Feb 24
There I was thinking wouldn’t it be great if we really took the game to them tonight and show that we are better spirited, better organized and a better team. Then the game kicked off….
We were bad, very bad, but one piece of quality grabbed us a valuable point. Losing really wasn’t an option tonight.
Please click for moreWell, sadly that is it for four more years. That’s my armchair coaching and commnentating on sports I know little or anything about over until next time. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person shouting at the tele’ for Bruce Mouat to takeout or Charlotte Bankes to straightline!
I was lucky to see a lot of this year’s Winter Olympics and I enjoyed BBC, TNT and NBC’s coverage. The closing ceremony this afternoon was also stunning. The Italians are cool bastards, aren’t they. I do need to get myself to that Roman amphitheater in Verona that was built in 30 AD. Breathtaking.
Please click for moreThat was a terrific and hard-fought point today.
Tuesday was so disappointing, but the players showed real character today to bounce back and take a point from a very good Southampton side, who have individuals a cut above this level.
Please click for moreQatar side Al‑Sailiya have joined the race, not sure if that is the right word, to sign free agent Michail Antonio.
The BBC suggested yesterday that Antonio has options but continues to train with Charlton.
Please click for moreMe and the songstress-other-half knocked off a long time bucket list item last night. We went to see Andrea Bocelli live in Tampa.
He never ceases to tour but for a host of different reasons we have never been able to see, or get tickets to watch him. As it was he chose a night in Tampa as part of his Romanza 30th Anniversary tour, and we long ago snapped up tickets.
Please click for moreI couldn’t watch yesterday’s game as we were on our way to watch Andrea Bocelli in Tampa. Me and the operatic-other half drew straws to see if we listened to the game in the car or Bocelli’s greatest hits.
Fortunately she won.
Please click for moreOn a work trip last year to Zurich, we took the train to Lucerne in central Switzerland for a day trip. It took less than an hour and the train dissects through the Swiss mountainside with lakes for company all the way.
The train station is impressive but we exited to a murky Lucerne shrouded in a low-lying fog.
Please click for moreMichail Antonio has been training with the Addicks for a few days as Nathan Jones and the medical team cast their eyes over the ex-West Ham striker with a view of putting together a deal for the free-agent.
Antonio has not played a competitive game in England since the highly-documented car crash in December 2024 that left the 35-year-old with multiple leg fractures.
Please click for moreA big, big win.
It was an enjoyable watch, the odd bit of anxiety aside, but better still was the huge 3 points that gives us some breathing space. The clean sheet was fully earned and we wanted it more all over the pitch. We are so better structured, Clarke and Chambers give us balance and poise, Coady is the linchpin, and Dykes an old school number 9, who leaves it all out on the pitch.
Please click for moreAs the clocked ticked around to 90 minutes I was bemoaning that it was two points dropped. We had done more than enough to win the game.
Then during the 8 minutes of injury time, QPR had 5 chances and we were clinging onto the point
Please click for moreLeicester City have been docked six points by the EFL for breaching financial rules after they were charged by the Premier League in May for a profit and sustainability (PSR) breach in the three years leading up to 2023-24.
The deduction is applied immediately meaning they fall from 17th to 20th in the table and put another body between us and the bottom three.
Please click for moreA little disappointed tonight. It is the early hours in Orlando where I have had back to back meetings all day and evening trying to grab quick searches to see how the transfer deadline was going for us.
In hindsight I was happy I kept busy and didn’t sit in front of the computer / social media / Sky Sports.
Please click for moreIt feels good doesn’t it.
An absolutely vital win on the road at Leicester today, and brilliant for those 2,500 Addicks that went up there. They deserved that and it was great to see the scenes at the end.
Please click for moreHere’s one for those Addicks looking for the club to widen their transfer net.
Kenyan and Serbian media (as well as Rich Cawley to add a little bit more source to it) are reporting that Charlton are set to sign Kenyan centre-back Collins Sichenje from Serbian top flight club Vojvodina.
Please click for moreAs anticipated this morning Conor Coady signed on loan until the end of the season. The experienced ex-England international leaves Wrexham six months after his £2million arrival.
