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Sep 6

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Charlton Athletic 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Disappointing last night especially after such as wonderful start (which I missed).

After the 15th minute I managed to watch the game on a decent internet feed and for the rest of the half we were on top and trying to get the ball down at every opportunity.

In the 2nd half Wednesday, with Semedo pivotal, won the midfield battle and it was frustrating to watch us too often rely on the long ball down the big throats of the Wednesday backs. Hamer I thought also was culpable sending every goal kick long and refusing to send willing full backs away with an early throw. And whilst on the subject of throws. Please, enough of the ‘Stoke long throw game.’ Yes, use it as one of our weapons but not from every blimmin’ throw-in!

Whilst our back four were rarely troubled as soon as I saw Clinton bloody Morrison on the touchline, those of us with long memories would have feared the worse and sure enough the concerns were soon realised as again we conceded from a set-piece.
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Sep 5

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Oakwood Park Grammar School

My son starts his new school today and he is the only one not nervous. After pleasantly surprising us all (he was perfect borderline) and flying through his 11+ a year ago, and living in Kent, he was fortunate to have a choice of Grammar Schools to choose from.

Our first choice was Maidstone Grammar but this was always a long shot due to distance and also his grades came up a tad short. Second choice, which we and most importantly my son were all happy about was Oakwood Park, and sure enough that is where he got accepted.
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Sep 3

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Today in League One

With Charlton playing on Monday we couldn’t rely on either Franchise or the Blades dropping any points this afternoon and in fact they both won at ease. MK up at Carlisle 3-1 with Charlie MacDonald scoring again and Sheffield United thrashing Ryan Lowe-less Bury 4-0.
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Sep 1

Deadline deals

So we only added one new player to the 17 we had already signed. I lay in bed last night counting new signings and not sheep as I tried to get to sleep. Go on, try it tonight and try to picture them as well. It’s not easy.

Apart from Neil Warnock, Tony Pulis and Arsene Wenger, I’ve been looking around our division to see who else was busy on transfer deadline day.

Late last night Sheffield United agreed to sell exciting striker Jordan Slew to Blackburn for £1m and Daniel Bogdanovic went to Blackpool for an undisclosed fee. They did manage to keep Stephen Quinn but the Blades approach this weekend’s game with Bury not knowing if the paperwork was done in time for the incoming loans of Rangers midfield duo Kyle Hutton and John Fleck. Talking of Bury, Ryan Lowe is going to be hard to replace, but the Shakers did sign Northampton’s Shaun Harrod, who has never played above League Two plus they captured midfielders Shane Byrne and Giles Coke on loan from Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday respectively.
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Aug 31

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Young Darlo striker to join?

Young Darlington striker Michael Smith is on the train down to SE7 to meet Chris Powell with a view to sign for the Addicks before deadline day. A fee of around £100,000 has been agreed for the 19-year old who has had a lot of suitors. One for the development squad maybe?

A bid for Barnet winger Mark Marshall has been turned down. Not sure why we would need another winger, unless Powell is thinking of using Wagstaff as a striker more often.
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Aug 29

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Kings of Leon

Yado Mambo will be a bit peeved I would suspect after Charlton signed centre half Leon Cort on a season-long loan from Burnley this morning. Mambo impressed against Reading in the week and was on the bench at Gigg Lane on Saturday but there may still be reservations about his ability to do a long stint in the first team, definitely I’d be worried if an injury to, say, Taylor and a suspension for Morrison resulted in Mambo and Doherty lining up in the first team together. Mambo needs a break-out year though and I think Powell will have him higher up his list of plans than Doherty as the season progresses.

I was surprised at how old Leon Cort was (he’s 31) and he’s had some clubs but has played mostly at a higher level, since he helped Hull to promotion from League One in 2004/5 anyway, and he’s also scored a fair few goals.

A striker has to the next port of call for Powell and there are plenty of rumours – take you pick from Crawley’s Matt Tubbs, Southampton’s Lee Barnard, Leicester’s Jeffrey Schlupp or Bury’s Ryan Lowe.
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Aug 29

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Hurricane Irene

With one eye on the telly watching CNN’s saturated 24-hour hurricane coverage and one eye on my daughter in her playroom yesterday I suddenly saw out of the corner of my eye her inflatable turtle, which earlier she’d been sat in half full of water, fly by the window followed by a couple of garden chairs.

I rushed outside and there he was Tropical Storm Jose careering past Bermuda 50 miles away packing winds of 40mph. My little excursion out to the garden got me soaked and when I returned to the telly there was Anderson Cooper on CNN stood in the middle of a deserted New York’s Greenwich Village desperately looking for sign of rain, let alone a hurricane.

