Dec 1
For 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 moreI’m glad that you guys, at least the ones that commented, had similar feelings to me after yesterday’s game.
I went on Charlton Life post match and there appeared a lot more pessimism, maybe that stemmed from disappointment or a sudden realization that we are sliding down the table, but I try to look for indicators and study body language, and it was a different team to the one that subsided on Tuesday night.
Please click for moreThe Addicks went down to a fourth consecutive defeat today, and that’s 11 goals conceded in a week, just one less than in all the 15 games prior.
It was better though, I felt like the spirit was back, and the first half hour lifted hopes that those first 15 games were not an apparition.
Please click for moreThe Black Friday sale is underway at The Valley.
32-year old left sided French defender Jérôme Roussillon has joined the Addicks on a short-term contract. This tells me that Josh Edwards is going to be missing for some time, but welcome Jerome.
Please click for moreI’ve just about finished eating. Been a long day of turkey, mash potato, gravy and mimosa’s. This Thanksgiving thing has some legs. Same again tomorrow, with added online shopping for stuff I don’t need.
Today and tomorrow are a very welcoming break as work literally grinds to a halt as American’s eat, drink and watch (American) Football. I don’t know what American’s watched between 1621, when then the Pilgrims had their first harvest and 1920, when urban legend has it that the Chicago Tigers and Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) challenged each other to a Thanksgiving duel in the league’s inaugural season.
Please click for moreWhat the hell has happened. That was brutal and the players truly let Nathan Jones down tonight.
After Saturday I was expecting an aggressive, in your face, defend at all costs start and there we were 2-0 down after five minutes, and even the most optimistic knew then that it was game over.
Please click for moreI have just checked the weather. 0° at kick off tomorrow night. Can we do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?
My brother and I once went to the Potteries leaving the warmth of London Euston in our t-shirts to be met with snow when we got off the train at Stoke-on-Trent.
Please click for moreA few comments on yesterday before we consign it to room 101.
That wasn’t us yesterday, it hasn’t been us, and now we have to make sure it doesn’t become us.
Please click for moreI haven’t watched a first half performance that horrible for a long time. It was startling how easy they dismantled our defence and rolled us around all over the shop in midfield.
It was only thanks to Kaminski and luck that it took them 14 minutes to score their first, and by the time they scored the 5th half an hour later, it had become like a very bad dream.
Please click for moreUnlike the Scots, wow that was an incredible match, the Jamaican’s failed to win last night and move into the Intercontinental World Cup play-off’s instead.
Jamaican drew 0-0 in Kingston with the 171 square-mile island of Curaçao and it will be them that go onto next year’s finals.
Please click for moreI think I am ununusual in wanting the home nations to join England at major tournament finals, so I found myself drawn to them this weekend where I actually watched a fair few of the qualifiers, and I will be tuning in tomorrow night to watch the Scots take on the Danes to see if they can qualify for their first World Cup since the Krankies were on our screens.
The Irish had a tremenduous result, any football fan unless you were Hungarian had to have enjoyed that on Sunday. I loved seeing Conor Coventry leading the chase of Troy Parrott down the pitch.
Please click for more50 years ago yesterday, half an actual century ago, my Dad did something unwittingly that would go onto change the course of my life and for that matter my family.
Saturday, 15th November, 1975 was a day I will never forget. It was my first ever Charlton Athletic game that I went to.
Please click for moreSynesthesia. Today’s word.
Mixed senses of disappointment this weekend as we have no game, and not waking with that nervous excitement stomach churn of what lies ahead, but also quite thankful that the day will be more relaxing.
The sometimes-enigmatic-other-half will be happier that she won’t have to attempt to read my mood tonight before we go out for dinner!
Read moreIt’s that time of year in these parts that we we receive the mass migration of snowbirds.
The Oxford Dictionary definition of a snowbird is: “a person who spends the winter in a warmer climate, especially an old person from the north of the US, or from Canada, who spends the winter in the south.”
Please click for moreNathan Jones does like to run with a smaller squad, a unified group where every player feels part of it, and believe they will have their chance. This season he’s running with 25 players.
