A Rather Splendid Evening

Thank God ! I didn't think she ever would......

It's 12.20am and I'm sitting down with my laptop and a cup of tea ! Something stronger would be in order but I'm still buzzing and the cup of cha is good enough..........for now !

Firstly, I must say that I hope that the chap who required medical attention in the east stand is ok. Some things are more important than football. I trust that the club will make some announcement on that.

What an evening that was and I don't think I want to endure anything like that again however sweet victory and salvation was in the end. I've never felt that we were even the fourth worse team in this league. Our problems are of course our attacking deficiencies. Our defence is pretty decent and like last season I thought we'd be ok with a back five of Hamer / Alnwick, Solly, Wiggins, Morrison, Dervite ( Wood / Court ). We were affected by the long term injuries to our full backs of course. 

I wasn't impressed with Watford. Fair play that they weren't just there to make up the numbers but their dirty approach was just unnecessary. They were lucky to only have one player sent off. I hope that number 15 is severely dealt with following his shameful conduct. Most of their team seemed to lose their discipline in a game that ultimately mattered little to them. 

Deeney is impressive and could surely do a job at a higher level. He possesses pace and strength with an eye for goal. The one he scored was a belter and I feared the worse when he did. We did well to weather the storm that followed.

I, and I guess, many others were pleased to see the starting eleven tonight. We always score three at home when Wilson plays wide right don't we ? The side had a good look about it and Cousins seemed more at home in a central role.

I'm pleased for Harriott that he is finishing the season strongly. His second goal was superb technically, I quite enjoyed that !

All the players deserve credit and of course one must mention Skip. Jackson isn't overly demonstrative as a captain but is constantly prodding and geeing up the team as he quietly goes about his job. I suspect that off the pitch he is very much the avuncular Johnnie Jackson to the younger players. I suspect that Andy Hughes is a similar good influence in the dressing room.

Riga deserves great credit of course. I doubt that many managers, even more experienced ones could have taken over the team in such circumstances and achieved what he has. I simply didn't think we could endure the relentless battle of two games a week. Jose has got the best out of the majority of the players.

Yes, the players should be able to play twice a week but it's the mental more than physical side of things that takes its toll. That must more especially be true of the younger players. However, they have all shown superb mental strength. It's is a remarkable feat.

Back to back wins can make all the difference but it's incredible to think that we have secured safety with a game to spare without having achieved that in the league this season. Perhaps that could be put right on Saturday ?

There are so many reasons as to why this season has been so awful but they can be examined another day. As many have remarked this would have the most unnecessary relegation in our history had it happened. We now have an opportunity to take stock and plan for the future.

I got my ticket for the player of the year do last week. I'm really going to enjoy that now !

I wish I was going to Blackpool now if only to banish the memory of the last time I was there and the 5-3 ( ? ) defeat under Mildew. Sadly I'm not but I am pleased for those that are going and that they can truly enjoy their trip up there.

For now we can sit back and let the fans of other clubs do the worrying. The fat lady has sung and for once, it's in a good way.

  

Time For One More Night Of Tuesday Glory

An unusual midweek end to the home season tomorrow and it couldn't carry more importance. I'm sure even the masochists amongst us want to see this season put to bed tomorrow night with one last win.

Recent Tuesday nights have been good to us. All we are asking for is one more Tuesday victory do that we can all relax and those travelling to the seaside at weekend can really enjoy the experience.

The emergence of late of Sordell means that he is now our biggest hope of scoring the goals for potential salvation. He is a player transformed as he has finally shown us what he is capable of. I'd partner him with Obika tomorrow for the physical presence that I believe we lacked on Saturday.

Hopefully Solly is fit enough and I'd like to see Wilson come into right midfield. Skip won't want to miss out may go left side midfield although I'd start with Harriott's pace as we need to be on the front foot. However, I don't expect much of what I'd like to be realised.

Watford find themselves out of play-off contention having sadly missed out in last season's final against Palarse. One would hope that they won't be too up for it. Being a pessimistic ba**ard I'm thinking they'll be relaxed and play with freedom.

