The Middlesbrough Mourinho

The photogenic Tony Mowbray. A copy of his comments will no doubt be on the dressing room wall but probably not his photo........Sir Chris won't want to frighten the mascots !

Mr Motivator comes to S.E.7 on Saturday. Sadly for him he seems only capable of motivating our boys given his pathetic post match comments following our 2-2 draw with them back in April. 

You don't expect to beat any team in this league not least one that is higher placed and on an excellent run. Poor old Tone, perhaps he was trying to deflect from his side's poor run. The club's website seems to be suffering the same affliction as at the time of writing it records Saturday's 2-1 reverse to Leicester as a 2-0 home win !

The poor start to the season continued on Tuesday when his side went of the Capital One Cup to Accrington Stanley. Post match and one expected Mowbray to borrow the words of Stanley's most fan in announcing that " we flippin' murdered 'em ! ". Defeat on Saturday may see the end of his tenure, what a loss that'd be eh ?

Tuesday night's emphatic win will have given Sir Chris some food for thought although if Skip is fit I'd expect just him and Green to come into the side. As well as all the others did in overcoming Oxford, I'd be surprised if he changed the starting eleven other than that.

On the bench there's every reason to suggest that Church and Pigott may find themselves a place. I was impressed with both of them and would like to see them given every opportunity this season.

I'm off to Colchester Zoo tomorrow which I'm looking forward to as it has a good reputation. In preparation for Saturday a visit to Chimp world would seem to be in order. If we win on Saturday then perhaps the press room at The Valley will resemble Chump world as Tone tries to explain away another defeat.

Come On You Reds ! 

Church Double Leaves Oxford Without A Prayer

Super Simon wins over the Valley faithful

Things didn't look good as the train journey from Milton Keynes was beset with delays that meant my appointment with with a pint or two of Harveys best in Greenwich was a good 45 minutes later than it should have been. Fortunately the Addicks cheered me up later with a fine performance that secured a win. 

The club website promised a couple of changes to the side that played on Saturday. A couple clearly being a euphemism for ten then as only Hamer remained from the eleven that began the campaign at Dean Court.

It's a rare that one is able to report on a comfortable cup win for the Addicks but make no mistake, this was just what is was. When compared to other, and perhaps more fancied sides that exited the competition last night and with more senior players, then it reflects well on our boys.

Oxford never really got going or threatened and you'll find more flair in a pair of Oxford bags ( sorry ). However, they had made a couple of changes themselves and as was shown on Saturday, they will do well this season. Clearly in Potter they have an exciting and attacking player, sadly we didn't see much of him.

Oxford did have a few chances and couple fell to Constable ( wearing the number 9, surely he's lacking another couple of 9's there ! ) who sadly for the U's shot wide.

As I noted before, Sir Chris had to balance the desire for a cup run against the need to keep his regulars fresh for the game on Saturday. He got it just right yesterday.

Clearly the team had been instructed to play a patient, passing game as we prodded and probed for openings. Sadly a few Addicks desired more direct approach but when we did do this long balls were mopped up by the U's and possession surrendered.

I can't think that any player had a bad game. Captain Cort put his body on the line a few times as he led by example. Wood didn't put a foot wrong in tackling well and was commanding when heading the ball. Church showed good awareness and movement and of course, bagged a brace.

I'd not seen young Pigott play before, however, I now fully understand why folk are so fulsome in their praise of young Joe. He really does have some promise and I hope we get to see him at the Valley for a good few years to come.  

Church's first goal on 18 minutes settled the early nerves for us supporters, if not the players. It appeared to come from rebound off Pigott that left Simon with the goal pretty much at his mercy. He fired home comfortably to get off the mark in his Charlton career.

The rest of the half witnessed more patient play from the Addicks with a splattering of half chances for both teams. A goal late in the first half or early in the second is always good and Green provided just that on 48 minutes when his low driven free kick went through a sea of players to find the back of the net albeit possibly via a deflection.

It was just reward for Danny who was impressive and I hope he retains his place for the visit of Boro.

You'd expect to find a Church on the end of a cross and on 53 minutes we saw exactly that as Pigott delivered one but sadly Church had lost his way and was unable to convert from 6 yards. Salvation was just around the corner though as on 57 minutes a neat turn and first time shot saw Simon double his tally for the evening. 