As of today we have Godden, Burke, Bell and Edwards at various stages of recovery. Ramsey and Lloyd Jones have had an illness, likely the same and had to isolate before playing under the weather on Saturday.
Please click for moreI am old enough to remember the 6-0 FA Cup shellacking at the Racecourse, and other than a league win at The Valley in the early 1980’s, Wrexham game’s have rarely provided us much if any good fortune.
Equally three of our four losses this season have come in the games coming before the international break, so the omens weren’t good especially with whispers of further injuries and illness to the squad.
Please click for moreThe owners should take a lot of credit for supporting Nathan Jones during the summer and spent money on players like we hadn’t seen for a long time.
However, investment in players, if done right, is buying an asset, unlike investing in a piece of property you don’t actually own, which could be like throwing money down the drain.
Please click for moreWho doesn’t love a last minute winner.
Euphoric scenes again at The Valley tonight as Sonny Carey scored the winning goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time to make it 23 points from 14 games. We sit 5th in the table as we go to bed tonight.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
Last week was the first for five weeks that Nathan Jones had his full squad available and on the training ground. We know that Jones and his team run an intensive regime, but I was a little bit taken back by how lethargic they were on Saturday.
Please click for moreThat was a point won today and not two lost. Despite taking the lead we were unable to take hold of the game and in the end were baying for the final whistle.
We weren’t ourselves today, definitely not the best version of ourselves, but we didn’t lose and move onto another busy week.
Please click for moreNice to see Charlton’s Jamaican Addicks plus others with Jamaican roots donate to relief funds and raise awareness to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Melissa that ran over the island with sustained winds of 185 mph winds in the early part of this week.
That is a huge storm, stronger winds than Hurricane Katrina for example, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people.
Please click for more7 points in a week that ended with a long schlep up the east coast is a terrific return and today once again the Addicks did just not know when to give it up.
A late Luke Berry goal from a copybook James Bree corner gave us a deserved point.
Read moreSheffield Wednesday have been placed in administration after it was revealed His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs plan to issue a winding-up petition against The Owls.
Wednesday have been hit with an imemdiate 12-point deduction.
Please click for moreA few words on last night.
I was buzzing today. Absolutely wallowing in it. This Blog has always promoted enjoying the moment and that moment is now.
Please click for moreThat is the most remarkable of results.
And I didn’t see any of it. In a meeting for the beginning and then in a bar with others for the bulk of the game, which at least allowed me to celebrate every goal.
Please click for moreNathan Jones is a man rarely known to tinker, whether that has been to the detriment or not, but I will stand next to him by his record.
We have another two tough away journey’s this week making it four away games in five. Trips to Suffolk and Humberside await making it hard to spend too much time on the training pitch.
Please click for moreThat became very uncomfortable but it was another 3 points as we reach the first season marker sitting nicely in 9th place.
Another big crowd watched a very good first half, and then got the Addicks across the finish line to bounce back from the defeat at Preston last time out.
Please click for moreBillie Eilish did 3 cities this week. Pah, I put two fingers up at that kind of sluggish convention. Me, mind you will have a week of a true rock ‘n roll tour.
Miami, Sarasota, Las Vegas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Napa Valley. 7 cities, 7 days. The life of a rock star travelling salesman.
A little bit out of the blue this today.
The club announced the extension of the club’s lease of The Valley and Sparrows Lane through to June 2040.
Please click for moreDefeat today in heavy winds but we can’t be too downhearted. These days were always going to come, but we sit top half as we go into the second international break.
It’s been a long week especially for those travelling fans who today had to beat difficult train and weather conditions, but their backing was magnificent again.
Please click for moreWhen Steve Avory stepped down from his long time job as Charlton’s Academy Manager just over a year ago, the club’s diamond mine was entrusted to Tom Pell, who had been hired by Avory from Cambridge United a couple of years previous.
Yesterday it was announced that Tom Pell is set to leave the club to join an unnamed Premier League side. He will serve his notice and leave in December.