The charismatic 32-year old will bring experience and leadership to a defence that is in desperate need of it.
Please click for moreRob Elliot was probably influential in Charlton’s signing of Gateshead ‘keeper Tiernan Brooks today.
The 23-year-old has put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half year deal, with a club option of a further year.
Please click for moreIt was a strange evening down at Sparrows Lane. Clearly the club have never heard of the theory of priming emotion protection.
Researchers use this term to describe the, usually subconscious, desire to “ease into” bad news by starting with something positive. The old good news first approach.
Please click for moreIt’s hard to imagine that Ashley Maynard-Brewer has been at Charlton for 10 years after moving from Perth in Australia.
Ashley has signed only an initial 6-month deal for Dundee United, who are 8th in the Scottish Premiership. Any fee was described as undisclosed.
Please click for moreBack to Stockport County for striker Tanto Olaofe for the rest of the season.
Last season Olaofe played 51 times for County and scored 12 goals. For Charlton he has started just 6 games and the winner at Sheffield United was his only goal.
Please click for moreThere’s been a lot going on this evening at Sparrows Lane.
To much melting down by Addicks fans, Rob Apter has gone on loan to Bolton Wanderers for the rest of the season. Apter is a Lancashire boy of course, and it’s been obvious that Nathan Jones, and possibly Jones alone, doesn’t feel he is ready for The Championship
Please click for moreFinish this Charlton Athletic trivial pursuit question:
Cory Gibbs, Sérgio Leite, Anil Koc, Rúrik Gíslason, Steve Barbé, Martin Christensen, Florent Rouamba and….?
Please click for moreThe United States has been blanketed this weekend in some of the worst winter weather it has seen for many years.
More than half of the population across 37 states have been affected and almost a million homes are without power. 60cm of snow fell overnight in parts of the north-east. In southern parts of the country warmer weather has brought ice storms and tornadoes.
Please click for moreThe owner group known as Global Football Partners (GFP) and made up of a handful of individual investors, mostly stateside, have been widely liked by the Addicks fan base since they collectively bought the club in July 2023.
I mean it is though a very low bar, even Thomas Sandgaard has been proven to be a complete wrong-un. I mean those sparkly white teeth, fake tan, guitar, and sparkly jackets were always going to hide a lot of sins. At least I sold my Zynex shares at break even.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣. Next and last up in my annual listing of Top Fives is Restaurants. I tell people that when I am travelling with work I’m either eating in Michelin starred restaurants, or sitting at an airport gate munching my way through a packet of crisps and overdosing on Haribo.
I did have some great meals last year, and occasionally I took the family! Here are my 2025 Top Five Favourite Restaurants 🍕
Please click for moreHumiliated. Again.
It doesn’t really matter who manages, who plays, the result is the same. There has been some tough watches against them in past years, but blimey that was an embarrassment.
Please click for moreI watched the ‘meet the director fan meeting tonight. Not sure how many of you did, certainly the viewer number count on You Tube never got above 500, and we found out tonight that we have 12,500 season ticket holders. It is here if you want to watch the recording.
Charlotte Richardson hosted Board Chair Gavin Carter, Managing Director Jim Rodwell until he had to go, and then CFO Ed Warwick for just over an hour in what has been described as part of the club’s fan engagement framework.
Please click for moreThe Addicks have signed 21-year old Luke Chambers from Liverpool on loan until the end of the season.
This is Chambers fourth loan move from Liverpool, where he’s been since the age of 6.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣ I stayed in 62 hotels last year. 62. I haven’t worked out the number of nights because it might be debilitating. Many of these hotels represented just a bed and a shower on a work trip. Others however were calming sanctuaries of joy and family time.
I’ve rattled 62 down to 5 plus a couple of honourable mentions. Here are My Top Fives Favourite Hotels from 2025 🏩
Please click for moreVery disappointed about that. This should be a winnable home game, at least a game not to lose.
First league defeat of the year, but we have limped to this point, and too often tonight we were loose and ponderous in our play all over the pitch.
Please click for moreWord had got out this week that Josh Edwards had suffered a setback in his injury return, and that was confirmed by Nathan Jones tonight.
Edwards had been seen in training, and it was even thought he was within weeks of a return, but stories of him having a breakdown now appear true.