Hurricane Hyperbole is nothing new, especially since the invention of 24-hour news channels, and the American’s have rarely been known to overreact, but when one anchor proclaimed that the storm to be as “big as Europe” it was enough for me to turn over.
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Aug 28

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Arsene Knows

Like the next man I like to see a lot of goals in a televised Sunday afternoon Premier League match but as Man United continued to humiliate Arsenal this afternoon I just ended up feeling embarrassed. It was like a FA Cup 3rd match, David v Goliath when you just know that the big team can score at will, and you wonder if eventually they will take their foot of the opposition’s throat and allow them to reclaim a bit of pride.

There was too much joy on the faces Man U’s players for them to let up, particularly that of Ryan Giggs, him with a long memory on the football pitch, but not as good of it. Well, he probably hasn’t had this much of a good time for a while. Sir Alex Ferguson also looked embarrassed and said afterwards “I did not want them to score any more.” I am sure that made Arsenal fans feel heaps better!

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Aug 27

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Bury 1 Charlton Athletic 2

My birthday weekend continued this morning when we met some friends at the pool. I saw we were one-down at half-time but jumped in the pool and cleared my head of all Bury thoughts thousands of miles away.
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Aug 26

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Happy Friday

My birthday today. Thank you. Two score years and five and exactly 56 years younger than Mother Theresa, whom I’m often compared…. well the wrinkles anyway.

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Aug 24

Charlton Athletic 2 Reading 1

Well I talked yesterday about Charlton’s ‘reserve team’ but has anyone seen a better performance by one? I am really pleased Powell made the changes for last night’s game and for those in attendance, they were rewarded with a fantastic display from some of the yet seen new players plus those on the outskirts of the first XVI.

Of course I was doubly pissed off that I missed the game as I had a ticket – although I wouldn’t have thought that Powell would have made as many changes that night for what would only have been the second game of the season.

Nonetheless the game was a joy to listen to on the radio, mostly because co-commentator Steve Brown was gushing about not only the performance but also the spirit and togetherness in the Charlton camp under Powell and Dyer. This from a proud man who was audibly depressed and dissenting about the club under both Parky and Pardew when on the radio previously.
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Aug 23

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Reserve football

According to the font of all knowledge the Daily Mail, Newcastle plan to pay Robbie Elliot £12,000 a week to be their third choice goalkeeper. Charlton fan or not, you look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t move job or town for that kind of pay increase.

Pardew was always very good at spending other people’s money and it looks like he’s convinced Newcastle’s board to return with a more realistic offer and hopefully they will be embarrassed into paying us a bit more than what he’s actually worth. I’m thinking in the realms of £250,000 although that might include add-ons.

I see also that French club Sochaux have also reported the Geordies after an alleged illegal approach for their forward Modibo Maiga. More reason to come to terms with Charlton and for us to discreetly withdraw our complaint.

Elliot has been in his best form this season and of course not many of us have ever seen Hamer play, but we need to move on and now use this money to invest in more needy positions in the squad. Rumours persist that Paul Benson and Simon Francis will leave before the deadline. Benson to either Gillingham, Leyton Orient or his home town club of Southend United and Francis on loan.

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Aug 20

Charlton Athletic 2 Scunthorpe United 2

A disappointing afternoon all round. CAFC Player was at it’s temperamental best only coming to life as the first half ended, thus I got a rather skewed view of the game.

Nevertheless Scunthorpe certainly sounded worth a point. The Iron would appear better equipped than the two other relegated teams for this division and under Alan Knill I have them listed as play-off candidates this season. My mate who gave me a post match report also confirmed that they passed the ball well and there was some delicacy to their play.

The positives are that although it seems like a loss it wasn’t, and there was still some nice passages of play with Hayes and particularly BWP looking threatening and on another day we would have scored more goals.

The downside was it was two points thrown away. We didn’t close the game out and I felt from listening to the commentary that we invited them onto us after they got the incentive of their first goal.
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Aug 18

Pardew in for Elliot

Travelling back from New York tonight after a couple of days in the city for a career chat with my boss, and a bit of other networking activity. Despite an early start yesterday I was on a real high after reading Dave’s Colchester report and scouring some of these eye witness reports on Charlton Life.

