The Selhurst Experiment - A cost worth paying

Is it really only 25 years?  It feels like a life time, ok for some of the addicted 25 years is more than a lifetime.

Ironically, 25 years on and stoke has a different significance to me, as I took my youngest to Uni there last weekend, totally oblivious to the historical significance of the club, but berating the traffic as West Ham were playing at the Britannia.

Unlike most if not all other Addick fans, the closure of the Valley was a positive for me (quick duck as things are thrown at me), but before I am too berated let me explain. 

I switched as I explained elsewhere on this blog from armchair supporting Chelsea to actively watching Charlton in 1969 and was a fairly regular attendee until around 1979, except the times when I got a really poor school report, when my mum banned me from going.  Around this time I stopped going, partly due to marriage in ’80 and moving away.  I basically missed the Elliot and Walsh years and, to be honest, the we’re going into admin years.

In ’82 I moved to Hull, and was there till just after the valley closure, popping down to see my parents in Forest Hill and In Laws in Catford, once  a month. 

Then it happened, salvation from parents, I could leave my wife with my parents or hers.  The idea of Charlton sharing a ground was, to coin a phrase, a ground breaking event in English football, seen as the future of English football, soon Man U would share with Man City, Liverpool with Everton, Arsenal with Spurs, West Ham with Orient and Millwall ……. Ok no one wants to share with Millwall.  And 25 years later the number of sharing clubs, moving on from our and Palaces experiment is  ….. none!!!  OK Palace went on to fleece Wimbledon and we went on to play at Upton Park.

To me before it happened sharing had a bit of romance and I was determined to be there for the first ever ground sharing game in England and so my wife and I travelled 5 hours down from Beverly, North Humberside to SE23, I dropped her off and went to see Charlton v Sunderland and we won 2-1.  I cannot remember who scored for us, but I remember that Sunderlands scorer was the ex Ipswich player who was the ugliest man in football.  For those of you reading of my age and beyond, you’ll remember that Bobby Robson as manager of Ipswich had a team of really ugly players, there has probably not been an uglier team in English football, you could understand how they almost won the league, because they were never afraid to get their head in there where the boots were flying.

Eric Gates one of Bobby Robsons Ugly's and the first scorer against Charlton at Selhurst

This was my South London romantic period as a couple of seasons later, I was happy that we shared the top division with Palace, Millwall and Wimbledon.

Any way, back to why I was happy we were at selhurst, the bare facts are, it got me back into watching live football and after that game against Sunderland, I got the Charlton bug and following Charlton has become an obsession.

Of course the Selhurst experience was never going to work, geographically it was wrong as transport links were poor from Charltons catchment area and of course sharing with palace was like being invited in to your neighbours house who then picks your pocket, whilst ripping you off for rent.  Palace fans today see themselves as our saviours, but that is a long way from the real story.  Fry and Noades had grand designs to amalgamate the two clubs, as Maxwell had designs on Thames Valley Rovers, from Oxford and Reading, in more reality this would have seen the end of Charlton. 

25 years ago, an experiment in football started, strangely enough whilst it alienated a huge number of Charlton fans for me it was a success, because it brought me back into the fold.  Some may say that it was too big a cost, but you won’t hear that from me, especially as it meant I did not have to spend Saturday afternoons with the family!!!!!

Parkinson Bromley Excursion On Thursday - Or See Ben Hayes's Cardigan collection

Charltons former supporters director and famed for his cardigans Ben Hayes tells me that this Thursday sees Phil Parkinson make the trek over to Bromley Addicks to meet the fans at Bickley and Widmore working Mens Club, Tylney Road, BR1 2SH.

I have been to Q&A's with Pardew and last year at the Valley with Parkie before and I can tell you a night with Parkie is good fun and he is straight and honest.  Sometimes seen as detrimental, but i would say a real positive, Parkie comes over as a nice guy and for those of us with memories of Curbs in his early days there are many similarities.

You do not have to be a member and there is no entrance fee, Ben may ask you to buy a raffle ticket and the prize is a signed shirt, I believe although do not hold me to it.

There are a lot of questions being asked about the team and players and tactics, I am sure that providing questions are asked in a reasonable and constructive manner Parkie will be as happy to give a straight and honest answer as possible.

The night is good value for money.

Bromely Addicks Face Book site can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/368w562

Football in perspective

"Its more than a game,its a matter of life and death!" - No its not, in this weekend when we remember those that lost their lives in the 9/11 attack football is put in perspective. 

Last week an 18 year old trialist with Cambridge United, who had just played his first game for their reserves was shot dead in Peckham.  This former Dulwich Hamlets youth player was by all accounts an innocent victim.  A number of Dulwich players had played with Rio McFarlane and were his freinds, but the FA refused to allow the Hamlets game on the 4th of September to be postponed, despite the agreement of Chatham Town, Hamlets lost.

As Blackpool celebrated their latest extraordinary win in the premier league they honoured their youth coach Gary Parkinson who has sufferred a stroke and is "very poorly".

Its a great game, a beautiful but its not more important than many other things.  

Season Comparison

If we look at how we performed this time last year then this season is a dissapointment, but statistics are about context or "lies, damn lies and statistics", so if we loook at equivalent games then we are on par with last season,with less quality.

