No fireworks on bonfire Saturday

Despite my concerns that we would only come away from this game with a draw, I am disappointed at todays result. A draw at Barnet means that between last weeks game with Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol Rovers on 23^rd November we would have played 8 games, sufficient to stretch a squad of our resources, especially one where our second string forward line is failing to fire.

Tuesdays Southend JPT fixture throws up a quandary in selection for Parkie. Martin will be back available, but should Parkie go for broke and look to win or should we be looking to sacrifice the JPT for the greater riches of the League.

I have a view born out of experience of the League Cup in the 80's and 90's, when a number of teams reached Wembley in the League Cup, lost but then went on to win in the FA Cup. I would like a day out in the JPT at Wembley for the experience, but more for the players experience to holdin store for a potential Play Off final. If they can get over the awe of being in the stadium in the JPT then maybe there is an advantage for the Play Off final, and before anyone else says it there are a lot of if's and quite a few minutes of football to get there. That said I would like Parkie to go for it on Tuesday, but also be sensible in his selection.

Southend will face a similar dilemma having only drawn today and wanting to return to the third tier first time of asking, whilst next weeks opponents Peterborough drew at Stockport but do not have a midweek game.

Whilst I would like to take points from The Posh, that will not be easy, however after that we have Yeovil and Bristol Rovers at home, if we do not suffer from the fatigue of allthese games then I would expect 6 points from these games and anything more will be a bonus.

The next 17 days and 5 games will put our squad, which contains a number of players with poor fitness records under considerable stress and the fitness, physio and medical team are about to earn their corn.

Shock Takeover News On Charlton Life

The official takeover thread on Charlton Life has been beset by many usurpers such as "The All New Takeover Thread", "The Official Charlton Takeover Thread (For Johnny Come Latelys)" and "Talking of takeovers", to the extent that it required re branding from "Takeover" to THE 'OTHER' TAKEOVER THREAD (FOR PROPER CHARLTON), but despite this today saw the Takeover thread finally overatke the magic 3,000 plus whispers.

The achievement of 3,000 posts was forecast by Nostradamus to Herald the sun setting over the ownership of Richard Maurray and a new dawn of glorious ownership and future success at The Valley

Of course, it may not happen quite yet!!

De Ja Vue – Barnet 2010

Do you remember when as a third division club Charlton made its way to the quarter finals of the FA Cup. No ……. Hmmm, so it was a dream, damn, so history won't repeat itself, cause it never happened – damn!

So the De Ja Vue must be that last seasons pre season we were beaten and this season the same thing happened Then we were drawn in the cup (last season JPTY at home, this season FA Cup away),will history repeat it self?

Barnet are sitting proudly, holding the rest of the League up, in 24^th place in Division 4 (League 2 in modern speak). Their most recent result was a 3-0 loss to Stevenage and earlier this season they lost 7-0 to Barnet On the face of it this does not look like we are facing a Northwich Victoria, but how often have our expectations been dashed?

It is going to be an interesting dilemma for Parkie on who to pick, who to rest.

My head says we'll win easily, but my heart says we'll get a draw and get back to the Valley, but what I can't see a defeat in anyway, so roll on the draw on Sunday.

 

The numbers begin to gel

Only just over two weeks ago the Valley was a place of woe, the defenders of Phil Parkinson were devoid of excuses and the Parkie out brigade were in full voice. Like in an election decisions are not made by the majority but those shady middle grounders who are swayed from one camp to another and Parkies camp was emptying faster than a brothel during a police raid! A two and a half weeks later and morale has turned full circle 3 wins, two away nine points and we are in the play off zone with only a few points separating 9^th place from second. Benson, that useless striker is now on fire, but then again he only scores goals!!! Two clean sheets in a row, its coming together for Parkinson, but the road to the Championship is a long one and the downer tonight was that everbody around us won, even Colchester who were 2-0 down to neighbours and relegation hopefuls Orient. Having got rid of the smug bar steward, Southampton are looking string under the stewardship of Ian Adkins.

Tonights 3-0 win at the County Ground, Swindon is partial revenge for their victory in the play off semi finals last season. What has been good tonight has been that we are developing a momentum and whilst we did not have the start we had last season, in Joe Anyinsah and Paul Benson we have a partnership that is causing opposition defenders not just problems but to be scared, along with Waggy, Jackson we have as balanced attack as I can remember since Hunt and Mendonca. There are some that may only give credit to the management grudgingly but they took a lot of stick after Brighton so the praise now should be fulsome in its delivery.

When we look at the position against the equivalent opposition last season we have now overtaken the points total and the closeness of the division puts us just off the automatics. Even if we lose the next two games we will not fall below last years equivalent and whilst the next league match will be difficult Peterboro away, we should clean up against Yeovil and Bristol Rovers at home.

If you like your stats and comparisons against last season, then I can thoroughly recommend AFKA's stat attack including Sheff Weds game on Charlton Life, which reviews this seasons player performances as recorded after each game by attendees, as well as general stats which you could condemn you to being a stato or just be interesting reading.  Click here to go to the stats, These were referred to on BBC London during todays commentary.

As we move into two cup games before the next league match we have a chance to recharge some players batteries and give other the opportunity to stretch their legs. Unfortunately from a revenue perspective these cups are important, in the JPT we have a realistic chance of getting to Wembley and the revenue from that and if we can beat Barnet then we are only a game away from a potential money spinner in the third round, so Parkinson has a difficult decision to make the league is so important that it must take precedence over every thing else.
So well done tonight, but lets remember we are only as good as our next result .. roll on Barnet.

The return of the flying pig!

