Tail End Charlies

Monday morning, and of course, the usual irritating conversation with the prat down the corridor when he asks, "How was your weekend?" No, its not worth it, look breezy and smile through those gritted teeth.

And don't pick up the papers, they're fill of how Reading beat Spurs 3-1 yesterday to end the Londoners 10 match unbeaten run. Scoring midfielder Sidwell did it again, scoring that is, so, apart from Martin Jols's "disappointing, frustrating day", its not good reading.

Of course, we're not the only bunch of fans having a crap season. There's others in the same boat, rocked by wave after wave of depressing results, struggling with their belief in the helmsmans' ability to steer the best course and staring towards the horizon desperately looking for some sign of rescue and at the same time leaning over the side and throwing up.

Miguel Lotina, the new manager of Real Sociedad, bottom of the Spanish League without a win after 10 games, has just been given a page long interview in the daily El Pais and gives everyone hope for the future by saying that "I believe that with these fans its impossible to go down." Seems they were heard clapping last week at their teams demise from the Kings Cup ( spanish for FA Cup) over 2 legs to 2nd Division minnows Malaga. And no, they don't do cynicism in Spain or even irony.

Well, good news there then. I'm sure all the Real Sociedad fans can sleep easy now. One wonders why Monica doesn't do the same.

So what to do? Keep your head down and try to ignore the world? No, think positive. When you've got a problem you join or you start a Help Group. Sharing your problems is what its all about. Getting those things off your chest, talking to people who really understand. So I'm starting a "Help Group for Tail End Charlies" and not with the likes of Southend ( how strange that they are also in the LC Quarters ), Leyton Orient or Macclesfield.

No, no, we want people in the same boat so it has to be them foreign johnies. So its Chievo Verona, Bochum, Real Sociedad and Monaco for us. OK, I stretched things a bit, its called poetic licence or something.

Chievo Verona are not really bottom in Italy with Florentina and Reggina currently below them but as these two giants are playing catch up after having -15 and -12 points deducted due to "financial irregularities", they definitely qualify. Chievo have only managed 3 draws from their 11 games and enjoyed a resounding 3-0 defeat away to Sampdoria over the weekend. Tell us about it, boys.

And Bochum aren't bottom either in Germany but remembering an Iron Maiden concert that I enjoyed back-stage several years ago at their stadium, I have rather a soft spot for them. Over the weekend away they managed to let slip a 3-1 lead and finished up drawing 3-3 (sounds familar) away at Hertha Berlin to be 17th out of 18 with 9 points from 2 wins and 3 draws from 12 games. How's it feel to drop them 2 points, Herr Johan?

And down in Spain Real Sociedad, despite all that clapping, also let slip a 1 goal lead at home to Espanol and finished with a 1-1. And are still bottom with 3 points to show from 10 games.....Come on senor, tell us about it, we understand.

And the 5th member of our little group, Monaco? I'm not sure they really qualify for this Help Group really. There's always one who doesn't belong and I'm afraid its them. And they showed it really with a 4-0 away win under their belts on Sunday. Get out of here imposter, we need to talk to fellow sufferers...where's that Monsieur from Sedan?

Wigan 3 Charlton 2

Last year we were abject, this year it's just sloopy. Can't decide which is worse really but although its another game gone by with no points, a 3-2 scoreline has to be better than a 3-0. And we scored 2 goals for only the second time this year in the Premiership.

At least Monica appears to be more positive when things aren't working than Curbs was last year and the performance after the interval change back to 4-4-2 from the early 4-5-1 seemed to improve things. Even Diawara was withdrawn on 75 minutes and Faye moved back to defence with Kish coming on to try to force a draw but we then gave away another goal 3 minutes later...

Its old Auntie bbc that accuses us of sloopy defending while the independent calls it dire defending and puts the blame squarely on Diawara's head for ignoring long clearances from Kirkland as does the telegraph.

