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Feb 28

Chesterfield 0 Charlton Athletic 4

A performance of champions tonight. The Spireites had won their last two games at home (Wednesday and Bournemouth), defensively they have been very sound at the B2Net and of course they are scrapping. To run out 4-0 winners was, well, a performance to warm the soul.

I think we all deep down hoped that BWP would run a little wild tonight, and he did. Although (I haven’t seen the goals) his first and third might be appealed to the dubious goals committee, but whatever, we have our Bradley back….. and with a little luck he might have had 9 goals these last few days!!
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Feb 26

The 2011 Shower Gellies™

The Academy Awards are tonight, and as is traditional I will guide you through my annual Chicago Addick Shower Gellies™. If you have just tuned in, then unfortunately you have missed the red carpet.

Now don’t log off, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. I stayed in 25 hotels in 2011, that is one every other week, and I can’t tell you how pissed off I get when hotels charge the weekly wage of a journeyman League One footballer have beds that are like sleeping on big white fluffy clouds with 46 pillows and showers that are glass encased tardises yet expect you to bathe with a thimble of watery liquid, that’s if you are lucky.
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Feb 25

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Charlton Athletic 2 Stevenage 0

Ye of little faith. A massive result for the Addicks today against Stevenage who were well and truly put back in their box.

Not just 3 points but it sounded a very positive display, notably so in the 2nd half and all in front of an excellent crowd of 26,546. The biggest 3rd tier attendance at The Valley since World War II. It was also the biggest ever league crowd to watch Stevenage in their history!
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Feb 24

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Hayes and Doherty go out on loan

Both have signed for Wycombe Wanderers until the end of the season. Both are ineligible to play against us in April.

Now The Doc is not a surprise but Hayes is. With Danny Haynes injured it leaves us rather short up front. Clarke has yet to make his mark and beyond him we only have the untried, albeit exciting prospects of Tobi Sho-Silva and Adebayo Azeez. I wonder if Powell will make a move himself into the loan market?
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Feb 24

4 Comments

He runs down the wing for me

Will he, won’t he? Chrissy Powell talked about not rushing Jackson back midweek and I don’t think he’ll be risked tomorrow against one of the division’s known cloggers.

Question is who will play on the left side and what is Hogan Ephraim up to these days? Anyone have his number?

We miss the skipper don’t we? His leadership, his desire to win, his goals. It was no coincidence that last year’s collapse coincided with a Jackson injury but anyway, we’ve moved on. 15 games left, deep breath. Buckle up.
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Feb 22

Charlton Athletic 1 Rochdale 1

Even standing on the sidelines here I could see that there were so many players out of position last night, the game was already flawed before it even started. I have to think that Solly pulled out sick so close to kick off that Andy Hughes was sat at home with a cuppa in front of The Brits.

Mind you earlier in the day on Twitter Cedric Evina hinted that he might feature, so maybe it was known for some time that Solly was a doubt.

Powell talks of balance but with right footed Green on the left, left footed Wiggins on the right and the central midfielder Pritchard in right midfield the side was as balanced as a one legged tightrope walker.
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Feb 21

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Free pass

A bit of a free pass this week as the Sheffield clubs don’t meet until Sunday lunchtime, MK Dons do play tonight but there are a huge 6 points up for grabs these next four days.

The games come thick and fast now, no time to dwell on past performances that have caused a little anxiety amongst Addicks, but also include wins against three of our rivals.

We were due a poor run, no one can play for 9 months and beat everyone in sight convincingly. If this is our bad run, then I’ll bite your hand off.
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Feb 20

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Curbishley turns down Wolves

“The former Charlton and West Ham boss is believed to have dropped out because he and chairman Steve Morgan did not share the same vision for the club.” More.

One has to ask if Curbs will ever work again. As far as I can make out this is the closest he has come to a top flight job since he left West Ham in 2008. In fact I would go as far to say, does Curbs have the fire left in his belly to want to work in 24-hour-a-day under the microscope management job?
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Feb 18

Tranmere Rovers 1 Charlton Athletic 1

Hey, a point at Tranmere is not a bad point, we aren’t going to win every game and as February moves into it’s second half we are still unbeaten in 2012. That incredibly is the fifth successive 1-1 draw against Tranny and ignoring the 4-0 thrashing we gave them a few years back we haven’t won there since 1975, although there has been a lot of draws.

