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Jan 29

Epic match

What an absolute epic tennis match in Melbourne today between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. For almost six hours these two incredible sportsmen were like gladiators as over and over again they each found implausible energy reserves and a single-mindedness to hurtle around the court often covering over 100 meters per point to gain an advantage over their opponent.

With the time difference we put the box on when we woke up, correction when our daughter woke us up (around 6am) and Nadal had just won the first set. We then sat transfixed and I was honoured to watch two great men contest an historic final.
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Jan 28

4 Comments

Exeter City 0 Charlton Athletic 1

Exeter had come of the back of three clean sheets so today was always going to be tight but we came through another test in Devon today to go 9 points clear.

Danny Green’s goal sounded fortunate and I can assure you (I haven’t looked) the Sheffield forums will be proclaiming that we are the luckiest side alive. A bit like Birmingham City I guess.
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Jan 27

1 Comment

In the middle

Chris Powell has talked this week about his central midfielders and coincidentally Blackheath Addick summed up perfectly the different midfield partnerships available to him.

Powell talked highly of Dale Stephens, a player I was very impressed with early season. “He’s a creative player, a player I do like and I just want him to be right and ready so that when he is called upon he does himself justice and adds to what we already have.” said Powell.

He was less gushing over Mikel Alonso. “We’ve got a long list of midfielders and there are plenty in front of him.” Alonso has been the forgotten man and he may now be fit but he still didn’t feature in the Kent Senior Cup tie the other night when Stephens, Waggy, Hayes and Ruben Bover did.
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Jan 26

11 Comments

Fans that we don’t want

I’ve not seen any other blogger mention this, but it was widely reported this week that nine so called Charlton followers were arrested by police in dawn raids on Wednesday morning investigating suspected racist chanting on a train into Waterloo Station following our cup tie at Fulham on 7th January.
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Jan 25

He’s played more games than Shaun….

….Bradley Wright Phillips has played more games than Shaun….

He’s also scored 14 more goals than his step brother too. Good news that he is staying, we don’t want to start dismantling the squad now and the varied talents of Haynes, Hayes and Clarke have yet to prove they can be as dangerous as BWP in front of goal at this level.
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Jan 22

The Giant Apple

An early start tomorrow as I’m off to New York for a couple of days with work. NYC saw its first real snow of the winter on Saturday (photo) but fortunately for me it has rapidly cleared as the temperatures warmed with it supposedly set for 50°F (11°C) tomorrow.

The trip will be typical of many, i.e. airport, office, bar, restaurant, hotel, office, airport but I’m looking forward to being away from my desk which has been a bit mental since the new year.
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Jan 21

3 Comments

Charlton Athletic 1 Sheffield United 0

I think I am falling for Johnnie Jackson, I have some serious man love for the bloke. I mean, even David Beckham in his pomp would have struggled to pull that rabbit out of the hat. Again.

Two massive games and six points. What a week. What a team.

Today in front of a crackling atmosphere it sounded an excellent game but although we conceded a lot of possession in the 2nd half we just seemed to have too much for our nearest rivals and once again our back four were awesome.
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Jan 20

1 Comment

Journey

The eve of another big day in our season. There are hopes that over 23,000 will fill The Valley tomorrow for the second half of our steel city double.

Sheffield United have gone about their business slightly quieter than their north-city rivals. Danny Wilson slowly garnering support amongst Blades’ fans.

I will have to once again do with the radio commentary tomorrow but as I write this (sat on a ferry) I can vividly picture the Charlton team and their proud gaffer embracing in the middle of the Bramall Lane pitch after our victory there in October. Another collective team effort tomorrow cheered on by three sides of a packed Valley will be essential to us carrying on our incredible run.
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Jan 18

7 Comments

2011 Top 5 CAFC Defining Moments

A year is a long time in football and it can also remind you that rarely do good things happen overnight. It wasn’t easy to pick just 5 Defining CAFC Moments, but here they are:

1. Chris Powell appointed as manager, January 14th
This is what I wrote on the day he was unveiled: “My heart aches with undying joy but also trepidation but I know more than anything else that Chris Powell’s heart has Charlton Athletic Football Club running through it like a stick of rock. Welcome home Chris. Make us proud again.”
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Jan 17

2 Comments

2011 Top 5 Albums

Strangely enough I’ve never gotten into Bermudian music, so my iPod is never far away wherever I am. I seek my recommendations from a lot of places so please feel free. It wasn’t a great year for bands’ albums in my mind, but these were my top five:

1. Smother by Wild Beasts
I hadn’t listened to their earlier stuff before I got a heads up on this album and I’m glad I did. This is a smoldering, slinky analogue of tunes and it takes the crown as my favourite from last year.
Favourite track – Loop the Loop
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Jan 16

2 Comments

2011 Top 5 Hotels

One day I am going to stay in a hotel and not leave it. Just move in. For real. One of my few fanciful splurges is on hotels and these were my favourite five from last year.

1. St Regis, Atlanta
Buckhead in Atlanta has a ridiculous amount of quality hotels, but this one would not look out of place in Paris. The majestic hotel has a southern charm with Roman accents like it’s pool piazza (photo)
Hotel website
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Jan 14

2 Comments

Sheffield Wednesday 0 Charlton Athletic 1

As they would say in Sheffield, S6…. “An absolute fooking massive result that was.”. The locals will be crying into their chips and gravy tonight!

