A great professional performance Charlton 1 Stoke 0

If only- If only we had played like this at the beginning of the season we would be 10 points clear by now. A great all round team performance and patience is definitely a virtue as the players and the fans needed an abundance of it last night. Great support all night and Pardew acknowledged it several times in this pulsating game. All the players deserve at least a 7 out of 10 rating and many deserve more. The statistics will surely show 70% to 30% possession rating in Charlton's favour as they dominated without punishing Stoke at the final hurdle, but thank goodness justice was done in the end. Don't get me wrong Stoke are a good physical Championship team but lack class which showed on the pitch and on another night they may well of snatched a point which they clearly came for with their early match time wasting. This Charlton team are the youngest I can ever remember and great team spirit is very evident . This match was massive for us and the after the final whistle blew Pardew jumped in the air and the players ran to Weaver to congratulate him, as a few minutes earlier he had made a fantastic instinctive save from Fuller at point blank range. A big credit due to the goalkeeper and the back four who stood defiant against a very physical Stoke team. If there is any criticism, we tried to walk the ball into the net with very clever play instead of having a shot when in good positions.

Weaver 8 For long periods of the game was idle but when called upon made two great saves in the second half.
Youga 8 What a player very confident a real find
Bougherra 8 Great game and rose to the challenge
Moutaoakill 8 Another great young player with bags of potential
McCarthy 9 Really settling down now and he could prove to be Pardews best buy
Sam 8 Tricky Dicky with the ball and gave the Stoke defenders a hard time
Holland 9 Along with McCarthy my man of the match -ran his socks off and his distribution was spot on.
Zhi 7 Good game but not at his best-Unlucky when his shot hit the post in the first half
Ambrose 7 Again a steady performance and looks more up for the challenge
Gray 7 Will take time to settle but will fill the Tordorov role very well. Missed a couple of good chances
Iwelumo 7 Tries and tries and won quite a few balls in the air
Subs
Varney 8 His pace made all the difference
Thomas 8 Held the ball up well when needed -He has so much class but does not always use his head.
Semondo 7 Must be hard for him as he is out of favour

The big game is nearly here

First things first, Frankie' s gone and a great big void has been left . The obituaries for Frankie have been muted to say the least, as though he is just on holiday and will start posting again any moment . We still have the overseas contingent, but Frankie was the Number one Uk representative. Oh well he retired whilst still at the top .
Looking forward to Tuesday's game against Stoke and in my last Tennis match against Canterbury, whilst discussing football over lunch in the bar, one of their players confessed to being a life long Stoke supporter and as a kid watched Stanley Mathews . Bet there are not many of those about in the South East!
The big game for me is on Friday the 8th against the resurgent Palace and I'm hoping we will give them a right royal bashing -on the field that is, not on the terracing. Where I live and play tennis there are number of Palace fans and they have been giving it large, so please Charlton, do to Palace what we did to West Ham last season.
Free weekend and its a pity we are not playing Peterborough, but promotion is our main priority.
The sun will be shining on Saturday and an early morning game of tennis will set the day off nicely.
Fantastic results in the Australian Open over the last couple of days and the women's final looks very interesting with the best looking girls on the circuit playing each other. Lobs will be at a premium when you consider Sharapova is 6ft 2ins tall and Jankovic is over 6ft 1ins.
Finally Federer has been beaten on a hard court by Djokivic the no 3 seed who will now meet the unseeded Mohammed Ali look alike Tsonga












Come on You Reds

Faith restored -bloody brilliant Charlton 4 Blackpool 1

Great afternoon and what entertainment and that's why I pay my hard earned pounds to watch a great game of football . A big thank you to Blackpool and its supporters, who came to play open football and also supported the one minute clapping for the Charlton faithful who died last year. It was brought home to me at half time when I heard someone in the queue for a drink say to her friend " I started to cry because a work colleague's name came up on the list but laughed when someone next to me said thank goodness my names not on the list".
The match, the best I have seen this season and the most enjoyable. Pardew what a great bloke, after Charlton went 2-0 up he waved to the North Stand to acknowledge the drummer who had been beating it from the off. If we can build on this then the future is bright .
The team today looked young fast and enjoyed their football, the spirit looked the best all season. Charlton's play was fast and furious and they created several chances before Bougherra's majestic header from an Ambrose corner. The second was a great finish from Varney who ghosted into the box. Burgess scored a magnificent goal for Blackpool from a 20 yard volley to make the home fans nervous before Zi who had a fantastic game scored a third from a scramble in the box. 3-1 at half-time a fourth was needed to make us all relax and Zi dully obliged after a |Bougheera header came back off the post. After a few scares in the Charlton box we strolled it and should have scored at least another two goals . Blackpool never stopped attacking which made for a great open game of football, which could have easily ended up 7 -4 .
Footnote: It was great to see the team play so well without the influential Reid.
Optimistic for the final push- you bet I am.
Come on you Reds.

Weaver - 7 No chance with the goal and overall had a good game
Youga - 9 The crowd love him and Im not surprised what a confident and stylish performance
Bougherra 8 A good game and looked dangerous at free kicks and corners.
McCarthy 8 I like him and hopefully he can cement his place in the team.
Moutaouakil 8 Fast and great on the ball
Holland 8 Did not put a foot wrong
Zi 9 My man of the match -was everywhere and scored two good goals
Ambrose 7 This guy has class but does not use it enough
Sam 6 A bit disappointing
Varney 8 The best game for Charlton so far
Mcleod 6 Tried and tried but lack finesse on the ball
Subs all 6 Thomas Dickson(who has great pace) Iwelumo
The Ref 9 Let the game flow
The crowd 8 Responded well to Pardews supposed dig.
Come on you Reds.

New Year Blues and the FA Cup

New Year has left me feeling a bit flat, which could mean a number of things, No 1- Charlton struggling No 2- Heavy work load producing year-end management accounts, which can be good or bad, 50-50 at the moment . No 3- more likely
its the weather, as I selfishly love cold frosty weather with a bit of snow thrown in, but alas our weather now is mild, damp and dark, unlike these pictures taken 21 years ago in the depths of Kent. Two and half feet of snow with 20 foot drifts fell on the North Downs and many villages were cut off for a week, even Central London reported a minimum of -9c . Hey ho, those were the days when men were men and winters were real -Blast Global warming. Chicago- as reported by Chicago Addick has just received record snow falls for December and the large city does not seem to come to a stand still, unlike London when it receives 2" of the white stuff.
Charlton 1 West Brom 1 FA Cup third round.
My excuse for not going yesterday was to to play in a Kent Vets tennis match and enjoy sitting in the bar afterwards listening to all the FA Cup news as it unfolded. When Charlton were in the premiership I really got excited about the cup and dreamt of great Cup runs as it was the only competition we had a small chance of winning, alas it never really materialised even when playing lower league clubs. Anyway the only interest I have now is Charlton getting back to the premiership. By all accounts it was not a bad game yesterday and Keily kept his ex-colleagues at bay most of the match. (why do ex addicks want to prove a point so much, did we treat them that badly!) Dickson could have become an instant hero but missed a sitter. The result nobody wanted and West Brom are favourites now to progress.
Real football starts next Saturday and a home win against Blackpool is an absolute must.
Come on you Reds.