Mar 29
I know a fair few of you pay close attention and watch Charlton Women’s team.
I follow their results enough to know that under Karen Hills they’ve hardly been showing scintillating form despite being sitting on top of the WSL 2 table, and despite going over a calendar year without defeat and being top of the table this entire season the Addicks have been wobbly for a while.
Please click for moreSo here we are then, the final block of matches. 7 left, 4 at home, 3 away. The finish line in sight.
Hopeful too, that we see the return of Matty Godden and Harvey Knibbs, although the official channels are being usually schtum about the injury situation.
Please click for moreI am one of those rare Englishmen that likes to see other ‘home nations’ qualify for big tournaments, so that went well this past week.
You just know that Lloyd Jones would have won that header against Edin Džeko at that late corner!
Please click for moreThe silly season is back.
Bristol City today sacked Gerhard Struber and replaced him with 78-year old Roy Hodgson. The ex-England manager has been retired since leaving Crystal Palace over two years ago, and will take charge of City for the remaining seven games of the season starting with us on Good Friday.
Please click for moreThe Addicks fell to their 7th home defeat of the season today losing 1-0 to in-form Norwich City.
For 45 minutes we were second best by a stretch, but we had a good go in the second period and although the best team won, on another day we could’ve snatched a point with more luck, and a better referee.
Please click for moreIt wasn’t a surprise that Lyndon Dykes was called up this week for the Scotland squad, who play friendlies against Japan at Hampden Park on Saturday and then take on fellow World Cup qualifiers Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium next Tuesday.
What wasn’t a surprise was the lack of a call up for Conor Coventry from Ireland and Lloyd Jones from Craig Bellamy of Wales as those two nations enter a huge week in the World Cup play-offs.
Please click for moreThere hasn’t been an Addicks player that splits opinion for a number of years like Tyreece Campbell does.
Campbell has been at the club since he was 9 and made his debut just over 4 years ago. He tops the appearance list comfortably within the current squad and as we know is favoured by manager Nathan Jones and has featured in every league game this season thus far.
Please click for moreI’ve never had a second team, never really understood the concept. One team gives me enough headaches.
When I lived back at home (sic) I used to watch a whole range of local sides – Welling, Bromley, Tonbridge, Hornchurch, Eastbourne Borough. It was a nice little outlet if the Addicks weren’t playing or were away.
Please click for moreI’ll take that. 7 massive points this week, and from three such different games.
We were excellent last Saturday at home to Birmingham and thoroughly deserved the 3 points. The long Wednesday trip up north to Middlesbrough saw a masterclass defensive performance and we snuffled all 3 points to take home. Today we were poor, and we contributed to a poor match, but still managed to come away with an important point.
Please click for moreFor those that follow our loan players they would’ve seen Micah Mbick take a really bad tackle during his first full game back for Colchester from his recent hip injury on Saturday.
I say tackle as it wasn’t even given as a foul as the ref played on following a high challenge from Newport County’s Cameron Evans’s
Please click for moreWow.
A breathtaking result and 3 points being brought 300 miles home tonight. Heroes on the pitch, and heroes in the stand.
Please click for moreCharlie Kelman finished his goal yesterday like the striker we had hoped we had signed in the summer.
There were some interesting interviews after the game from both Nathan Jones and Kelman, which basically said the same and I don’t expect they had time to collude beforehand. I think we all want to see Kelman wheel away cupping his ears after scoring more often. Question is, will we.
Please click for more1-0 to the Charlton boys.
Huge win at home today that was peppered with some really strong individual performances and a real desire from the team to get the win.
Please click for moreThe attempted Americanization of the planet sport continues. In America’s MLS 18 teams qualify for the play-off’s and they have a best of three ‘knockout’ in the first round, so we can only look forward to that.
It was annonced today that EFL Championship clubs voted in favour of expanding the play-offs from four to six teams effective next season. I mean of course they did, it was owners casting the vote. The day before Turkey’s voted to abolish Christmas.
Please click for moreWe did not deserve to lose that. At all.
Our best attacking display for many weeks, but it resulted in defeat and a blank in front of goal telling the serial story of us not being clinical enough. Seminally we were just unable to create enough clear cut chances from our midfield and wide players.
Please click for moreThe Thursday weekly pre-match Nathan Jones club presser follows a similar format each week. It is obviously heavily managed and at best we get a look back at how well last week’s oppositon were coached, how well this coming week’s team are coached, and injury news consisting of updates that players are a week less injured than they were last Thursday.
However, Rich Cawley asks the questions that we want answers to.
Please click for moreThere 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 more
Sarasota, Florida
