Oct 9
Back to this to take my mind away from the waiting. This past June I celebrated 20 years writing my Blog and therefore decided to pick 20 Players and 20 Places that have left an enduring impression on me.
We are at number 14 on the catalogue of Players, which are in no particular order, and taking that spot is Johnnie Jackson.
Please click for moreNeil Harris must be rubbing his hands coming to us tomorrow night. I’m sure he can already smell the fear.
In the meantime somehow Jackson, his coaching team and the players have to face up to our demons and react like a wounded and cornered bear. The problem being is for weeks if not months we have showed no fighting qualities whatsoever. For those that talk of ability in the team, we’ve seen zero of that as similarly.
Please click for moreJust a little over 7 months after Nigel Adkins arrived via a Zoom call and talk of Premier League ambitions, Thomas Sandgaard closed the chapter on Adkins’ Charlton managerial career last night with us sat in a League One relegation place.
Please click for moreLots of negativity around the selection of Nigel Adkins. Aspirations of Eddie Howe and Chris Wilder were fanciful, and although Thomas has a few bob he is not a Russian oligarch, and last time I looked we are in the 3rd Division.
Sure, I was underwhelmed too, but unless it’s Karel Fraeye, then judging a manager before a ball is kicked is a little premature.
I am quite a level-headed Addick. There’s thousands of posts below here ⬇️ that would suggest that. What would Curbs say? Don’t over celebrate the wins, nor over scrutinize the losses. Something like that, anyway.
Although it posted on Sunday morning, I did write my post match blog straight after the game against Gillingham. I was frustrated, disheartened and annoyed. Nothing like a good moan in the pub after a defeat with your mates, accept there was no pub, or mates to talk out the sorrow with until you realize there is always next week, and the next pint.
Frustrating watching the Addicks at the moment, and I’m thinking I may do something else with my time on Friday afternoon rather than watch the Accrington Stanley game from behind the sofa.
The biggest barrier to watching them at the moment for me is that as a team they are hard to like. What I mean by that is there are no characters, or any sense of leadership. Where’s the midfield terrier, who will chase anything and anyone all around the pitch?
It’s hard to write this. Hard to take, and even harder to look into our future now.
Of course we shouldn’t have been here. Having to go to the league’s best team needing to win. We’d already blown it. When Birmingham’s scored last week I knew that. Congratulations to Luton and Barnsley. They properly stepped up when they had too, and commiserations to Wigan and their supporters. How about that bottom three f*ucked over by shysters eh?
EFL, you must be proud, and I hope Lyle Taylor and Chris Solly sleep well tonight.
So many chancers knocking around Charlton at the present time attempting to rip our famous club apart.
So, watching the Yann Kermorgant Valley Stories was a welcome reprieve and reminded us of what a wonderful player Yann was. A giant of a man on and off the pitch, genuine and honourable. Oh for a boardroom of Yann Kermorgant’s let alone team, as the old song used to go.
The day started so well. Almost 24,000 Addicks were up and ready to go to a sold out Valley, I slept for 10 hours after a week away with work, and Johnnie Jackson put pen to paper on a new 3-year contract.
I’ve hardly removed my Charlton pants for washing and already Twitter is alive with rumours of who’s joining and leaving. As Bow said success breeds teams trying to steal your players and manager. I’m paraphrasing of course, but if the Belgium twit doesn’t get his finger out then I going to go over there and daub his building with my sharpie myself.
The internet is suggesting all sorts of clubs that want to talk to Bowyer, but according to the Rat and the more reliable source of Rich Cawley, Bow will continue his discussions with the owner over a new contract next week.
You’ll never going to believe us, but the reds are going up. Allez, Allez, Allez.
Well, what a journey that was. What a day. What a team, what heroes Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson are. Yesterday will be a day Addicks, team and supporters as one, will remember for the rest of their lives.
The finer details of the game are a little blurry. It was game that flipped from scrappy to nervy to a finely balanced battle. It’s interesting that reports of the game seemed to think we were deserving winners. I wasn’t so sure from where I sat, but Sunderland are a very functional side, hard to beat, but lacking flair. Meanwhile Bowyer has put together a team that can change a game, be the more adventurous, can play around sides. The first goal, which was pure poetry, a great example.
I took today of work mostly to look after my daughter who wasn’t well enough to go to school, but it also did me a proper favour as my voice was shot and I am absolutely knackered. That was quite the weekend.