Today though Addick thoughts are with Rob Elliot, who seems poised for a move to Newcastle United to reunite himself with Alan Pardew and goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman. According to the BBC Newcastle have put in a bid for Robbie, although not a day goes by without Pardew suggesting that he is in the market for someone or other to appease the Toon. Chris Powell meanwhile has said today that any deal is in it’s embryonic stages.
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Aug 16

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Colchester United 0 Charlton Athletic 2

Second to your boss calling you into his office to give you an unexpected pay rise, listening to Charlton win away from home sat at your desk with ear phones discreetly tucked into one’s ears is a bloody nice way to spend an afternoon at work.

Apart from just a couple heart in mouth moments (mostly from corners and without the benefit of pictures) the commentary team on Player gave me an excellent description of an impressive and confident away victory this evening. This at a ground, well two grounds actually, where we had never previously won a league match, although I was at Layer Road many moons ago to see us very fortunately win in the cup. But why ruin a good stat?

I think a lot of us were thinking that tonight was a really difficult test. Colchester had scored 8 goals so far this season but that first half performance sounded, and has since been confirmed by onlookers, a devastating display of attacking football.
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Aug 13

Notts County 1 Charlton Athletic 2

I’ve just seen the goals on Sky, what a wonderful finish that was by Waggy and fully justifying his starting place in the team. By all accounts Wagstaff played so well that Danny Green didn’t even get close to taking his tracksuit off!

We will play better teams than both Bournemouth and County but trust me we will play far worse. In Martin Allen they have a manager who is an expert motivator and they brushed aside Carlisle last week and ran city rivals Forest about as close as you can get in the League Cup on Tuesday, so today’s win at Meadow Lane packed a powerful message of what we can hope for this season.
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Aug 12

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Green day

Tuesday night’s cancellation also affected the chances of a few players staking a claim for a first 16 place. Danny Green, Andy Hughes, Ruben Bover, Cedric Evina and maybe even Jason Euell could all have featured against Reading but although one would suspect Powell will be tempted to begin with the same team that began on Saturday I think he may give the right wing berth to Danny Green holding back Waggy for a 2nd half introduction perhaps even up front.
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Aug 10

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London riots

This post should have been a retrospective on Charlton’s League Cup game, which selfishly I am still pissed off at missing, with the added annoyance of having spent money on a hotel room and match ticket. It’s the third game that has been moved or postponed that I’ve come back for in past year…. ok, selfish rant over.

After the game Saturday my son and I stayed at my brother’s in Hackney, and when I woke on Sunday morning I truly thought he was watching some library clips from the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots. I was in Hornchurch Sunday night but my brother spent most of it stood looking out of his window with his baseball bat as groups of yobs roamed the streets outside. Fortunately the police unsettled them enough to move the low-life’s toward Bethnal Green Road.
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Aug 10

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Always believe in

Jason Euell signed a one year’s contract for the Addicks today after training with the club since early July. He’s still only 34 and brings invaluable experience and a Charlton legacy to Chris Powell’s brand new squad.
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Aug 8

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Charlton Athletic 3 AFC Bournemouth 0

Winning your first game of the season is not imperative but my does it put a skip in your step. Yes, it wasn’t perfect and one would hope we will get better but as I walked away from The Valley amongst smiling faces there were some significant signs of better days ahead.

Undeniably we tried to pass the ball, particularly amongst the midfield. It wasn’t always possible and a long ball was reverted back to and arguably Bournemouth passed the ball better, but they had nowhere near the quality of impact players that we possessed and neither the penetration. One other worry, as has often been the case in past seasons, was that we occasionally sat back too deeply but I liked the strength and power of Taylor and Morrison.

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Aug 5

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This is it

My son and I landed at Gatwick this morning after a lovely couple of weeks together in Bermuda. We have timed our trip back to the UK in order that we can be present at the inauguration of what we all hope is a brand new chapter in the history of our great football club.

Chris Powell and the owners have done everything any fan could have asked of them after years of despair where Charlton have for past seven years finished in a lower league position than the season previous. Powell has single-handedly disassembled the squad that he inherited last January and created a whole new team and fashioned, or at least began to fashion, his own style of play, one a lot more attractive than what we were used to.