Our own Wyn was on the spot and is none too happy. Complete with the usual marks out of 10, top marks were handed out to Darren Bent with Thomas and Reid close behind.

The observer, unusally symphatic, simply explains away the defeat as an inabilty to deal with the windy conditions.

The times is more interested in babies but does refer to the Addicks first first half as "early ineptitude", to add to the previous mentioned adjectives of sloopy and dire.

Meanwhile sporty wife quotes Monica as "starting to hurt" which is understandable in the circumstances but nevertheless a bit worrying. Clearly, unlike last year when we just didn't bother, Monica expected to get something from the match. And from their stats we apparently had nearly as many shots on target as Wigan.

teamtalk gives a few more stats and is a bit more encouraging for the Addicks.

cafc is here if you want the official line.

Match Facts are:

Charlton: Carson; Young, Hreidarsson, El Karkouri, Diawara (Kishishev 75); Ambrose (M Bent 85), Faye, Holland (Hasselbaink 46), Reid, Thomas; D Bent.
Subs (not used): Andersen, Sankofa.
Goals: De Zeeuw (og) 52, M Bent 90

Wigan: Kirkland, Boyce, Baines, Webster (Jackson 75), De Zeeuw; Cotterill (Valencia 57), Scharner, Landzaat (Wright 60), Kilbane; McCulloch, Camara.
Subs (not used): Filan, Johansson.

Goals: McCulloch 13, Camara 41, Jackson 78
Booked: Scharner 34 (foul on Reid), Cotterill 40 (foul on Reid)
Referee: D Gallagher

Attendance: 16,572

"Heskey Out" Rumours

There are rumours that, owing to a groin strain, 3-goal Heskey is "doubtful" for todays game. Record signing Heskey, who has featured in every one of Wigans games this season, suffered the injury in last week's win at Bolton and seems unlikely to have recovered in time to face Monicas' team.

"Gary Teale (hamstring) is definitely out", reports the sportinglife "so last week's match-winner Lee McCulloch and Wales international David Cotterill are expected to step in even though Antonio Valencia came through a midweek reserve outing after his recent hamstring problem. "

Alongside McCulloch will be Austrian midfielder Paul Scharner both having scored two goals each this season. Perhaps our midfielders should take a few notes. In fact 6 of their players have scored this season in the Premiership which cannot but help the results.

We're also treated to some words of encouragement from an interview with the Wigan boss Paul Jewell.

"They may be bottom but there is not much difference between us and them," said Jewell. "The lower half of the table is going to be very tight anyway this season. I am pretty sure the situation will be changing from week to week and the likes of Charlton, ourselves and plenty of other clubs will be looking over their shoulders."

Don't get sucked in, Monica, he's only trying to lull you into a feeling of security!

Wigan Preview

So, tomorrow we're off up north again, to the town of Wigan. After 3 games in a row against crap opposition we now face a team on a bit of a roll with 3 consecutive wins under their belt. Well, I suppose that a 1-0 over City and a League Cup win over Chesterfield qualifies us as on 2 wins in a row but I'm sure that Monica will not be deceived by any of that. Its obvious to everyone that Wigan will be a pretty stiff test for the Addicks.

Only elected to the Football League in 1978, Wigan last year enjoyed their best ever season, finishing in 10th spot in their first season in the Premiership and even managed to reach the League Cup Final, a feat beyond the Addicks ( until this year, of course).

As for their home record, Wigan have only had 4 home games so far but have won the same number of points, 7, as the Addicks have at home. These have come from beating Reading 1-0, drawing with Watford 1-1, a 1-3 loss to Manure, and finally 2 weeks ago they hammered Man.City 4-0 with 2 goals in the first 4 minutes that City never recovered from.

Since that last home win they have travelled to Craven Cottage and not only stopped Claus Jensen from scoring but also managed one themselves to win 1-0 and then also beat Bolton at the Reebok 1-0. So three games, 3 wins and no goals conceded....

