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| Monday, 29-Sep-2008 08:23 |
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Pressure on Pardew
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CAFC 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2, 27th September 2008
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'Super Al' is going to have to come up with a few solutions if our season isn't going to fizzle out completely before Christmas. Indeed, he might find himself looking for gainful employment before too long if things don't improve - after the Wolves loss the Charlton chairman was rumoured to have descended in thunderous mood on the dressing room, and given the amount of personal investment he has in the club one can't be altogether surprised.
Yet again, when players around him simply weren't delivering, Matt Holland was exemplary in effort, vision and skill. And when Pardew startlingly moved him into the back four when he substituted an obviously less-than-fit Primus there were no complaints from the crowd - you can depend on him in all circumstances.
There were unimpressive performances from the rest of the team, with the exception of goalscorer Varney, who was lucky to stay on the pitch when he was booked. Sam and Youga continue to be liabilities, Bailey and Bouazza ranted at each other after Wednesday scored, and opinion is divided over Hudson's worth. Why Moutouakil and Semedo are consistently overlooked, even for the bench, is a mystery to most.
It's a shame really - it was a beautifully sunny day, and a decent home win would have sent us all home in an equally sunny mood. As it is, we can expect the crowds to begin to dwindle below the 20,000 mark as supporters make a choice between cold, dark midweek games and a quiet night in front of the TV watching live Premiership matches. On Saturday, there were no queues in my part of the West Stand for food and drink, which is surely a very bad sign for the club.
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| Saturday, 13-Sep-2008 18:27 |
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Having a laugh
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CAFC 1 Wolves 3, 13/09/2008
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When Nicky Bailey smashed in a long range volley after only three minutes it looked as if our home form was getting even better. However, by half time it was apparent that Wolves had settled and at least matched us in performance terms; the early taunts directed at Wolves from the North Stand - 'Top of the League? You're having a laugh!' - were already sounding like hubris by this point.
The Wolves equaliser gave them confidence and two late goals completed their emphatic victory. To their credit, with only minutes remaining they didn't try to sit on their 2-1 lead, and caught us out when they flooded forward at the close to get their third.
Quite where this leaves Charlton, and especially Pardew, is unclear. He really seems to be having problems establishing us in the top half of the Championship, let alone in the top six. Maybe before Christmas either he or his employers will conclude that he needs some time out of the game to 'recharge his batteries'.
It was disappointing, with fifteen minutes remaining and the match still there for the winning, to see the home crowd starting to leave. Actually, 'disappointing' is quite a miserable euphemism for those involved. And when the second Wolves goal went in an alarming number of home 'supporters' decided it was time to put the kettle on rather than stay and urge on the team.
'Loyal supporters? You're having a laugh!'
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| Sunday, 24-Aug-2008 19:22 |
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A spirited performance
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CAFC 4 Reading 2, 23rd August 2008
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When Varney scored to restore Charlton's lead he, and several team mates, dashed over to Pardew and mobbed him. That's the first real sign of team spirit that I've seen at The Valley for a long time, and I found it immensely encouraging.
It was a warmly welcomed victory, especially for the Reading-based Addicks at the Rose of Denmark, who'd had to suffer obnoxious verbal abuse whilst travelling home after the previous match against the Royals - see the report dated 11-Apr-2007.
Throughout the match Charlton played with an enthusiasm and energy that set pulses racing, providing a thinnish crowd with superb entertainment. It's still far too early to predict this season's outcome with any real confidence, but if we see more performances like this, especially away from home, we can hope for at least a top 6 finish.
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| Friday, 22-Aug-2008 20:17 |
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Here we go again
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CAFC 2 Swansea 0. 9th August 2008
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I missed the opening game of the season with what I can honestly describe as a fairly decent excuse - I was on honeymoon in Turkey. Still, I'm back now and (sort of) raring for the new season. My apologies to the Swansea supporters for the late appearance of this opening Members of the Opposition photo of 2008/09.