In what has been hands down the most exciting summer and pre-season for a couple of decades the strength of overwhelming support for our manager is palatable. 15 new players have signed and 15 have moved on in an incredible summer of activity at The Valley. Only two players that started last season’s opener against Bournemouth will run out of the tunnel tomorrow, although both Hollands and Wiggins were on the opposing side.
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Aug 4

Danny Hollands

Saturday marks my 36th season as a Charlton fan – yes I was a child bride. Pre-Selhurst Park I always had a season ticket and I got one again when we knew that Upton Park was just a mere overnight stay before we finally got back home. I continued with a season ticket from 1992 right up until a couple of years after I left London to work in Chicago but finally gave it up, when frankly Valley seats were easier to come by and financially it didn’t make sense to me.
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Aug 3

Our League One rivals

A year ago I selected a hasty pre-season top 10 (I got 6 right) but I’m going to pay a little more respect to Division 3, sorry League One this time around and during the course of the season intend to immerse myself a bit more in our league rivals. We are currently the 12th longest serving members after all….

Lee Clark signed a new contract in the summer and will Saturday begin his 4th season with Huddersfield and it is they who begin the season in the unenviable position of being the bookies favourites and like many teams in League One there has been quite a revolving door at the Galpharm.

Just last week they followed our example and picked off one Bournemouth’s best players in Anton Robinson. The wide midfield man played over 50 games last season for the Cherries. Ex-Birmingham midfielder Damien Matthews has signed for another year and Clark also moved for wide man Danny Ward, who I rate, and who ended last season on loan at the Galpharm scoring 4 times in 10 games. Midfielders Tommy Miller and Oscar Gobern have also joined and Clark has held onto 22-goal striker Jordan Rhodes.

Huddersfield were forced into selling two of their best players though with Anthony Pilkington to Norwich and Lee Peltier to Leicester.
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Aug 1

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Come in no. 15

Andy Hughes and Ben Hamer were the latest new additions to this season’s squad this morning. Hamer’s fee was *shocker* undisclosed and utility man Hughes is a free.

The signing of Hamer poses a lot of questions but I expect Elliot to be cashed in before the transfer deadline, which would be in line with New York Addick’s anticipated investment portfolio of players.
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Jul 31

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Elliot off?

Summer murmurs of Robbie Elliot leaving might well come to fruition this week. Chris Powell mentioned a few days ago that the club are in discussions to extend his contract but one has to wonder why then Powell feels he needs another 1st choice keeper with the OS stating that we are in talks to sign Reading’s Ben Hamer?

Hamer was on loan at Exeter when we played them in the bumper Valley crowd day last February. Matt Taylor would thus know him well.
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Jul 30

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Ready or not

“It was a battling performance from the visitors, who matched the Lions throughout a frenetic and absorbing match which will whet the appeitite among Addicks supporters for next Saturday against Bournemouth and the new season” – cafc.co.uk

I can’t help myself, but like a kid stood outside a candy store with his Dad’s wallet I’m a little beside myself with excitement a week from the opening day of the new season.
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Jul 29

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Cup Match Special

After four years of rain affected lethargy, today’s Bermuda Cup Match ended in excitement as Somerset, who had batted like the blind school yesterday, fought back courageously to make a real fist of it and nearly snatched the trophy from St George’s for the first time since 2002.

My son and I were at the Wellington Oval today down at the east end of the island in St George’s to watch the annual proceedings and jolly good fun it was too. It is hard to describe the atmosphere except it’s about as far removed from a Lords test that you can imagine.

The locals dress to impress, well I am sure they impressed someone, the rum and beer flows and wannabe DJ’s compete with each other ten feet apart. The local scaffolding companies make a killing as that is pretty much what everyone is standing and sitting on and I hope, I really hope, they have ruddy good liability insurance.
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Jul 26

Bish-Bash-Bosch

I told Johnnie Jackson via Twitter tonight to save some room in the trophy cabinet after he lifted the inaugural People’s Cup, instigated by the noisy 150 Den Bosch fans in the stadium.

I’m not one for friendlies but I was keen to read opinions of tonight’s only home pre-season game and I was looking for style and substance over most anything else. Pleasingly the reports were commendatory with the midfield pair of Hollands and Stephens receiving a lot of plaudits as did Green, who unfortunately will miss the Bournemouth game due to suspension. BWP scored a neat lob and by all accounts the Dutch side were no mugs and played a pleasing passing game as did we.
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Jul 23

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Solo flyer

My son flew into Bermuda this evening travelling the 6.5-hour flight on his own. British Airways allow children to fly on their own from the age of 5 although ages, rules and regulations differ depending on the route and he has been asking for a while if he could travel here on his own. This morning his Mum was more nervous than he was as he took the whole adventure in his stride.
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Jul 21

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Paul Benson to Notts County

It is being widely rumoured that Charlton have accepted an offer of £150,000 from Notts County for Paul Benson. Of course he has to want to leave and agree terms, which team mates McCormack and Francis couldn’t do last week.