History
As you can guess there's not much history to speak of as our visit last December was our first ever visit to the JJB Stadium and a dismal 3-0 defeat followed.

Talk the Talk

Interviewed yesterday Monica looks forward to Saturday's trip to Wigan.
"We are basing it around a good solid defence and they are coming together. We are not there yet, but we are certainly improving - three wins and two draws in five games is certainly the right way to go." Sounds a bit like an attempt to forewarn us to expect the worst.

Opposition
After the last preview, against Chesterfield, where most of the reportably injured opponents not only played but scored, I'm not going to get drawn into any more mind games. They'll have eleven players out and at the moment they're all playing remarkably well.

We can say, however, that their top scorers are one Emile Heskey and the Senegal striker Henri Camara, with three goals each. He at least is well-known to our own Senegalese Souleymane Diawara and its only to be hoped that he can keep him from scoring this week.

The Addicks

With El Karkouri having the last week off with a tight hamstring, its assumed that it has now lossened-up and that he will return to the fray and complete our water-tight back-four of Young, El Karkouri, Diawara and Hreidarsson. While another snippet of insider news comes from Wyn who reminds us that Ramadan is now over and that both El Karkouri and Faye can once again enjoying eating and drinking in the daytime. All good news.

Andy Reid, Amady Faye and Jerry Thomas are all obvious starters in the midfield with Dennis Rommedahl's groin problem being the main doubt in Monica's mind. He'll be itching to continue with his belief in a 4-4-2 formation but just when his experiment with Reid behind Dead-eye Darren appears to be bearing fruit and he may see it as time to pack the midfield with five across the park with just Darren up front. In this case the midfield will probably read Hughes, Faye, Holland, Reid and Thomas.

Predictions

Lawrenson sees it as a 1-1 draw which would be a very reasonable result as far as the Addicks are concerned. One recent favorite, the 0-0 draw, seems unlikely with Wigan having gone 50 League games since one and failing to score in only one game this season. Pedro45 knows what is coming and forecasts a 2-0 Wigan win, while newyorkaddick sees an Addicks victory as an astounding end to a very good week and goes with a 2-1 Addicks win with Darren and Andy Reid doing the damage. Wyn Grant fears a defeat and I must say I would tend to agree - Wigan 2 Addicks 1.

It has to be remembered, of course, that Charlton have now gone 19 games without an away win, and over a year since winning 2 Premiership games in a row. If we are to avoid relegation, this situation has to change soon.

Monica v Curbs (Part 2)

With 2 games against bottom teams recently ending in goalless draws, it occurred to me to look at where our points from last season came from. So here is where Curbs accumulated his points last year looking at the teams finishing position.

Points from the top 6 teams: 5. ( 1 win, 2 draws and 9 defeats from 12 games against Chelski, Manure, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Blackburn. ) An average of under half a point a game.

Points from 7th to 12th: 13. (3 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats from 12 games against Newcastle, Bolton, West Ham, Wigan, Everton and Fulham.) An average of just over 1 point a game.

Charlton finished next in 13th place.

Points from the Bottom 7 teams: 29. ( 9 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats from 14 games against Middlesbro, Man.City, Villa, Portsmouth, Birmingham, WBA and Sunderland. ) An average of just over 2 points per game.

Total Points: 47 (Green denotes a win, red a double)

This season our points against teams works out at:

Points from the top 6 teams: 3. (1 win from 6 games ) Exactly half-a-point a game

Points from the middle 6 teams: 0 ( 1 defeat from 1 game)

Points from the bottom 7 teams: 5 ( 1 win and 2 draws from 4 games) An average of just over 1 point per game.

What does all this prove? That we are marginally better against the top six with our win over Bolton but as someone previously pointed out to me, Curbs' teams were more ruthless than Monicas' against lower teams, although there doesn't seem to be anyone as bad as Sunderland around at the moment.