3-0 then and for once we could relax a bit and I was hoping that Cousins and Jordan would get at least 15 minutes each. Sadly we only got a 5 or 6 minutes cameo from Cousins who managed to win a penalty in that time as he was upended in the box.

Fortunately for those of a nervous disposition or long standing Addicks as we're other wise known we were to witness only this one penalty and not the usual ten that results in us going out of the cup !

There was then a bit of a bun-fight over who should be taking it between the legal sounding trio of Pigott, Green and Sordell. It was unclear as to who Sir Chris wanted to take the penalty although I think we can safely assume it wasn't my mate Clive whose Club Day penalty wasn't the best to grace the Valley !

I'm pleased to say that Pigott won the argument and he dispatched the spot kick to cap a very good evening for the young man. Well done sir !

We can look forward to Thursday's draw. I'm hoping for a Prem team at home with Everton being my team of choice. In the meantime, we have Boro on Saturday..........I'm looking forward to that.

  

University Challenge

Abraham Lincoln above appearing under the pseudonym Booth. He could safely enjoy a night out at The Valley.........little danger of a shot on target !

Oxford come a calling on Tuesday evening bringing with them a couple of Daves, a couple of Ryans but surprisingly no Dons. Following their win at Portsmouth on Saturday they will provide a stiff examination, let's hope we're up to the test.

The U's have a few players who are worth studying.......much travelled and experienced striker Dave Kitson is the most notable. Former Manchester United youth product Danny Rose is another. There are a couple of loans players, Ryan Williams from Fulham and Asa Hall ( s of residence ) from Shrewsbury.

Oxford manager Chris Wilder spent some time on loan with us in the early 90's but I can't recall him myself. He has been in charge since 2008 and under him The U's graduated from the Conference in 2010.

Trying to work out the outcome of tomorrow's game is something than even Inspector Morse would struggle with. The lessons learned from our recent history of cup matches suggest that it should add up to a defeat for us. Whatever the outcome I'm sure we won't be reading about a classic in the papers on Wednesday morning.

Given our financial situation another cup game, especially if drawn at home to a big club, would help a bit so Professor Powell has to balance the desire to progress against the need to keep key players fresh for Middlesbrough on Saturday. I assume he'd like to give Green and Stephens a run out and to some degree, a couple of reserves appearing is a possibility. I guess we may get to see Church try and outsmart a cathedral............city ! Let's hope Chris gets it right and doesn't end up looking like Professor Plum.

I'm looking forward to the first home competitive match of the season and my thirst, if not for knowledge but a decent pre-match ale will probably take me to a different pub in Greenwich where a pint of Brains would seem appropriate. 

Come On You Reds !

We're Doomed

" Nurse, fetch the revolver ! "

That's it then, season over, don't know why we bothered renewing our season tickets. Blimey, what an over reaction from some quarters. Funnily enough in all my years supporting Charlton I've never expected us to win any game, hope, yes but expectation.........never ! Yesterday was no different, I didn't think we were about to go and blow them away.

It would appear that unusually a lack of organisation when defending a short corner cost us for the first goal. Given that it seems there had been a couple before we really shouldn't have got caught out by that but we were slow to react.

A superb strike from Yann restored parity which gave some reward to the travelling faithful. One has to hope that no one outside S.E. 7 noticed as our need to hold on him cannot be overstated.

Sadly Grabban went on to score a second from a quality strike although he was given too much time and space.

A late and uncharacteristically rash challenge from Pritchard saw him see red from referee Andy D'Urso and as much as I don't like D'Urso, I think he had little choice.

The loss of Skip before kick off to a niggling calf injury didn't help and he was sorely missed. Hughes who didn't really feature in pre-season was brought in to replace him. Sordell made his debut.

Sir Chris gets most things right but I would question the formation yesterday. Having played with a 4-5-1 set up for most of pre-season ( mostly out of necessity I admit ) I'm not sure that the move to 4-4-2 was a good idea. Given the late arrival of Sordell and Church, I assume we'd spent the most part of the build up to the game working on 4-5-1 so I'm not sure a late alteration will have helped.

In addition, it seems that Pritchard, playing wide right, didn't have a great game and he is better in a central position. Danny Green by all accounts had a good pre-season playing with some determination with a point to prove. It would have been nice to see him start with Pritchard moving inside as I said.  