That nickname was reserved for the famous Tommy Lawrence of Liverpool, but at times in his career it could equally be applied to Nicky Weaver, our returning former keeper. Even before he joined us Weaver was associated with Charlton fans emotions going back to our promotion season, when he was a young immature keeper he took the rise out of the North Stand, my recollection is that Kinsella tried to get to him when he was on the coach home. In our first season in the Prem. We met Weaver early on and trounced them comprehensively, Weaver at fault for our first goal fly kicking a Johnny Robinson shot and then giving away a penalty. Following the conversion of the penalty Kinsella went over to Weaver and gave him a hell of a mouthful. On the positive side at Maine Road Weaver assisted a Charlton goal by kicking his clearance mid way in his own half against a Charlton player only to see it loop over his head and back into his own goal. His final appearance at the Valley as an opposition player came a few years later when he was merely the second choice keeper for Man City. He had matured by then and accepted the abuse from an unforgiving North Stand with good grace and a smile.

Joining on a freebee, was never totally accepted by all the Charlton fans, for his antics as a youth, for his alleged £20,000 per week for his reputation as a fatty and for, during his latter stages, keeping Elliot out of the team, until Elliot replaced him after injury and he never appeared in the home short again. Between 2007 and 2009 he made 70 appearances for us.
He recently opened his career scoring account with a penalty in a shootout in the Johnstone Paint Trophy. One would hope that this is one returning player who won't be scoring against us on Saturday, although he could do equal damage by keeping a clean sheet and I fear that maybe our fate on Saturday.
I know it irritated Pardew but I always applaud former players and enjoy seeing them play well, as long as they are on the losing side. Unfortunately for Weaver he plays in a position where I cannot hope he plays well, we are due a good win at home and it would be nice to do it against one of the promotion favourites. A win on Saturday puts us back into the promotion frame, if we can keep pace with the leading pack then we could end this season in the place from which Weaver helped take us!!

Northern Heights

Well at 3-0 I was thinking that the next few days would see some respite for Parkinson, but at 3-3 depression had set in not only for two points lost but also for the groaning and moaning that would continue over the next seven days. I like Parkie, but I am getting to want him to go because I really find the negativity depressing. I am not saying its unfounded, I am not saying its unreasonable, its just depressing. So at 3-3, I decided that I would not wait around to hear a repeat of Shrewsbury. I cycled along the Ravensbourne behind Sainsbury at Bell Green and through Ladywell. Stopping, I checked my phone and wow, we had done it.

Now next time we need a goal, please nobody call me to go out cycling, that said I am intending tomorrow to get one of Boris's bikes from Victoria to Earls Court. (I did and cycled 10 miles there and back, according to sports tracker I did 83 mph - if only)

Anyway, back to the match. Its interesting that we would probably be happier if we had won 1-0 than 4-3. Of course, the 3-0 lead raised expectations and the loss of the lead simply raised further questions. There is nothing more disappointing than unfulfilled expectations. The problem for Parkie is that although we picked up a result that 78% of Charlton Lifers did not expect the second half capitulation is not glossed over by the three points, a number of lifers have taken the result despite, not because of Parkie.

Putting the result in context, last season we were beaten 3-1 in this furthest out post before Scotland. Only 4 of the squad on that day were in today's squad. Sam, Bailey, Burton and Youga were all in the starting line up and the consensus seems to be that they are better than their replacements, so any victory has to be seen as a great turnaround and a pretty decent result especially given what we saw last week.

Against equivalent matches last season we picked up 19 points and today we drew level with that total. The next 3 games generated 3 points last season, so we have all to play for against Wednesday, Peterborough and Swindon.

Now we are 3 points off automatics to go up and 6 points off automatics to go down, so today has finally been a good day, but the next week has a lot of work to be done to develop a momentum and move away from the momentum of a win every 3 games. A win against Wednesday and a draw against the other two would be a hell of a result, but not impossible.

Finally, away from football and Charlton, well done to Beth Tweddle who won gold in the World Gymnastics championship.

Monsoon over The Valley

Poor old Phil,it never rains but it pours and we have a storm of monsoon proportions over The Valley. If losing by 4 goals on Saturday was not bad enough or the increase in chatter on the message boards over his departure, one of his saving graces, the teams creative force is out not just for the visit to Carlisle but for the duration of the difficult sequence of matches that I pointed out previously.

I thought when Reid went down it was fairly innocuous, a bit like another left sided player a year or so ago – Kelly Youga. He is out for at least a month missing potentially, at least, Carlisle, Swindon, Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday, plus the JPT and the FA Cup.

The Yeovil game will be the anniversary of Pardews departure, whilst reeds departure was following a poor performance in the league cup …. Omens ? I hope not and that by then the atmosphere and results have turned around.

I was going to write that Carlisle is a big test, but that's daft, every game now is a big test and Parkies selection will be important for this game as it will form the foundations of the recovery or decline.

For me the team for Saturday should be as follows:-

Elliot

Francis Dailly Fortune Fry

Martin Semedo or McCormack Racon Jackson

Abbot Anyinsah

Worner, Semedo or McCormack, Wagstaff, Doherty, Benson, Sodje, Jenkinson

Its hard on Wagstaff our top scorer but I feel he is too one dimensional and better to come on in the second half when his pace can take the tired defence apart. Since his first game sending off, Semedo has not been the player he can be and Parkie needs to take the shackles off or bring in McCormack. Instead of having Martin or Wagstaff replace Reid, Jackson offers an option of solidity on the left hand side, strong crossing and a natural defender in Fry. Trying to work out the team for Saturday makes you really realise the paucity of our squad and we only have two injuries.

Its going to be a tough few weeks and Reids injury has done nothing to make it any easier, lets hope that the first test won't see Carlisle raining on our parade.