The CFB Factor

So thanks to Scotty, once again, and two goal Jimmy-Floyd we can now enjoy a little slice of Charlton history by getting past the numbers rounds, in the "whatever-its-called-now", League Cup into the rounds with names, ie The Quarter-Finals. Sounds good now does'nt it?

And after the inspiration of 4 clean-sheets in a row and Monica's confidence building spreadsheet "Numbers-On-Top", showing our increased playing-time spent in front of our opponents, we now have more tongue-in-cheek buzzwords to help our Monica in inspiring the team.

All good teams show character and mental strength when the chips are down and this is never more clearly demonstrated than by how many times a team comes from behind to win a match and "Coming From Behind"- the "CFB" Factor - is yet another tool in Monica's varied toolkit to build the team's confidence levels.

And for the first time this season, Monica can demonstrate his never-failing sense of humour even in a crisis ( what crisis) and tell the team it's the first time this season that we have come from behind to win and we did it twice in the same game. Another sign, if one is needed, of our increased strength, fight and character.

And there's more good news. The exact sessions of shooting practice that we argued for recently are already paying dividends with Andy Reid, Darren Ambrose and Hermann Hreidarsson all scoring from the spot in the penalty shoot-out.

So while Monica and the team are in the record-breaking mood, it seems like the perfect time to travel to Wigan on Saturday, a ground where we have never won. OK, we're only played there once but the principle still applies.

Monica, we believe - get out there and break them records!

Who's Not Scoring

So why is it exactly that we have to rest our goal-scoring machine against Chesterfield tonight? Its obviously because if any of those awkward League 1 johnnies do any damage to our Darren, then it's curtains for the Addicks this season.

Nine goals scored in 13 games this season and Darrens' got 7 of them. The other two have fallen to Jimmy-F against Chelski and Marcus Bent against Bolton. So whats' everyone else doing?

Well, knowing that nobody else has got near the scoring tables this season you have to go back to last year to see whenever a defender or even midfielder scored for us. And what do you find, perhaps the very reason that Hughsie gets a game - he's the nearest thing we have to a goal-scoring midfielder. Forgetting all the exports, the players that scored in the Premiership last season were: Hughes and Ambrose 3, Marcus Bent and Rommedahl 2, Holland, Thomas and Luke Young 1 each.

So Monica - its time to shame them into doing something about it. Get 'em all to stand up in front of everyone and say when exactly it was that they last scored. And don't take no excuses - "I haven't played much, Guv" - "Thats 'cause you can't score goals, you tart".

So to ensure that they all tell the truth and to help them 'cause in some cases its so long ago they've probably forgotten:

MIDFIELDERS

Hughes - Pompey april 17 2006 - SIX Months ago
Thomas - Spurs feb 5 2006 - NINE Months ago
Holland - Everton jan 2 2006 - TEN Months ago
Ambrose - Sunderland dec 10 2005 - ELEVEN Months ago
Rommedahl - Pompey oct 22 2005 - ONE Year ago

Kish - Everton feb 8 2003 - THREE Year, NINE Months ago

DEFENDERS

Young - Liverpool feb 8 2006 - NINE Months ago
El Karkouri - Birmingham jan 15 2005 - ONE Year, NINE Months ago
Hreidarsson - Everton dec 28 2004 - ONE Year, TEN Months ago

LOST STRIKER
Lisbie - Bolton aug 14 2004 - TWO Years, THREE Months ago.

And don't let the newcomers off the hook, Reid, Faye and Diawara. Amady Faye has apparently never scored in his life and is obviously taking lessons from Kish. Andy Reid is a tad better, having managed just one in his 26 appearances for Spurs but way back on May 1st 2005, 1 Year and 5 Months ago, although to give him some credit, he has found the net 3 times in just 19 games for Ireland. Meanwhile, Souleymane Diawara usually gets one each season while with his old club Sochaux so there's hope there.

