That's better

Strangely quiet at the valley at the weekend possibly the hangover from the Bolton conspiracy and the tail end of last season. I know the west stand is normally quiet but it was almost arsenal like on Saturday. The standing up side of football is limited in the west stand due to collective shyness and the leg room, in the north stand its normally stand up if you love dvt. But apart from the ever vocal e and f blocks even the north seemed quiet but this is not a reflection on the teams performance (which I will go in to later on). I believe the hush was due to a overpowering and it would seem smothering sense of expectation. Charlton are on the brink of moving on to that fabled next level of 'proper' premiership clubs. We are no longer recently promoted, no longer lucky through the playoffs, no longer scrapping through by the skin of our teeth. We are Charlton. Note no preceding 'plucky' or 'little old' we are Charlton premiership club. I think this realization has finally arrived to the majority of fans hence the great weight of expectation. Over the past two seasons I feel the focus of the club has changed, luckily the club realized this first, in fact seems to driving the changes. The long feared spectre of financial worries and having to leave the valley again has finally receded in to the background. It will always be there, which in my eyes is a good thing the old cliche of' the benefit of experience'. That collective fear is what keeps the club progressing in the way that it does. It makes it easier to run the club sensibly can you imagine the outcry at other clubs such as spurs (always good at moaning) or the hammers if an offer for a 48000 seater stadium (at the ill fated dome) was flatly turned down straight away. Why the fans asked? We would have to sell the valley and not be our own landlords replied the club, enough said, move on pay of some debt add a new stand slowly building up. This season however the acquisitions we have made in the summer has brought the realization to the fans that after steady progress over the last 10 years there maybe a chance of some dividends, a little bit of sugar on this season. This explains the devastation felt by us after the Bolton game and the nervousness at the Pompey game. We are so close and things seem to be going well everybody is dreading the unknown, getting nervous seeing major problems where they are just teething troubles. I feel we can have cause for some mild optimism this season we are only three points off the top so the title not out of our reach yet. As you can see expectation also fosters blind optimism.


The feeling of unease was not helped by the up and down performance by the team on Saturday. It will how ever take time for the team to adapt to the newcomers and visa versa , when they click boy its going to be good. Rommedahls run in the second half got me excited its nice to have a player who can only be stopped by giving away free kicks and the countless passes that were played in just behind him gives me confidence when they know each other better he is going to become a real threat. His defensive frailties were noticed but then again Claus only tackled twice in four years. Den (see he is a mate already) just needs to be shown how to get back they don't practice that at all on the continent, so fair play a problem that can be solved. Murphy* is a good solid player with undoubted talent ( he was Liverpool top scoring mid-fielder for the last three seasons ) but I feel he needs to play in the centre where he can push forward in to the box and not leave the wingback exposed. Hughes was on the bench which baffled me a bit seeing as Rads was being used in midfield. Perhaps Hughes may not have the tackling ability of Rads but from the Cheivo game I know he definitely has some good passing ability. But that's not to suggest the suns star man Rads shouldn't be there its just that every pass and tackle with him seems to be with a 50/50 chance of success. Well it adds to the excitement and his enthusiasm is appreciated. The front two did okay lisbie it would seem was a different player from the Bolton game but that is relying on other peoples verdicts as I mentioned in a previous post firebrand lager did my post match analysis for the last game. Bartlett always seems to try even though his touch is occasionally a little heavy but I like him, all the strikers though are playing their skins out with the threat of Jeffers hanging over them. When he came on within about a minute he had a crack from 25 yards. So more to be encouraged about. Jason Euell put in a good performance and took his goal well I hope his involvement with the Reggae Boyz adds to his game. A quick word on the officials, the lino on the west touch line was awful I think he will be in the coca cola quicker than palace but the ref was good enough to cope with this handicap. Finally to be honest as good as Bergers goal was our second was even better because they all count and we scored twice as many as they did. I don't care what the papers say we deserved it.


P.s. Forever charlton is the best website on the net cheers to them and inspector sands at all quiet... You type away in a darken basement its nice to know someone reads it.


P.P.S A quick word on women's beach volleyball is nice to know that the endeavor and hours of training that is put in by the players is recognized by making it an Olympic sport. Why wait for four years to congratulate these fine athletes every Saturday there is 15 minutes wasted at half time they could squeeze in a quick game and know they are truly appreciated. For christsake Varney look in to it does equality in sport mean nothing to you?

* We've got Danny Murphy! Quality.