UD Marbella 0 Charlton 1

In a day when Vinokourov is found cheating and sent home to Kazakhstan (wherever that is), and Lord Stevens, and his company Quest, are reportedly employed by Ferrari in the 'Ferrari-gate' investigation and the boring Tevez affair approaches the High court, the Addicks were having a innocent afternoon X-Factor contest in the corruption ridden atmosphere of Marbella before taking the field in the evening to play a game of football. And despite our new goalie's attempts to please the crowd, honours in both seem to have gone to striker Chris Dickson.

So, the Addicks continued their pre-season with another win over lower league opposition last night with a 1-0 win over Spanish Third Division team UD Marbella. It was the Spanish side's first game of pre-season and the Addicks created several chances before substitute Chris Dickson scored the only goal 15 minutes from time from a through ball by our new Bulgarian Slav Todorov. The team fly home today after a week in the sun with the next run-about planned for this Saturday against Gillingham. So to recap here's the teams in both games.

Versus UD Marbella: Weaver, Moutaouakil, Powell, Fortune (Diawara), Bougherra (McCarthy); Christensen (Dickson), Semedo, Sinclair (Holland), Reid; Ambrose, Iwelumo (Todorov).

Versus Malaga 'B': Elliot, Semedo, McCarthy (Bougherra 46), Diawara (Fortune 46), Thatcher (Powell 46), Christensen (Moutaouakil 46), Holland, Sinclair (Ambrose 46), Thomas, Iwelumo, Todorov (Dickson 46).

And as life's all about learning, what exactly can we gleam from the past week? Well, assuming that everyone got a run-around as we're told, we seem to have taken 19 players to Spain including the triallist Dean Sinclair. Left at home were the injured Darren Randolph and Luke Varney. However, gone AWOL are Marcus Bent, Amady Faye, Cory Gibbs, Simon Walton, Lloyd Sam, James Walker and Osei Sankofa. While the last four could be considered as reserve team players there's a question mark over Bent, Faye and Gibbs. As all of these players were his predecessors buys and with Pardew's keenness to stamp his own style at Charlton its more than likely, unless injuries or other reasons are forthcoming, that there's a large question mark over their future at the Valley.

So just to remind you, first team selection looks like being, at the moment, from the following:
Goalies: Weaver, Elliott, Randolph(injured)
Fullbacks: Moutaouakil, Powell, Thatcher, Semedo
Centre-Backs: McCarthy, Diawara, Fortune, Bougherra
Midfield: Christensen, Holland, Reid, Thomas, Ambrose, Sinclair (triallist)
Strikers: Todorov, Iwelumo, Dickson, Varney (injured)

Meanwhile, and elsewhere, its reported that while Curbs is seemingly happy with a 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, little Bent has scored his first goal for the yids down there in Cape Town. "Darren Bent scored for Tottenham as the north London side edged to a close win against Orlando Pirates in Cape Town yesterday. The £16.5 million signing, partnering Jermain Defoe for the first time, put Spurs ahead in the first half before Wayne Routledge extended the lead after 83 minutes." The thought of "our Darren" playing alongside Mr. Defoe, and scoring, brings confused feelings and I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.