Welling 1 Charlton 0

Its quite obvious that Monica pays no attention to any advice offered, as least from any armchair fans, however dedicated. He's still trying out people, and this game against annual opponents Welling was going to be NO exception. Whilst understanding the embarrassment of London-based fans at losing to such inferior opposition, I suppose, like Monica we should look at any positives, however few, that may have come from the game.

So, with absolutely no first-teamers in action, he used the game to try out 4 complete newcomers - two of which played the whole game and the others came on in the second half. They were combined with players from the bench such as Euell, Marcus Bent, Fortune, Walton and Sam. But it was the "trialists" that were most interesting. We're all in favour of a strengthened midfield and we should be pleased the manager is still actively looking at midfielders.

According to CAFC, the two players that played the whole match were Spaniard Xavier Farinos and Costa Rican Christian Bolanos. The only Spaniard I can trace called Farinos is 28 year-old Francisco Xavier Farinos, born in Valencia and currently on the books of Inter Milan. After over a 100 games in his 4 years at Valencia, he moved to Italy and has been with Inter for the last 6 years and made 76 appearances in the League, Cup and Europe. During this time he spend a year on loan at Villareal and for the last two years he's been on loan at Spanish club Mallorca. He's played twice for Spain and is now apparently out of contract.

The second player on for 90 minutes was 21 year old left-winger from Costa Rica Christian Bolanos. He played for Saprissa in the FIFA Club championship against Liverpool last year and spent some time at Anfield on trial but without getting a contract. Report at that here. He then played in the World Cup in Germany and received some very good reviews here.

Young striker Michael Carvill and Icelandic prospect Rurik Gislason made the bench alongside two more trialists from the Ivory Coast, Ismael Fofana and Me Aboucar Diomande who are a bit more mysterious. Ismael Fofana played in the Under 17 African World Cup last year and was the leading scorer with 4 goals, and received rave reviews when playing in the World Under 17 Championships in Peru last September. An article in Ussoccer says about him, "Called the “Star of the future in African football,” the bar has been set high for Ivory Coast’s Ismael Beko Fofana. So far, he’s wooed onlookers, scoring four goals in qualifying and already one in the world championship. A product of Asec Abidjan's Mimos Sifcom academy, Fofana may not be the most powerful forward, but he’s got a knack for finding the goal."

So he is obviously "one for the future" as Monica calls them.

Charlton: Randolph; John, Youga, Fortune, Walton; Sam (Carvill 81), Euell (Gislason 64), Farinos, Bolanos, M Bent (Fofana 46), Walker (Diomande 64).

Welling: Turner (Hyde 72); Goodfellow, Guest (Moore 81), C Moore (Vines 66), Perkins; Rowland (Green 52), Boateng, Day, Holmes (Beazant 81); Kedwell (A Sam 72), Stadhart (Lovell 72).

Goals: Walton og 46