This is disappointing news to me. I was always supportive of Benno and his actual goalscoring ratio (1 every 4) wasn’t too bad considering our below average season and the fact that rarely from what I could see did we ever get a decent cross into him.

Therefore I assumed that this was one of the reasons for signing his old wide man team-mate Danny Green, and I was happy to see this combination work last night in the friendly at Aldershot.
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Jul 20

Bret

Last September I blogged through the night (my September archive is dominated by it) when Hurricane Igor battered the island throughout the night. It was a scary experience coming a day after I had knee surgery and was hobbling around on crutches.

The hurricane season is with us again and Bermuda is set to have it’s first 2011 brush with nature on Thursday as Tropical Storm (a named storm is not classified as a hurricane unless it has sustained winds of at least 74 mph) Bret passes by the island.
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Jul 19

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Off to the Shots

Aldershot tomorrow night. A name that always brings back some sweet childhood memories because it was at the Recreation Ground that I saw my first ever football match.

It was 1972, or it could have been 1973 but we were at a family friends in Camberley for the weekend and the Dad, Pete, was a regular at The Rec and offered to take me and my Dad along to a game.

Aldershot were playing Southport, or was it Stockport? Or Workington? Always annoys me that…. but I am more certain of the score. It finished in a 2-2 draw but what I remember more vividly is the ground.
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Jul 15

¿Dónde está Mikel

A defeat on the final day of the Addicks’ tour of southern Spain, but a defeat with no shame only more words of encouragement. The Cardiff City media man on Twitter was complimentary of the Addicks’ performance despite losing 1-0 and I am sure the party will return in high spirits. Next up is Aldershot on Wednesday.
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Jul 15

The Plaza Café

Not content with discovering good coffee at the Tribe Road Kitchen last week, this week I came across a good lunch spot in Hamilton.

The Plaza Café is tucked away upstairs in what is called the Walker Arcade between Reid and Front Street’s and used to be a very third rate coffee shop.

Upon research the Plaza Café got renovated by the owners at the back end of last year and I normally have no reason to venture near it, so when I did stroll past earlier in the week it was a pleasant surprise to look in it’s window at the very sleek interior.
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Jul 14

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New look

A new look then to honour the Addicks new look. I hope you like, it’s taken me a few days to fiddle around with but I wanted something that more resembled a magazine with a clean look. I think my previous design was a little bland, although to be honest I have spent so much time staring at this new page that for the life of me I can hardly remember what the old one looked like!

The new-look Addicks meanwhile are out in Spain being put through their paces and we had a very decent win over Bristol City Tuesday night in Lepe. On Friday the Addicks play Cardiff City at the Estadio Guadalquivir of Coria FC in Seville and return to Blighty on Saturday.
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Jul 11

Another brick in the wall

Another new signing today but a strength and conditioning coach, not a player, but one would have to say another important brick in the foundations of the club’s rebuild.

Last week Charlton let go (and I’m probably being polite there) Donough Holohan and have snared 29-year old Laurence Bloom from Southend. Southend’s player-coach Graham Coughlan said: “Speaking on behalf of the whole group we are really going to miss him. He did some unbelievable work for the football club and will be a big, big miss for us. He was a joy and pleasure to work with and whoever comes in to replace him has some very big shoes to fill.”

By all accounts Bloom was on the pitch at Welling before the game on Saturday.

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Jul 11

Bermuda Page

After recently celebrating 3 years on the rock, I thought it was a good time to update my Bermuda Page over there on the right hand side. Feel free to comment.

Jul 8

2 Comments

Young Bermudian players in English league

Freddy Hall. Remember that name? You probably don’t although I suspect my fellow Bermuda Addicks will. Hall is a Bermudian goalkeeper who was on trial with Charlton in December 2009. It didn’t work out and he returned to University in America to finish his degree.

A year ago he was at Plymouth Argyle on trial, but that didn’t work out either and he returned to Bermuda and played the season with the Hogges in the USL, the American 3rd tier. However it was announced today that Gary Johnson has given him a one-year contract at Northampton.
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Jul 8

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And Morrison makes it a team

With a couple of subs in Nick Pope and Ruben Bover Izquierdo, so 13 new faces in total. There is no denying that is a pretty impressive effort from Chris Powell and the board.
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Jul 7

Francis going, Llera going, Semedo gone

As predicted Jose Semedo signed for Div 3 rivals Sheffield Wednesday today. I’m sorry to see him go but it was hardly unexpected, it’s just a shame that he has chosen to go to a team in the same division as us when one would have thought he had options higher up. Wednesday obviously were prepared to match or improve his current contract and gave him the stability of a 3-year deal.