As with last season the team needs our support and that's from Tuesday and going forward. Oxford secured a good win away to Portsmouth yesterday with an impressive 4-1 win so they will be buoyant. We don't need the doom and gloom mentality.

Away from the Valley you've got to feel some sympathy for the fans of Coventry City. A ten point deduction further punishment in addition to having to play all home games at Northampton's Sixfields stadium. A large number of those " home " games will be played on a Sunday. Like ourselves at Selhurst, I believe a large number of their fans refuse to go to Northampton so things are unlikely to get better for them for some time.

Let's hope that we can improve our own fortunes on Tuesday with those rarest of things for Charlton....a cup win !

Summer Madness !

And so it begins ! The season kicks off ridiculously early on Saturday. We've not yet played the 3rd Ashes test and I've yet to see my beloved Kent live this season, something that will be righted in the next couple of weeks.

After a pretty good pre-season there seems to be much doom and gloom surrounding the club. We have released a few players ( most of whom didn't feature a great deal last term ) but essentially what has changed ? Clearly we need a couple of strikers but the release of Smith on loan very much suggests that at least one or two are probably on their way in. Rumours abound of Marvin Sordell coming in and he'll do for me. I do hope that one or both of Fuller and Obika sign up soon.

Button has left but he clearly wasn't happy at not securing a more lengthy go when he came in for Hamer but he didn't cover himself in glory and can't really have too many arguments on that. Obviously he wants first team football on a regular basis as evidenced by his decision to drop a division for the second consecutive season and his release has made some room on the wage bill. Should Hamer get injured or suffer a dip in form then we can always dip into the loan market. Keepers are the easiest to merge into the team.

We have managed to keep ( so far ) the nucleus of the side that served us so well last season. I wouldn't lose any sleep if Stephens left but that aside it's not a lot different to the one we finished with.

Sir Chris has said we may need a couple of seasons to consolidate and without any great financial input that's got to be the aim. The impact of FFP and the current financial climate has seen very few clubs spend a lot of money so we are not alone in that although God knows how Millwall are able to finance their signings especially on such poor attendances !

What of Saturday then ? Firstly, I hope the weather is good for all those travelling down especially if you're down there the weekend. I envisage a tough game, Bournemouth have been on an upward trend and in Eddie Howe they have, like us, a manager who is seemingly comfortable and content in his current environment and doing a good job. Ideally you don't want to face a new promoted club early on and they'll be keen to start well at home.

Bournemouth have some injury concerns up front and with our defence it's hard to envisage there being many goals in this one. A scoreless draw or a win one nil either way is the most likely outcome.

I assume that we'll be starting with a 4-5-1 formation. I'd like to see the midfield comprised of Harriott, Gower, Jackson, Pritchard and Green but assume we'll see Stephens in with Pritch out wide right. A shame for many reasons..........Pritchard is better in a central position, Green has seemingly had a good pre-season is keen to impress and offers more in attack, Jackson is able to get forward more and in my view, Stephens offers very little.

Yann is in for a long, hot and testing afternoon but as we know if anyone can, Yann can ! He'll battle all day.

Good luck to you if you're going to Dean Court, I hope you are rewarded with a win and good performance to lighten the mood.

Come On You Reds !

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside !

The Brighton&Hovejobs.com cricket ground !

I missed Paddy's testimonial on Saturday due to a long standing commitment to what would normally have a cricket tour weekend in North Devon. However, no such tour this year and a reunion in Hove took place. As such, the opportunity was taken to watch Sussex & James Taylor take on the Aussies.

Good weather, beer and company ensured that it was a great weekend. Only 40 minutes of play lost on Saturday to rain. Sadly cricket isn't immune to the difficult financial times we find ourselves in and Sussex, like many other counties now call their Hove ground by a sponsor's name, the Brighton&Hovejobs.com county ground.........arghhh ! 

You'd never have predicted this nonsense a few years ago nor indeed that these days you can locate cricket grounds by looking out for the floodlights !