And Djimi Traore? He's managed just 1 in 166 games back in 2003/04 while with Liverpool, Lens and Laval and in case you forget he cancelled it out with his crazy own-goal against Burnley in the FA Cup.

So, Monica - scoring practise is obviously a must. Get them nets out now and how about emphasizing the need to improve, starting tonight!

Chesterfield Preview

Without a win in their last 5 League games, languishing in 18th place out of 24 and a penchant for conceding last minute goals it looks like a good time to be visiting the boringly-named Recreation Ground in Chesterfield. But although their League form at home is a bit haphazard with 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, they have been performing very well in the League Cup.

Enjoying a fair sluice of Lady Luck with their 4th sucessive home draw and in previous rounds they have made the most of this advantage. In their small ground of only 8,500 they have now beaten supposedly superior opposition three times and even come from behind to win in the last two rounds.

In the First Round they beat Wolves 6-5 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Then in the Second round they beat Man. City 2-1 with 2 second half goals after being behind at half-time. And in the Third Round they did exactly the same to West Ham scoring twice in the second half to win 2-1. Whatever they put in the tea at half-time obviously does the trick.

The Opposition
However, what fate gifts you with one hand it often takes away with the other and just when they need him most it seems that Chesterfield have been struck with an injury crisis with their own version of Darren Bent, one Caleb Folan, who scored in both wins over Man. City and West Ham, currently suffering from a reported hamstring from the weekend game and is not yet back in training.

Other reported injuries are striker Mark Hughes (knee problem) and captain Mark Allott (leg), while defender Phil Picken also remains sidelined. Paul Shaw, another forward, has also missed the past nine games with knee ligament damage.

History
It has been pointed out by several people that Monica is on the verge of making history by taking the Addicks into the draw for the 5th Round for the very first time. But our record against Chesterfield isn't so good. Despite their low standings we have managed to lose 5 of the 12 league games and only won 4 and perhaps it should be pointed out that Chesterfield have never reached the 5th Round either!

The Addicks

Man.City put out almost exactly the same team against Chesterfield as played on Saturday and still lost so we will need to be at our best to continue. But will Monica risk his entire first team? Probably not. With the first of three very important away games coming up on Saturday at Wigan, he may well decide to rest key players.

Whatever happens, you can bet that wee Brian Hughes will be in the starting lineup. Scotty Carson will get a well-earned rest giving Anderson (or Myhre) a chance to convince Monica that he needn't worry too much about Liverpools' goalkeeping problems.

As for the defence, Monica may decide to give our new star, glove-wearing Diawara, a rest and put Fortune out for a run. Midfield, alongside Hughes could be Ambrose and Thomas with Andy Reid or Matt Holland. Up front it'll be Marcus and Jimmy-Floyd with our own goal machine warming the bench, England style.

Predictions

Wyn confidently predicts a 2-1 Addicks victory as does Pedro45. Whats going on?

But its got to be a 0-0 after extra-time, with little Hughes netting the winning penalty, 9-8.....

Minutes On Top

So how is "The Man" feeling this morning? A undoubted smile is spread across his face and there's an autumn spring in his step. Did he have a good nights kip or is it those shiny new pumps that Mrs. Monica brought for him in Spain during the summer?

But Monica's not thinking about his shoes, he's had a great weekend and right now he's reliving every minute of the win against Man. City. He'll have read that the Addicks were lucky but he doesn't care about luck, that's for those people that believe in horoscopes. It was also pointed out that its been 10 weeks, in the Premiership anyway, since he enjoyed a win, but that's for the sad billys that keep such records.

No, for our Monica its just another happy week at the office and time to get out those weekend videos and for a change they're not nasty ones.

And as usual he'll be optimistic about the mood of the players. And why is that? Because Mrs. Monica, with the aid of her ample spreadsheets, has provided another secret weapon for our Head Coach to use in his fight against the "R" word. And their new weapon is cheekily named "Minutes On Top"!