Today the club made a decision to split the Jimmy Seed Stand for the 2nd leg and make available 1,000 tickets to Addicks. These went on sale at 5pm. By midnight 850 of those had been sold. The rest will surely go first thing and over 24,000 Addicks will back Bowyer’s men on Friday night.
I woke up uneasy. Feeling a sense of dread and deja vu, or whatever the Flemish equivalent is.
Yesterday was disappointing, very. Blackpool are decent but it was another missed opportunity. No win in four, and a creeping impression that we are suddenly easier to play against and we haven’t any solutions. Or goals.
Three points behind 2nd and four behind 1st as we approached the end of the January transfer window. Since then we have fallen away badly thanks to one man. The richest, most obtuse and neglectful owner in our history.
Roland Duchatelet did the right thing today and made Lee Bowyer permanent first-team manager. Well deserved Lee.
The statement says a few things, possibly. There is a chance that the EFL told RD the club needs some stability and a permanent manager would be a start, but on recent history I’d be surprised that the EFL would be that demanding. It may tell us that the Aussie bid is dead, or not. It is only a 9 month contract after all, and I don’t think the two things are related. Finally it appears Richard Murray still has a tongue.
“Charlton say that austerity is necessary to “restore the financial health of the club”. But Duchatelet has brought Charlton Athletic to its knees over the last four years, demeaning the club with every misjudged cut, sale, sacking and bad appointment. Staff that leave now are rarely replaced and the whole club is desperate for profound change and renewal. For the long-term survival of Charlton Athletic, all that matters is Duchatelet finally selling this club on to people who can take better care of it.”
From the excellent article in today’s Independent written by Jack Pitt-Brooke.
We just weren’t good enough were we?..
Charlton ended the season how they started it back in August. Short on options, quality and goals. Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson brought back togetherness, spirit and pride, but they had no way to address the continuous issues that Roland Duchatelet has besieged every single manager or head coach that has taken the team since the old bastard walked into our lives.
Shrewsbury over-powered us, roughed us up and played to a style that they have perfected under one manager for almost two seasons. We can bemoan that their goalscorer should have been sent off, and we were refused a blatant penalty, but the best team won over two games.
A week of expectation and unusual optimism from Addicks after last Saturday’s memorable win at Fratton Park, played in front of an away atmosphere unrivalled for many a decade.
I will repeat what most Addicks’ have been asking themselves all week. How many times has the team shown up for a game that really mattered in front of a big following of Addicks? I’ve been going for over 4 decades and there ain’t many.
We are quick to knock our support, in terms of numbers especially, but when it comes down to it we can turn up, and we can also turn up the noise. Fratton Park is a great traditional stadium and Saturday in that covered away end looked and sounded simply magical.
What a difference a week makes..
How an earth is that the same team that we saw last Saturday? Bowyer may well have learnt more from two defeats than three consecutive wins, and he deserves massive credit for turning it around.
That was an outstanding result today by a team that carried out his instructions exactly. I watched the 2nd half on iFollow and there wasn’t one moment when a Pompey player wasn’t surrounded by one or two Charlton ones. They chased and harried every single ball, and when in possession we were clever and precise with it.
That was awful..
That was poor tonight from the Addicks, as the team went back in time showing a severe lack of imagination and belief on the pitch giving us all once again a reality check that we possibly are not good enough for a top six berth. Certainly Wigan, Blackburn and Shrewsbury are on a different planet to us, and we have to play two of them in our last five games.
We have to hope that Bowyer and Jackson, a big test now of their fledgling managerial qualities, can get the players up for the remaining games because they are each against better teams than Bristol Rovers and AFC Wimbledon.
“The club are currently in takeover discussions with two separate parties and while the sale of the club has not been finalised, it has been confirmed that one of the conditions of the sale, agreed by both parties interested in purchasing, will be that Bowyer is kept on as Caretaker Manager, with Johnnie Jackson continuing as his assistant, until the end of the season.” (more)
Great news that allows both Bowyer and the players space and encouragement to continue their recent revival under Bowyer and Jacko and importantly boosts the new wave of energy this past week or so has created amongst the fanbase.
Lee, what have you done with our Charlton..
