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| Sunday, 10-May-2009 21:56 |
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RIP Dave
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Dave the barman, died May 2009
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Word has been circulating that Dave, the barman in the Rose of Denmark for many years, had a fall recently and subsequently died. I was convinced that he was at the back door letting home fans in after the final game of the season, but others have since persuaded me that this wasn't so.
Dave was a thoroughly nice bloke and a good friend to the RoD regulars. He'll be very sorely missed.
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| Sunday, 3-May-2009 16:56 |
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'Stand up if you're going down'
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CAFC 4 Norwich 2, 03/05/2009
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Well, we stood up - boths sets of supporters. In the end Norwich's relegation came regardless of the result at The Valley, since Barnsley beat Plymouth away to make our result irrelevant. Before the game there were wicked thoughts that if, somehow, both Norwich and Barnsley went into administration, we'd stay up 
We're not used to being three goals up in half an hour, but we're certainly no strangers to blowing a lead so when Norwich pulled one back we feared the worst. In the end, it was a heartening display from a young team, with no less than six local lads on the pitch as the game ended.
Even Youga and Butterfield, neither of whom are all that popular with sections of the crowd, did their bit, and Deon Burton scored the first Charlton hat trick since that remarkable and wholly unexpected flurry from Kevin Lisbie against Liverpool over five years ago.
The team did enough on the day to encourage a surprisngly large number of supporters to stay on for a while after the final whistle, and perhaps also enough to persuade a reasonable number of them to renew their season tickets.
So, it's time again to collate the season's match day photos and frame them for display in The Rose of Denmark. We failed to get photos of visiting supporters at six of the twentythree home games, which is disappointing, but there are still enough for a decent display. When I get a moment I'll work out how many photos we've taken so far and of how many clubs - after all, next season we'll be visited by loads of supporters who've never been to the RoD before.
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| Friday, 24-Apr-2009 19:21 |
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Mismanaging public opinion
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The pressure is gently building up amongst supporters, it seems, for the club to call time on Phil Parkinson or for the lad himself to 'do the decent thing'.
It can't be easy as an inexperienced manager of a struggling club, but PP isn't doing himself any favours with some of his public pronouncements. In today's Bulletin he declares that youngster Chris Solly 'had been unlucky not to be involved in his [PP's] first XI'. 'Unlucky'? Does Parky pick his squad with a pin, then?
And he's now made another tactical error in hitting back at those who booed him on Tuesday night. “It is strange really because at 2-1 up the fans were right behind the team. At 2-2 the frustration spills out on the manager, which in a way is understandable, but with one goal all of a sudden a section of the supporters turn on you. It isn’t ideal but what can I do about it?”
I think that a fair few fans, who have even less experience than him, could help him with some advice, particularly about closing down opposing players, denying them time on the ball and defending further forward than the penalty area, maybe with less than eleven players doing so. It's also desperately apparent, as I've said before, that no one seems to want the ball and when they get it the first thing they seem to want to do is work out how to off-load it again and leave the problem with someone else. To be fair to Parkinson these are problems that pre-dated his arrival, but being brutally honest he's already had plenty of time to put them right.
We're down and out, so let's at least blood the youngsters who'll have to carry the flag next season - what on earth is there to lose? Loan players (or imminently out-of-contract contracted players who we don't intend to keep) should take no part in the next two games. After all, we can't possibly be worse off as a result, and at least it'd give heart to the long-suffering supporters.
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| Wednesday, 22-Apr-2009 10:19 |
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Attitudes to Season Ticket renewal
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The positions being taken by members of our group have hardened since last night, especially since Parkinson's late substiutions arguably cost us the game.
The developing view is that, since there is no incentive for early Season Ticket renewal we might as well hang on into the summer and decide whether or not to renew once we know who the manager is and what the squad will be. The two disincentives to delaying would be;
1. The £25 cost of individual tickets.
If we continue to struggle low attendances and a bad start may see match day prices drop to £20 or even £15 for some games.
2. Not being able to guarantee getting the seat you want.
If last night is a reliable guide we'll be able to sit pretty much anywhere we like, even buying tickets on match days.
So, Charlton, we're sort of waiting for news from you about manager and players.
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| Wednesday, 22-Apr-2009 08:30 |
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Silent unrest
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CAFC 2 Cardiff 2, 21st April 2009
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On match days our group of supporters that meets in the Rose of Denmark has a simple score prediction competition - the pot is shared between everyone who correctly predicted the final score.
When we were in the Premiership it was generally won by someone each week and only occasionally was there a 'rollover' to the next match. Since we've been in the Championship it's been quite different and on several occasions a sizeable pot has accumulated. By last night, with no one having correctly predicted the score in the previous four home games, the pot had reached £92 as we took our seats.