Please click for moreRarely a game goes by when Josh Edwards is not in the wars. The likable Scottish ball of energy doesn’t have the word shirk in his dictionary.
Today Nathan Jones said that Edwards’ ankle damage is going to mean he “will probably be out a little bit longer than a few weeks.”
Please click for moreI think we have to be pleased with a point tonight and it was a fair result.
Derby have had an underwhelming start to the season and were under a lot of pressure to win. The only shame is that after quelling early 2nd half pressure we couldn’t build enough possession to bring back the 1st half home boos.
Please click for moreThe summer transfer window is still breathing apparently.
Charlton Athletic are delighted to announce the signing of Cuban international Onel Hernández (more).
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
A bit more on yesterday’s game. I know all too well that when you are an infrequent visitor like I am to live games then you have to lower your expectation level, but yesterday was something else.
Please click for moreI was at The Valley today, and I was moved by that performance and how it was saluted by a pulsating stadium.
We were irresistible in that 2nd half and thoroughly deserved the win in what was possibly the best pressing display I’ve seen from us under Nathan Jones.
Please click for moreWe all would’ve taken a point beforehand, but that is a fantastic win.
It was important that we started solidly and we did, but in trademark Nathan Jones style we finished really strong and Tanto Olaofe got the winner with 89 minutes on the clock.
Please click for moreIt’s been a quiet week in our corner of South London, less so in the south of Sheffield where Chris Wilder’s return is getting all of the media attention.
We can, as Nathan Jones would say, only affect things that we can control, and after their stuffing at Ipswich a reaction was probably going to come anyway.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
The fog is taking a time to clear, but mostly because I had to endure a long journey back from Bermuda last night and I have to prepare for another early flight in the morning.
Please click for moreHistory always repeats itself, something always happens and it is a given in this game that Millwall will score late, and late they did.
The hurt continues and it will take a couple of days for the fog to clear and when it does it will show that we played very well and were the better team.
Please click for moreChuks Aneke signed for Shrewsbury Town today, making him the last of the players released by the Addicks in the summer to get themselves sorted.
There’s a really good interview, if you ignore the comments about Michael Appleton, with Chuks on the Shrewsbury website if you have five minutes.
Please click for moreIt was quite nice watching last Monday’s transfer deadline pass without having expectations of loads of last minute signings, although whatever happened to David Datro Fofana was a slight dissapointment, if it ever was a thing. We’ll probably never know.
We’ve had so many last minute signings that have turned out to be crap at best, that it’s so much more comforting having new players in the building early in the window. Jones’ stance on loans also means we are not scrapping around in the Premier League academy barrel hoping that the next young hopeful turns out to be Conor Gallagher.
Please click for moreIt’s been a long weekend without football hasn’t it.
I found myself refreshing over and over the Charlton Women’s score earlier, and thrashed the air with delight after they hung on with 10 women, to beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in the WSL2 season opener at The Valley.
Please click for moreIt appears this deal was in the hands of FIFA to get approval.
Today 20-year old Zach Mitchell made the loan move back north of the border to Edinburgh and will play the season with Hibernian on loan.
Please click for moreA big night in Bermuda tomorrow as Charlton might have chartered their own airplane to bring Karoy Anderson, Tyreece Campbell, Kaheim Dixon and Amari Bell to the Atlantic outpost.
Bermuda host Jamaica at the Dame Flora Duffy National Sports Centre (photo) tomorrow evening in Group B of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifier.
Please click for moreLots of confusion tonight surrounding Chelsea striker David Datro Fofana, but it does look as if the loan move to Charlton has fallen through as the EFL never received the transfer ‘deal sheet’ in time.
This move really fell under the radar, and Charlton nor the club’s most-in-the-know journo, Rich Cawley have even commented on the 22-year old’s potential late move.
Please click for moreSouthampton’s James Bree has joined on loan until January.
The 27-year old Bree’s versatility will appeal to Nathan Jones. He will solve, temporarily at least, the need for more depth at right (wing) back, and can also play at centre-half.