I had a bad feeling about today so personally I’m happy to take a point and psychologically it’s always more desirable to have a better 2nd half than 1st half and judging by the radio we were oodles better after the break and created a number of chances.
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Feb 17

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Who remembers Alan Kimble?

There are not many twins who have played alongside each other in the same team. However two recent football stories peaked my interest in this unusual phenomenon.

Firstly Blackburn signed Marcus Olsson on deadline day and he joined his twin brother, Martin, at Ewood Park. Sir Alex already has the exciting and identical Brazilian full backs Rafael and Fabio da Silva at Old Trafford. Going back sometime I remember Ron and Paul Futcher at Luton Town and a little more recently Rod and Ray Wallace at Southampton as well as David and Dean Holdsworth at Watford. Both incidentially are now managers at Lincoln City and Aldershot respectively.
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Feb 16

Youth team signal a club on the up

Charlton’s youth team had a fantastic win tonight at home to Spurs in the FA Youth Cup 5th Round. Oliver Muldoon, Johnnie Jackson style, smacking in a free-kick deep into injury time to warm the 1,371 crowd. Now Old Trafford and Manchester United await in the Quarter Finals. The date is set for February 29th.
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Feb 16

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Travelogue: Vancouver

I know my Canadian readers have been waiting for this! I was in Vancouver last May and it has taken me until now to finish my Travelogue post of this radiant city.

At just 125 years old Vancouver is a baby. Naturally Aboriginal’s trawled this part of the north-western coastline 8,000 years ago breathing in the fresh air, but it wasn’t until the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858 that folk showed any interest in the area when 25,000 men showed up with spades and swag bags. A few stayed and set up home and began Vancouver’s long history of logging. One man in particular called ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton established a ramshackle tavern around the inner harbour of Burrard.
 
A steamship operator from Hull, Gassy Jack was quite a character and loved by the locals the area around his boozer was quickly named Gastown, as it is still today.
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Feb 15

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Charlton Athletic 2 MK Dons 1

After listening to the first half commentary I had to shoot off at half-time for a Valentines evening (consisting mostly of chocolate) with my two girls and had forgotten to take my phone to work, so I was oblivious to the goings on 2nd half. Obviously I was chuffed to bits that we won but I knew the score was always going to be more likely 2-1 than 4-0.

As I always do I deferred to Dave’s Drinking During the Game match report, and he was bitterly disappointed that we didn’t come out 2nd half and put on a show and I agree there are still many ‘half-convereted’ at home games who need to be persuaded to come back regularly and part with dough they could better use on other leisure activities.
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Feb 15

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Lee Clarke sacked by Huddersfield

Have to say I am very surprised by the news that Huddersfield have sacked Lee Clarke this morning after their defeat to Sheffield United last night. Just goes to prove what an unforgiving business managing a football club is.

Huddersfield have been beaten just 3 times in 55 games and Clarke was said to have a good relationship with the club’s owner. I suppose Neil Warnock and Simon Grayson are available but it still seems an odd decision with Town 4 points from 2nd place.
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Feb 13

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Saturday, Tuesday

Minus 10 temperatures overnight in Derbyshire on Saturday so it was no surprise that our game at Chesterfield was postponed. Just a shame the official who inspected the pitch on Friday had Michael Fish as his weather advisor. Thousands of Addicks keeping Little Chefs in business then as the majority had already set off by the time the game was finally called off.

Elsewhere Sheffield Wednesday came a cropper at Exeter with Gary Megson not best pleased. Their cross town rivals United beat Wycombe 3-0 and in the only other game Bournemouth missed out on climbing into the play-offs after being held to a goalless draw at Hartlepool.

