Valley Floyd Road.........

my only desire !

20 years back then and appropriately enough Brighton are our visitors. Aside from the many connections in terms of playing and managerial staff, their shared dislike of our neighbours and their former homeless situation makes them most welcome guests.

The many years of exile at the awful Withdean Stadium have been put to the back of their collective minds as they now play in the rather splendid Amex Stadium.

Enough of them and their ground. Saturday is all about The Valley and the celebrations of returning home some 20 years ago. Many thoughts for us all as we cast out minds back to that day. A day that wouldn't have possible without the efforts of so many. Glavanised into action a fantastically well run and organised political party ( as good as any other ) emerged and became the focal point for fans. Allied to that was the iconic Voice of the Valley fanzine, it was in its time the only way you could really know what was going on. As Rick alluded to on Charlton Life yesterday...........this sounds unnervingly familiar some 20 years later. 

All of which ultimately delivered the one true goal, we were back ! The game was second to the result, a win was all we wanted and in typical Charlton fashion it was a thumping 5-0 or similar but a nervy 1-0. However, in some ways it made it even sweeter as we just went beserk at the final whistle !

Hungry Ted suggested applause at 3.07pm to mark the time of Walsh's goal and a good idea too that, I note it seems to be taken up by the club and will happen......great stuff !

As for the game I think it's to fair to say that we can expect to do much better than the last time the Seagulls visited and delivered a football lesson ( with Kish at its heart as I recall ) with a comprehensive 4-0 win that could have been even more. Poyet does get his teams playing some nice football and let's hope we get a good one on Saturday as a result.

Brighton seem to have a few injuries although no doubt they'll have cleared up come Saturday ! However,  Lua Lua has a court verdict hanging over his head and may not be right to play. Dunk got suspended last week at Palarse.  Wayne Bridge may return though and the classy Craig Mickail-Smith will no doubt lead the line although he's not on a hot streak at the moment and we will, of course, hope that continues.

For us Morrison will return from the stands and it is to be hoped that Fuller and Haynes are both fit. Sir Chris will, at some stage, need to decide on the best pairing up front. That's not an easy one to call.

Wilson may be fit but if not and Green not given a go then I see no harm in playing BWP wide right. He has enough pace and trickery to do a reasonable job there and he must champing at the bit to get on the pitch almost anywhere I'd have thought.

Saturday promises to be great in terms of emotion, atmosphere and passion. Let's hope we can all deliver and " send us all home happy " ! 

Come On You Reds !