Thoughts on a beautiful day

There are going to be a number of reports on the match so I'll try and restrict myself to the lessons we have learnt from todays visit from Reading. Whilst I had been to the Yeovil game I had missed the Swansea game due to the desire to sun myself in Turkey.

One of the things that always fascinates me is the manipulation of statistics, how could todays crowd be called at 20,020 even if you take into account the st holders who were not present. Charlton obviously employ great statisticians, there can be no other answer.

Bouazza showed today that he is a worthy successor to Thomas,in fact if I were Harry I would have made my first port of call to Fulham and borrowed this guy rather than taking on board the attitude challenged Thomas.

We also learnt that blind people do not make good referees., Mr Mason#s only excuse for the number of mistakes he made has to be that he left his guide dog at home.

We seem to have the sembelance of a back bone developing. Weaver, Hudson, Baily and Grey have given us steel and composure that we lacked last season.

Not only did we learn that we have steel and composure this team seems to have character. Last season we lost a 2-0 lead against Watford at home and were lucky to get a point out of it, whereas yesterday we lost a lead,unfairly, all seemed to be against us,yet we never let our heads drop and came out worthy winners.

We at last have a midfielder who is worthy to follow the talents of Kinsella and Parker, his presence enabled the rest of the team to do their job, Holland was given a new lease of life - managing to put in some bone crunching tackles, Bouazza being released with time on his hands to be effective and what a revelation he was. Pards says thet Bouazza still has a problem which is intriguing. Whatever that problem is, it can't be anywhere near as big as the problem Harry rednap has at Pompey in the form of Jermaine Thomas.

Thats two games 6 points five goals at the valley,and a way of playing that bodes well for the rest of the season, now the team have to go to the North West and show consistency and pick up at least a point next week. We should have both Primus and Youga available to add stell to the defence.