14 Days

it's nearly a fortnight !

 

 

And they say a week is a long time in politics ! Casting your mind back to how you felt after the Boro game and it seems almost a lifetime away. The whole outlook has changed and very much for the better. Just a look at the league table is enough to confirm that.

 

It goes a lot further than just that of course. I had genuine fears for Sir Chris's position and wondered if a couple more defeats might see the end of his tenure. Not something that I want to see. As I said SCP has made mistakes but is too intelligent not to learn from them. The last 3 games have shown that clearly he has. I worried about the reaction of those in charge of our club with SCP being a slightly more isolated figure following recent departures.

 

Those fixtures have also demonstrated that whatever eleven players he sends out onto the pitch, he'll get the most out of them. His man-management skills have been acknowledged before but I believe they've been in evidence more than ever in recent weeks.

 

The gaffer has, of late, shown that he is not afraid to ring the changes and his use of subs has markedly improved too. He has selected some teams that have raised my eyebrows to almost Roger Moore levels and yet more often than not they've come up with the goods.

 

Sir Chris has also revealed a more hard-nosed approach as indicated yesterday when Eggert was removed early in the second half. Not only a necessary change by the sounds of it but a sound tactical one too.

 

We all knew that the Championship is a much stronger one than that which we left a few years ago. We all knew that for most of our side who'd not played at this level it was going to be a big step up. Now it seems that the managment and players are adjusting to it and starting to acquit themselves admirably.

 

If Sir Chris carries on like this he might become something of a Charlton legend ! ;) We can now look forward to the upcoming games with Huddersfield and Peterborough with a lot more relish than we did as we departed the Valley on 3rd November.

 

A fine performance again yesterday from the lads and they obviously dug deep to get the result. It does seem as if someone needs to take over from Skip for penalty duties. I'm really pleased for Haynes who's on a hot streak at the moment. Let's hope he can stay free from injury. Hulse has shown his importnace to the team and put in some good perfomances.

 

With the prospect of the injured players starting to return soon then the competition for places intensifies which is all for the better of course.

 

Anyone can beat anyone in this league as we've seen but we must surely go into the next two home games with great confidence. Hopefully that will set us up nicely for the game against those folk who don't care about us but will no doubt double their usual attendance to come and see.