Kites in the Sky?

After a bizarre week with 18 men brawls and subsequent FA hearings pending, another strange day dawns with two Brazilians from Barnsley coming to the Valley with a team currently hot on our tails while the off-beat mood is obviously affecting everyone as reflected in the Addicks Blogs as newyorkaddick bemoans the forthcoming sale of Sooty and recalls horrific happenings from his childhood days while over in chicago we're treated to a preview of the film the Kite Runner, based on a book by khaled hosseini about the story of childhood memories in Afghanistan.

So there is a real life outside football, and its good to see but reality does seem to be a missing concept as far as the predictions go for today, as the Addicks continue in their happy confident mood. Perhaps it's all those miserable years of underachieving struggle that has given me that pessimistic footballing outlook but it's obviously not shared by other Bloggers.

Pedro45 sees it as a 4-0 win, while newyorkaddick, pre-sooty that is, went for a 3-0 home. drinkingduringthegame is another confident one with a 3-0 Addicks victory and at last Barnsley get on the scoresheet with the Kappacino Kid over at hilltovalley forecasting a 3-1 win.

All pretty emphatic then with even WynGrant talking of a 2-1 win although he rather hedges his bets and included the possibility of it being a 1-1 draw.

And over on paddypower all you'll get are odds of 8-13 on a Charlton win with Barnsley priced at a long 4-1. Well, they never make a mistake, do they ? So it looks a cert home win then.

But, compared to the killer Derek Hales, everyone's still a novice. He's forecasted 3 correct Addicks scores in a row and the most important thing today is what's he going to predict? And according to Hales its another cleansheet to keep Weaver happy in a 2-0 win. Well, that'll do very nicely.

As for our opponents, apprehensive about their visit to a place they have never won, they don't have their usual Hungarian in attack so must apparently choose between a Peruvian, a Dane or a Nigerian to form the sharp end of things. I can't think of a more unlikely trio. And not wishing to push the joke too far, but its about three players that having played a total of 1017 minutes of fizzy football so far this season and have managed to score just 1 goal between them. No wonder its a home banker.

But as Pardew highlights, "Barnsley are a good side and they've got a couple of outstanding players, Brain Howard in particular, who we're going to have to keep an eye on". Not missing a trick, Pards has noticed that it's Brian Howard who gets most of the tykes goals, 6 so far, from midfield.

But as Pards prepares his final eleven at 2 o'clock this afternoon, am I going slightly mad or does ZiZi look a dead ringer for Sooty, and with Semedo playing Sweep and Reidie pulling the strings is there a subliminal message coming from over there in New York?

Come 5.50 ( spanish time, that is) we'll all know the reality.