It certainly adds to the buzz of the evening when you're into the last ten minutes of a game with the scoreline either matching your prediction or just one goal away. I'd gone for 1-2, so I was out of it when our second goal went in, but I was sitting next to the chap who'd predicted 2-2 and whose loyalties were divided as the clock ran down at 2-1. In the end we reasoned that his feelings in no way influenced what happened on the pitch. When the second Cardiff goal went in at least he had something to balance the disappointment of another poor result.
Our defence is dreadful - just look at our goal difference and league position. Darren Ward had another steady game, so the spotlight falls on 'Mr. 'Udson'. Frankly. I think he's had a dreadful season, and recent interviews that indicate that he wants away because we're not good enough for him leave me hoping that we cash in and send him on his way, i.e. *he's* not good enough for *us*.
And in a leaky defence why on earth do we persist with the desperately unpredictable Kelly Youga? His concentration is dreadful, and his performances are made worse by rushes of blood to the head where he utterly lets us down. We've got a steadier, less cocky alternative in Grant Basey.
But the blindingly obvious problem is that no one seems to want the ball and it gets passed around as anxiously and carelessly as a ticking time bomb. On top of that, more than enough players seem to be thinking that Charlton's plight isn't their problem as they'll be off at the end of the season.
Another irritating point - why the hell are we still playing so many loan players when we're already relegated? Why not blood some of our home-grown youngsters ready for League 1? Or is it an unpleasant truth that we just don't have any quality coming through?
There just has to be a huge question mark over Parkison's future. His record is Won 3 Drawn 11 Lost 12, i.e. 20 out of 78 points. If he'd been made caretaker manager until the end of the season we could simply have let him go, but now we're faced with yet another payout if we want him to go - and we do.
There's no confidence that the rot has yet stopped. We still haven't bottomed out, and look set to struggle next season as well. The club seemingly budgeting to spend only one season in League 1 looks ridiculously optimistic at present. Strangely, one problem seems to be the calm acceptance of our situation by supporters. You'd have thought that by now there'd be rising pressure from the terraces for some sort of solution, but the board is being given all the time it wants as far as the fans are concerned, it seems.
However, the warning signs were there last night with a half empty stadium. This would be a good time for some sort of decisive announcement from the club that gave supporters hope for next season and encouraged them to renew their season tickets. At present, lowered prices or not, many of us are caught in indecision about whether to commit our hard-earned up front to a club that's adrift as far as leadership is concerned, mainly on the pitch but seemingly also elsewhere.
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| Sunday, 19-Apr-2009 10:10 |
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Refund for poor performance
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German Bundesliga team Cottbus went down 4-0 away from home on Friday and promptly refunded all of their travelling supporters for their 'pitiful performance'. Blimey!
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8006621.stm
Based on the club's 2008/09 performance maybe Charlton should be giving us that free season ticket after all! And maybe the money should come from the vastly over-paid, terribly underperforming players, some of whom 'earn' in a single week almost as much as my net annual pension.
Just a thought 
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| Saturday, 18-Apr-2009 21:47 |
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Relegated - it's been a LONG time coming
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CAFC 2 Blackpool 2, 18th April 2009
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Maybe today we had a glimpse of what next season will be like, with a dearth of away supporters in the pub before the game and no opportunity for a matchday photo, even on a Saturday afternoon! Mind you, there were a fair few Seasiders in the ground, but heaven only knows where they entertained themselves beforehand.
Two quick goals at the start of the second half gave us hope of a rousing end to the season but, as so often happens, two hugely unlikely goals brought us back to 2-2 and with them de facto relegation.
For me, Lloyd Sam's performance was just what was needed, dashing repeatedly at the defence and creating opportunties around him. Shelvey one again showed inspirational touches that are bound to attract the attention of promoted clubs with money to spend, even though his lack of stamina contrasts oddly with his quickness of mind.
At half time I remarked that Youga was having a pleasantly uncontroversial game, but in the second half his temperament let him down yet again and he was booked. It's time to permanently replace him with Grant Basey - or even Matt Holland, for pity's sake.
Hudson's been dreadful for months, constantly getting caught out of position. Darren Ward alongside him looks far more assured. Mind you, I've stopped bellowing, 'Hudson' in exasperation since Ade alongside me started saying, "MISTER 'Udson, if you please".
Still, there'll be a fair few departures this summer, with quite a few players out of contract - see http://addickman-deepestdarkest.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-long.html - and the squad being cut to 22. Even so, it's apparent that the remains of this side could well struggle in League 1 unless Parkinson manages to conjure up some decent summer signings and weld them into a cohesive squad. It seems to me that the club's still heading south and that there's little sign that the slide will even slow down next season.
