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Apr 28

The O’s and Shots

In the National League the contrasting seasons of Aldershot Town and Leyton Orient were enormous. Both teams I have always had a soft spot for.

My first ever football match I witnessed live was at The Recreation ground in Aldershot. As I badgered the old man to take me to his club, the one a few miles away in SE7 that he’d got out of the habit of watching, we happened to be at some friends one weekend in Camberley.

The Dad was an avid Aldershot watcher, and asked my Dad and I to accompany him, and I have vivid memories of the day. The opposition has always been a mystery to me, but I’m pretty sure it was Stockport County, themselves promoted yesterday and in a quirk of fate will replace the Shots in the National League.

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Apr 28

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Fakeover update

There was a Fans Forum meeting last week. Lievan de Turck (LdT) was again in SE7 full of apologies and shrugs.

This time though Ben Hayes from Bromley Addicks led a much stronger range of questioning of Duchatelet’s puppet and there was some interesting ripostes. CL notes from here and CAFC here.

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Apr 27

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Gillingham 0 Charlton Athletic 2

Our first win there since 1980, although it’s only been a regular fixture during the Duchatelet era. Bowyer rested Lyle Taylor and Patrick Bauer who were carrying slight knocks. Skipper Jason Pearce, George Lapslie, Darren Pratley and Jonny Williams all came in and JFC, Lewis Page and Alfie Doughty were on the bench.

Over 2,300 Addicks sat amongst the scaffolding behind one goal and cheered and sung the Addicks to a comfortable win with both goals coming in the 1st half.

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Apr 26

Triathlon weekend

There have been a lot of very fit looking people mixing with many slightly larger cruise ship tourists walking around Hamilton these last few days. The antithesis is breathtaking, or out of breath depending on which one they were.

54 men and 47 women will take part in Saturday’s World Triathlon Series, the second in the season’s calendar. Last year was the first time Bermuda had been a host for the ITU’s World Series, and homecoming queen Flora Duffy swept to victory to much delight.

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Apr 23

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St George’s

Very appropriate that I spent today in St George’s, the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the New World and settled 407 years ago, and three years after Admiral Sir George Somers deliberately beached the ship Sea Venture onto Bermuda’s reef’s to avoid sinking.

Now UNESCO World Heritage site, the town of St George has slowly started to come back to life, helped by regular cruise ship visits, and a couple of good eateries. There was no ship in today but many, and mostly Japanese, visitors were walking around the town’s narrow and colourful streets.

It has a way before it becomes as beautiful as somewhere like Cinque Terre, but the pastel coloured hilly streets still ask to be explored and much work is being carried out on many of the large homes such as Whitehall, for years occupied by the town’s mayors.

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Apr 22

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Charlton Athletic 4 Scunthorpe United 0

The Addicks eased to victory today without ever really needing top gear.

Scunthorpe looked a team struggling, it wasn’t a walkover but they lacked the desperation of a fighter on the ropes. The Iron had their chances but couldn’t make any count whilst Charlton played with a real freedom and in patches played some good attacking stuff to record their best win of the season to date.

Purrington, Sarr and Vetokele were back and Albie Morgan got a chance as Bielik again missed out to injury. Jake Forster-Caskey made a very welcome return on the bench.

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Apr 21

Fishcakes

Happy Easter everyone.

After a couple of days of fish cakes and hot cross buns, I think I might move onto the chocolate today. Bermudians like the sweet and savoury, and at this time of year it is cod fish cakes tucked inside a warm hot cross bun, slathered in mayo (another Bermuda staple) with a sprinkle of hot sauce. Try one, they are quite moorish.

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Apr 20

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Oxford United 2 Charlton Athletic 1

Had a banana skin written all over this one, yet our lack of ruthlessness in front of goal surfaced again. Losing Igor Vetokele was a blow, and we have to hope it was just a knock as he has got better with each game, and Lyle Taylor is so much better with a striking partner.

We dominated early proceedings, and took a deserved lead when Aribo was brought down, and Taylor finished from the spot. After that listening at home it looked like a case of how many, except in our case it is never going to be many.

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Apr 14

2 Comments

Every Saturday we follow

https://twitter.com/salsa58/status/1117089490114314240?s=21

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Apr 13

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Charlton Athletic 3 Luton Town 1

Allez, Allez, Allez.

What a result that was. The Valley rocked again today as Lee Bowyer’s team bounced on with Addicks’ fans right there behind them. As Bow said let’s just be there waiting if the others want to slip up and offer us an opportunity.

I was bouncing around a bit myself today and followed the game by a variety of ways, but even the first half we were good. Yet they were very good too showing every inch of why they hadn’t lost for 28 games and will absolutely go up as champions.

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Apr 12

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And that’s the thanks

“Charlton supporters have been crucial this season and have played a huge role in helping Lee Bowyer’s team to secure some vital – and often dramatic – points..” (more)

So what do the club do? They put the season ticket prices up.

“Some areas of The Valley have seen price increases for 2019/20 due to a number of reasons, which include increases in inflation and minimum wage.”

Looking more closely at the detail it looks as if all “areas” have seen price increases of up to 5%. The prices will go up again on May 6th, before the play-off semi-finals!

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Apr 11

The CONCACAF Gold Cup draw

Just when at work we were bemoaning the lack of summer football action, the Gold Cup arrived like the first summer wasp.

Bermuda qualified for their first ever major tournament recently by finishing in 5th place in this continent’s Nations League qualifying. The 5th place finish also secured Nations League action against the power house Mexicans and Panama later in the year.

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Apr 10

3 Comments

Wycombe Wanderers 0 Charlton Athletic 1

1,500 Addicks turned Adams Park into a home match last night as they sung and roared on Charlton to victory.

It wasn’t a classic but Lee Bowyer’s men ground and fought out a hard earned win against a decent Wycombe side. Bowyer juggled his squad around to rest a few legs and it was returning skipper Jason Pearce who got the vital goal expertly volleying in a cross from a lovely Josh Cullen cross on 33 minutes.

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Apr 6

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Plymouth Argyle 0 Charlton Athletic 2

Plymouth is always a tough place to go, and if ever the Pilgrims can be decent for a whole season they are sure to be promotion challengers, and the boys in retro red and black navigated some choppy waters down in the West Country today but returned home with all three points.

The Addicks struggled to contain a very attack-minded Argyle first half, not helped by a referee who was on a mission to book every Charlton player. We’d had three in the book before a returning Bielik fouled the dangerous Lameiras to give away a penalty late in the first period.

However Dillon Phillips stood strong and despite diving to his left he beat Carey’s centrally placed kick out with his foot.

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Apr 5

Miami weekender

A quick weekend in Miami to meet the exhausted-other-half and our little Edwina the Eagle daughter after their week skiing in Colorado. Whilst I made the short hop across from Bermuda this morning, they had to suffer a midnight flight and a red-eye from Denver.

A pretty quiet weekend should ensue and a welcome break from work, which is currently relentless and unsympathetic to doing much else including sleeping through the bloody night.

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Apr 2

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Rumours

I’m not one for scurrilous rumours. Aribo to Arsenal, Bauer to Blackburn, Theresa May will she won’t she, Trump didn’t did he, he probably did, but one stopped me in my tracks today, although it was hardly surprising.

“QPR sound out Lee Bowyer as new manager after axing Steve McClaren” screamed the Evening Standard tonight. No quotes, no inside knowledge, no investigative journalism. Just an arrow shot into Charlton fan’s hearts.

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