The Aussies remain less than convincing and I'd be surprised if Agar retains his spot in the side although who on earth would replace him is anyone's guess. For a youngster presumably brought up on endless fielding drills in an era of the big bash / T20 etc you'd have thought he'd be quite good but his fielding is shocking. He shelled a relatively easy chance yesterday aside from generally being less than convincing. There's no energy in his bowling action and one wonders how he got in the side in the first place. Can only have been punt on the part of the Aussies selectors with Pietersen's weakness against slow left arm playing a major part.

Lyon didn't impress and Hamlton-Brown took him to the cleaners on Saturday with relative ease. The spin cupboard is bare for Australia which, given an anticipated turner in Manchester, doesn't bode well for them.

I assume that Warner will return for the Aussies at Old Trafford, I can't see how he can't.

Sad to see our pre-season unbeaten run end on Saturday. From what I read the game served to highlight how critical our need for a couple of strikers is. I really hope that we can secure Fuller and Obika but that increasingly appears unlikely with nothing done at this late stage although Spurs signing of Soldado may give some cause for optimism but that's against a seemingly awful financial background.

There's some way to go before the window shuts at the end of August with Premiership clubs still to finalise their squads but it's hard to be positive about our chances of recruiting anyone decent unless a buyer comes in or miraculously some money is found somewhere.

Hopefully something will happen before next Saturday and that our boys will enjoy their weekend beside the seaside as much as I've just done.  

Watt A Day !

Tom Watt - engaging and knowledgeable

Quite a good day at The Valley yesterday as Charlton held its club day. The glorious weather continued to make it an extremely pleasant day all round.

ANEM's very own  Clive had been lucky enough to win a golden ticket that saw him take a penalty on the infamous Valley turf. Ben Hamer's less than glorious record for saving penalties was never in any serious danger of being further damaged as Clive's Michael Gray-like effort tamely made its way towards the goal.

Clive had needed to report in at 11am and so an earlier arrival than otherwise needed was called for. Upon arrival we wandered around the car park and I took advantage of the 6 for £5 offer for old CAFC dvds.. A very good deal and I'm really pleased with my purchases. 

I also, finally, managed to sign up to the supporters trust. I'm glad to have finally done so at last !

A quick beer was quaffed before entering the ground to witness the training session. It was never going to be an intense affair but was interesting enough. The session was compered by Tom Watt.As most will know, Tom is an Arsenal fan  with a deep knowledge and love of the game and so he was an entirely appropriate and suitable choice for the job.

I later met up with Tom for a photo and from chatting to him I gather he's a close contact of Sir Chris. I reminded him of the time a caller to 606 was moaning about Charlton being in the Prem and how we didn't deserve to be there. Tom pounced immediately and asked the caller if he knew the history of the club. Suffice to say Tom put him in his place..........I've never forgotten that and it's not hard to imagine an entirely different scenario had it been Alan Green !

The light training session was interspersed with interviews with Sir Chris and the support staff. All quite entertaining and fun, not least Sir Chris's penalty and subsequent celebration. After the penalty shoot out we retired to Bartrams for more refreshment. Whilst sitting outside we were invited along to the Q&A session with Hamer, Jackson, Harriott, Gower and Roberts, Bloom and Umut.

The session was again hosted by Tom who asked the written submitted questions and posed some sensible, appropriate supplementary ones too with good humour. No shocking revelations unless you consider the news that Jackson and Hamer use Shockwaves on their hair as earth-shattering. However, it was clear they all have an affection for the club and are aware of our history. Jackson stressed how important the fans support is and cited the Cardiff home game as how it played its part. Skip also said that he felt that result was pivotal to the season's success as it gave them all real self-belief.

Had we not attended this q&a session then the day wouldn't have been as enjoyable. I would like to have attended the one with management team but it was not to be.

A couple of improvements could be made. I didn't understand why the q&a sessions were restricted as these could easily have been held on the pitch thus allowing everyone to submit a question or at lest hear the replies to them. I really couldn't understand why this didn't happen.

No bar was open in the West Stand. Why ? Surely that was a missed revenue opportunity on such a hot day. They could have opened a small part and sold beers at £2 a pint and soft drinks at £1 a go, say and still made a tidy sum.  

I know Bartrams was open and some folk did bring in a drink from there but I couldn't be arsed to go out to get one from there. 

Anyway, overall a good day and one that I hope will be repeated next year and an adoption of those ideas above plus an opportunity for everyone to meet more players and the great man himself would make the next one even better.