Apr 11
I had one eye on the Addicks U17 team today. Their Premier League Cup Final against Tottenham was on Charlton TV and I watched it while I worked.
The Addicks ended up losing 5-2 but put up a gallant fight and for long spells of the game put their Cat 1 academy opposition under a lot of pressure.
Please click for moreCongratulations to the Blue Noses, I know a few of them drop by here occasionally. You came, you spent, you conquered but money alone isn’t always the key to success.
The owners also took a large gamble on Chris Davies, and he has cleverly coached and man-managed a big squad of riches, including Alfie May, who deserves to celebrate a rare honour in a career that started at Corinthian in the Kent village of Fawkham.
Please click for moreI haven’t seen a lot of gripes about our referee on Saturday. I had a moan, but maybe we are just immune now to how bad they are in this division.
He wasn’t the reason we didn’t win, but I have never seen a referee eat up so much time themselves. He was so persnickety over every decision he made whether it a corner, free-kick or throw.
Please click for moreApologies to those of you that get to games a lot more frequently than me, it was the law of sods that meant I witnessed our worst performance since December in my first game in SE7 for a fair while.
However the comeback was stirring and a point was valuable from a game we would’ve lost on most others occasions in recent years.
Please click for moreA blow for Miles, the club and it’s supporters with him ruled out for the rest of this season.
The academy graduate missed pre-season and didn’t feature in the first team squad until October.
Please click for moreWhen the Samba rhythm starts to play….
Great result tonight, fabulous 3 points on the road that we had to dig really deep for. Mansfield were no pushovers but we came and conquered.
Please click for moreThis week coming is the 6th consecutive week I have travelled with work. It has been quite the shift and other than never knowing what day it is or which city I’m waking up in, I could also do with a couple of really good nights sleep.
The good news is that tomorrow I will wake up at Gatwick Airport after an overnight flight from Tampa.
Please click for moreThe perfect response.
It was a fantastic performance from beginning to end. A totally dominating display against a play-off rival. The sunshine wasn’t the only thing to light up The Valley today as to a man the red shirts shone bright ☀️.
Please click for moreI haven’t written about swimming for a while, but the weekend before last our daughter swam in the Florida Senior Championships in Orlando.
It was big deal, with some extraordinary fast swimmers competing over the three days. There was a lot of pressure on her to swim times and make cuts, and although we try to downplay it, you could tell she was really anxious.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
We have been a tough nut to crack whilst on this stupendous run, but Peterborough took a hammer to us on Saturday.
Good teams bounce back, but we also need to recharge our batteries for the run-in as they’ve been looking a little bit on the low side.
Please click for moreOperation Weston Homes Stadium can be consigned to Room 101 with many others over the years.
The Addicks were backed by big numbers but it was a very disappointing day as Peterborough unravelled our defensive solidity and we weren’t able to convert even one of many goalscoring opportunities.
Please click for moreYes, in late March. Where’s Andy Scott when you need him?
Charlton Athletic are pleased to confirm the signing of experienced goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis (more).
Please click for moreThe young left-footed Kai Enslin, who has played in a variety of positions for the U21’s “has signed a new long-term contract with the club.”
The 19-year old was on the bench Saturday and made his first team debut in the Vertu Trophy against Bromley last November 2024.
Please click for moreThe new season ticket applications are out for next season, which rewards rightly those that already have one.
Prices have been frozen at least until the second stage, and tickets are cheapest when bought before the final game of the season.
Please click for morePeterborough today confirmed that Saturday‘s game will go ahead, and also handed over another 400 tickets to Addicks fans.
A lot of those sold today and I’d expect the rest to go before the end of the week taking the total to 2,557.
Please click for moreSounds as if we are a go for next Saturday at Peterborough after much speculation that the game would be called off as part of the international break.
Nathan Jones said yesterday that the deadline had passed for us to ask for the game to be cancelled, but Posh do have until Monday.
Please click for moreAbsolute dominance for 84 minutes then it all got a bit panicky.
For the first half and almost the entirety of the second we played like a juggernaut running downhill, we were quality, but we weren’t able to completely snuffle out our visitors who had a new manager in the dugout.
Please click for more“We’re going into eight weeks of your life now where you sacrifice everything – you’re not shopping tomorrow, you’re not bowling, your diet’s good … if your wife or girlfriend wants to go shopping, wants to do that, they have to make the sacrifices, it’s a massive sacrifice for us to achieve something because you can’t now go to Bluewater tomorrow walking around high-fiving and going Costa Coffee when you should be resting and all those things, we have to be at it, the professional has to be paramount, everyone’s sacrificing, everyone’s family is sacrificing for the greater good if you like”
Nathan Jones has always been good for a quote – whether unhinged, philosophical or funny.
Please click for moreWas that as nervy as it seemed to me?
It might not have been, but Crawley presented a real banana skin tonight and we dealt with the pressure and delivered. Three more points and a clean sheet win on the road.
Please click for moreThe scalpel was again taken to Charlton’s senior management board today with the announcement that CEO Charlie Methven has stepped down and will leave the club.