They have a few injuries and one defender suspended from the weekend but I fear it won't make any difference. I hope I''m wrong.

We all need to be positive tomorrow. Getting on the players backs only adds to tension and nervousness. Total support throughout the 90 minutes is vital not least because if we don't get a result we need these players to go and do the business on Saturday.

Come On You Reds !

To The Bitter End....

We could do with renaming one of our stands The Bitter End

is where we are seemingly destined to take this season. There are so many possibilities for the remainder of this term not least amongst them one that sees us fail to gain another point but still survive.

Saturday ended as you somehow knew it always would save perhaps for the fact that most results went our way. That win by Blackpool came out of nowhere. Wigan are doing more than most to make this season end as torturous as possible. At least they still need something from their game against Birmingham on Tuesday. One final chance for them to do the decent thing.

I felt we had a good first half on Saturday playing some decent stuff. The penalty miss was pivotal and we made things worse for ourselves by virtually gifting Rovers two of the goals via two very basic errors.

Sordell partly made amends for that poor penalty with a lovely goal created almost out of nothing. Sadly that was about the sum total of our attacking efforts in the second half.

Post match saw a second visit to the excellent Old Loyal Britons in Greenwich. If you like a decent beer then you need to pay it a visit. They always have a decent selection of quality ale.

On we go then to another tense Tuesday. This one is crucial as we really don't want to be going up north needing to get anything on Saturday. At least Watford don't have anything to play for but that doesn't mean it'll be easy of course.

Hopefully we will get it right. To that end I pray that we get a decent referee as I can't recall a decent one this season especially at home.

A point would be good but we really need all 3 to finally end this season of torment. 

Well Done The Foxes !

 

The Fantastic Mr Fox

I’m not talking about Leicester although congrats to them on their Championship title win. Another set of Foxs, Morgan and his family, can be very pleased about how well the young man has  settled into the side to take the place of Wiggins. Great to see another youngster come in and do so well. 

As with Poyet and Cousins you do wonder why he wasn’t given a chance earlier. Perhaps placing a greater emphasis on the academy players isn’t such a daft idea after all. 

I’ve lost count of the number of players who make it with other teams after starting out with us never having made a first team appearance. We don’t have vast amounts to spend on transfer fees and wages and since we have traditionally invested heavily in our academy it would seem to make sense to offer a clear pathway. 

Tomorrow sees what originally was to have been the final home game of the season. That, of course, is now on Tuesday against Watford. It will be odd to finish the home season in midweek. I seem to recall that our final Prem season against Spurs was the last time. 

 

I'm not a fan of categorising games and the decision to make this a " gold game " was silly and looks even more so now. I bet there are many season ticket holders with unused free ticket vouchers. We need support more than ever and that aside, a few extra people would have spent more money. I doubt you'd persuade many to come along on Tuesday. 

Rovers are still chasing a play-off spot although that looks pretty remote. I hope they don’t make it only because I wouldn’t like to see the Venkys rewarded for the complete Horlicks they’ve made of running the club.  

It will of course be a very tough game. I’d be delighted with a point. Rovers are in a rich vein of form away and possess a potent strike force.  

At last Sordell showed on Monday what he is capable of. The finishes for all three of his goals were top drawer. It is pleasing to note that he was ably assisted by Harriott for two of them. 

I think a win is beyond us but if we did get it would pretty much guarantee safety.  

It is to be hoped that we don’t go watering the pitch again. I’ve had enough of our players falling over time and again. 

Here’s to safety as soon as possible and an end to this wretched season. 

Come On You Reds !



Wednesday Oblige Again

Spitting feathers........views of Wednesday's fan can be found on Bitterandtwisted.com.

An absolutely wonderful performance from our boys today and a most unexpected result. I don't think anyone saw any of our strikers scoring three goals in the remainder of the season let alone in one game courtesy of a hat-trick.

