I mentioned earlier this month that one of the more popular message boards had been revamped, with negative response. Rivals is a Sky owned organsiation and it does seem that they have shot themselves in the foot. Its not just Charlton contributors that have revolted, but across the board other fans have expressed dissatisfaction. Its strange, Sky have a justifiable reputation of good solid marketing, so to cheese off their customer base to the extent that they walk away is incredible. As a marketer, albeit unemployed at the moment, I am trying to fathom what they are doing. The site can only be successful if there is a reason for customers to go there and for the Rivals sites the uniqueness is the easy to use, fan driven message boards. Sky do not seem to realise that the loyalty is to the board not the host. So to turn the fans away from the message boards does seem to be gross negligence on behalf of Sky.
Sky's loss is the gain for others, I have been frequenting Netaddicks, Charlton Life , BBC 606 and also the Rivals site. The nice thing about the BBC site and the Rivals site is that you can go onto other Clubs sites and find out about our loan players, for instance I was asking about Kelly Youga earlier this week on BBC 606 (Scunthorpe), with more parochially hosted sites this is not always possible. The good thing about Charlton Life is that it is parochially Charlton and is totally Charlton orientated.
Paul May, also known as ReamsOfVerse put a lot of work into the old Coveredendchoir, hosted on Rivals, which was ditched by them in the change. The result being that not only has Paul upped sticks but he has taken his ball with him and set up Covered End Choir on fansonline, with promises of more to come the site is looking good and beginning to get old and new users back on board.
its nice to see Sky shoot themselves in the foot for a change and their mistake has benefited their competitors. Its good that there are a variety of venues to have Charlton chat, its like Saturdays The Rose of Denmark, The Oak, The Bugle etc,. each of us makes our choice where we meet our friends and the same is happening on line - just stay out of the seedy Rivals place!
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Youga coming home?
Looking through the official site news, it appears that Youga is only at Scunthorpe till January.
Last Left back Standing
Could be Chris Powell. Gibbs starts his rehabilitation on Monday, Thatcher is still nowhere to be seen and Grant Bassey is having a hernia operation on Monday. Kelly Youga, on loan to Scunthorpe is on a four match ban having been sent off in his last two appearances. The left back position is seemingly cursed this season. Chris Powell after a poor game yesterday - his mistake led to the goal, thereby losing me the pre match score forecast in the Rose of Denmark, and left the pitch after a clash of heads barely able to walk in a zig zag let alone a straight line. If he has concussion he is out of next weeks game against 2nd place West Brom.
Saturdays important top of the table tussle will see enforced changes of Mills, Sam and Fortune all banned, plus potentially the absence of Chrissy Powell, as we attempt to overtake the baggies and continue our away run.
Mills and fortune presumably will be replaced by Moutakill and Bhougherra, Bhoughera can look forward to 3 matches in which to take over the reigns from Fortune and cement his place in the side for next year. Sams replacement is trickier if Thomas remains injured, possibly Varney, Christianson is unlikely despite his exploits for Danish U21's as he has not had a sniff of first team liniment oil this season, or we could see Ambrose replace Sam and Semedo cement the midfield with Holland, ZZ and Reid.
Powells absence will be the most testing of Pardews resources. Semedo played there earlier in the season for half a match so could possibly deputise, or there are Sankofa or McCarthy neither of whom are on the first team roll call these days but could have the opportunity for reconsideration. Mind you Mcarthy does not even get a look in with the reserves these days so don't put any money on him.
My Team for next week:
Weaver; Moo2, Bougherra, Sodje, Semedo
Reid, ZZ, Holland, Thomas
Ambrose,
Iwelumo
Subs: Randolph, Sankofa, McCarthy, Varney, McCleod,
Saturdays important top of the table tussle will see enforced changes of Mills, Sam and Fortune all banned, plus potentially the absence of Chrissy Powell, as we attempt to overtake the baggies and continue our away run.