But, in saying that I belong to the band of people that thought Jose was part of the problem and not the solution. Powell has already signed a whole new midfield and we should be more excited by that than the re-signing of the Portugeser and his Guadalopian mate Racon.

Nonetheless he only ever gave his all in a red shirt and I was proud to sponsor his shirt in his final season at The Valley.
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Jul 6

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River Plate memories

4 years ago we visited Argentina and whilst there we were fortunate enough to be at a River Plate home game in Buenos Aires (right) on the opening day of the Clausura (closing season). For those unaware the Argentinian league system works on a two seasons a year basis, the Clausura from February to June and preceding that, the Apertura (opening season) from August to December.

This is a Latin American phenomenon and is said to fill gaps in the latter part of a full season (cup competitions are not such big thing in South America particularly) and allows the lesser teams the same amount of games.

Relegations, if any, are done on an aggregate basis, and this is where the cynicism comes in. In the Argentine leagues the average points over the previous three seasons are used to determine relegation, thus making relegation of one of the ‘big clubs’ impossible, well almost.
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Jul 5

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Bermuda – 3 years on

3 years on the rock has flown by, probably because I have this inherent view that everyday living here is very similiar. Unlike some ex-pats who move to a new country with an end game like going home after a finite amount of time, we came here open-minded to how long we stayed but acknowledging that we are tied to term work permits and unpredictable government policy.

We are very happy here and although if I’m honest we don’t love it, there isn’t much not to like. We miss the cultural things and modern infrastrucure and the things that one takes for granted that big cities bring, but Bermuda is not like living in Jamaica. This is first world on one of the remotest islands on the planet, albeit it can be like living in an English village in the 1970’s.
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Jul 4

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The Tribe Road Kitchen

This weekend was my 3rd anniversary of being in Bermuda, more on that another day, but I have to tell you that I finally found a coffee shop to rival one I found in my early decent coffee hunting three years ago.

The Tribe Road Kitchen has been open just a few weeks and is on the corner of Reid Street and King Street in Hamilton. The owners stripped down and restored a derelict 200-year-old Bermuda cottage and have used appealing reconditioned furniture and fittings to give it a hip but homely look.
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Jul 4

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Any more for any more?

A day off work today as we closed the office for the US July 4th holiday. This gave me a chance to catch up with some errands and attempt to take stock of the continued incomings at Sparrows Lane.

Young goalkeeper Nick Pope officially signed for the club this morning from Bury Town as did Spanish attacking midfielder Ruben Bover Izquierdo, who impressed last season at Halesowen Town. Previously the 19-year old was on Real Mallorca’s books and was on trial with the Addicks at the end of last season, coinciding with Jeff Vetere’s involvement, unless I am reading too much into it.

What interested me about the announcement on cafc.co.uk was Powell talking of a development squad consisting of Pope, Bover-Izquierdo, Calum Harriot, Freddie Warren, Tosan Popo, Ben Davisson, Yado Mambo and Conor Gough. Nice idea and very continental in it’s thinking and I would imagine that this will lead to more reserve matches next season.

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Jul 2

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2011 Island Games

I wrote about and followed quite closely the Island Games two years ago. Yesterday was the last day and the closing ceremony of this year’s tournament held in the Isle of Wight.

25 island nations either part of, or associated with, the 9 sovereign nations of Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the Caribbean compete every two years in 14 sports (chosen by the hosts from a list of 18) and the next Island Games will be in Bermuda for the first time in 2013 – sod London 2012, I might just wait for the greatest show on the ocean to come here!
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Jul 1

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The new Steve Brown

Matt Taylor this afternoon became Chris Powell’s 10th signing of the summer on the 2nd day of pre-season training. Taylor was out of contract at Exeter and has signed a 2-year deal. This is a player that I did see last year and at 29 Taylor has taken the long road in his career.

As recently as the middle of the last decade Taylor was a goalkeeper and wore the gloves again recently in the sad testimonial for Adam Stansfield. Like Bradley Pritchard, Taylor played for the England Universities team and was then converted to a centre half. Paul Tisdale signed him as a centre-half for Team Bath and then took Taylor with him to Exeter City where he had four very successful years, twice winning the player of the year award, two promotions and captaining the side for the last two seasons including when my son lined up alongside him on the halfway line when he was mascot in February at The Valley.

