Vital Win

Dillon another good performance including a world class save.

It's hard not to agree with Bowyer's view that we made hard work of yesterday's win.

Having dominated the first half with Barnsley's only real effort being the one that produced that outstanding save from our No.1 we looked very shaky after they equalised.

We seemed to stuggle to get going yesterday in front of a big Valley crowd that was boosted by the free ticket offer. There was no lack of effort from the home fans to motivate the lads.

It was clear that retaining Taylor even if only until the end of the season was vital and his overall performance was clear evidence of that. We could have spent a few million in the transfer window and not got a player of his ability and he is integral to any success.

Lyle's goal on 9 minutes was the boost the team needed. Barnsley's frustration was shown in some nasty and persistent fouling. Sadly the inconsistent referee " aided " by the totally ineffective East Stand did little to help. 

The Tykes number 18 was very lucky not to get a second yellow in the first 45 minutes. The Man in the middle gave yellow cards for far lesser offences.

Taylor was the target for abuse from the away fans and in response he did his best to wind them up. He didn't have to try too hard to be fair. 

Andre Green playing despite the sad loss of his grandfather earlier in the week scored the crucial second in time added on in the first period. A fine shot that was fired into to the bottom corner.

2-0 is always a tricky lead ( Glen Hoddle was right on that ). Given our recent habit of conceding goals early in the second half there was every reason to be nervous!

Thankfully we overcame the opening few minutes without Barnsley scoring. However, the withdrawl of Williams and Taylor saw the Tykes get a foothold in the game and go on to score on 71 minutes.

The Addicks were then foreced into a rearguard action for the rest of the game. Barnsley went on to hit both post and bar as we were a little fortunate not to concede again.

Stout defending from the Addicks eventually ensured that Barnsley didn't add to their goals tally. 

A crucial 3 points secured was a big step towards the goal of moving up the table. We now have a full week before the next vital game against Stoke comes up.

The additional players will help to add competition for places as well as offering Bowyer the chance to rotate his squad a little. Hopefully other players will return from injury to further boost that.

We must hope for much better luck with injuries for the remainder of the season. If we do then we have a good chance of staying out of the relegation zone.

Taking Stock

" marvellous isn't? you know. wasn't it? "

It's not yet a month since the takeover was made official and the disastrous reign of Duchatelet was finally ended. The new owner's communication has already far exceeded that of the Belgian. 

The plans for the club are everything one could hope for embracing on and off the pitch matters and importantly the club's connection to the community.

Lee Bowyer has been given a decent 3 year contract with offers on the table for the rest of the management team. Steve Gallen has been appointed director of football.

The plans for the training ground and the academy have been revealed and they all look fantastic.

Matt Southall has been a very visible chairman who has thrown himself fully in his role. From day one he has made himself available to anyone remotely connected with the club.

Matt has attended numerous meetings including one last week with trustees of the museum amongst others after having paid it a visit.

Amazingly, I note that someone on Twitter accused Matt of meeting " political " fans! Really? What a laughable comment and of course, utter tosh

I appreciate that we have one day left to get some bodies into the club. That they haven't arrived to date will not be for the want of trying.

Looking across a number of clubs and there hasn't be much transfer activitiy to date with most of them.

I suspect that there will be a trickle down effect with the top level clubs wanting to ensure that they have cover where the may be selling players on or loaning them out.

However, some of our fans have little patience and lack an appreciation of what's been done to date. You can't overturn 6 years of neglect within a matter of weeks.

It's not ESI's fault that we find ourselves with management and players on short or expiring contracts and a threadbare squad.

It's worth bearing in mind that it's not in Matt's interests if things go wrong. He himself has someone ( other than the fans ) to answer to. He certinaly won't want to make a mess of it.

There are so many issues to be positive about albeit that in terms of players much remains to be resolved within the next 27 hours.

Hopefully, in a packed Valley on Saturday fans will appreciate that they have much to be grateful for and will be cheering the team on to a vital win!

COYR!

      

A Whole New Ball Game!

Along with many others I travelled to The Valley with an extra spring in my step following the recent events surrounding the club. A renewed air of expectation and anticipation permeates around S.E.7.

New year, new owners, new hope! The last remnants of the previous poisonious ownership apparently gone and the Duchatele era an unpleasant footnote in the club's history.

Numerous stay away fans returned yesterday demonstrating their faith in the new owners. The attendance was just under 20k boosted also by a sell out in Jimmy Seed stand as you'd expect for opposition that has spent most of the season in the top two places in the league.

I arrived at The Valley just after 11am and with Crossbars not open and not meeting up with others until later I had time to make a long overdue visit to the museum.

What a fantastic job all concerned have done with it. I met Ben Hayes and a couple of his fellow trustees and they were all keen to show me round and point out particular items of interest.

As closely as I've followed the club I had not appreciated that our first England cap was awarded to Seth Plum. The museum has been able to track it down and it now resides there.

It is one of the many unique items housed in the musuem. Aside from the club memorabilia there is a separate fans section that accommodates all manner of things from programmes to old tickets to protest posters. I was told that a section containing protest items is now being organised.