Mrs. Monica it was, after wrapping up Darrens' daily supply of safety-first sandwiches, pointed out the reason for todays good humour. And no, its not bedtime numbers we're talking here. Saturdays' 28th minute goal by Darren himself gave the Addicks the lead for all of 62 minutes. That's the longest time the Addicks have been in front, in the Premiership, all season.

After our tough start to the season we have been behind in 7 of our 11 Premiership games, and all of them we have lost. In all of our 11 games we've only been in front 5 times and before Saturday for only 73 minutes, an hour an a bit. We have now nearly doubled that to 115 minutes, out of a total of 990 minutes - 11% of the time. In total we have been trailing our opponents for 28% of the games while for 51% of the time we've been level.

But now after three consecutive Premiership clean sheeets as a bonus from the last 3 games, Monica will also know that in the last four Premiership games we're only been behind for a total of 25 minutes, a mere 7% of the time.

Monicas' a keen psychology man and will be keen to guage the effect of these numbers on his players. He's aware of how draining it is on a footballer to be always second-best, always behind to the opposition. So he'll no doubt use his new "Numbers On Top" to raise the humour and increase the confidence.

Well, I hope so anyway.

Charlton 1 Man City 0

So sweet revenge for last seasons defeat although its obvious that we rode our luck, with Scott Carson getting the Man-of-the-match award from most people including our own Wyn Grant, and with most of the papers saying the game should have been a draw.

The independent gets the ball rolling with its straight talking and says that we'll need to play better than yesterday if we are to survive and suggests that we had more than enough of good luck thrown in.

The observer, meanwhile, gets a little excited and thinks its our first league win of the season while good old auntie bbc says that any late City equaliser would have been rough on the Addicks.

Down at the telegraph they think that the result was all due to the heroics of Scott Carson and that City "can count themselves unlucky to have lost a contest in which they were marginally superior "

while the neutral sportinglife simply points out City's "three golden chances" in the last 10 minutes.

The times was another who saw a draw being a more fair result while teamtalk gave the man-of-the-match award to Jerry Thomas with his 28th minute cross and goal-line clearances.

The official line from cafc again points out our good luck but reminds us of our miserable afternoon in the corresponding fixture last season which after all the above twaddle is all that matters really.

So discounting our apparent luck, which was bound to change some time, and our position in the "temporary" Premiership table, we are now only one less point than Curbs gave us last season against the same teams (substituting Sunderland for Watford). Our 11 games under Curbs, against the same opponents, gave us 9 points, from 2 wins and 3 draws with 6 defeats. We had 7 goals for and 15 against, so a -8 goal difference.

This season with Monica we have 8 points from 2 wins and 2 draws and with 7 defeats. And showing that team formations don't mean a thing, we have scored and conceded exactly the same with 7 goals for and 15 against. So you can argue that the only difference from last season has been the point we got away at Chelski .

And we mustn't get too upset about both Watford and Sheff. U winning. They're both going down so we need other teams to get above to make ourselves safe and they have done us a favour by dragging Newcastle and Middlesbrough into the infamous R. Zone.

The Addicks team was: Carson; Young, Hreidarsson, El Karkouri, Diawara; Rommedahl (Hughes 46), Faye, Holland, Reid (Hasselbaink 87), Thomas; D Bent.

Subs (not used): Andersen, Kishishev, M Bent.
Goals: D Bent 28
Booked: El Karkouri 67 (foul on Vassell)

No More Teacups

I see from a recent interview that our Monica had a tea-cup moment during the game with Villa last month..............

I read, and re-read, the remainder of the paragraph several times but still couldn't figure out what he meant. Was he referring to a bust-up in the changing room at half-time? Or in a break in the play, was he starring into his empty cup searching the tea-leaves for a spark of inspiration? Or perhaps he had just spilled his cuppa all over his trousers after Benty had missed another sitter? Seems we'll never know unless it makes an entry into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Of course, this is the trouble with being at the forefront of language definition – until your words are properly documented there are bound to be a lot of people that wouldn't know what the hell you are talking about.