Certainly the author of the odious piece on owlsonline didn't, his 4-0 home win now looking a little way off. He should have known better after having failed to beat home and away already this season especially when the greater prize as they see it ( playing a local lower league team ) didn't spur them on to victory. Quite what the Owls fans obsession with us is I don't know. 

Michael Vaughan ( he of the banter and author of particularly nasty pieces about his fellow professionals who are suffering depression ) is an example of one so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. 

Well done to Marvin Sordell who finished all three goals with some aplomb. Well done to everyone of course as it was a tremendous effort to come back from 2-0 down inside 10 minutes.

Other results pretty much went our way although we probably need another 3 points to be sure and they need to come before we travel up north again to face Blackpool.............no one wants that !

Blackburn still harbour small hopes of making a play-off place and so will be up for our game on Saturday. Thankfully Watford are now out of it and one can but hope that they turn up in a disinterested frame of mind on Tuesday week.

We have edged closer to safety and one hopes that we can secure that in the course of the next two home games. That'd leave those going to Blackpool to enjoy a trip to the seaside where the only annoying birds will be wearing kiss-me-quick hats and seagulls.

Pilsbury D'oh Boy

Brendan Malone's Alter Ego

Another frustrating afternoon on Friday that really wasn't the good one it was supposed to be.

For the umpteenth time this season we were let down by a combination of the referee and east stand lino. Neither of them wanting to give the blatant penalty. Had he done so, referee Malone would have had to send off the keeper but ironically he didn't have the stomach for it.

We are all well aware of our team's shortcomings this season but we really haven't been helped officials who seem almost intent on favouring the away side. I can't recall one game where we've had the rub of the green or I've come away thinking the ref did us a favour there.

Last week wasn't a good one. The defeat to Barnsley was totally avoidable and Bolton seemed to mentally be on their holidays. A win in either one of those games and we'd all be breathing a little easier.

Whilst other results over Friday / Saturday largely went our way I'm not confident of that continuing. We need to win at least one more game whilst also picking up a couple of draws at least. I can't see us getting that win. However, the laws of probability suggest that the others will gain a win or two. 

I think Yeovil have gone but can see Barnsley getting a win or two somewhere to put us under pressure. As bad a Blackpool may be it does increasingly seem as if our last game will see us needing to get something from it. Despite their increasing problems and we do seem slightly better away it's not a scenario any of us wants to see.

We have to hope that by the time we play Blackburn and Watford they are out of the play-off picture. Hopefully they'll give their all not make it and will mentally switch off when they play us although as we've seen from the Bolton game that doesn't mean we will take full advantage.

Tomorrow's game at Hillsborough in the normal runs of things would be a game that would see the opposition with that frame of mind given that they've nothing to play for. Sadly I fear them wanting revenge following the cup defeat. 

A repeat of that cup victory whilst surprising would of course be even more welcome. 

Come On You Reds !

You Texty Thing

Dougie's on everyone's contact list

Hopefully with nothing to play for and with their manager too busy dealing with texts containing the starting eleven of other teams Bolton won't be up for much tomorrow. We can but dream eh ? 

Tragic Tuesday has led us to be under more pressure for tomorrow's game. There's not much to say about the Barnsley game, I think bullet points is the most succinct way :-

• wrong team
• poor performance
• poor opposition
• poor luck
• poor officials

It be good if all of the above is addressed on Good Friday. One good thing is that at least Victor Moses is at Liverpool and not on hand to part the sea of red that we're seeking to create tomorrow.

I've not bought a Charlton shirt for some time but at the time of writing can't find any of the old ones. it's probably immaterial as they probably wouldn't fit any but to be fair it never stopped Peter Garland eh !

I will find something red to wear I'm sure. 

For our Easter fixtures it's hard to see eggsactly where any points will come from after the Barnsley debacle. I think we'll need to try and garner at least 2 points from somewhere in these two and at least a win somewhere else even then that may not be enough. It's hard to be optimistic.

Whatever happens I wish everyone a happy Easter that I hope you are able to enjoy the long weekend with your families. 

Come On You Reds !