The rearranged Chesterfield game has been slated for February 28th. This means we play Tuesday, Saturday for the next four weeks, so six games before this short month ends. Talk about the business end of the season.
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Feb 12

Winter Park

Bermuda’s winter is finally looking like it’s arrived. Rain is lashing sideways at the kitchen window as I look outside and the ocean is full of large frothy white capped waves like a sea of cups of cappuccino.

A Bermuda winter normally consists of a lot of driving rain, with intermittent drizzle and dampness accompanied by strong winds during the months of January and February, with March changeable. I can see a number of your hearts bleeding, so I will tell you that despite the rain today the temperature is still to 66°F!

Last week’s work event in Miami Beach – it rained every day like it always does when we are there – was bloody exhausting. Early starts, long days, late nights. I actually love it but I was glad to get home.
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Feb 12

The Proof

The Bermuda Festival is in full swing at the moment and last night we went with some friends to see the play The Proof at the City Hall in Hamilton.

The play tells of a brilliant but mentally disturbed genius mathmatican’s daughter (Catherine) who has sacrificed her own potential to take care of her father. One of her father’s (Robert) former students (Hal) comes to visit in an effort to further prove his mentor’s wisdom and then falls in love with with the very introspective Catherine, who has her own discovery.
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Feb 10

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Beneficial owner

After today’s pitch inspection at Chesterfield was declared inconclusive, another inspection will take place in the morning as once again the UK struggles with another dash of snow. The games at Brentford, MK Dons, Stevenage, Rochdale and Walsall have already succumbed. Sadly the 1,300 or so travelling Addicks will already be en route tomorrow when the pitch inspection takes place and many might have to end up at Bramall Lane to cheer on Wycombe.

An interesting titbit of news today tucked away on the Official Site was the announcement of new board member Alex Newall.
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Feb 6

Unlikely heroes

It wasn’t a classic but it certainly was an exciting end to a tight game. Eli Manning was MVP, the winning quarter back always is, although I thought there were more deserving lesser known heroes.

One such was Ahmed Bradshaw, who with the New York Giants trailing New England by two points with one minute, four seconds left, ran in for what was the winning touchdown unopposed.
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Feb 3

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Superbowl XLVI

Hot dogs, buckets of Bud, half-time shows, wardrobe malfunctions, pizza, multi million dollar TV adverts, chips and sickly cheese, an out of tune national anthem, chicken wings, gallons of cough mixture coloured Gatorade thrown over the winning coach, oh and a game of American Football.

The Superbowl, the biggest day in the American sporting calendar.
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Feb 3

Deadline day

Deadline day was one of the quietest and saw 70% less money spent than last January. Of course many Premier League clubs have one eye on the new UEFA rules on financial sustainability.

Below the top tier West Ham were the busiest signing the obstreperous Ravel Morrison and strikers Nicky Maynard and Ricardo Vaz Te.

In our division Bournemouth were the surprising big spenders paying a reported £800,000 for Crawley striker Matt Tubbs. The Cherries also snapped up Donal McDermott from Huddersfield, who was on loan there last season. Meanwhile striker Michael Symes left Dean Court and was reunited with new Rochdale boss John Coleman.
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Feb 2

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920 lb. tuna

I do like a bit of tuna. Served raw preferably as opposed to a tin of John West’s but there will be a lot of it about this next week in Bermuda as yesterday a local fisherman hauled into his boat a 10 foot, 920 pound blue fin tuna (photo).

It was the biggest tuna caught in local waters for 28 years and the single fisherman wrestled with his catch for over two hours, all the while fighting of a school of sharks, which took a shine to some easy lunch and bit a big chunk out of the tuna’s tail, which also probably prevented the fish from weighing over 1,000 lbs.
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Feb 2

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Oh boy!

Up until 2 years ago I used to join a collection of mates from both sides of the Atlantic for Superbowl weekend in a chosen city, but then baby came along and some of the finer things in my life had to be ended or put on hold.

