Friendlies dont mean a thing

Several years back I still went to friendlies and enjoyed them and in my naivety, when the team put in unbeaten pre-season run I thought that's it, we are going to win the league. Well I have learnt my lesson and friendlies apart from fitness don't mean diddly squat . When on a barmy summer night I remember Charlton then in the old third division beat Coventry, then in the old first Division 3-2 a couple of thousand fans went wild, because at that time it was a big win. Once the season started, all went pear shaped and we finished about 15th .
I'm praying we have a great season and if we don't make it, Pardew is prepared to give it another season.

Gutted -but what is a poor boy meant to do

Well that's it after a few beers I am well and truly gutted and tears are flowing . I am going to miss the first match against the Scunnies. After putting off friends on the South Coast for the last few weeks I said to my wife, what ever weekend you book, we will go . Fatal I know but there you have it. Not only that I'm going to miss a relegation decider against our local team in tennis in the Kent League-bollocks to that as well. Tomorrow I will offer my season ticket to my fellow Addick supporter so at least it wont be wasted for the match.
By the way just seen a great film The Fisher King for the third time -Robbin Williams best performance by a mile, if you have not seen it, its well worth watching
Come on you Reds

Palace supporters are having a laugh

My last post has suddenly received 4 replies from what I can only assume are Palace supporters on a wind up . The intention of the post was actually trying to bring us or myself down to earth and not have the high expectation and the assumption of automatic promotion. If they had read all of my post they would have realized the obvious.

Lets face it were already promoted

Its a fact, why the opposition will even bother to turn up next season is a mystery. The expectation is rising and I can feel that anything but champions is going to be looked up on as utter failure. Depending on how many read my blog , I would love to know bloggers and readers opinion as to where they think we are going to finish. The honest truth is, this team now, has no resemblance to the previous team that got relegated with Curbishley. At that time he was a genius in my eyes and the team he put together on a shoestring, had a combination of skill, grit and great determination . Curbishley bought very wisely and until he was suddenly presented with a big budget, after the Parker sale, really didn't make a bad deal. Young a lot of money but proved himself in the end . Euell three great seasons as top scorer but what went wrong, we will never know. Deano, Kinsella ,Robinson fantastic. Andy Hunt what a great free
The best of all our hat-trick hero Clive Mendonca bought for £50o,000, or not a lot more, although he didn't really feature so much in our promotion season.
As I got back from work in eager anticipation of seeing my season ticket . My daughter had opened the envelope on my request, when I phoned from work, so I knew it was there, I cant pretend , anything but promotion is going to be devastating to me. The bad old days haunt me, like , when I used to hide behind the sofa watching tales of Mystery and Imagination, if anyone remembers that black and white tv series, I will be utterly gob smacked.

Team spirit will see us through

This is what I expect from our boys next season . Australian rugby league player Ben Czislowski has been playing for four months with an opponents tooth buried in his head. After several stitches put in a head wound after a clash of heads with (Matt Austin, who lost several teeth and broke his jaw), later suffered an eye infection and shooting pains, until a doctor discovered the offending item .
Seriously though, team spirit this season is going to be so important and the deciding factor in a successful campaign. It will be very interesting to see what team Pardew puts out against Scunthorpe, who will be hungry for an ex- premiership scalp on the opening day. There should be a good away following so I expect a crowd of over 24,000. My team for the opening day is
Weaver Moutaoukil McCarthy Diawara Gibbs Walton Reid Holland Thomas Dickson Varney
Subs : Randolph Bougherra Iwelumo Todorov Ambrose
Dickson has and is looking very promising and could be a great surprise this season, another Ian Wright in the making -you heard it here first.
Mad Dog Walton will be the steel in the middle and protect Reid to strut his stuff.