In a carefully worded statement Methven thanks a load of people including Gavin Carter, Paul Elliot and Nathan Jones but not Jim Rodwell, who I imagine is currently typing into AI his leaving letter.
Please click for moreJust as I chose 20 Players I also chose 20 Places that have left an enduring mark on me in my life. All this to commemorate me writing this Blog for 20 years.
It was Benjamin Franklin that said “either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about” and I’ve lived by that since I penned my first Blog post in June 2004.
Please click for moreI really enjoyed doing this and that was picking 20 Charlton Players that are firm fixtures in my memory from when I began watching these damn Addicks from the 1975/76 season.
They were selected in no order, just 20 Players from almost half of a century of a love affair.
Please click for moreA good point ended a very good week for the Addicks.
It was a highly physical game where the ref let a lot go, possibly too much, but we held out and to a man the defensive unit were excellent.
Please click for moreGame management. We’ve had times, many times over previous seasons when we’ve been absolutely terrible at that.
Tonight however was another example of how the mentality and leadership has so vastly changed. Clean sheets are the foundation, but seeing games out to where that goal is rarely threatened is the nexus.
please click for moreThe last piece of the jigsaw. The list of 20 Places that have left an indelible mark on me is complete, and at no. 20 it had to be Chicago.
I started all this, picking 20 Players and 20 Places to commemorate me writing this Blog, that began life one warm June evening in my apartment in Chicago, 20 years ago.
Please click for moreI’m sat watching the Oscars but frankly none of this lot has the drama of yesterday’s injury time.
Addicks all over have been reaching for the record books and trawling their memories today to see if there was ever a time that we’ve come back from a losing position to win in added on time before.
Please click for moreWow. This team does not know when to give up.
We deserved something from the game, but as the clocked ticked onto 90 minutes, hope appeared to have left the stadium, yet the 11 yellow shirted Addicks had definitely not.
Please click for moreOf course I wasn’t paying any attention 😉, but tonight went pretty well elsewhere.
Tonight the juices flow a bit quicker as Saturday looms larger. I tell you what though, it’s nice to be involved in a big game, we have not had anywhere enough of them in recent seasons.
Please click for moreWe made it. 20 Players that I chose to accompany me on my journey to celebrate my 20 years of Blogging. We are finally there.
Remember, no particular order or ranking but the man occupying the last spot of no. 20 is Paul Mortimer.
Please click for moreI am sure at the wish of Nathan Jones the club has re-directed part of Andy Scott’s salary to extend Danny Hylton’s player coach contract.
35-year old Hylton has rarely featured for the first team, but has been playing a role on the training ground working with the team’s strikers and in particular the youngsters of which there are many.
Please click for moreI thought I’d chime in on this.
The club produced their 2025/26 sponsorship opportunities brochure which included an offer for “prime stadium branding opportunities that align your brand with Charlton’s rich history and passionate fanbase. Whether through naming rights, LED advertising, or stand sponsorship.”
Please click for moreA very comprehensive win. The high press was perfection today and often it looked as if we had more players on the pitch, and Exeter just couldn’t deal with us.
It was the ideal way to bounce back from last week.
Please click for moreI was only telling myself a couple of weeks ago when we were mid-run that we just had to worry about ourselves.
I wasn’t paying close attention to the table or other games, and I certainly wasn’t paying any attention to other team’s fixtures.
Please click for moreGaining a result today was more in hope than expectation, so I’m only really disappointed that we weren’t able to muster some chance potentials at the end.
The Blues were worthy winners following their 1st half display but in the end it was only an error that separated the two teams.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
What happened and what did they do with our drab-season’s already over Charlton Athletic?
Please click for moreWhen Andy Scott joined the club in July 2023 he was pretty much given the keys to the castle, and as his decisions became more and more costly it only appeared as if he was given more keys.
That was until Nathan Jones came in.
Please click for moreI didn’t think that winner was coming but they are starting to earn our trust and are planting the psychology of inevitability among us.
An unlikely winner, and I’ve criticized him on these pages, but I was really pleased for Macauley Gillesphey tonight.
Please click for moreFor 30 first half minutes our play was strewn with silly mistakes, one almost gave Stevenage the lead but for a fantastic stop from AMB.
Then AMB fell ‘injured’ and Nathan Jones called the team over to the touch line and we never looked back.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
It is hard to be surprised by the club’s transfer policy, they did tell us. Players to leave because the training pitches weren’t long enough as well as to trim the budget, plus a couple in to help where we were short.
Please click for moreI had been trying to keep an eye on the Addicks last day of the transfer window whilst at a work symposium where back to back meetings only allow breaks for more coffee and a pee.
After a month of inaction it all happened today as the club signed on loan Alex Gilbert and Tom McIntyre, moved out Zach Mitchell on loan and sold REG permanently to Leyton Orient.
Please click for moreYoung Addicks centre-back Zach Mitchell, well thought of by the club’s coaching staff, has moved to St. Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership until the end of the season.
The Bromley born 20-year old will be on a stiff learning curve up there as the Perth side sit rooted to the bottom of the table and have conceded the most goals in the league.