I was at Sixfields last season, it was one very depressing afternoon. It was last March, but it isn’t what difference a year makes, it’s what difference one man makes. The Lee Bowyer show blew through Sixfields this afternoon like a tornado. It was a performance of total domination and attacking devastation. Those there and from the radio said that 8-0 wouldn’t have been unrealistic.
As I sit here like the rest of you looking at my watch move forward without any announcement of the ‘imminent’ takeover, I started to think how enthused I am, at least for the moment, that Lee Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson are at the wheel.
Charlton is one of those clubs that has had much success when Charlton people have been in charge. I am sure there are many other examples but a club like Charlton needs people that understand the fabric of the club, it’s history and it’s community.
Two years ago Lee Bowyer was fishing carp out of a lake in France, his own lake in fact. One of the many keen fisherman that would visit Bowyer at his two lakes just over 3 hours from Calais was his former Leeds’ team mate Harry Kewell.
Whilst Bowyer was enjoying his time away from the game, Kewell began the long journey into coaching initially in Australia before becoming Watford’s U21 coach in July 2015. In October of that same year Kewell offered Bowyer a chance to join him. In a wild quirk of fate they may be re-united next week.
Happy anniversary to Karl Robinson. After the disappointing draw at home to MK Dons he talked about how far we have come as a team since last time we played Franchise in April. I would rather look at how far we have come in the past year.
In fact just over a year ago I was at, what turned out to be Russell Slade’s last game, Swindon. It was truly demoralizing, and the road down and down under Duchatelet appeared to have no turning points or crossroads. The incompetence of Meire and the vindictiveness of Duchatelet apparently knew no bounds.
I may not have mentioned this before but I have two man crushes, and they have always vied for top spot, but after last night Chris Martin may have just pipped Johnnie Jackson after the Coldplay front man lit up the Miami Dolphins stadium into a technicolour frenzy.
We made it through a massive downpour and awful traffic to get to the out of town Hard Rock Stadium with 50,000 others who were each given wristbands which were wirelessly co-ordinated to flash throughout the show like halos of colour. To that there was the regular burst of fireworks, explosions of confetti and hundreds of large candy coloured rubber balloons that bounced over head in spells of rain that often left the whole arena in a mist of hues.
In the Karl Robinson house, but of course all football fans understand that analogy very well.
This is easily the most positive pre-season we have had in the Duchatelet-Meire era, not that it’s difficult, but keeping faith in Robinson was a positive. He is marmite of course and can’t stop talking, but one can’t fail to see his commitment to the club and his passion and energy.
Words are easy, and actions do speak louder, but when we’ve been used to a complete lack of communication and when we were spoken to, we were given mostly lies, or we had head coaches not able to make any connection with fans whatsoever.
Chris O’Loughlin became the 13th coach to leave the club today in less than 3 years. The continual turnover of staff at The Valley is quite incredulous.
Nothing on the OS but according to the News Shopper O’Loughlin, who previously put the cones out for Orlando Pirates, Supersport United, Melbourne Victory, AS Vita and Sint-Truiden, was surprised that he wasn’t kept on under Karl Robinson.
A comfortable stroll today in front of protesting Addicks and hundreds and hundreds of stewards. 4 wins and a draw from the final 5 games when the pressure was off. Previous to that when it meant something we had 1 win in 14.
First half goals from the head of Josh Magennis and the foot of Jake Forster Carsley were added to by ‘Player of the Season’ Ricky Holmes in the 2nd half, who finished off a fine move.
Ex Oakwood Park, where my son attends school, pupil Aaron Barnes came on for his Charlton first team debut and Johnnie Jackson was lauded during the game and when substituted, and rightly so, but will be back next season. Chris Solly was also given a heroes farewell when he went off late in the game.
Many of you will know of Kyle Andrews. He is the man behind the compelling words at Chris Powell’s Flat Cap. Kyle from his home in Bukinghamshire, travels up and down country, normally with his Dad, watching Charlton through thin and er, more thin and rarely misses a game.
If watching Charlton wasn’t enough, Kyle on a daily basis is at war with his own personal demons, both mentally and physically and I ask you to read this very emotional and heartfelt blog post he wrote a little while back.
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A penny for Johnnie Jackson’s thoughts this week. I know they say that in the modern game that players don’t get too attached to managers, but Jacko and Solly must be wondering what an earth is happening to the club they have shown so much loyalty to.