Mills and fortune presumably will be replaced by Moutakill and Bhougherra, Bhoughera can look forward to 3 matches in which to take over the reigns from Fortune and cement his place in the side for next year. Sams replacement is trickier if Thomas remains injured, possibly Varney, Christianson is unlikely despite his exploits for Danish U21's as he has not had a sniff of first team liniment oil this season, or we could see Ambrose replace Sam and Semedo cement the midfield with Holland, ZZ and Reid.
Powells absence will be the most testing of Pardews resources. Semedo played there earlier in the season for half a match so could possibly deputise, or there are Sankofa or McCarthy neither of whom are on the first team roll call these days but could have the opportunity for reconsideration. Mind you Mcarthy does not even get a look in with the reserves these days so don't put any money on him.
My Team for next week:
Weaver; Moo2, Bougherra, Sodje, Semedo
Reid, ZZ, Holland, Thomas
Ambrose,
Iwelumo
Subs: Randolph, Sankofa, McCarthy, Varney, McCleod,
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Homeward bound
Most of the Addickted would give away our record on the road and swap it for our home record. When was the last season we had a decent home record, not last, that's for sure. I remember the first season after promotion and fortress Valley.
You have to look down the Championship table to 10th place Burnley (remember them?) to find a team with a worse home record than Charlton. Teams that get their away form and their home form in sync either get promoted or relegated. We have yet to get our home form to sync with our away form and whilst no one else at the top of the Championship is suffering as we are, at home, they are achieving the odd weird home results WBA and Watford in the last week are a prime example.
Whilst most fans will look at the club and talk about our defensive failings we actually are the third best team defensively in the division and it is not the two clubs above us that are leading the way, no its Wolves and Leicester. Our failings are not our own onion bag but the oppositions. Charlton lie 7th equal in the goal scoring stakes. West Brom have already hit the back of the net 40 times to our 27, Watford, Stoke, Ipswich and Colchester have all surpassed 30 goals, Plymouth are the other team above us with 28 goals.
This Saturday Ipswich come to the Valley, with our home record and their away record a cast iron draw seems to be on the cards. Its a game steeped with recent history, they came and spoiled our Championship party winning 3-1 - Andy Hunt scoring late on for us and two season later they took a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes - through Marcus Bent, if I recall - only for a sterling fight back and victory 3-2. Strikes by Robinson, Euell and Parker. if we could get a match like that then Saturday should be a good game. Semedo and Mills are on 4 yellows, whilst Lloyd Sam will start a one match ban after this Saturday, his second ban of the season.
We can't be so bad this weekends as we were against Burnley so I am going for a 4-4-2 winning formation.
You have to look down the Championship table to 10th place Burnley (remember them?) to find a team with a worse home record than Charlton. Teams that get their away form and their home form in sync either get promoted or relegated. We have yet to get our home form to sync with our away form and whilst no one else at the top of the Championship is suffering as we are, at home, they are achieving the odd weird home results WBA and Watford in the last week are a prime example.
Whilst most fans will look at the club and talk about our defensive failings we actually are the third best team defensively in the division and it is not the two clubs above us that are leading the way, no its Wolves and Leicester. Our failings are not our own onion bag but the oppositions. Charlton lie 7th equal in the goal scoring stakes. West Brom have already hit the back of the net 40 times to our 27, Watford, Stoke, Ipswich and Colchester have all surpassed 30 goals, Plymouth are the other team above us with 28 goals.
This Saturday Ipswich come to the Valley, with our home record and their away record a cast iron draw seems to be on the cards. Its a game steeped with recent history, they came and spoiled our Championship party winning 3-1 - Andy Hunt scoring late on for us and two season later they took a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes - through Marcus Bent, if I recall - only for a sterling fight back and victory 3-2. Strikes by Robinson, Euell and Parker. if we could get a match like that then Saturday should be a good game. Semedo and Mills are on 4 yellows, whilst Lloyd Sam will start a one match ban after this Saturday, his second ban of the season.