This will be the seventh consecutive season in which we've invited visiting supporters to join us in a match day photograph. It'd be nice to think that next season we'd be back in the Premiership, mainly because it'd mean that we'd get free season tickets for having renewed this season. But I suspect that we've got a few more seasons of Championship toil in front of us.
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| Thursday, 15-May-2008 08:28 |
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A good omen?
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Nearly there
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As you can see from the photo the annual composite photo is nearly ready for framing.
Normally it's quite a pain to get it all prepared, i.e. collating all the matchday photos, making them fit in the space available, adding score and date details, placing lines to cut along and then checking everything once more.
And once the pieces are all cut to size it's then a time-consuming task to stick the fifteen pieces together accurately. I start at the top left and work to the bottom right. Any errors in the earlier pieces get progressively magnified until the last piece simply doesn't fit. That's when I'm glad that I've used low-tack adhesive and can go back and re-position everything.
There absolutely must be a simpler way of doing this, such as getting it all printed out professionally as a single image, but I doubt it'd be cheap enough 
Still, apart from the final stage the job's over for another year. This time it all printed out like a dream, with no printer jams at all, so I'm wondering if that's a good omen for a successful 2008/09.
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| Tuesday, 13-May-2008 21:39 |
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The annual composite photo
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The entire 2007/08 season
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The season's over and it's time to sort out the annual composite photo and get it to the Rose of Denmark ready for the new season.
It's a bit of a faff to print it all out on sheets of A4 in such a way that it can be pieced together neatly as a single image, but the fact that so many away supporters make a point of checking it when they next visit makes the effort worthwhile. For those who can't wait I've posted a preview of it here.
For the first time in ages I checked the stats on this site and found to my amazement that, even though the season is over, it's still averaging 100 visitors a day. This is certainly encouragement, if it were needed, to carry on for our seventh consecutive season.
I've missed half a dozen home games this season and this is likely to continue. I'm off on honeymoon on 4th August and expect that I'll start the new season with a least a couple of 'no-shows'. However, I'm hoping that Geoff Keys will be able to cover my absence as far as matchday photos are concerned.
Our slogan for this site is 'Promoting Football Harmony', and it seems to find resonance with everyone we meet. When Cardiff visited last November they came with a certain reputation, but we had a cracking time with them - we even persuaded two PR-focused policemen to get into the photo 
So, to all the visiting supporters who've helped to make matchdays a properly memorable occasion, even when we've been beaten, I'd like to say, 'Thanks, and hope to see you again'. And we Charlton supporters must be hoping that our team is less hospitable to visiting clubs next season than we are in the pub
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| Saturday, 10-May-2008 22:29 |
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Late addition
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CAFC 1 Southampton 1, 12/04/2008
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I must apologise to any Southampton supporters who've been waiting to see their photos appear here. Now that the season is over I'm compiling the annual composite image of all the match day photos that we've taken this season, and by cross-checking against the fixture list I discovered that for some reason this photo didn't get posted - sorry 
Geoff took this photo because I was away on holiday in Cape Verde. When he e-mailed me this photo he wrote: 'We played well enough to win today, against a Southamptton side that didn't carry much threat. Trouble was that a comical own goal gave them a lead and at least two blatant penalties were not given to us by the Ref. Plus ca change .......'
But by this point our season was pretty much over as far as our play-off hopes were concerned.
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| Sunday, 4-May-2008 22:00 |
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Not with a whimper but a bang
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CAFC 4 Coventry 1, 4/05/2008
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A Fistful Of Wankas
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Farewell Chrissie Powell
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Who'd have thought it? After a season that had long since been euphemistically labelled 'disappointing' we expected, at best, a narrow win, if not another home defeat. For that reason we decided it was time for a mass outing of the 'Wanka' shirt'.
But then the team (pleasantly) surprised us all with a commanding performance and a 4-1 victory. Coventry, who could have gone down if other results had gone against them, had reason to keep fighting, which gave Charlton the chance to take advantage of an overstretched opponent. And so it was that, for a change, we saw the team finishing the season on a considerable high.