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| Saturday, 11-Apr-2009 22:01 |
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Pausing on the way to the exit
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CAFC 0 Birmingham 0, 11th April 2009
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An exciting match in the end, between two seemingly evenly-matched teams, but the league table doesn't lie. Third placed Birmingham looked a bit off-colour and Charlton rose a little above recent performances to tease the home supporters with the prospect of a rare home win. In the event a draw was a fair result.
Both goalkeepers made vital saves, but Maik Taylor twice took the ball at the very last split-second and kept his team in the game. Kevin Phillips played against us for Sunderland in the 1997 play-off final at Wembley, and in spite of now being something of a veteran he looked fast and dangerous.
For Charlton the man of the match was probably Jonjo Shelvey, who ran himself into the ground. Towards the end of the game Dickson was brought on in place of Racon, seemingly for the specific purpose of taking the pressure of the flagging Shelvey, and this gave us fresh momentum. Quite why Parkinson brought on the always-irrelevant Ambrose with only two minutes to go was something of a mystery, and the latter's mistake that could have led to a late away goal hardly endeared him to the home supporters.
Once again we found ourselves in good company with visiting supporters, reaffirming our belief that there's far more that unites ordinary fans than divides them. See you again in a couple of seasons, lads - if we're lucky! 
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| Wednesday, 25-Mar-2009 11:48 |
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Members of the Opposition
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We started taking photos of members of our group together with visiting supporters back in August 2002 when Chelsea came calling, a year before Roman Abramovich arrived. We then had four good seasons in the Premiership, followed by a bad one that ended in our relegation. Since then the club has never looked back, at the good days, that is, and instead has continued to slide down the tables.
When we were relegated in 2007 we debated whether to keep on with the photos on this site. However, we decided that we'd carry on since it might appear that we were only interested in the Premiership if we didn't, when in reality we thought that maybe now we'd see some exciting football for a change.
For nearly two seasons now we've carried on seeking out visiting supporters in the Rose of Denmark at every game, but we're now running into difficulties, as the recent visit of Doncaster showed. The game was on a cold Tuesday night, and understandably not a lot of their supporters made the trek south - much credit to those who did, however. The consequence was that we couldn't find any supporters in the pub beforehand who could join us in a photo. This isn't the first time that this has happened this season.
The same happened at the match against Palace, but for different reasons. The police presence in the area was heavy, especially after five Palace fans were sentenced to imprisonment in December 2008 for savaging Charlton supporters on a train as they travelled to the match at Selhurst in September 2007. Palace subsequently banned sixteen people from their ground for life, and I'm sure that the majority of their fans will have utterly disassociated themselves from these criminals.
See http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Crystal-Palace-Hooligans-Locked-Up-For-Mindless-Train-Attack-on-Charlton-Athletic-Fans/Article/200812115173543 for details.
This meant that Palace fans understandably kept their colours out of sight until they were in the ground, which gave us no opportunity to invite any of them to join in on the match day photo. And, frankly, I was reluctant to go around asking strangers in the pub, "Are you Palace?"
So, we've occasionally been drawing a blank this season, as will become clear when I print out the composite photo of the 2008/09 season this summer. However, we've already decided that we'll carry on next season, accepting that we won't get a photo at every game but doing our best.
To summarise the above, if you're a supporter of a team that's visiting The Valley, do head for the Rose of Denmark and look for us on the right of the bar bar near the TV and the french windows into the garden
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| Saturday, 21-Mar-2009 22:00 |
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Slip slidin' away
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CAFC 0 Preston 0, 21/03/2009
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It was a thoroughly entertaining pre-match in the pub when Preston visited, many of their supporters sporting bowler hats.
If I've got this right, this is because a former manager called the club's supporters 'gents'. Since then a tradition has evolved where supporters wear their bowlers once a season as a way of honoring departed supporters, always on an away trip to London and always at around this time of year. We have something similar, with a minute's applause for our supporters who have died in the past year. It's a shame that our celebration couldn't have been delayed this season to coordinate with Preston's - maybe another year?
And after all of that we saw a dire match that offered Charlton's faithful almost nothing in terms of 'green shoots' optimism for next season. These are indeed bleak days for us Addicks, and the under the circumstances the continuing fervour of the fans is a bit of a comfort. However, the declared 'gate' of under 20,000 indicates very poor attendance in League 1 next season.
I for one would be happy just to see some sign that the slide down the leagues was coming to an end, but in all honesty there was nothing in this match to indicate that we won't struggle again next season. Last October I saw a match at the MK Dons stadium and thought even then that Charlton we no better - we've declined further since then.
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