The Reds are going up

48 hours on and the party is still going on in my head. I have watched every available video clip, read every report and smiled over every photograph. How kind it was of our friends at Carlisle to host another one of our promotion parties!

I have stared at that ‘P’ next to our highlighted name in the table and watched the pitch invasion from every camera phone of a Charlton fan who took time to post it on the internet and I have proudly worn the only pair of Charlton cuff links I own to work today (thanks Chris).

Some people might say that we shouldn’t have been in League One anyway, and that we have a right to get out of this division. No we don’t. And until a certain Chris Powell came along, worked out what was required and brought in a team to believe in and to rally behind, it looked like we might be here for a while.

A promotion doesn’t come along very often, and they are to be celebrated and after five years of hurt, oh yes, we are going to celebrate.

Records have been broken along the way, but I wonder how many teams have danced to promotion with new owners, a new management team (both in their first full season) and 18 players signed by the end of August, with as many shipped out and then another handful coming in later to augment what was already in place.

And whilst the free-flowing football of the summer and autumn months has given way to wholehearted commitment, what has always been there is the undiminished displays of teamwork, notwithstanding who is selected and a will to win that we have not seen for a long, long time. All of this of course orchestrated by the master of dedication himself, Chris Powell.

As I said in October 2010: “Anyone else have re-occurring dream that Chris Powell occupies the manager’s office at Charlton one day?”

Well dream on Addicks.