We can't be so bad this weekends as we were against Burnley so I am going for a 4-4-2 winning formation.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Message Boards
Its quite poignant that Ben Hayes - Supporters Director recently wrote about Message Boards and mentioned Covered End Choir which having taken over from Netaddicks on the Rivals hosted site, owned by Sky, was making rapid progress under the administration of the hard working Paul May. Paul took over the site when Trevor took netaddicks away to be hosted by Clubfanzine (its a murky world of different hosts), citing forthcoming changes.
Paul has done great work increasing the information value of the site and bringing old and new posters to Rivals.net. As a reward Rivals have introduced their new, jumbled, confusing site totally ruining Pauls previous work. It is difficult to work out how to post messages and new threads, so the average of 70 postings a day has gone down to 12 so for today and that includes two from a Palace fan so that does not even count. It looks like I'll be spending more time looking for useful employment now, which can't be a bad thing.
Over the next few days, I am sure Charlton life and netaddicks.com are going to see an increase in traffic and Rivals, who have changed all boards across the league, a sharp decline.
It is strange how the technology of the web has changed our expectations, when I was living in Humberside, when Charlton were promoted to the old 1st Division top flight, a message board
was something you had in your kitchen and a Charlton message board was something your mate in Charlton had in his kitchen. Now it seems its the font of all knowledge, ludicrous rumour and a place to vent your spleen whether you are in SE7, Exeter or even Peru about all things Charlton. It will be interesting to see how Murdoch's SS react to the negative response to their re launch, but in its present form I can't see too many posters going back. If that is the case then I'll miss Covered End Choir, although the immigration debates will be happily confined to the dust bin.
Whatever the outcome a big thanks is due to Paul may also known as Reams of Verse.
Paul has done great work increasing the information value of the site and bringing old and new posters to Rivals.net. As a reward Rivals have introduced their new, jumbled, confusing site totally ruining Pauls previous work. It is difficult to work out how to post messages and new threads, so the average of 70 postings a day has gone down to 12 so for today and that includes two from a Palace fan so that does not even count. It looks like I'll be spending more time looking for useful employment now, which can't be a bad thing.
Over the next few days, I am sure Charlton life and netaddicks.com are going to see an increase in traffic and Rivals, who have changed all boards across the league, a sharp decline.
It is strange how the technology of the web has changed our expectations, when I was living in Humberside, when Charlton were promoted to the old 1st Division top flight, a message board
was something you had in your kitchen and a Charlton message board was something your mate in Charlton had in his kitchen. Now it seems its the font of all knowledge, ludicrous rumour and a place to vent your spleen whether you are in SE7, Exeter or even Peru about all things Charlton. It will be interesting to see how Murdoch's SS react to the negative response to their re launch, but in its present form I can't see too many posters going back. If that is the case then I'll miss Covered End Choir, although the immigration debates will be happily confined to the dust bin.Whatever the outcome a big thanks is due to Paul may also known as Reams of Verse.
Saturday, 1 December 2007
No Place Like Home
Well for Dorothy her home in Kansas was the only place she wanted to be, but after today the Addickted cannot think of anywhere they would rather be away from. This time last week, we were glowing in the warmth of our fourth win on the spin, four clean sheets and the prospect of 4 home games in 6, a firming up of an automatic promotion place seemed a mere formality. Then we hit the rails against a better Sheffield United and today fell to a resurgent, but hardly scary Burnley.
One home defeat is bad enough, two is depressing but four out of five home games ending in defeat is beyond description and the Valley faithful are beginning to show their impatience, although it is fair to say they are still showing remarkable forbearance. The message boards are beginning to have calls for Billy Davies to replace Pardews and whilst it is premature to call for Pards head, the performances at home are placing more and more pressure on the club. This is relegation form not even mid table obscurity.
Its difficult to understand what has gone wrong, although the loss of Todorov leaves the forward line short of quality as well as number. Referees seem to be totally inept at this level, although neither today's or Tuesdays defeats are down totally to the referees decisions. I do wonder whether we have the opposite effect in the Championship, where profile clubs seem always to get the referees decisions, here it seems like a badge of honour to ignore fouls against the profile club. Today Iwelumo was constantly fouled and used as a human ladder, but the merest nudge and he would be penalised. Having said this, we need to accommodate these officials because they won't change, just for us.