Until March the museum has the Play Off final trophy and Ben kindly photographed me with it for which I was very grateful.

I can highly recommend a visit and will certainly being doing so again as you could happily spend a good few hours there and still not see it all!

Post museum and intoCrossbars for a couple of post-Roland beers to celebrate! Matt Southall passed through and again got the derserved round of appluase that resembles the one Del and Rodney in the Nag's Head when they became millionaires. Thankfully for us Matt and his colleagues have a lot greater busineness acumen than the Trotters!

On to the game and it was good to see a return to the league squad for Williams, Forster-Caskey and Hemed and a league start for new loanee Green.

The Addicks started brightly and could have gone when a stray pass went to Gallagher but sadly he put his shot just wide of the post.

It was the Baggies who went ahead though when Lockyer was dispossessed out wide and the subsequent shot fell to Zohore to tuck away.

A few minutes later and The Addicks won a corner and an Albion player thought he delay it by throwing the ball into the away fans. They then decide it would be a good idea to play keep ball. Karma is wonderful thing sometimes and when the replacement ball arrived it seems that the Baggies suffered with a loss of concentration.

Eventually the ball was headed home by Davison for his first Charlton goal.

The second half didn't start well with Albion regaining the lead when Sarr deflected a shot past Phillips.

West Brom continued to have the better of things but The Addicks kept battling away and the introduction of Forster-Caskey, Hemed and in particular Williams brought a greater threat.

On 76 minutes Lockyer's header went in off the post having hit the keeper before settling in the back of the net. This has been given as an own goal to the keeper but it's Tom's goal in reality and he should be credited with it.

Bizarrely the Addicks' second equalizer followed antoher bout of primary school keep ball from the fans behind Phillips' goal. Thanks folks!

Both sides kept attacking with the home side pressing for a third as much as the away team. It remained level though and the ref finally blew the final whistle.

All things considered The Addicks would have been the happier with their point. No doubt Albion played some good slick football at times but a depleted yet spirited Charlton team pushed them every inch of the way and were good value for their point.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the wonderful tackle in the second half from Naby. How wonderful it was and perfectly timed as it could so easily have ended in disaster. However, all credit to the big man and he was spot on and denied a clear threat on our goal.

It was great to see some players returning especially Williams as i said, how much have we missed him.

All the players deserve a mention for yesterday's efforts with particular praise to our younger players. It all bodes well or the future.

This being the Championship the games don't get any easier but with displays like yesterday and players returning with the possibility of new arrivials there is plenty of room for optimism.

Preston await next week and I'm sure the lads will be chomping at the bit to go again.

COYR!

Finally !

At long last the takeover of the club by ESI completed yesterday. The timing is of course good news as it allows us to make moves in the transfer market following the opening of the window on Wednesday.

The statement on the club's website was wonderful to read and in total contrast to those of the previous owner.

Speaking of the deluded one I managed to catch an interview he did on Sky Sports News with our very own Jum White ( you remember Jim the guy who only had our interests at heart and gave Roly the 3rd degree in a series of hard hitting interviews ! ).

Remarkably Roly says he'd do things differently if he had his time again. Really ? That's hard to believe because there were many opportunities to change but he chose not to do so or listen to people who knew a lot more about running a football club than he ever will.

He has done so much damage over the last 6 years and caused untold misiery. However, he's gone and we and football in general are well rid of him and now need to look forward to a future that ought to be a hell of a lot brighter.

Defeat to Swansea last night was not totally unexpected but there was plenty of reason for optimism and pride especially given our second half performance. Sadly, we lost Taylor to injury and it seems we'll be without him for a couple of weeks.

There's plenty of work to be done across all areas of the club. Contracts need to be sorted for both management and players. These need to be done quickly because it's easier for Bowyer to attract players if the position of himself and the management team is secure.

Club staff need to be put in place and I'm sure that will also follow.

As for us fans, well we just want matters right on the pitch ( and off it too of course ). Anything will follow on from that but it's seeing our team playing well and being competitive that matters most.

Other aspects such as the return of Floyd and Harvey, improved catering, etc. will hopefully happen in due course.

I believe the new onwers appreciate the potential of our club and recognise how special it is. If handled with care in the right way then we can return to the top table. There a few clubs in the top flight who are on a par with us who have made it there.

It would be great to a Leicester as Curbs used to say or even do a Charlton as others used to say when we rose to the top !

The last few years have been draining in lots of ways. I've been amazed at the number of people who purport to follow football that were so oblvious to our plight and that of other clubs too.

It would seem that this is a great opportunity to make our club great again. Let's hope ESI are able to deliver that for us !



COYR !

Happy New Year!

My blogging this year has hardly been prolific but it would be remiss of me not to post on the last day of both the year and decade.

For us Addicks 2019 will be remembered mostly for promotion and that wonderful late May day at Wembley. It should have been even more notable with the completion of the takeover by ESI. However, the EFL have ensured that the odious Belgian holds on to the last vesitges of ownership like a tenacious bogey!

On the pitch the damage Duchatelet has brought upon our club becomes clearer by the day with an ever increasing injury list for an already depleted squad.