And having spent far too much time working in the nebulous world of computer systems I know what its like. You gradually get used to the pain of talking to people when chances are you would struggle to understand whatever answer they would chose to give you. Buzzwords, techi-speak, and the deliberate withholding of information was rife. It all lead to confusion and was a waste of time.

The world of football may be different. Monica's job is to lift bruised egos, create an atmosphere of belief and getting people to perform above themselves and as a team. But using words that nobody understands will not be useful today. Today is different.

So Monica, its time to chuck away those teacups and tell the team that today they'll be no mistakes in communication or anything else. Take a leaf out of Fernando Alonso’s book – one season, 16 races and not a single mistake. We want NO mistakes, a defeat today and you’ll all be here Sunday morning to tell me why.

And we want revenge for last seasons' roasting, we want to see some passion especially from the 5 of you involved in that game last year. And we want a result....This Week.

Now get out there and WIN.

Man City Preview

When you're down at the bottom every game is "Big" and there's another biggie tomorrow against a strugging Man. City side. Not struggling as much as the Addicks, however, as their successful battle against Middlesbrough on Monday ended in a 1-0 home victory which took them to 12 points and into a midtable 13th place.

That was a home game of course and its been on their travels that they have suffered somewhat. In fact any journey south of the Watford Gap has resulted in no goals and no points. They are still looking for their first away win of the season and in fact have only a single Premiership win away from home in the whole of 2006 beating Aston Villa 1-0 back in April.

And if you thought the Addicks away record was bad, Pearce's City run us pretty close now having lost 12 of the last 14 on the road. They also have the worst away record this season with just one point from the 15 available, and a goal difference of -10. In fact the win over Aston Villa has been City's ONLY away win since they beat us 5-2 in December last year.

History
After 26 previous years spent in the same division as City, honours are remarkably close with the Addicks claiming 19 victories to their 20 with 13 drawn games. At the Valley we have the edge with 11 wins, 7 defeats and 8 draws.

Recently, however, its been much like our record against Bolton with no victories coming in the last 7 games. In fact you have to go back to Nov 2002 to see the last victory when we got a 1-0 away win and to August 2000 for our last home win, when we celebrated our return to the Premiership with a 4-0 win.

More recently I'm sure nobody has forgotten the disastrous 5-2 defeat last December which became our 5th defeat in a row which was the run that took us from 2nd to 12th.

Talk the Talk
In an interview today, Monica has this, among other things, to say: "We know it's going to be tough, Stuart's got most of his team back fit, but we believe that if we do things right - make it a real passionate atmosphere - we'll get the result."

The Opposition
City away form is what concerns us really, so to recap - they started the season badly with a 3-0 defeat at Chelsea, then lost at Reading 1-0, more of the same at Blackburn 4-2, a League Cup defeat at Chesterfield 2-1 and followed that with a draw at Everton where a last minute goal gave them their solitary away point of the season with a 1-1 draw. Unfortunately, then reverted to more bad habits going down in their last away game 4-0 at Wigan.

They've won three times this year all at home , 1-0 to Arsenal back in August and a 2-0 win against West Ham last month before Mondays 1-0 win over Middlesbrough. A goalless draw with Sheff. Utd completes their games.

The Addicks
With the defence outstanding last Saturday at St. James Park it would be strange to change anything there and in fact its possibly time for Monica to take a leaf out of Rafa's book and keep an unchanged team. The only foreseeable change would be the return of "Jerry" Thomas, if fit. This does seem unlikely, however, so it seems a straight choice between one forward or two. Two seems more likely with both Bents up-front and Rommedahl, Faye, Reid and either Holland or Hughes out left. Holland seems to have the vote at the moment so Hughes will probably sit on the bench alongside, Jimmy-Floyd, Kish, Fortune and Myhre.