Jacko is the most respected and loved Charlton player of a generation, yet this is not proving a banner season for the skipper. Saturday painstakingly showed the skipper up for someone that is teetering on the end of his career. Definitely he can no longer do a job out wide, in the middle, more so in a five, he can at least mix it up, break up play and get his foot in.
Also let us not forget that he is second top scorer, which should embarrass every midfielder and striker at the club, other than Ade Lookman.
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I took my protest to Rio and tuned out of the happenings at The Valley and instead tuned into scantily clad women slapping a ball over a net on sand in the name of Olympic sport.
However my always relied upon Mother was updating me during the game and my brother gave me a full blown text report after, but it was fair to say you would all have rather been in my seat at the Copacabana Beach Volleyball Arena. You would also have been surrounded by more people!
Anyway these are my observations. The Canadian girl’s bikini bottom was a shade of red and white. Oh hang on, wrong blog post! Apologies.
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With news that Rochdale’s Keith Hill could not “agree terms” and would rather stay in Rochdale than move to Charlton, that Russell Slade is now in the sights of Blackburn and the Nigel Adkins’ trail has gone a little cold, it is skipper Johnnie Jackson who is now installed as the bookies favourite.
After the fruitless efforts to hire Chris Wilder were carried out in the media, Duchatelet has covered his search for a new manager in a security blanket. Mind you the day we were expected to announce a new manager the Belgian instead was at press conference to unveil that he has ‘bought back’ Sint-Truiden when he openly trolled Addicks’ fans about the pitfall’s of foreign ownership. More from me on that another day.
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News breaking this morning by someone close to the situation that yesterday before kick off Chris Solly was dropped from the squad and Johnnie Jackson from the starting XI. This at the insistence of Ms Meire. The reason? Both Solly and Jacko were a little bit too honest at Thursday night’s sponsors’ dinner.
A lot of stuff came out of that evening with almost every player that was willing to talk about off the field activities damning in their comments of the leadership and direction of the club. Almost to a man they agreed that this is the most unnecessary of relegations.
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This is not like watching a slow death, it is like witnessing a murder.
This madness has to stop. Now.
And as for the gutless coward Fraeye, who refused to speak to press and ran onto the team bus leaving Stephen Henderson to apologise to fans. What sort of person does that? Fraeye, Meire, Duchatelet all refusing to talk to us. It is some kind of sick joke.
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A third 0-3 home defeat in four games and any thoughts of a renaissance after two wins were squashed by an apathetic performance in front of a worryingly sparse and disinterested crowd.
This club is only going one way at the moment and it is runaway train with Ms Meire at the steering wheel and M Duchatelet in the control box. Whether the 2% Protest made any impact on the two of them I very much doubt it, but the fact that ‘Stand up for the 2%‘ posters were held aloft by at least half of the home fans, sitting amongst a sea of empty red seats was a very respectful but poignant image, one that got the message out to a broader audience and showed up Meire’s arrogance for what it is.
Congratulations to all of those that helped and supported it. It was a good start and I will write more on that in the coming days now that I am back in Bermuda and once I can shake off the hangover of another pitiful display.
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An excellent result and not just a clinging on rear guard action. The Addicks created chances too, with youngsters Ademola Lookman and Tareiq Holmes-Dennis outstanding, especially Holmes Dennis playing out of position at right back who danced down the wing to provide a teasing cross for super skipper Johnnie Jackson to head powerfully home.
Lookman started up front with Simon Makienok with Reza on the bench along with the returning Harry Lennon and new loanee Ricardo Vaz Te. There was no place for Moussa.
We were under the gun for a lot of the 1st period, especially before half-time but the Blues never caused many heart-fluttering moments, at least listening to the radio. That was until the final seconds when Holmes-Dennis rounded off a terrific performance preventing Grounds from a sure equaliser.
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I was one of hundreds of Addicks getting angrier and angrier on Twitter last night following Tweets from a couple of media outlets supposedly reporting the fan’s meeting with Katrien Meire and Richard Murray at The Valley. I got myself so wound up I had to go to the pub.
Upon watching the video this evening the narrative from last night as recorded by the News Shopper and London24 certainly painted a different picture and many of the 140 character missives took out of the context what was actually said.