Please click for moreThis window closing at 7pm is a bit of a joke really as Sky Sports despite saying this is the biggest transfer window since the partition of India, still has about 30 deals listed to be completed. Apparently 9pm is the ‘real’ deadline.
They of course don’t even include clubs like Charlton and others in their bed wetting.
Please click for moreI think that was a warning call today. We didn’t deserve to lose that match, from 60 mins on we looked the most likely to win, but we left Loftus Road with our tail between our legs.
I think us fans need to remember the ultimate goal here. Possibly our surprise element has been exhausted, we have to be better, and we have to learn quicker but for long periods as the away side we still had the upper hand.
Please click for moreThis is really sad news to wake up to today.
Steve Thompson, or Rambo as he was affectionately known, has lost his long battle with cancer aged 70. Steve was part of Lennie Lawrence’s brilliant promotion side when we were in exile at Selhurst Park.
Please click for moreI am about as least worried by exiting the League Cup than I have been for many seasons. The phrase we need to concentrate on the league is just.
I didn’t listen or pay any real attention but it did not sound good.
Please click for moreWell, it is the last week of the transfer window and if it’s silly season in Wrexham, then why not in Charlton Village.
Some Addicks have suggested that JRS is a remote possibility of a last minute loan signing and he would meet Nathan Jones’ criteria of someone than can considerably improve or add real competition to the squad.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
The problem with these early kick off’s is that it leaves a long time for reflection. 12.30 is 7.30am here, and that’s a lot of day to wallow, sulk, or be grumpy. Just ask the missus.
Please click for moreWe were going to lose at some point, and if you’re going to lose, then lose like that.
It was another excellent display of sheer determination, aggressive pressing and quality not only matching but eclipsing our exalted opponents, but the winning goal was straight out of the Premier League and separated the two teams.
Please click for more20-year old striker Daniel Kanu has joined Walsall on a season-long loan. I peg this as a really important move for Dan. Hopefully he gets plenty of game time leading to him being a real threat in League Two for The Saddlers.
Nathan Asiimwe clearly benefited from his time under Mat Sadler and Nathan Jones and his coaching team must trust their peers at Walsall.
Please click for moreBack at The Valley on Saturday with another big crowd expected. Leicester have sold out their allocation. The attendance will certainly be bigger than the last time we hosted the Foxes almost exactly 12 years ago, when Yann scored against his old club.
Crazy to think that just two season’s after that Leicester won the Premier League title.
Please click for more“What we probably want to do is add, at least one body. We know the position we need it. Maybe to do that, we want to make sure our numbers are good.” – Nathan Jones today.
A right wing back I reckon, possibly waiting to pounce with a low-ball offer for Japanese player Shinnosuke Fukuda, who halfway through their season his club Kyoto are demanding a large fee even though his contract expires in January.
Please click for moreAlex Mitchell has moved to Plymouth Argyle on loan for the season.
A very likable and a solid, non-compromising centre half, still only 23 Alex will do a good job for Argyle and I hope he gets plenty of game time.
Please click for moreI really enjoyed that. Throughly deserving of a point, and perhaps could even have snatched all three as we again finished the stronger of the two sides.
Some superb individual performances all across the pitch, but it was a stoic team showing that gave the noisy travelling Addicks something to be really proud off.
Please click for moreThis looks a good move for Kaheim Dixon. The youngster will move to Crawley Town for the season to play under Scot Lindsay in L2.
That’s four players now out on season-long loans – Nathan Asiimwe (AFC Wimbledon), Terry Taylor (Northampton), Gassan Ahadme (Stevenage) and Dixon.
Please click for moreIt was this week’s Carabao Cup opposition Stevenage that have taken Gassan Ahadme on loan, with negotiations concluded on Tuesday after the striker was left out of the Addicks’ squad.
Ahadme ends a tough first year at The Valley by moving on a season loan to Stevenage.
Please click for moreCambridge United will be our opposition in the Carabao Cup 2nd Round, drawn tonight.
We faced the U’s in pre-season and in each of the last four L1 seasons.
Please click for more
