May 9
Happy to see us finish the season on a high. It may have been a sloppy own goal that gave us the win, but it was good to see us keep going at the end looking for another goal.
A very decent return this week, but as expected we just miss out on the Play-Off’s by goal difference with Oxford comfortably seeing off Burton 4-0 whilst down on the south coast Pompey choked at home to Accrington.
Please click for moreThe Addicks back in the third tier for the fourth time in five seasons. From our first season back down there in 2016/17 AFC Wimbledon, Fleetwood, Gillingham, Oxford United, Peterborough, Rochdale and Shrewsbury are all still there. Both Gillingham and Peterborough are the longest serving with this season being their 8th consective.
The 24 teams are evenly spread north and south, but I will begin my quick glance at our League One rivals at the top of the country.
A massive win with real positive early signs that Lee Bowyer has re-ignited all the character traits that we have come to admire.
I watched the game on Valley Pass and think because I was fully submerged in it didn’t really miss the crowd, although the players entering the pitch like they had come for a kickabout was very strange, only added to by the fact I had no commentary for the first few minutes. The silence was very eerie.
We were definitely second out of the blocks as Hull won a couple of early set plays, but in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 we got going with Albie Morgan at the centre of most of it.
Devastating. The 5th time this season we have conceded a goal in injury time, the second time in a few days! `
Now we have to defend that, we have play to the final whistle, and we invited pressure, perhaps inevitably with nothing on the bench to affect any real change. But how thoroughly gut-wrenching was Hull’s 96th minute goal, scored after the allocated five minutes of injury time!
My next look at our new Championship opponents. Part One is here.
The long running saga of Frank Lampard leaving for Chelsea meant Derby County had to quickly re-adjust this summer. They chose Phillippe Cocu as their new manager. The Dutchman has no previous experience on British soil, but he has won the Eredivisie three times as a manager.
There can’t be a Charlton fan on the planet that expected that. Who an earth loses 5-0 on a Tuesday and then 6-0 the following Saturday? After all that head hanging and soul searching after Huddersfield? Only at Charlton.
I really thought we would at the very minimum fight like our lives depended on it today, but no, another new low. Our biggest defeat in 32 years and we are still waiting on the apology and offers of ticket refunds.
Riga has only been back 5 minutes and I will exonerate him from blame, but although I have been a huge proponent of supporting the team and not the regime, what an earth was that? Where is the professional pride, the self-respect, the ‘oh I need to work my balls off today for the new manager’?
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Part I of my annual pre-season peak at our Championship rivals. Their signings, their manager, their hopes, their handicaps.
The Championship is one of the most competitive and unforgiving leagues in Europe, and picking winners and losers is almost impossible but the bookies have had a crack and I will use their sticking a tail on a donkey theory as my guide.
I will start at the top, and will begin with the 6 teams that the bookmakers think will have the best chance of promotion.
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Chicago Addick 