Jan 10
Always worth celebrating a victory over the auld enemy.
That lot and the Croydon lot may have been schlepping it out to see who was the best runner-up in the competition for South London’s finest on Saturday, but today the Toolbox saw the Red Army invade and come away with a very rare three points.
Please click for moreEvery time, same old Charlton blah blah.
I write these games off. Ever since the 70’s. Give them the six points at the beginning of the season, saves all the false hope’s and let-down’s.
I had to go out for dinner at the 2nd half drink’s break. Other than the constant threat of Jed Wallace, I thought we were doing alright up until that point. The giant Smith was off as was Romeo and Jonny had just been introduced and I think we were edging it. Still wasn’t confident of course, doesn’t take a seer to work the end result out against that lot.
Can’t believe it! We never show up for this game, even when no one shows up we still showed up bloody less than they did!
The players entered onto the hallowed Valley turf six feet apart from each other to the tune of the Red Red Robin. The referee who officiated the game from home got us underway late as always.
The Addicks started well kicking towards the Jimmy Seed stand with a strong wind blowing around barren seats creating an eerie “Millllllllll” type of wailing.
Every single time. Every f-in single time. As night follows day. It’s tiring.
I had four hours sat in JFK airport after I slammed my laptop shut. I could have been depressed. I could have been angry, but I felt nothing, nothing at all. Because deep down it came as no bloody surprise whatsoever.
Very surprising news coming from Bermondsey tonight as Neil Harris has tendered his resignation. A Millwall legend, Harris was one of the longest serving managers in the country and has delivered much success on a limited budget amongst much more affluent or at least more speculative clubs in this division.
I had their game at Luton on the box last night and they played pretty well, and were unfortunate not to take 3 points in my mind, yet I understand there were shouts of ‘Harris out’ amongst the away end.
Halfway through our Championship opponents then. Part One is here and Part Two here. Part Three begins with the team geographically furthest away from SE7, Middlesbrough.
Middlesbrough’s Jonathan Woodgate is one of three new English managers in The Championship. All three, Scott Parker, Lee Bowyer and Woodgate had very good playing careers and each will hope to be able to transfer their knowledge onto their teams.
Heartbroken.
Roland Duchatelet slathers the cream on top of a disastrous short-sighted reign as our owner. I don’t know if I can hate that man any more.
A post obviously written by the old bastard himself or an advisor is on the Official Site has just told devastated Charlton fans everywhere that he has been unable to reach agreement with Lee Bowyer and his will leave the club.
Phew, that was a close call. My commiserations to both Crystal Palace and Millwall, but just as a reminder only one club from south east London has ever won the FA Cup.
Palace were pretty soporific against Watford, who were deserved winners. Can’t say the same about Millwall, who were deservedly two goals ahead against a pedestrian Brighton with just 2 minutes left. I’d never bet against them in the big games, yet somehow a few minutes later the south-coasters were level after ex-Addicks trialist David Martin watched a floating free-kick go over his head and into the net.
When ever-reliable Glenn Murray missed the first spot kick, we thought the worst, but Millwall missed as well and Jake Cooper skied the final kick into South Bermondsey. We’ve not had much to laugh about recently, but I made up for it.
Well no, well yes. Millwall’s victory today was the icing on the cake of a desperate season for the Addicks. A cake that had also Big Sam’s firefighting rescue of Palace inside it. We can sleep well tonight knowing that just Barnet and AFC Wimbledon finished below us amongst all of the capital’s 13 professional clubs. Thank you Roland, just think how lucky we are you don’t do failure.
Millwall leaving the division and one of Exeter and Blackpool joining us means we are in for long away days next season with Wigan, Blackburn, Rotherham, Plymouth and Doncaster all added to the undoubted Tuesday night excursions.
25th May, 1998. A day that will forever stay with me and every other Addick.
But not 18th April, 1999, 22nd May, 2004*, 24th May, 2009, 29th May 2010, 13th April, 2013, 29th May, 2016 and 20th May, 2017. The days since our famous Sunderland victory that Millwall have appeared at Wembley. *played at Millennium Stadium.
Envious? What, me?
You have to give it to them, they rarely shirk a big game and yesterday was no different when Millwall came from a goal down at Scunthorpe to win 3-2 on aggregate and will meet Bradford in this season’s League One play-off final at Wembley. On the bright side is that they’ve won only one of those Wembley / Millennium Stadium games, the 2010 League One play-off final against Swindon.
Port Vale winning at Walsall last night thanks to a Chris Eagles stunner (photo) not only means that Port Vale have it all to play for on Saturday, but so do the Addicks. Oh yes!
Victory for Charlton and a draw between Walsall and MK Dons who meet will mean that Karl Robinson’s team will hit the heady heights of a 12th place finish, which by my calculations is half way! Only problem with this is that we would forego finishing top of the bottom half, which Karlo set as our ambitious target. Lamentably bottom of the top half has nowhere near as much kudos.
At the real bottom of the table the final relegation place is between Bury, Gillingham and Vale. Bury and Vale both have ultra tough tasks with the Shakers away at play-off chasing Southend and Bury at Fleetwood, who need to win to have a chance of snatching 2nd place from Bolton. The Gills have it in their own hands away at nothing-to-play-for Northampton Town.
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Instead of taxing my mind and creating a new blog post to attempt to explain another capitulation by a Charlton team against our most local of rivals. I decided instead to copy and paste this report from a game we played at the Den on March 13th, 2010. Same old Charlton….
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21 long years since we last beat our rivals just 3.7 miles up the road. That double in the 1995/6 season. The double. Can you imagine it?
Karl Robinson understands the significance of this game to Addicks, as does Andrew Crofts, although Robinson has never won at The Den either, he has had a lot less goes at it than recent Charlton managers.
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Very difficult and traumatising subject this, but when I first saw the press that Eddie Heath’s name had surfaced in relation to the recent child abuse scandal enveloping English football dating back to the 1970’s and 80’s I can’t say I was surprised.
I knew of Eddie Heath through a couple of mates that played in his youth set up at both Millwall and Charlton in the late 70’s and early 80’s before he died suddenly at the club’s training ground in Eltham in December 1983. It was well known amongst local youth football at the time that he would prey on vulnerable young players mostly those who came to games and practice without their parents. I read today that he would befriend single Mum’s so that he would gain their trust of having their sons in his care.
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I was pleased to see today that a particular bug bear of mine is going to be righted and that is the replacement of the Jimmy Seed Stand sign. Credit to the club for listening and for the Museum for championing the idea and Target 20k for bringing it to the attention of the ‘Senior Management Team.’ It always bemused me that Roland was spending money on panting steps and changing the horizontal of the nets, yet ignored the disarray of the worn out sign with one of our most famous ever club figures’ name on it.
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Chicago Addick 