I sat through the whole 110 minutes of the video, and a lot of it was respectful and uneventful. However my own opinion is that this was not the discussion that I was hoping for. It is possibly a start but there was still no substance to the same old trotted out mantra we have heard many times before.
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Yep, the jokes keep coming. The London Standard have confirmed earlier whispers that Katrien Meire has pursued ex-Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro and will offer her a job working with the Addicks medical team once her legal dispute with Jose Mourinho has run it’s course all over the back pages.
I’m glad Katrien has got her priorities right and we can still find room in the budget. Next I hear she is having all the flushes replaced on The Valley toilets to those eco-friendly dual flush ones….
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Had to take a deep breath after that. A fantastic Johnnie Jackson inspired comeback must not deflect mostly how useless we were up until the 81st minute. Does it paper over the cracks or will Guy Luzon and his players use this as a catalyst to turn the corner.
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Excellent point at one of the promotion favourites today. Don’t know much about the game as we were having a late breakfast in Miami but I was constantly drawn to what seemed an exciting game on Twitter and it looked as if we deserved our point with a wholehearted defensive performance punctuated by some good play on the break.
Cristian Ceballos started on the left of midfield, to some surprise, and was responsible for possibly the worst corner in Charlton’s history, which has to be seen to be believed. I have hopes for the young Spaniard though, but him out left did allow Cousins to move inside alongside Kashi.
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QPR (h), Derby (a), Forest (a), Hull (h), Wolves (a). 2015/16 Full fixture list here.
That is a tough looking start on paper, although there is a lot to be said for playing the relegated sides early as they adjust to the culture shock of The Championship.
I will be home for the opening game and it is our first Valley start to the season since we returned to The Championship. There is a chance that Sky might pick our game for that weekend although Leeds, Preston and Hull may get the nod. The opening game instantly reminds of our victory over then Harry Redknapp’s side the season before last. That ‘Johnnie Jackson QPR’ game was one of the best moments seen at The Valley in the last couple of seasons.
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I’m flying back to Gatwick overnight and all being well I’ll grab a quick pint in the Oak before we take our seats for the early kick off against promoted Bournemouth before the curtain draws on the season.
After the midweek games somewhat ruined Sky TV’s excitement their cameras will be at Blackburn v Ipswich and Derby v Reading as the Tractor Boys and Rams attempt to hold on to their top 6 places. Personally more excitement might have been found at Brentford and Wolves as they have to win and score goals to force themselves into play-off contention.
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A late yet deserved goal from City was enough to beat Charlton at St Andrews this afternoon in what sounded a bit of a snooze-fest. Guy Luzon called it the worst performance since he took over, which is a shame because the 1,000+ Addicks deserved better.
The away end also included Johnnie Jackson and Ben Hamer, which for those that had to opportunity to meet them at least made up for such a dismal display, that and Michael Morrison spending time at the end of the game to finally say goodbye to Addicks, most of whom won’t ever understand how the club managed to lose him, and apparently for no fee.
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I watched Guy Luzon’s press conference yesterday and noticed how he had morphed from a rabbit caught in the headlines to an assured and relaxed football head coach.
It is amazing what a couple of wins can do, good ones at that, and three in front of your own public, a public that were screaming “you don’t know what you’re doing” just a few weeks back.
The bitterness of Luzon’s arrival may still be lingering but the man himself, clearly at the first interview a combination of uneasy and unprepared, can afford to smile and he does, quite often.
Interesting also how his accent and command of the English language has gone from Manuel to Mourinho, at least in our perception anyway.
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I still have serious reservations about the ability of Guy Luzon, but credit where credit is due. On Saturday he had the foresight to play four defenders, four midfielders and two strikers, all in their right position. He also dropped ‘network’ keeper Dmitrović and returned Stephen Henderson to the side, who again proved why he is the club’s #1 and the Irishman was the foundation for the long awaited victory.
Luzon is right to distance himself from the performances and results leading up to his appointment but he has now had over a month with the players and it is apparent to me that something happened between the Norwich game on Tuesday and Saturday and I am unsure whether this was entirely Luzon’s doing.
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Another day, another defeat. Our 14th game without a win. Middlesbrough proved as anticipated too good, but less anticipated was that for a period anyway, we weren’t quite a bad as many thought.
In fact in the latter stages of the 1st half around when JBG stole an excellent equaliser we sounded as if we played with good purpose and intent, driven forward by skipper Johnnie Jackson, on for the unfortunately injured Milos Veljkovic.