Lee Bowyer continues to do a remarkable job and it is for him as much as oursleves that one hopes the takeover completes, his contract is properly sorted and he is given the resources to take the club forward.

My fervent hope is that all matters will be complete within the few days and that appropriate investment follows. Then it certainly will be a happy new year!

May I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!

COYR!

Bonne Temps!

It all seemed too good to be true on Saturday. There was a large number of people waiting for the train and given my currently dodgy knee I opted to take the hit and upgrade to first class to guarantee a seat. Fortunately, I didn't have a train guard come and ask me for the fee.

Whey hey! immediately I'm up on the day and I've already theorectically banked £15 towards the beer kitty!

The tube arrived as soon as I stepped onto the platform and at London Bridge the Charlton express emerged within two minutes.

A lovely breakfast at The Valley Cafe was just what the Doctor ordered following which I met up with the rest of our party, beers followed and all was well with the world!

All good so far! The only potential stumbling block was the one thing that had brought me to S.E. 7! The Addicks devoid of talismanic striker Taylor were playing high-flying Leeds on the back of two successive defeats.   

Accepted Lord Bowyer had already worked more miracles this season to date by securing some wonderful results on the back of some monumental performances. However, this was Leeds and we had suffered the aforementioned set backs.

I should have known better!

Leeds started like a train and it was soon evident as to why they are many people's favourites for promotion. The passing and movement at speed was quite stunning. However, as for all that there were no real clear cut chances to back that up.

Nevertheless Charlton were in danger of being overrun. As so often during his managerial tenure Bowyer moved quickly to address the situation and moved to a back three containing Pratley. It immmediately paid dividends and he went on to have an outstanding game.

The game's only goal came on the half hour mark following a corner that was ultimately bundled home someone. Even now it's not clear who but it was eventually credited to Bonne. Fair enough, he deserved it after putting it a goodperformance full of determination and running.

Clearly Leeds hadn't expected to fall behind to us! The lacklustre Bamford was not too pleased and launched an awful tackle on Gallagher that looks worse with every viewing. He should have been sent off. Instead he received a yellow the same punishment that was dished out to Lockyer for remonstrating after.

1-0 up at half time and I couldn't see how we would stop Leeds from scoring at least one. However, of course that's exactly what we did as the boys threw thier bodies on the line and gave it everything for the cause.

You couldn't fault any player. Solly had his best game for some time, Gallagher was immense and Bonne belied his inexperience at this level with tireless and intellgent running all afternoon.

The Valley was bouncing at the end celebrate another great win!

Wednesday sees another tough game ( aren't they all? ) as we entertain Swansea. Little time to recover from yesterday's exploits and there were some tired limbs at the end.

Bowyer will need to shuffle the pack and one would imagine that Pearce will return to the starting line up and that Solly, Pratley, Bonne and Williams will all drop to the bench at least.

It's a long season and players need to be carefully managed especially as we have another tough away trip to Fulham next Saturday.

One footnote to my Super Saturday was that my bet came in and I won £140! As if I wasn't beaming enough!

Here's to Bowyer and the lads keeping things going on Wednesday with another great result!

Bonne chance lads!

Twist and Shout !

Two months ago Addicks everywhere were celebrating a famous win at Wembley. There were nearly forty thousand of us wildly celebrating not just that victory but all that had been achieved over the season.

Bowyer and his team defied the odds to secure promotion. That they achieved that is remarkable in itself, the manner in which it was won even more so.

The style of play and the never say die attitude all arose from the manager's vision and passion. It was as the great man himself would say, a wonderful journey!

Promotion to the Championship not only meant we were back playing at the very least level we can expect but could only make the club more attractive to any suitors. Rumours of the owner's increasing desire to sell the club were rife.

Indeed increasingly we were told, mostly by Duchatelet's lakey, Jim Whte, that a deal was just around the corner. Roland had had enough and was desperate to sell.

Fast forward to today and we couldn't be any further away from ridding oursleves of the worst owner in the club's history. A sad scenario in itself. Sadly we have the added frustation of the Belgian's continued refusal to properly invest in the team.

All of that is to overlook the total farce of renewing the contracts of the management and coaching staff most notably Bowyer's of course.

We are two days away from season's start and are a long way from having anything like the team and squad we need to have even a snowball's chance in hell of surviving.

Twist and shout became the victory anthem with Dillon leading the way. Now it represents something very different. Lee Bowyer is Twist, as in Oliver and the shout, is his pleading to be able to be remotely competitive in recruiting players.

All of the above is reflected in us being everyone's favourites for relegation. Thankfully we have in Lee Bowyer a manager who not only loves our club but someone who will give it his all and demand the same of his players.

Were we devoid of Bowyer, Jackson and Gallen then you'd join the " experts " and write us off before a ball is kicked. Thankfully we still have them and in turn, a chance of survival.

Clearly given the loss of some massive players we are in need of new recruits and doubtless the team has been and are doing everything in their power to get them.

It's unlikely that anyone is coming in or will be ready to play at Blackburn. Next week is make or break and we can only hope that the club is remotely successful in getting the players we need.

It'll be a long, hard season and in Bowyer we trust !

Come On You Reds !