Well, Jim Davidson's old joke still applies, except these days it's nil goals conceded !

We looked very lively at times and apart from a couple of scares, and despite the pressure from Preston at times, we did not seem likely to concede a goal.

And what is about Charlton and these last minute goals in both halves. If nothing else, this may stop the early leavers! It must be a new ploy to keep fans in their seats ... and it might work!

Nicky Weaver had a terrific game and is fast becoming a favourite of the Charlton faithful ... who would have believed that a while ago!

As for player ratings:
Weaver - as stated above, had a great game ... and I loved his push on the Preston striker late in the game ... Get Out of My Way!!!

Mills - excellent, very important player for us these days

Basey - may be young, but putting in good displays

Fortune - made some important clearances

Sodje - I like having him in the team, got to buy him before other teams notice how good he is

Sam - excellent down the wing, key player these days

Semedo - still often an unsung hero, great at what he does and makes no song and dance about it
Zheng - improves every game, must be going down a storm on Chinese TV

Reid - not his best game, and a few passes went astray but still the right man for captain

Thomas - one of his best games for ages but went a bit quiet in the 2nd half, extremely influential and scared the Preston defenders

Iwelumo - not many teams know how to deal with Big Chris and played a key part in the 2nd goal

Ambrose - not on long enough to decide

Holland- looked useful

Varney - excellent goal

And the fans ... first class. There may not have been many of you but on TV you came across loud and clear ... well done to those who made it up there.

The next few games look very interesting ... the top of the table at Christmas will give a good picture of how this division will pan out, I think we are only now beginning to gell, and yet we are in 2nd place.

As we all predicted, this is an enjoyable season ... and the final result still looks positive.

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What a ridiculous couple of months. I returned from a business trip at the end of September only to find that I could no longer access the internet.

I use NTL (sorry ... Virginmedia) for my broadband access however they informed me that because my internet service provider is AOL I must call them.

Over the course of a couple of weeks I called the AOL help-desk on numerous occasions (each call taking ages due to waiting in a queue) and received more than a dozen reasons why my service no longer worked, none of which of course placed the blame at their end. At one stage I was informed that my PC must be at fault and I should call the manufacturers. I actually called in a local technician to run a diagnostic test and he found nothing wrong with my equipment at all. Based on this information, I called AOL again and was finally told that the modem software must be corrupted and they would send me a disc in the post. It never arrived and I was then informed that it was not their practice to send such software despite the fact that it had been promised.

At this stage, realising that I was going round in circles, I tried another tack and wrote to AOL Complaints department. They responded very quickly and were a refreshing change to the inept performance of their help desks, and stated that all I needed was a new modem which arrived the next day!

However, the problem did not end there. In order to register the modem, Virginmedia had to come into play ... and they proved to be the final barrier. For whatever reason, the registration did not work.

Realising that I faced a hopeless task, and not feeling like starting the whole process again, I cancelled my AOL subscription and got Virginmedia to set me up with their 4Mb broadband service. I can still access my AOL mail, and the bonus is that the new service is lightning fast. Furthermore, AOL have been kind enough to pay for my first years subscription due to the length of time they took to resolve the problem.

So finally I'm back ... I shan't bother giving updates on the games that I missed posting - plenty of others have done that ... just refer to the links on the right.

Also means that I can finally get back on Charlton Life on a more regular basis!

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I will be away on business for the next couple of weeks so will miss the Colchester and Norwich games ... as with other international addicks, this will unfortunately mean that I will not be able to watch either of the games ... unless I can find an appropriate TV channel in Singapore.



At the minimum my son can keep me updated with text messages ... although with the time difference, I may not be awake for the Norwich game!



The last time I visited Layer Road must have been back in the early 80's. I remember we lost and it was a very wet day which did not help with the long walk from Colchester station. The ground was very basic then (may well still be the case) with wooden planks as terraces.



Will be back the day before the Leicester game and hoping that I have missed 2 wins ... and then watching another one against the Foxes.



I won't be getting my Coventry tickets until I get back so hopefully there will still be some left! Bearing in mind we are getting 4,000 I presume there will be ... but wouldn't it be great if we could sell out without the club having to arrange another 'Operation' day out.



Anyway, c'mon you Reds over the next 2 weeks ... it's gonna seem strange being away and not catching up with games on the TV ... for the last 8 years it's been no problem wherever I was!



Well ... as those of you who have been to Singapore know, at least I'm going to be enjoying a lot of great food!