At the break, like many I was pleasantly surprised. By the time I’d put my half time cup of tea in the washing up bowl, normal service had been resumed.
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My ultimate respect to the 200 or so Addicks that are travelling to Middlesbrough tomorrow. I hope they at least leave the ground at 5 o’clock knowing that the team put as much effort in as they did. Hopefully Johnnie Jackson is back in the line up to show some much needed leadership.
One player who won’t play is Roger Johnson, who like nearly all of our recent signings is a long way of match fitness. The Birmingham Mail said this about his arrival, but I hope Luzon can help him rediscover his form and desire, and it may well give Bikey and Ben Haim a kick up the backside, or may not.
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And not just down at Selhurst Park where apparently Steve Parish has agreed a £2m compensation with Mike Ashley for Alan Pardew’s services! A marriage made in heaven.
The transfer window opens on New Year’s Day and although it remains to be seen what plans Roland Duchâtelet has for us, the Charlton rumours are rolling in.
The gift that keeps on giving is Andy Delort, signed by Wigan for £3m on summer deadline day in a blaze of self-social media publicity driven mostly by his Dad. It was no secret that Duchâtelet had banked on bringing in the 23-year old from Tours who was joint top scorer in Ligue 2 last season.
In the end, and the Belgian could hardly be blamed, the self-aggrandizing and inflated fee was enough to put the Addicks off. Since, Delort has struggled to make any impact at all with Wigan. Signed by Uwe Rosler, but dropped to the development team, Delort has not even made a matchday squad for the Latics under new manager Malky Mackay. Delort in 8 Championship appearances has yet to register a goal, but has scored 5 for Wigan’s development side against the likes of Morecombe, Walsall and Tranmere.
Talk is that Delort will move to The Valley on loan until the end of the season.
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News today that the skipper will be out until the New Year with a calf injury sustained at Forest on Saturday. There are, in my mind, some prejudiced views that Jackson is past his best, but I would argue he has again been one of our most influential performers in midfield this season, and he will be missed.
Nonetheless his absence will coincide with the continued loan spell of Francis Coquelin and Yoni Buyens’ return, although like others I thought it notable that Peeters put Buyens on the bench and then replaced Jackson with Lawrie Wilson early in the game on Saturday.
Peeters has options anyway, and judging by the last two games when Chris Solly has taken the captain’s armband, I would expect him to lead the team out at The Valley on Saturday.
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As the final whistle to games from Porto to Port Vale to Portsmouth all blew way before us, the Addicks clung onto 3 valuable points tonight bouncing back from Saturday’s first defeat of the season.
Tonight’s game had a red flag written all over it following the inept performance at Bournemouth and Neil Lennon bringing his new manager bounce to The Valley, the home of “perennial strugglers” as Lennon described us. Incentive enough for Bob and his depleted squad.
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Scenes!
A monster result tonight against the league leaders’ expensively assembled squad and the division’s top scorers.
It may have been a smash and grab victory, but they don’t come without defensive mettle, strength of character, organisation and a game plan. Oh, and winner, and Johnnie Jackson is a born winner. Those less appreciative of what Jacko gives to the fabric of our club can go back into their cubby-holes for a little bit longer.
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My first sight of the new revolution in SE7 last night and quite frankly I was astounded.
The first 10 minutes I sat in a kind of self contained bewilderment as Peeters’ side imposed their passing game on most people’s favourites for promotion. Derby hardly got a sniff of the ball until they kicked off again after George Țucudean scored a beautifully crafted goal in the 11th minute.
I cheered with others, but I was equally a little bit speechless if I’m honest. I don’t think in 40 years I have seen a Charlton team play such a deliberate passing game. Good passers, yes, but all eleven players in a predetermined way look instinctively for the pass first, I don’t think I have.
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“Most of the players are the DNA of Charlton. I’m very happy and very proud and I’m happy to give back to the people. It’s important because we are more than a team we are a squad. And we are more than a squad, we are a club.”
I have an overwhelming feeling of relief over joy. It has been a wretched season but at the very least we grabbed the opportunity to decide our own destiny and put in a performance in front of our own allowing players and fans together to let out a collective deep breath.
There were rightly celebrations too, you can’t afford to pass them up as an Addick, and for the third season in a row the final home game ended with smiles, speeches and hugs all round.