Please click for moreIt’s February and we have the first January window signing. Alex Gilbert (not Gilbey) has signed on loan from Middlesbrough until the end of the season.
Gilbert is an attacking midfielder, but can play out wide or a little deeper. Time will tell if he is a Conor Gallagher or a Lewis Fiorini.
Plese click for moreI am still bitterly disappointed about that. Just a couple of months ago I was sitting through games nonplussed, today I found myself fully invested. I presume that is a good thing, but that was two points thrown away.
Blackpool probably deserved their drew on the balance of chances, and in the cold light of day it was a good point, but a few hours later and I’m still in a state of annoyance.
Please click for moreAllan Campbell has so impressed during his 549 League One minutes that Dundee United have made an offer that Luton Town could not refuse and the Scot has returned north of the border.
Please click for moreJob done. I’m not sure I have seen such a dominating one half display from the Addicks for a long time.
After the somewhat unforeseen win at Bolton we just had to follow that up with two banana-skin looking home games, and we did.
Please click for moreAnnounced minutes before kick off tonight. Jones has put pen to paper on an extension that takes him to the summer of 2027. Very positive news is that.
The vice-captain said: “I’m buzzing to sign this contract and I’m looking forward to what the future holds. I’ve loved my time at Charlton so far and I feel like I’ve found a real home here and am playing the best football of my career under the gaffer.”
Please click for moreNot a rumour, not even a whisper, but just a little 2 + 2 cogitation.
Owen Moxon has won promotion in each of the past two seasons, but has struggled to hold down a first team berth in The Championship this season with Portsmouth.
Please click for moreFrustratingly annoying since 1905.
94th minute and somehow Shipley doesn’t put them in front. 96th minute Small slots home and cue absolute bedlam in front of the Covered End.
Please click for moreHere we are then just two to go to complete my list of 20 Players that I remember fondly over anyone else that has worn the Charlton shirt in my time as a supporter since 1975.
This has been becoming harder because after about 15, I could have chosen about another 15, but I vowed to name only 20, and therefore at no. 19 is Jim Melrose.
Please click for moreTerry Taylor has moved to fellow L1 club Northampton Town on loan until the end of the season.
This comes as no surprise and I wish him well.
Please click for moreA bounce back win, which did not look likely until Nathan Jones made 2nd half changes that turned the game on its head.
On the hour mark we were behind, were short on ideas and another long journey home point-less looked certain.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
We know Nathan Jones is prone to hyperbole but the “I think we’ve got a Championship-level squad, I really do” comment looked spectacularly out of place in the cold of South Yorkshire on Saturday evening after a team below us in League One took us to the cleaners.
Please click for moreOn a day when being a Charlton fan left us grimacing, this little video gave me a huge smile, and I bet upstairs Dave Thomson, who passed away a little over a year ago, was doing just the same.
Dave ‘salvaged’ this old floodlight from The Valley at the time of us leaving the hallowed old place in 1985. I know Dave did the club a favour by salvaging a fair few items at that time.
Please click for moreWell that was a shocker. That performance and result has firmly put us back in our box.
Rotherham, who have been making their own way up the table after a really poor start to the season, were better than us in every single department and it was a toe-curling throw back to the hapless defensive display’s of last season.
Please click for moreThis Blog became 20 years old in June of last year, and to pat myself on the back I decided to list 20 Players and 20 Places that I hold dear deep in my memory.
They are in no order, all important in different ways.
Please click for morePeterborough United have signed Tayo Edun on a permanent deal only until the end of the season.
The defender, who joined the club from Blackburn Rovers in July 2023, made 37 appearances for the Addicks across all competitions, scoring once
Please click for moreStill very light on any transfer news, especially on incomings as we turn the daily calendar over to the 16th of the month.
Terry Taylor, who had a run of games before Christmas before picking up an unqualified knock, finds himself once again on the outskirts of the first team squad.
Please click for moreI thought I’d give this some air.
“Supporters can now vote from a shortlist of five fans who have been selected for election to the club’s new Advisory Board. Two supporters will be voted on to the Charlton Advisory Board ahead of the group’s first meeting later this year.”
Please click for moreA gutsy performance up at Preston tonight, and we were unlucky to lose.
Two defensive lapses allowed them to score from their only two shots on target and a brilliant save at the death from an Aneke header prevented another 30 minutes play.
Please click for moreLah-keh-REH-tah-boo-ah.
We need to remember that, the 19-year old is very highly rated by the club and it’s nice to see us tie down another one of our academy players to a long-term deal.
Please click for moreNot very exciting is it, if we get through of course.
My brother is telling me it opens up our path to the final 🤔, I will probably side with Nathan Jones who is bound to say he would want to avoid another League One side.
Please click for moreThe first of the squad out then as 20-year old Nathan Asiimwe has joined Walsall on loan until the end of the season.
That looks a good move to me as Walsall are flying and comprehensively won again earlier today to take the Sadlers 13 points clear at the top of League Two and are promotion certs.
Please click for more
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