For a change I listened to the Wednesday commentary on Player, which was as expected horribly biased but occasionally it’s nice to get an opposition view. However I lost count of how many times a smile crossed my face as the two Wednesday-ites urged the long ball or long throw forward and blamed the referee for everything. Mind you the co-commentator, who I later found out was a certain John Pearson, did say we were the best team to come to Hillsborough this season and was complimentary about a number of our players, namely Green, Hamer and BWP.

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Jan 12

Steel city

These next two games caught the eye when the fixtures came out last summer. Like us Wednesday were undergoing a rebuilding job and had already recruited our player of the year. Their cross-town rivals United meanwhile had dropped to the 3rd tier for the first time in 23 years and had a new manager in ex-Owl Danny Wilson.

Not unexpectedly both Sheffield sides find themselves competing for automatic promotion at the halfway point. What will be a surprise to them both though is that a little club from south of the River Thames lead them in the chase.
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Jan 10

AFC Wimbledon’s own little Thierry Henry moment

Looks like we have had our own little Thierry Henry moment in South London today with the news that Jason Euell will move to AFC Wimbledon on loan until the middle of February.

Euell was a trainee at the original Dons and scored 47 goals in a 177 games between 1995 and 2001. He was then sold to us for a then club record £4.75m in the summer of 2001.
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Jan 10

2 Comments

Green light

The January transfer window is normally the green light for football club chairman and owners to do their own bit of shopping but usually for a new manager.

The highest profile so far has been Neil Warnock (the man with the best anagram in football), who was relieved of his duties, with the League Championship trophy still without dust on it in the Loftus Road trophy cabinet. Mark Hughes is Tony Fernandes first choice and it is now left to Hughes to weigh up whether QPR will pay him more represent a bigger challenge than Fulham.
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Jan 9

2011 Top 5 Restaurants

The next installment in my Top 5 collection from 2011. There was plenty of nominations, but here are my Top Five Restaurants of 2011:

1. Joe Fortes, Vancouver
An atmospheric seafood and chop house in Vancouver. I remember the night more than the food, but it was a great night mostly because of Joe Fortes. Tip-top service, sensational and flavourful food.
Website
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Jan 7

2 Comments

Fulham 4 Charlton Athletic 0

Hardy heartbroken by that and proud of the display and the excellent support.

I listened in on Radio London and their view was although Fulham deserved to win the game, it was never a 4-0 result and we can be very proud of ourselves. My brother held the same view and indeed until Dempsey’s second goal there was only one team in it, and David Stockdale was playing a blinder.
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Jan 5

Zooropa

Amongst bundles of discarded wrapping paper, turkey leftovers and bags under the eyes during our trip home I also made my first ever visit to Colchester Zoo, re-discovered some old London stomping grounds and had a couple of cracking pub lunches.

Colchester Zoo was much bigger than I imagined. Our friends had suggested a 4-hour visit and as we drove up there in the drizzly rain I truly wondered what an earth we were going to do for 3 of those hours.

But I should have feared not as we comfortably strolled it’s 60 acres during 3 hours and still left some for another day, although there were a fair amount of exhibits that had migrated for the winter. There are apparently over 260 different species and they are laid out in numerous zones where you can get pretty close to the animals.
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Jan 4

2011 Top 5 Favourite Places

Ok, time for a bit of naval gazing. It’s January and therefore it is time for some Chicago Addick Top 5’s. I’ll start of with some of the places I found myself in in 2011.

1. Aspen
We were in Aspen in April and it has a certain finesse and poise to it. The once gold rush town in Colorado is a year round resort but to not go in the winter to see the majestic snow capped mountains would be a bucket list tick missed. My Travelogue
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Jan 3

Charlton Athletic 2 Brentford 0

It was an ugly win but it was fine by me as I was at The Valley yesterday to see us collect another 3 points. I had the pleasure of the company of Dave of Drinking During the Game sat high up in the East Stand equidistant from the chaos in the Upper North and the gaiety of the South Stand.

In truth we never got going and we conceded a lot of possession in midfield with Jonathan Douglas pulling the strings for the Bees but thinking back they carried little goalscoring threat.
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Jan 1

1 Comment

Clarke’s a shoe in

I’m very pleased with Chris Powell’s early January transfer business. I wish Paul Benson all the best at Swindon where he will be reunited with his old car-pooling mate Alan McCormack, but even a blind man could see that he wasn’t in the manager’s plans. Meanwhile replacing him with the division’s 4th top scorer is a clever bit of business in my book.

Clarke will not be the last person to fall out with Paulo Di Canio, and has all the DNA of a Powell signing. A player with age on his side who has impressed at this level, could play higher and has something to prove. Welcome Leon.
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Jan 1

Leyton Orient 1 Charlton Athletic 0

On the last day of the year we fell flat on our faces in front of the Sky cameras after referee Whitestone decided he wanted to be the star of the show with just a couple of minutes on the clock.

Nonetheless whether Ben Hamer prevented a certain goal or not with his hand he had no reason to be that far out of his box with five minutes on the clock and with only Dave Mooney his opponent. Mooney showed later when he missed a sitter why he frustrated so many Charlton fans.

I reckon we all cringed when we saw Orient’s starting XI with four ex-Addicks in their line-up. We have all read that script before and it was left to Matt Spring to get the winner with a deflected goal (as was Stevenage’s) although I am more inclined to blame some pussy-footing defending before Spring even got his shot away.
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