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Jul 1

Travelogue: Aspen, Colorado

Aspen, aptly named for the Aspen trees filling its mountainsides (those aren’t individual trees but a large connection of roots!), is one of the West’s oldest towns. Booming in the 1800s during the Gold Rush and becoming a ski mountain in the 1940s, Aspen now attracts the outdoor-loving set who hit its mountains for skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling, as well as summer and fall hiking, biking, whitewater rafting and horseback riding adventures. Located in the Fork Valley, Aspen’s slogan is “the Power of Four” due to its close proximity to Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass Mountains, meaning a trip to Aspen actually gives you access to four mountains of fun.

Aspen Mountain begins at nearly 8,000 feet at its base, climbing to 11,212 feet in height. Known for its ski slopes, 76 trails over 64 miles keep powder lovers occupied from late November through mid-April. However, Aspen is not for the beginner: there are no green trails on this here mountain. Instead, new skiers and boarders will have to traverse the trails at Buttermilk and Snowmass, the two most family-friendly mountains of the four and about a 20 minute drive away. Beware because kids also get bussed to these resorts as there are no ski facilities for children in Aspen.
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Jun 30

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In rolls Rhoys

The internet jungle drums are banging like the clappers this afternoon with news that Rhoys Wiggins has done a 360 on Watford after they had agreed a fee with Bournemouth and is discussions with Chris Powell about signing for the Addicks, possibly by tonight. No doubt Danny Hollands is being instrumental in this as well. Please click for more

Jun 29

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New away kit

I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to football shirts, whilst others got all excited about Charlton playing in purple and green stripes or all black, I yearned for the simple reversal of our home colours when we travelled away from home – good old white shirts and red shorts. Well I got my wish and I like it.
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Jun 28

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Two more

Tomorrow Danny Green and Dale Stephens should be unveiled at The Valley. It was generally agreed upon that Danny Green was one of the best players in last season’s 3rd Division scoring 13 goals, including two against us and having 12 assists. He is 22 and was released by Charlton as a 15-year old when we were wallowing in the Premiership poop as happy as Pinky and Perky.

The fee is set to be £400,000 with Championship clubs also believed to have had bids accepted by Dagenham & Redbridge. Perhaps now Paul Benson will have someone to put a decent cross in for him?

This afternoon Sky Sports took their head out of the Premier League’s arse to announce on their website that little old Charlton had outbid and pipped Bayern Munich to the signature of Tranmere’s excellent young prospect
Dale Jennings. Of course Twitter was falling over themselves at the absurdity of all this, but meanwhile the more sensible of us realised that there are in fact more than two Dales that play outside of the Champions League. Note to all those Sky Sports subscribers: This is what you get for your money.
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Jun 27

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A week in New York

Back to Bermuda yesterday and it is with relief that I don’t have to travel again for about six weeks – home for the Bournemouth match in fact.

New York was fun. A flurry of midweek work meetings was sandwiched between two wonderful long weekends.

The first one was at friends in a lovely little town called Madison in New Jersey. We knew that by flying into JFK on a Friday that we could potentially run into nightmarish traffic. We hadn’t a clue. 

A two hour flight delay meant we landed at 2 .30pm and we then had the gruelling task of batting it from Queens into Lower Manhattan and through the Holland Tunnel to Jersey with bazillions of others the day the schools broke up. 

We spent five and a half hours in the car and by the time we got to our friends there was 45 miles on the clock and my daughter had learnt a whole new range of vocabulary! It was almost funny, no you’re right it wasn’t funny at all.
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Jun 25

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F**king Olympic tickets part #2

The greatest show on earth is quickly becoming the most shambolic!

I set my alarm for 1am yesterday morning (after a night out here in New York with New York Addick) so I could jump online and attempt to get a few Olympic tickets at the second time of asking. The whole ticketing process is farcical and although I eventually managed to apply for a couple of events I am rapidly thinking that we’ll just bin the whole idea and follow it on the telly.

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Jun 21

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The Vetere and Jiminez influence?

Quite a day on the transfer front. Between walking from FAO Schwarz where I was having fun on the big piano to Grand Central Station to meet a friend for lunch Charlton had made three signings.

To be honest only Cedric Evina stirs me out of my self-induced Addick coma. Mikel Alonso (pictured) has swapped 3rd Division Spanish football for 3rd Division English football and Paul Hayes hopefully is back in a level more suited to him.
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Jun 21

Racon to Millwall

The majority of player’s contracts expire on June 30th, it should then become a whole lot clearer who we are left with for next year and hopefully then some of the rumours of players coming in become a reality.