With John Barnes a distant memory, Tranmere are a stronger force than when we went there and turned them over last season and I can't see us getting more than a point next week, but then.beating the hapless Dagenham & Redbridge willput us back on par and victories against MK Dons and Brentford would put us ahead of the game, but a performance like yesterday is unlikely to yield such a position.

Grand Theft At The Valley

Todays proceedings were summed up for me during the first half.  For a number of years now I have known Brian Cole and his daughter.  I have already stated that todays seat was courtesy of Kings Hill Addick and I was seated a few seats to the left of the Cole couple.  there was Brian sitting there,his head in his hands in despair and sitting next to him was his daughter executing a giant yawn..... and this was a neat summing up by the Cole family of our performance.

Still we got three points, we're only two points and 6 goals off the top spot.  It is a long time if ever that I have seen a match where we have been so over run and come out with one point let alone three.  There have been the odd games where we have dominated but we have not been rewarded with points.

The plus points were:-
- a win,
- meeting Kings HillAddick,
- meeting up with Henry Irving and Dr Kish,
- Parkie realising that McCormack and Semedo were not working and actually changing it at half time,
- Semedo being Captain
- Robbie Elliot
- Further substitutions that worked
- Winning when we played awfully

The negatives
- They were bloody awful
- The failure of our starting forwards to make an impact
- They really were awful
- The team need time to gel, but it is worrying that there are no perceptible signs of it happening.
- They were so so awful.
- McCormacks first half performance.

But what was the worst part of the day, was that when my mate got back to where he had parked his car, it was obvious that someone had caved in the car window and he had been a victim of car theft, so it was not just Notts County who had someting stolen while at the Valley today!!!

Two Hills In The Valley

Courtesy of Kings Hill Addick* I will be at the Valley tomorrow.

After two straight away defeats the pressure (IMHO unfairly) is rising for Parkie and the team.  Woe betide us if we go a goal down tomorrow against one of the oldest clubs in the world, Notts County.  I can hear the boos already.  But honestly we are only a few games in and we need players to bed in and learn to work with each other.  Sometimes this can take a game or two, others it can take a while.  Would we rather we started like a steam train, ala last season and peter out or would we like to do a Millwall and rush for the finishing line and get the enormous prize of a bronze and promotion.

I am sure there will be a few boos reserved for Lee Hughes Sadly I think that will only spur him on.  Parkie has a number of selection decisions to make.  At times he is a bit like Curbishley in his loyalty to players and I wonder if this approach leads to a level of complacency amongst the chosen players and a feeling of injustice amongst those left out.  It certainly had a bearing on both Spring and McCenzie last season, who were both ignored during the slump despite claiming to be fit.

By all accounts Fortune had a good run out in the reserves last week and the question is raised wether he is fit enough to start tomorrow instead of the hapless Llerra.  OK that is a bit unfair, but his decision making this season is a bit iffy and he should never have gone in so recklessly at Exeter.  for the record, I think that was a penalty.  There is always the option of playing Fry at Centre back and bringing back Jackson at left back.  I like what I have seemn and heard about Fry and would like to retain him at left back, despite his heroics their last season, Jackson is not a natural left back so I would prefer Fry there, plus I have never seen Fry in the centre of defence.

Midfield seems to be the key area of concern at the moment in that we have numbers but do we have quality.  The response from Exeter and Huddersfield is that Semedo and McCormack are too similar and there is a lack of creativity ... Racon or Jackson maybe for McCormack.  This I think is where Parkies loyalty to players may play against him as he has faith in McCormack (same as Francis) and is expecting him to come good.  I would actually like to see racon go in to the role of creative midfielder and in dailly's absence be given the captaincy - which is probably why I am not very good at Football Management games.

Martin is odds on for starting on the right with Wagstaff around on tjhe bench.  Martin potentially offers a lot but he is also a bit of a show man, that's ok if you are ronaldo, but Martin needs to prove himself before being able to wander through games strutting.  Assuming Reid is fit, he needs to put in a performance that is telling, again like Martin he has shown flair but is yet to really hurt defences in the way he did last season.

Up front it is unlikely to be anything other than Abbott and Benson.  Abbott has told the Evening Standard that he has quickly settled in and is ready to start scoring goals tomorrow, so here is hoping that he can fulfill his promise.  Abbots move from Oldham may be physically and emotionally harder than Bensons but he needs to put a performance in similar to the one he did at Shrewsbury.

There has been no news specifically on Akpo having had a bad knock on the head at the end o f the game at Exeter, although there was news about the Sodje families gala dinner at the valley for poverty in Africa.

I'm going for a dull game at the Valley tomorrow, with us grinding out a 2-1 victory.

Ps Any chance of not singing the incest song?


*Much appreciated Kings Hill

This Year Last Points Total

I'm trying to keep a comparison of this year versus last year points total as we progress though the season.  However rather than the normal "after x number of games" I am trying to compare equivalent fixtures.  Of course with relegation and promotion there are six different clubs so I have randomly equated the new teams with the old, after yesterdays result we are two points adrift.

Bournemout = Wycombe, Peterborough = Norwich, Plymouth = Leeds
Sheff Wed = Millwall, Notts County = Gillingham, Dagen = Southend

I am expecting after the Notts County we will be back on par, and will keep with that at the end of the MK Dons game, losing 2 points v Tranmere but picking up two points against Daggers and being on par for the Dons, although I expect a repeat of last seasons result to be unlikely.

Thanks to the generosity of Kingd Hill Addick I should be at the Valley for the Notts County game,in the east stand.