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What a day!

Met my son at London Bridge and we had a couple of beers in a nearby pub returning to get the train just after 2 o'clock.

Plenty of police at the station but none on the train. The carriage in front of us had a lot of Charlton inside, primarily fans with shirts/scarves and a few kids. No problems until we reached Sydenham ... then it was clear that something had started in the front carriage with a number of Charlton fans moving back having been attacked by Palaaarse. The thing that got me was that the Charlton were primarily young fans wearing colours, no troublemakers at all ... a very cowardly action from the locals. It appears that the attack was a total set-up as the Palaaarse jumped into the train at Sydenham and then immediately left. Surely this could have been anticipated by the police?

In any event, it meant that we were all ordered off the train and told to find an alternative means of transport. With the cab office telling us it would be at least 20 minutes wait, this seemed unlikely. Fortunately the train was eventually moved on and we got on the following train, eventually arriving at the ground 15 minutes late.

Plenty of Charlton there and for the majority of the game you would have thought it was a home match - does not appear to be a lot of singing by the home lot these days. As expected, Jordan came in for a lot of justified abuse.

As often happens with local derby's, the game was not the best but we certainly ensured that the atmosphere was way up.

Weaver had to work for probably the first time this season, and he made at least 3 great saves ... proves he can still play at a good level. In view of our sometime flaky defence, I had been expecting a hatful of goals in this game ... however, the back four limited the home side to only a few opportunities.

The goal was well taken by Toddy but was a prime of example of how direct football can pay results ... a long clearance from Weaver was the impetus for the goal.

Reidy was magnificent, and ZZ initiated a number of good moves. Up front Iwelumo was perhaps unfortunate once or twice, but the prize for worst finish must go to Izzy in the closing moments ... how he failed to score, I don't know.

Danny Mills was not at his best but the way he got stuck in in the last 10 minutes showed he still has a passion for Charlton - he wasn't going to let anything past him.

Brilliant celebrations at the end not only from the fans but from the players and manager as well.

Reidy was going crazy with excitement as was Danny Mills who pulled his shirt off and threw it into the crowd. He even got Toddy jumping around. Pards showed how important this result was for him as well, by joining the players in the celebrations ... you would have thought we had just won a Cup !!!

And with Chrissy doing his usual at the end of the game to the encouragement of the crowd ... oooooooooooH ... you would have thought we were at home.

It's been a great week for Charlton and we are moving in the right direction.

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Great to use a Clash title for this post but it almost seemed that I was controlling the game remotely last night!

Over in Frankfurt this week so I was kept up to date by texts from my son in the Covered End.

I said to him before the game that we would win 4-3 ... typical that I was not there to put a bet on ... the odds must have been terrific!

My texts:
20.05 - enjoy the 4-3 win
20.39 - in response to Todorov scoring, 6 more goals to go!
20.47 - ZZ scores, c'mon Charlton China
21.18 - Stockport score, 4-3 is still on
21.31 - Stockport score again, no surprise
21.32 - Stockport score, noooooo!
21.40 - Charlton score, now annoyed that I didn't get the bet on
21.54 - 4-3, wondering if the bookies will accept that I had predicted the score ;-)

Well so far this season, I've seen 2 games, listened to one on the radio, watched one on TV, and now followed one by text!

Roll on Saturday ... can't wait to get to Selhurst ... may be quite a few goals!!!

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Listening to BBC London on the way back from the match, the reporter made a telling comment. Although the fans had every right to be aggrieved about the first half, they still cheered the team on as they came out for the second 45 minutes. And in his opinion ... which I fully agree with ... the fans carried Charlton all the way through the 2nd half and were at their loudest for some time.

The team were rightfully booed off after the 1st half - a display of such ineptitude it was hard to believe that Charlton had spent so much time in the Premiership in the last few years. I thought we had got rid of all the prima donnas that don't give a stuff, but for 45 minutes it looked like we had another lot left - we could have been 3 or 4 down to be honest.

Not a single player distinguished himself in the first half, yet it was a different team in the 2nd half, not just because Thatcher and Bent were replaced by Zheng and Todorov. It appears that Thatcher received a knock but I am not convinced about him so far this season - he does not have the commanding presence that was so important for us previously - hopefully it will return. Marcus receives his first bad report from me this season, totally inadequate and my son and I even surmised that he may have faked an injury at half time just to get out of the game - probably untrue but it gave that impression.