Fortunately the Superbowl weekend was only on a temporary hold and tomorrow morning I fly to Orlando to meet up with some of the lads to play, explore downtown Orlando (I’ve been before and there’s not much to see, unless it is a mouse called Mickey) and then spend the whole of Sunday in a pub somewhere watching men in tight pants run into each other while chasing after an oval ball on a gigantic television screen whilst drinking a few lagers.
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Feb 1

Charlton Athletic 1 Bury 1

At work sat with my earphones in listening to the radio commentary – I feel like I know Jason Euell so much better now, I know little about the game, but a lot about Jase. You won’t have a clue what I’m talking about if you were at the game.

Anyway, I was sat listening to the game as frustrated as the next man, willing the clock to slow down when my phone rang. It was home, I was going out last night and it was a call for me to say goodnight to the little ‘un.

I hung the right earphone over my ear and listened to my daughter excitedly tell me that she had just wee’d on the potty and was a proud owner of a smily face sticker. Then all hell let loose on the radio. We had scored, at least judging by the noise it had to be us because 200 people would struggle to sound that loud.
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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Dec 31

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Happy New Year

Another year over. A new one just begun.

About this time every year I sit with a pen and paper and write a list of resolutions and personal goals. I’ve done it for years but last year I wrote just two things:

Lose weight
Get fit
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Dec 30

Free-kicks

Funny the difference a year can make. 12 months ago our daughter was barely crawling and would sleep pretty much where we laid her. Now she has a personality as big as Greenland and the cheek to match, doesn’t want to go to sleep and when we finally get her eyes closed and dreaming of Yann Kermorgant free-kicks (well, it’s what I dream of), it is the only time she is not running around like a banshee.

Hence, this year’s Christmas trip home has been far knackering for me and the other half. Now though we get a bit of time to relax in the comfort of our friends sumptuous home near the historical town of Shenfield in Essex (photo).
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Dec 29

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Roll up, roll up

One of the many things I miss about London is it’s parks. I spent a whole lot of my childhood playing in two parks near my home. Forster Memorial Park and Mountsfield Park, once home of course to the mighty Charlton Athletic. These last couple of days we have gratefully strolled the green pastures of London Fields, Haggerston Park and Hyde Park.

We were in Hyde Park, like almost everyone else was, browsing the Winter Wonderland, which has grown exponentially since last time I visited three years ago. We sniffed Mulled wine, squeezed onto a tea cup ride and counted more sausage stalls than you could shake a stick at but we also took the little ‘un to Zippo’s Circus.
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Dec 26

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Yeovil Town 2 Charlton Athletic 3

Christmas just keeps on giving. A wonderful gift of 3 points this Boxing Day afternoon from cider country as Chris Powell and his team along with almost 1,000 Addicks head back to town grinning from ear to ear.

It was nerve wracking listening to BBC Radio 5, a rare treat for me, which had a reporter at the game, and then watch the vidi-printer on ITV announce Danny Green’s injury time winner. A houseful of Addicks went slightly crazy at that point.
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Dec 26

Cold meat and pickles

Boxing Day morning and we have navigated our way from west to east through the Metropolis to my brother’s place in Shoreditch. My parents are here too and like many other families around the country we will soon tuck into a mountain of cold meats and pickles.

In a home dominated by Addicks, this afternoon’s game will take precedent later as we listen in to the goings on at Yeovil. Come on you reds!
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Dec 25

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Last night after we had crammed into the standing room only carol service at the tiny Mary Magdalene church in Crowmarsh, I had an enjoyable couple of pints of local brew River Crossing in the pub in this picture in the village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, although that photo was taken a year ago!

The Red Lion is a traditional 16th Century half timbered, thatched pub that almost burnt to the ground in 2001 but was rescued by brave local firemen and then rebuilt and is still rightly popular locally.
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Dec 21

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It’s Christmas time

Flying home tonight for Christmas. We will whip round to pick my son up in Kings Hill early morning after a strong cup of Costa Coffee then drive up to my other half’s sister in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Her brother is around the corner but we will base ourselves at my unofficial sister-in-law’s house, which will have a typically frantic festive feel to it and I’m really looking forward to it.
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Dec 20

Fast forward

As Santa prepares his sleigh ready for his journey I have become a little bit Christmased out to be honest. I was out last night for the 3rd Monday in a row and I ‘have to’ swerve by some drinks after work this evening before I go home and help with the packing. We are heading home tomorrow night and I wish I could just fast forward to being at my other half’s sisters in front of the log fire with a big glass of red.
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Dec 18

Charlton Athletic 1 Oldham Athletic 1

I could see that equaliser coming and I was just listening to the radio! From those at the game we just didn’t do enough after we broke the deadlock.