Please click for moreBrighton & Hove Albion’s algorithmic way of signing young players from across the globe has taken them to young Micah Mbick.
This month Charlton have turned down two bids from the Sussex club, the latest totalling £3.5m, £2.5million of that being up front.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
Hopefully we have all moved on from Saturday. I’ve never been embarrassed to see a Charlton win, not going to start now.
Lucky, fortunate, skittish, fortuitous.. but never embarrassed.
Please click for moreWell, a few hours have passed allowing me to digest what happened this afternoon. Wine helps too.
We were extremely fortunate of course, but Sheffield United were their own worst enemies, which only they can control and 3 points is 3 points and we really needed them.
Please click for moreIt sounds as if James Bree will return to Southampton after the weekend as Saints manager Tonda Eckert wants to utilize him in his first team plans.
Nathan Jones said this week that conversations are ongoing, but Bree frozen out by Will Still, is under contract and if Southampton want him back then that is probably the end of that.
Please click for moreScottish international Lyndon Dykes has signed for the Addicks until the end of the season, where I am sure there is an agreement in place to extend that as his Birmingham contract ran until 2027.
Dykes said: “I’m super pleased and I can’t wait to get going. It’s going to be really exciting for myself and my family, and I think there’s going to be good times to come.”
Please click for moreIpswich Town’s Harry Clarke became Nathan Jones’ first January window signing today. The versatile 24-year-old defender has signed on loan until the end of the season.
Clarke can cover the range of roles at the right of the defence and hopefully signals the beginning of a busy week at Sparrows Lane.
Please click for moreI understand how difficult the January transfer window is, but we are now day 12 and we have the most important run of games coming up, so come on and hurry up!
The squad is decimated and is running on the fumes and the left side of defence has to be addressed this week.
Please click for moreThat was never a 5-1 game. I thought the boys did well tonight, showed good organization, discipline and courage. They even gave us a goal to cheer.
Yet, the second and third goals were poor to concede and the timing a killer.
Please click for moreThe Charlton youth team beat Watford tonight to progress to the last 16 of this season’s FA Youth Cup.
If that doesn’t get us warmed up for Saturday’s FA Cup night then not much will. Our academy continues to be a source of pride.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣ I have said this before, but walking around Sarasota’s downtown you could be forgiven for forgetting that it is in Florida, other than the sandhill cranes flying over Sarasota Bay and the sun high in the sky.
We’ve lived here now for more than two years and there is still so much more to explore, but these were My Top Five Favourite Sarasota Things from last year.🦩
Please click for moreJust a few lines on today’s game as I’m laid up trying to fight the flu, and losing badly.
Very disappointing to be 2-0 up, and not bring back the three points today. Their first goal was the killer I thought, and both goals conceded were really poor from our point of view.
Please click for moreA lot of fingers are pointing at Birmingham’s Lyndon Dykes as a possible early window signing for Charlton early next week.
The 30-year Scot has mostly been used from the bench by the Blues this season, and has been made available as Birmingham themselves look to spend in the January window.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣ A lot of planes meant a lot of TV Shows. Plenty of series watched, although many good, there wasn’t I felt a load that were distinguishable.
Five were still hard to pick, but I gave it a go. Below are My Five Favourite TV Shows from 2025 📺
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
Where have they been hiding Joe Rankin-Costello?
Nathan Jones’ 6th summer signing, he arrived from Blackburn just in time to join the summer tour to Slovenia, and was signed for a fee said to be £750,000.
Please click for moreA performance full of character this afternoon as Nathan Jones’ team breathed new life into our hopes and dreams on the first day of a new year.
After Monday night, it was interesting to me at least, that Pompey went down 5-0, but we played like we did today against the runaway leaders with the best away record in the league.
Please click for moreA little chilly here this New Year’s Eve morning in Sarasota. It might be a pyjama day, especially as our daughter has a touch of the flu so any plans, as minimal as they were, will have to be shelved.
I’ve never been a fan of ‘amateur night’ as I used to call it back in the day, so cooking and popping open a nice bottle of red later will be good enough for me.
Please click for moreSky Sports have named the Addicks as one of four clubs trailing Hull City’s Cody Drameh.