COME ON YOU REDS

Konchesky to Birmingham -Maybe

Steve Bruce has admitted to the media, that he is interested in signing our old favourite, Paul Konchesky . West Ham have asked Birmingham to double their offer from £2 million to £4 million which I think is ridiculous considering the poor season he had. On Talk Sport a few months back before West Hams dramatic revival Konchesky came under considerable criticism from the West Ham supporters. With Konchesky I have always thought he has an abundance of talent and a great left foot, but spoiled by such a bad attitude. It would be amazing, if West Ham Get £4 million for him.

My faith in humanity has been restored

Late yesterday afternoon, as I rushed to play a Kent tennis match, I had to get some petrol and filled up with £55.00 worth . To my horror the only Debit Card that I had with me, was rejected and the man behind the counter, who was most unhelpful, threw the card at me and said its been rejected you have been spending too much money today. Actually I had used the card earlier to pay for the final balance on my Mums funeral costs. Not telling him this, as it had already hit a raw point I went into panic mode, because if your late for one of these Kent matches you get docked a set which would have upset my tennis partners and been unfair on them and my club. Having pleaded my case and offered £20 cash and my mobile phone, which was flatly refused I had no alternative but to phone my wife and ask her to meet me at the petrol station, which would have taken 20 mins thus meaning, our club effectively forfeiting the match. Then out of the blue a man who was queuing behind me, said "don't worry mate I will pay your bill" and gave the garage cashier his card . At this time I was close to tears, as it was just an unbelievable act of kindness. Shaking his hand, I asked for his number and this morning I have spoken to him. His first word were " I hope someone would do the same for me " . Having now transferred the money into his Bank this morning I have wondered , how many people would do such a generous act and also be embarrassed by all the thanks I gave him.
My wife, my kids, people at the tennis club all think how wonderful.

Weaver will become the new Deano

You know why Weaver signed, he wants to make a point and have the last laugh. He is going to prove us all wrong and I predict he will be a hero by the end of the season . Trying to work out a nickname, but nothing comes to mind . Even on the City Board, who incidentally rate Weaver quite highly and the majority are sad to see him go, do not call him anything other Weaver. The only nicknames I can come up with are derogatory like Lardy, Fat Boy Slim , Porky, not a great choice and very unpleasant to Weaver, if the choir were to sing that to him. The best thing for him to do is slim down, so we don't recognise him and we could then call him !!!!!!!!!. Todorov, if he stays fit could be the best bit of business Pardew has done so far. Lets hope Pardew has saved up the remaining budget to splash out on that midfield Dynamo we so desperately need. Must be in positive mode to write a post like this.
Come on you Reds.

Greenwich Park and a walk to the Dome

More than two weeks ago, we visited Greenwich before the Monsoons arrived, which has hijacked our normal Sunday walks. Greenwich is one of my favourite places outside the centre of London. It has a fantastic park, great history, the river and most importantly of all, pubs you can relax in and watch the world go by. We never tire of Greenwich and on this particular visit, we did something different. We drove to Blackheath on the edge of the common, parked the car on the road next to the entrance and walked through the park towards the river. The picture above was taken from the hill next to the Old Royal Observatory and overlooking Canary Wharf, the Royal Naval College and the Maritime Museum. If you walk towards Canary Wharf past the college, you will reach the River and the first pub of note, The Trafalgar Tavern- Dickens favourite Greenwich Pub and written about in his best and my favourite Dickens novel, Our Mutual Friend. Turn right at the Tavern and follow the Thames Pathway signs to the Millianium Dome . The start of the walk is very pleasant and the views of the Thames and Canary Wharf spectacular, but after the last watering hole, be warned, it quickly becomes very industrialised and the factory smells are unpleasant . The walk it self is still fascinating and I am hoping that Greenwich council will invest funds to treeline more of the walk . To reach the Dome, it is a one and half mile walk. On our return, we stopped at the Cutty Sark Tavern and had nice pint of Real Ale whilst watching two fisherman, trying to catch Eels and Dace in an ever cleaner River Thames . It took us 4 hours to walk about 5 miles and that does include a couple of pub stops.

How many is a Brazillion