Sky Sports have broken the news that Therry Racon is undergoing a medical at Millwall and will sign a 2-year contract at the New Den.

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Jun 20

Fixtures

It’s taken me a couple of days to allow the excitement to subside. Bournemouth at home to start with, Hatlepools at home to end, Yeovil away in the middle. Thrilling. However not many have mentioned that the Carlisle away game is nicely placed!

Selfishly I would rather Notts County away first game of the season for a good old fashioned away day, but the good news is that my son and I will be able to watch us at The Valley on August 6th and I can probably make the Reading League Cup game too. Two games before I fly back to Bermuda (after arriving on the Friday), the same total amount of times I saw our sorry lot the whole of last season. 

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Jun 20

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National Heroes Day

I’m in New York today but officially I am on holiday as back in Bermuda it’s the National Heroes Day public holiday. Previously Bermudians celebrated today as the Queen’s birthday but a couple of years back the government decided to scrap poor old Queenie and go for something with a more civic meaning. Please click for more

Jun 16

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Second bite of the Big Apple

After being there last week, a further 9 days in New York awaits me and my two girls starting tomorrow. Not normally a location for an extended holiday, the trip came about last minute as I will be there anyway Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week for meetings, and with Monday a national holiday here, we concocted a plan to all go and make the most of two weekends. The first of which we will stay with some friends in a pretty little town called Madison in New Jersey and the second weekend we have booked a hotel in Long Beach, which is on Long Island’s South Shore.

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Jun 14

Quiet please

Quiet isn’t it, on the football front I mean although Randy Lerner’s mailbox might be awash with action. Funny old game football. Last week we were all nodding with a mutual respect at Roberto Martinez, who opted to stay as Wigan manager, even though no one would have blamed him if went to work for a proper club, and then we have wiley old Scott Alex McLeish emailing his resignation through to his Birmingham chairman, while blind-copying Randy Lerner at friendly neighbours Villa. We need New York Addick on the case to hack into the West Midlands server don’t we?
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Jun 11

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Voice of the Valley

 

Click on images to make larger.

The very first edition of the Voice of the Valley from February 1988. The whole edition can be read here. Somewhere in the abyss of my parents loft lives a whole collection of VOTV’s except for a couple that I have in a box under my desk at work that made the journey to Chicago and then Bermuda with hundreds of significant (to me) programmes that I rescued from my ex-wife.

That editorial written by Rick Everitt is enough to give you goosebumps and it’s why on my sadly infrequent visits that despite some of the dross that has been served up in recent years my hearts still beats a little faster when The Valley comes into view on Charlton Lane.

With thanks to Charlton Life.

Jun 9

6 Comments

Olympic tickets

I’ve been stewing over this for a week and thought I’d finally put down in a post my massive disappointment of being one of the 1,000,000 applicants who didn’t get any Olympics tickets.

We will have to re-think our summer plans for next year after applying for £2,500 of tickets and getting zip. It was particularly frustrating as we purposely stayed away from the marquee events and finals in order to get a small mix of tickets. Hell, my in-step other half even convinced me to apply for the synchronized swimming!
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Jun 7

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British Summer Time

I long gave up taking shorts back home with me on my visits as they never made it out of my case, but on recommendation I threw a pair in this time and they got a good airing with the weather well into the 70’s on the East Sussex coast as I spent a few days, mostly outside, with my son and his grandparents.

The trip was rounded off with a few pints and a curry in Bexley Village with some old mates on Sunday night. We bumped into a certain Jimmy Bullard in the Kings Head who was stood at the bar supping on a pint. The £50k a week Hull City player ended the season on loan at Paul Jewell’s Ipswich where he shined alongside Lee Martin.

Bullard’s family are local and he actually owns the One Bell in Crayford.
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Jun 7

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Travelogue: Hastings Old Town

During my few days at my parents in East Sussex, my Dad suggested a ride along the coast to Hastings. I used to visit years ago as I had a mate who’s parents lived in nearby Fairlight. My Mum and Dad, as I learnt, used to visit regularly on their Lambretta in the 60’s.  

We drove into Hastings from Eastbourne and along the sea front heading east making sure we had our doors locked. There was a thriving business in scaffolding, most of which was stopping buildings from collapsing and wooden boards, and little had changed it seemed since William Conqueror showed up with his bow and arrow looking for a ruck. 

The burnt out pier remains but just last month a heritage lottery grant was approved for work to start on it’s restoration. We drove on past Warrior Square with it’s statue of Queen Victoria, who wouldn’t have been amused at it’s unkempt look. 
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