A couple of minutes before the end, when the sizeable contingent of Coventry supporters was tensely waiting for news on other scorelines around the Championship, a great cheer erupted from the Jimmy Seed stand as they heard that Leicester had failed to win and had thus been relegated, leaving Coventry safe for another season. On the face of it it was a bit bizarre too see such celebrations at such a crushing defeat, but having been relegated ourselves a year ago we knew how they must have felt.
I was pleased that we'll be playing Coventry again next season. Their supporters were great fun in the pub before the game and yet more proof that there's more that unites football supporters than divides them, local rivalries excepted.
But what will probably stay with me longest was the appearance near the end of Charlton's favourite, Chrissie Powell. He was greeted rapturously by the home crowd, and when shortly afterwards he scored the fourth goal we all seemed to be agreeing that it couldn't have been scripted better. Reports say that he was in tears as he walked around after the match in a lap of honour, and I know that there were a few lumps in throats and moist eyes amongst the supporters as well. He's been superb for us and it's a great shame that there's no coaching vacancy for him. Let's hope that we see him back at The Valley one day.
So, another season over. It was a disappointing one in that it fell apart after the win over Palace, but overall it was far more entertaining than our last few Premiership seasons. The board have renewed the offer of a free season ticket for 2009/10 if we're promoted next season, provided that we renew our tickets now. Like many others I've already decided that this is an offer I can't refuse.
We intend to carry on with these photos next season, but as I'm getting married at the beginning of August I might well be depending on Geoff to cover the early games.
Up the Addicks! 
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| Saturday, 29-Mar-2008 20:56 |
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CAFC 2 Wolves 3, 29/3/2008
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| Friday, 21-Mar-2008 23:09 |
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Set back over a decade
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CAFC 1 West Brom 1, 21/3/2008
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Confidence that we can even make the playoffs is now ebbing away. Our team has precious little cohesion and consistency, and when the opposition scores there seems little confidence that we can respond and regain the initiative. Halford's neat shot across the goal that Deano couldn't quite reach was cancelled out eleven minutes later when the ball fell to Phillips at the far post, and after that we were a bit lucky to come away with a point.
There were some bright spots in this match though. Jerome Thomas at last started to put in the effort of which we know he's capable and the crowd picked up on that very quickly. Paddy McCarthy was excellent again - I can hardly believe that it's the same player who looked so completely dreadful at the start of the season. Matt Holland continues to astonish me with his energetic performances - I thought his knees were supposed to be past it?
The trouble is that when the team puts in a poor performance the simple view is that someone must be to blame, must be identified and must be singled out for abuse, and in this regard the spotlight has now drifted away from Ambrose to Halford, with some abuse now heading in Pardew's direction - after the vilification he suffered for a while at West Ham I'm sure he can cope though
I've always failed to understand how it is that otherwise intelligent, sensible people take player performance so personally when they have absolutely no idea of any of the important background, such as injuries, personal problems or the lack of true choice available to the manager on a given day. And no, I don't need this information either - it's none of my business. Of course, if problems of this nature aren't resolved then we'll gradually find matchday attendance less and less attractive and might even find shopping with the missus a tempting alternative.
Assuming that the likely happens and we stay down in the Championship, matchday tickets will be far more freely available on an ad hoc basis. Even though I miss four or five home games a season I still buy a season ticket so as to be assured of a seat with friends and a view that I like, but with dwindling crowds I can get both of those without a season-long investment.
So, what will make people like me, who are finding the draw of the club to be declining, renew their season tickets? Well, at the very least a fairly substantial price cut might do it. However, there's a school of thought that says that the club should renew last season's offer of a free ST for the season after next if we're promoted next Spring. If that happens then I'll renew like a shot, as that will more than compensate for the matches I've missed in the past eighteen months plus those I've yet to miss next season.
Someone said in the pub after the game that following Dowie's disastrous tenure we've now fallen back to where we were in the mid 1990s - thanks Ian - and that sums it up well at the moment. Clearly, it'll take the sort of push that we saw back then to get us up again, and at the moment we just don't have the right players, I'm afraid. We do have the right manager, though, in my opinion.
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