I have just seen the 2nd half goals on TV and all 3 were wonderful. Chris Iwelumo is so strong that he is going to give many defences untold problems this season - once he has a chance to partner with Varney, we may see a wealth of goals from this Charlton team.

Reidy was fantastic in the 2nd half, following on from his great display for Ireland during the week. We have an excellent captain!

Still very difficult to make a decision on Weaver ... after 3 games I don't think he had yet been tested so we wait and see. Paddy had again a very poor game and seems afraid to receive the ball. I had assumed that Magic would have a stormer against his old team but it didn't materialise ... although a couple of runs into the Wednesday area showed what he is capable of ... and has not yet delivered. Fortune was OK but nothing special. With Moo2 out, defence is going to remain a problem area.

From my perspective, Zheng transformed the game when he appeared at the start of the 2nd half ... we are going to see great things from the Chinese captain at this level ... very capable and set up one of the goals. Semedo is a strange player ... there is no doubt that he brings a lot to the game and is very important to our structure, yet you never really see him doing too much ... not usual in this day and age of player histrionics. Like Zheng, a capable and important acquisition.

Jerome looked good but he may need to cut down on some of the show-boating - of course we enjoy it, but at this level, there will be a few players willing to cut him down to size.

Unlike others, I was not too impressed with Toddy ... I still think he goes to ground too much.

Which brings us again to the enigma that is Ambrose. I seem to say this in every report but he is the most frustrating player ever. At times, moments of sublime skill and confidence, and in the next an error of such extreme that you want to scream him off the pitch. Will the real Darren Ambrose please stand up!!!

After 45 minutes I was dreading going to Selhurst next week ... now I cannot wait ... bring on the Palaaaarse.

As a side note did anyone notice the comment from Reg in the programme that we are seeking planning consent for a state-of-the-art training complex on Heath Farm (by the way, where is it?). Is this the end of Sparrows Lane? ... I guess the land in New Eltham must be worth a fortune.

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I think most of us would have been happy to come away with a point before the start of this game, and at one stage that looked on the cards ... even maybe 3 points.

But the injury to Moo2 gave the Potters an opportunity to break through an unsettled defence and later to grab the winner.

I was a little surprised at the start of the game to see that Fortune had been given a place instead of Paddy but circumstances would prove this to be a good move ... albeit ruined by the injury to Moo2.

Stoke had most of the first half with Charlton only coming into the game in the final third of the half.

Nicky Weaver once again had relatively little to do most of the game so it's still difficult to assess how good he will be for us ... one thing I am not too happy about is the way he punches balls out rather than catching them but that may well have been due to the wet conditions rather than anything else.

Magic is not yet doing what we expected of him and it is another case of wait and see before we can make any real comment. Fortune had a fairly decent game, but Ben Thatcher does not seem to be having the best of seasons ... all too often his clearances were only half-hearted and went straight to a Stoke player.

Our best player, Moo2, had to be replaced early in the 2nd half to a rather rash tackle ... which did not even earn a yellow card for Stoke ... and Charlton fell apart for a while. In fact, I was not altogether convinced with Paddy when he came on ... he has the potential but needs to settle down in this team.

Semedo once again had a game where he does a job but does not stand out too much ... very different to Ambrose who plays the same type of game every match, either getting stuck in or non-existent - he needs to be available for a complete game!

Reidy had a good game being involved in most things including taking the free kick which led to our goal ... claimed by Fortune due to a deflection. But as with Thatcher, there are too many occasions where Reidy's passes go astray.

Lloyd Sam looked good and was a real threat but only lasted the 1st half to be replaced by Jerome Thomas when the players came out for the 2nd half ... Jerome looked OK but I am not convinced that the change was right.

Pards had obviously decided to change tactics at half-time and bring in some height in the form of Iwelumo ... Izzy was the one to suffer and to be honest that probably made sense for this particular game.

Marcus had a capable game up-front but I feel he should definitely have scored - if he is to reach his own target of 20+ goals this season he has more to do ... but as previously stated in other posts, he is a different player to last year and that is a real plus.

I know we need time to bed in all the new players but in my opinion next Saturday is a must-win. Sheff Wed at home is not a game for which we can consider even a draw if we want to be up there at the end of the season.

It's definitely far too early to panic ... Sunderland were near the bottom for a few weeks last year ... but improvements must be evident as the weeks go by to prove that we do have the squad that can take us back up.

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