patch and forgotten to break down and cry.

Eventually, we jumped on a bus on Old Kent Road, heading for a drink near London Bridge.

Some pints of Doombar, Sambuca, a telling off from the bar staff for singing loudly and a good laugh ended the evening in time to fall asleep in front of Match of The Day.

An old school football day.

I wouldn't want it every week but it was fun yesterday.

Casualty Rating
Millwall were on top for most of the game but didn't really make Hamer work too hard.
This was due to the immense defending from our team, especially Solly and Cort.
Both were stars for me, though I also appreciated hearing about defender Michael Morrison being in with the Charlton support along with John Sullivan.

Good work fellers.

Wet Weekend

Charlton Athletic 1 - Huddersfield 1.

The weekend started off in fine fashion on Friday evening.
Along with Al and my sister, I was at KOKO in Camden for the Wedding Present crashing through the final date of their Seamonsters tour.

I bought the Seamonsters album when it came out in May 1991, (on cassette!) then upgraded to a CD version just a few months later.
Due to multiple home moves, both copies went missing so I ended up buying a newer version a couple of years ago that has some extra tracks added.

I was pleased that none of the 'extras' were played when the band decided to play the album live.
It wouldn't have felt right to me.

Twenty odd years ago, I ended up having to look after a hamster.
Due to a series of events not worth going into on here, the owner ended up leaving it with me long term.
I renamed it 'Gedge' after David Gedge, the lead singer of the Wedding Present.

Before the show on Friday, David Gedge, (the real one), was hanging around in the foyer so Al went and shook his hand, as did I.

Unfortunately, (as younger sisters are expected to do), I had my veneer of cool completely shattered when she told the bewildered bloke he'd had a rodent named after him.

I tried to laugh it off but I was really struggling.

The show turned into a CAFC love in when Louis and Martin spotted us in the Muppet Box we'd strolled into, (well nobody stopped us), and came to join us.

More drinks at the Cittie of Yorke on the way home ended a good evening.

The Valley wasn't a nice place to be on Saturday.
The wind and rain lashed across the pitch and it seemed impossible for (those players from the North) to stay on their feet.

For a team of supposedly hardy tough nuts who look down on us Southern softies, they did spend rather a lot of time rolling on the floor.

The sending off they received may have been harsh in retrospect but in real time, from my angle, it looked a fairly good decision.
I couldn't give a toss at the time though as I was remembering how we'd been well and truly 'Trevor Kettled' by the most appalling refereeing up at their place last season.

They had won 1-0 due to a penalty, (not debated), a sending off, (maybe the right decision but their player had to go too) and the referee being almost their best player.

Perhaps this was a little piece of justice?

Huddersfield are a strong side and looked dangerous going forward but especially in the dicey conditions looked a bit shaky at the back.

Hulse scored after a well worked build up and from that moment there looked like only one possible result.

Fuller seemed to have doubled the lead, and made sure of the 3 points, but the ball squirted agonisingly inches wide with all around me celebrating then grabbing their heads and sinking back down again.

Charlton fannied around instead of pushing forward and we felt sure that at just 1-0 Huddersfield were going to get at least one more chance or there'd be a defensive mistake that could prove costly.

As the clocked ticked towards 90 minutes it seemed as if the storm, (at least the one on the pitch) had been weathered.

Unfortunately, probably due to the extremely inclement conditions, Hamer spilled one and there was a big scramble in the Charlton penalty area.

From our angle it was impossible to tell what had happened but suddenly the referee was walking away and pointing to the penalty spot.

It would seem that Solly was penalised.

Those with a better view than me said it was a soft decision and just the kind of evener a referee might give if he was having doubts about the legitimacy of the earlier sending off.

Huddersfield were probably worth the point they gained but it was extremely frustrating for Charlton to drop 2 points so close to the end.

A few drinks in the Rose of Denmark after the game made the result sting less of course.

We'll all be looking for a reaction on Tuesday evening against Peterborough.

A Casualty Rating
He went from 'Dench' to 'Drenched' in his Charlton debut.

 I was very impressed with our loan from Arsenal, Emmanuel Frimpong.
Up until he left the pitch with what looked like cramp, he had been the midfielder I've felt we've needed this season.

I'm hoping he'll be available for Tuesday and especially our visit to the neighbours at Millwall next weekend.
It's probably not his style but I'm awarding 'the 'Pong', the regularly handed out Lacoste polo.

DENCH?

Yeah, me neither.
Apparently we have signed Frimpong on loan & he's fond of Bond films or something.