Powell hit the nail on the head afterwards when he said that we need to expect teams such as Oldham’s approach. Key though is to change our game to overcome it.

The goal came from Darel Russell after ages of pressure but one goal was not enough as we drew at home for the 4th time. Darel Russell has impressed since his loan move and from what I have seen and heard I would be happy if Powell was thinking of permanently adding him to the squad in January.

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Dec 15

Top of the form

In League One it’s not just Charlton on a fine run of form. We may have 5-point lead but it seems that everyone else has been winning as well and upon research they have.

Sheffield Wednesday have won six of their last seven, MK Dons have won everyone of their last seven and Sheffield United have won their last five. Now these include the FA Cup but it shows we are not alone in the high on confidence stakes.

The mark of a good team is how they react after a defeat. Huddersfield after going 43 games unbeaten (sic) have now lost two on the trot but the form of the top five has stretched the league table.
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Dec 13

Boat parade

Saturday night was the bi-annual Bermuda Boat Parade and we made our way down Harbour Road with the intent to get into town and watch from my office balcony but a road accident put pay to that and we instead watched the 70 or so lit boats sail by at Darrell’s Wharf in Paget.

The Boat Parade is a festive highlight here and many of the boats were decked from stern to bow in colourful lights, banners and figures accompanied by partiers and at least 50 different Santa’s that I counted. My favourite being Neptune, the god of the sea (photo) with Star Wars being the most decorative and noisy and Santa’s ride complete with roaring exhaust fames being the most outrageous.
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Dec 12

Walsall 1 Charlton Athletic 1

It sounded like an exciting game although the Radio London commentator was prone to exaggerate, saying there were 2,500 Charlton fans at the Bescot for example. Nonetheless the game could have gone either way with Walsall playing far better than their position suggested and I’ll settle for a point.

It was end to end stuff and for the first time in many weeks I listened/watched nervously as the game entered the last 20 minutes. However from the commentary every time we attacked we sounded threatening, mind you so did they. Darel Russell headed incredibly from his own goal line with 20 minutes left.
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Dec 9

Men of the month

It had to happen didn’t it? Despite being met with intrepidation by fans, Chris Powell’s November Manager of the Month award is finally recognition for our start to the season. I can only assume that Lee Clark didn’t enter his name this month!

Michael Morrison, who is looking more and more like a cross between Eddie Youds and Steve Thompson, was also the League One Player of the Month. Congratulations to both.
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Dec 6

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A peach of a weekend

The temperatures weren’t much different in the peach-tree state to those we left behind in Bermuda but we had a lot of festive fun in Atlanta and as always crammed a lot into our long weekend.

Saturday morning we had front row seats for the Christmas Parade downtown (photo). I’m normally from the school of ‘once you’ve seen one parade you’ve seen them all’ but this was particularly good and for two hours various giant inflatables, dancing dogs, dancing humans, school bands and dressed up horses held our 2-year old’s steely glaze and smiling face.
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Dec 5

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Happy anniversery

19 years ago today. Seems like yesterday. 3.07pm, Saturday December 5th, 1992. Darren Pitcher lays the ball off to Colin Walsh, who swings his precious left foot and sends the ball from the edge of the box into the corner of the net in front of a delirious Covered End. More memories.

Dec 4

Charlton Athletic 2 Carlisle United 0

I was at the Atlanta Christmas Parade yesterday whilst the game was being played out in front of a Millwall-sized crowd at The Valley, showing the indifference to which fans as well as Chris Powell have to the FA Cup (this season anyway).

Powell made a lot of changes with only four of the recent regulars starting but it was still enough to overcome a Carlisle side for the second time in 6 weeks with Morrison and Jason (always believing) Euell scoring the 2nd half goals.
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