Pards stated that we would get out of this division playing football the way he liked to see it played, maybe this is naive, or maybe we just don't have the personnel for that philosophy, although it seems we do not have the personnel to win dirty. Our Premiership stars are not doing the business. Reid has done ok, but I don't think he has pulled up too many trees, Ambrose continues to frustrate like Rommedahl before him he is a player who has the talent to make an impact, certainly at this level, but maybe its an attitude problem, JT who by the account of a Journo I spoke pre match has a heavily bruised leg, has performed on the odd occaision but never for a whole game, ZZ who has come to us as Chinas leading player has done ok, but is begining to drift and has missed some game turning opportunities.
The new players with the exception of Iwelumo, who seems to be playing with a multitude onjuries - broken nose and hand - have yet to take the division by storm. Moutakil has lost his place due to injury and maybe after Mills's disaster yesterday there is time for a change, Semedo has earned himself a positive reputation as a Makelele, but too often in gathering the ball he slows the momentum of the game.
As for Sam and Holland, Sam looked exciting till his ban and has not come back with the same verve and Holland, is not he player of old.
This is a strange division, everyone really does seem to be able to beat everyone else but if we are to get promotion, or even be in the play off places, we need to sort our home form, even if its a series of ugly 1-0's and maintain our away position.
One home defeat is bad enough, two is depressing but four out of five home games ending in defeat is beyond description and the Valley faithful are beginning to show their impatience, although it is fair to say they are still showing remarkable forbearance. The message boards are beginning to have calls for Billy Davies to replace Pardews and whilst it is premature to call for Pards head, the performances at home are placing more and more pressure on the club. This is relegation form not even mid table obscurity.
Its difficult to understand what has gone wrong, although the loss of Todorov leaves the forward line short of quality as well as number. Referees seem to be totally inept at this level, although neither today's or Tuesdays defeats are down totally to the referees decisions. I do wonder whether we have the opposite effect in the Championship, where profile clubs seem always to get the referees decisions, here it seems like a badge of honour to ignore fouls against the profile club. Today Iwelumo was constantly fouled and used as a human ladder, but the merest nudge and he would be penalised. Having said this, we need to accommodate these officials because they won't change, just for us.
Pards stated that we would get out of this division playing football the way he liked to see it played, maybe this is naive, or maybe we just don't have the personnel for that philosophy, although it seems we do not have the personnel to win dirty. Our Premiership stars are not doing the business. Reid has done ok, but I don't think he has pulled up too many trees, Ambrose continues to frustrate like Rommedahl before him he is a player who has the talent to make an impact, certainly at this level, but maybe its an attitude problem, JT who by the account of a Journo I spoke pre match has a heavily bruised leg, has performed on the odd occaision but never for a whole game, ZZ who has come to us as Chinas leading player has done ok, but is begining to drift and has missed some game turning opportunities.
The new players with the exception of Iwelumo, who seems to be playing with a multitude onjuries - broken nose and hand - have yet to take the division by storm. Moutakil has lost his place due to injury and maybe after Mills's disaster yesterday there is time for a change, Semedo has earned himself a positive reputation as a Makelele, but too often in gathering the ball he slows the momentum of the game.
As for Sam and Holland, Sam looked exciting till his ban and has not come back with the same verve and Holland, is not he player of old.
This is a strange division, everyone really does seem to be able to beat everyone else but if we are to get promotion, or even be in the play off places, we need to sort our home form, even if its a series of ugly 1-0's and maintain our away position.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Ref goes free while addicks get fined
Following the fracas in humberside the FA have fined Charlton and Hull, but of course the real culprit, the referee gets off scot free. If he had not ost control of the game then maybe the incident could have been avoided.
Being a Charlton fan its quite fun already having been fined £21,000 for indiscipline this season. Never happened in Curbs time.
Being a Charlton fan its quite fun already having been fined £21,000 for indiscipline this season. Never happened in Curbs time.
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