Charles Dickens summed up the very essence of being a
Charlton supporter and of our season in this line from “A Tale Of Two Cities.”
Hope over expectation, Hopes dashed on the rocks of reality
… So many phrases can be used for us addicks and the life we lead.
And that’s it 2014/15 is over, the campaign is confined to
the history books, we’ve had our highs and our lows and a fair bit in between.
We had a new manager, we loved him, despite his Millwall
past and helped by his attempt to smash Uwe Rossler, then we sacked him and we
hated him. We had a new manager, we
hated him, then we appointed him and then we loved him.
We had our own
peasants revolt. In a cold Hall in Woolwich the rabble roused, it's not about
results we said, and the results got better and the rabble dispersed and the
Trust appeared to go quiet.
We went unbeaten longer than any others, neck and neck with Forest. And both
Clubs proved, being unbeaten does not win promotion, too many draws and after
clutching wins from jaws of a draw, we sunk to a stream of draws and multiple defeats,
before we swung back with the SE7 version of total football and a streak of winning
games.
Our fans hit the depths with a couple of alleged supporters
spitting at former player of the year, Scott Carson, but the true Charlton
emerged as the perpetrators were roundly condemned by their fellow fans and we
rose to the occasion when Bournemouth took over our ground to receive the
Championship.
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| The fantastic Valley pitch |
The owners, can we still call them new?, continue to make
errors on the customer service front, the catering is not fit for purpose and
if ever you wanted to drive people away from buying programmes just ask
Charlton. Season ticket prices have stayed low, but the increasing of the upper
age concession is unnecessary and a slap in the face to long term supporters. On
the other hand the pitch is something to be proud of and the big surprise is
that Rotherham came first in the season pitch awards, the new seats were put in
place and we are promised a new screen and a credit card entry system – welcome
to the 21st century Charlton.
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| JBG at Eltham Addicks |
On the playing field, on the whole the owners have moved
forward from the days of Reza Piotr … But Roland can't help himself and we got
Le Point and Tucudean, no where good enough, although Le Points recruitment did
bring light relief in the fabulous Ghent fans who came to see him, when he was
not even selected for the bench. However you balance that with the recruitment
of Igor Vetokele and Johan Berg Gudmonson and later Watts, Roger Johnson, Chris
Eagles and Diarra, as well as the Ioan's of Bulot and Buyens and the continued development
of the youth – Cousins and Gomez – respectively Player and young player of the
year.
Of course and finally we have the CEO accused of lying over
the management situation, telling the fans that we’ll just have to accept
Duchatalets way, the target of an insidious anti campaign, and an uncomfortable
train journey, but on the other hand I believe that the managerial situation
was her being undermined by her boss, I've worked for people like Duchatalet
before and believe me, it's no
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| Katrien Miere at Bromley |
So that's it . 12th, a non entity of a position,
but it has been one of the most interesting seasons supporting Charlton where
we have not been looking positively or negatively at getting out of the
division.
It may have been the best of times it may have been the
worst of times but at least no one lost their head …. Well no one except Bob
Peters.