Watford certainly had less impetus than Blackburn, albeit with an injury hit team, and with Riga lining us up in a 4-5-1 formation we took the game to the nothing-to-play-for Hornets and got the all important first goal when Callum Harriott lashed in.
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“That has got to be the absolute 100 per cent focus now, no excuses. My future is secure and hopefully I can help secure the club’s future as well.”
After a lunch comprising of a pizza and a couple of beers (perfect hangover remedy) with a fellow Addick, news that skipper Johnnie Jackson has signed a 2-year contract extension broke a smile on our faces for the first time in a week.
The news definitely came out of the blue, and if negotiations had been going on a while, then credit to Katrien in continuing those following Powell’s departure and getting the deal done. Jose must be a very quick judge of character. Terrific news, love Jacko.
I was also pleased to see that many passionate Addicks fans were pulled together before the Huddersfield game and between them issued a statement calling for dialogue between themselves and Duchatelet and Meire. There are some significant individuals on the list at the bottom who have a record of being involved in some key supporter activities in our recent history and I for one are heartened to see this statement issued today:
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Well I hope the players and coaching staff woke up this morning with more stomach for the fight than me. I got up this morning feeling like I’d been hit by a bus with a very negative state of mind. Talking to my brother and a few mates who were up there did not help.
My heart goes out to all of you that made the journey and had to endure a long and thoroughly despressing trip home.
I was very nervous before the game, probably because I am so unused to seeing us live on the television, and frankly this was another to consign to the rubbish bin tagged Charlton’s TV games.
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It was little over a week ago now since Roland Duchâtelet announced in front of a large audience that he was discussing Chris Powell’s contract “for the coming years.”
That night Powell and Alex Dyer cancelled an appearance at Bromley Addicks, probably to avoid difficult questions from an audience as fans assumed that negotiations were ongoing. That was Thursday.
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“This is the benchmark for what is to come over the next 17 games, I will make sure of that.”
There are very few moments in life when a wave of happiness can be brought about in a split second like there is at a football match. With the whole Covered End stood for the remaining couple of minutes after Johnnie Jackson had headed in an impossible goal, I had to sit down for fear of passing out!
I think I am safe as my other half doesn’t read my blog, but at that moment at around 4.45pm yesterday I don’t think I could have been more impassioned. I was a shaking, starry-eyed mess. And I’ve been doing this sh**t for 40 years. They do that to you don’t they?
One of the best feelings going to an away game is seeing your team grab a late fully deserved equaliser to leave with a point. Add in a homer referee and a penalty save and the return journey is a pretty good one. I wish I was there.
I wasn’t expecting much from today but a win and three draws is a pretty good return from the festive games, particularly as two of the games were against current in form play-off challengers. It’s a nice foundation and meant we did as Chris Powell requested and got something from every game over the Christmas period.
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I notice that the press has been asking Chris Powell and his players more assertive questions regarding the contract situation.
The contract expirations have been known for long while among those close to the club, but now it is gathering a little more pace within the media. Powell and numerous players that includes Jackson, Morrison, Hamer, Wiggins, Cort and Pritchard will want at least to be involved in discussions as we enter the near I am sure, but I hear none of the players have been approached yet.
Those players will sense that the January transfer window is only around the corner and I am sure agents, good ones anyway, are already planning some options for those that will be without a contract come June.
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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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The club announced today that Johnnie Jackson will be out with a hamstring injury for “a number of weeks.” (more)
This is of course a big loss, and many will look back at what happened last season when Jackson suffered from an achilles injury in February but then it was Kyel Reid and Alan McCormack who were his replacements with Callum Harriott also called into the squad.
JJ has been an ever present so far but the difference this time is that there is no Reid or McCormack or Racon. Even Alex Stavrinou was around the squad then. This Powell squad is very different in both quality and confidence.
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300 Addicks boated up the River Thames today to Griffin Park to watch the game, but it apparently wasn’t true that Bradley Wright Phillips walked on it instead!
Today was unlikely to be easy with our record at Griffin Park and so it proved as we defended gallantly and rode our luck especially in the first half when the Bees were easily on top.
Powell is proving that without the need for flying tea cups he is still capable of instilling a belief into his players during the half-time talk and we came out of our shells in the 2nd half.
TPC Louisiana