The 23-year old is comfortable playing left or right wing back, and despite making 12 Championship appearances this season for the high-flying Tigers, he hasn’t played a first team minute since the end of November.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
I am sure I am not alone, but I feel low and worried about those Addicks this morning, but I am here to attempt to put a positive spin on proceedings.
The overblown foreboding and anti-Jones sentiments in some of my comments and many hundreds on Charlton Life possibly need to press the brake a little.
Please click for moreThat is a dagger through the heart. 9 seconds after Pompey restarted the game they got their second goal. That is absolutely criminal from Charlton.
Probably like me and most of us I suspect the players expected the referee to blow his whistle as they kicked off, but that defending is inexcusable.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣ Another year, another list of my Top Fives. We will begin with Places. This year’s travels were almost entirely work related, and unfortunately a lot the places I visited were on repeat.
We did have one big family holiday, and that was to Qatar as we sought to open our daughter’s mind to another culture. The peninsula on the Arabian Gulf therefore took top spot, and here is a list of My Top Fives Favourite Places 🧳
Please click for moreIt appears I was lucky to miss watching today’s game. That sounded turgid at best.
A worrying performance after a couple of positive ones. Losing is one thing, but losing in that manner will no doubt raise concerns once again.
Please click for moreThe transfer window opens in 8 days time, and typically Charlton rumours are thin on the ground.
Nathan Jones has talked openly about adding Championship quality to his squad. That could be a striker, midfielder and most definitely a left-sided wing back.
Please click for moreHow sad it was to hear of Chris Rea’s untimely passing yesterday. His Driving Home For Christmas song is one of my all time favourite’s this time of year, and after years of living away from home it has long captured the Christmas spirit for me.
Rea was a huge Middlesbrough fan, and the Gone Fishing Christmas special with fellow Boro fan Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse has to be worth another watch over the next week.
Please click for moreA huge win.
It was at times a draining game to watch, but there was also plenty to enjoy. Lot’s of positive performances and we showed all the aggression and defensive bravery that heralded our start to the season.
Please click for moreA couple of bits of Addicks’ stuff that passed me by this weekend.
Firstly, what a tremendous win for our U18’s at Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup, secondly I’ve just seen that our Chelsea FA Cup game will be played at 8pm on a Saturday night.
Please click for moreA great point halting an awful run of results. We turned up today and navigated tough moments, defended like our lives depended on it, and got the goal when we were on top.
That was something to absolutely get behind from the reds today. More please.
Please click for moreAn emotional night ended with a fifth consecutive defeat.
The club and supporters as well as the referee, Boro’s team and fans beautifully remembered Headphones Norm, and there was a more spirited 2nd half to cling onto.
Please click for moreWow, a proper draw. Chelsea at home in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. I believe they also call themselves the best team in the World!
An exciting draw, the first for many years. The game will played over the weekend of January 10/11th, and I guess we could be a TV pick.
Please click for moreThis was a big game, with a big build up to a date so important to Addicks’ fans. It ended in tragic circumstances and our number is sadly one less today.
The outpouring of love and affection by those that knew Norman Barker or simply knew of him has been both heartwarming and sad. Yet we should all take solace, and I’m sure his family do, in that when your time is up, what better place to be than in a noisy Covered End surrounded by thousands of your best friends. Many of whom rushed to preserve Norm’s life of course.
Please click for moreWhat absolutely devastating news. 💔
On a day which should have been about celebration and memories, we lost one of our own in such tragic circumstances.
Please click for morePeople that appear to have knowledge of the situation are suggesting that Matt Godden has had another set back to his knee injury.
Remember, Godden had calcification form on tissue around his knee, this stemming from the original surgery in the summer and still gives him discomfort when he trains. His return has kept getting pushed back.
Please click for moreFor those that have read these pages regularly they will know that my family and I have regularly been impacted by hurricanes, the last one was in October last year when Milton made landfall just up the street from us, and we had to evacuate.
We chose to live in Bermuda and we chose to live 400 metres from the water here on the gulf coast of Florida, so no pity required, but I also spend a lot of time studying their impacts for work.
Please click for more
Sarasota, Florida