Predictions

Our Pedro45, who has apparently got luck going his way, confidently forecasts a 2-1 Addicks win. Lawrenson is also on a bit of a run getting 8 results right last week. And what does he say about tomorrow? Well, due to "Citys' defensive frailities" he has it down as a 2-0 Home.........

Me, I haven't a clue.

Monica v Curbs

So after 10 games and just over a quarter of the season over perhaps its time to see how we doing now compared to our efforts last year.

You all know the results from our difficult start this season, but one way to judge our current position is to see how many points Curbs gained from the same fixtures. So last season the results were:-

West Ham 0-0, Manure 1-3, Bolton 0-1, Chelski 1-1, Portsmouth 2-1, Aston Villa 0-1, Arsenal 0-1, Fulham 1-2, Watford ( lets use Sunderland as a comparison, as Watford are bound to finish in the same position - bottom ) 2-0, Newcastle 0-0.

So in 2005/6 - 9 points, from 2 wins and 3 draws with 5 defeats. 5 goals for and 10 against, so a -5 goal difference.

And in 2006/7 - 5 points, from 1 win and 2 draws and with 7 defeats. 6 goals for and 15 against, so a -9 goal difference.

Four points worst off after 10 games, 1 more goal scored but 5 more conceded. While our more attacking formation has yielded only one more goal than last year, almost all of our extra goals deficit came against the Hammers where the 10 man Addicks let in 3 goals this year and none last season.

Taking things further, as we were 4 points worse off after 9 games ( exactly a quarter of the season) we are currently on course to be 16 points off last seasons total of 47 points meaning 31 points total if we continue as we are, nine short of the magic 40.

Of course, this is all nonsense. Comparing teams and results season by season would suggest that nothing ever changes, that results would always be the same and the pools firms would soon go broke. But its an attempt to put the season in perspective and time for us to admit that there's some teams that we will never beat. As for changing our formation to suit our circumstances, even Dennis R on clubcall has told us its all the teams fault, that they are not being clinical enough in front of goal.

And we have to take note that Monica has changed things in more than formation. While 5 of the 10 results were exactly as last year, other sequences were changed. We beat Bolton for the first time in years but lost to the Hammers. And an improved Pompey turned around last seasons result. We failed to get a point at Chelski ( no surprise really) and could only draw with relegation favorites Watford.

We can now only hope that his changed sequences continue on Saturday and turn around last seasons 2-5 defeat against Man.City

Manure...

So there I was walking the dog, pleased to be in the country and having no need to worry about picking up any resulting dog-poo, when I had the strangest thought. It suddenly occurred to me that I felt sorry for Manure fans.

Something stopped me dead in my tracks. The dog had find his spot and was pulling the lead to have his doggie-squat. Maybe that was the connection but what a bizarre thought! How can you feel sorry for them, aren't they top of the table or something? Don't they win games every week? Don't they actually score goals now and again to keep the fans happy? And you feel sorry for them? I forced myself to reconsider, the dog eyeing me curiously - but no, I was right all along, I feel sorry for them.

They live a false empty existence, winning, winning and then winning again. How real is that? And the boredom!

"How was it dear?"

"Oh, 4-0, sweet............... Got any tea?

And what do they talk about? "Yeh, you remember when we won that cup and the League year after year in a row."

"Oh, yeh and beating that german team. And then winning everything that year. Yeh, how great was that."

What sort of life is that. No ribbing from your mates, no consolation beers. No debates about the manager, the team and being forever positive. Just a social outcast wearing a northern tinge of red and white. And have you read the Previews?

"Saturday we welcome X from London, can´t remember their name but as we´re beaten them 100 times in the last 5 years, without a doubt it´ll be another win."

How boring is that. Just an endless wave of the same, week after week. I bet if it were analised they'd top the suicide lists.

Life's tough. Life's a bitch and then you die. Football is supposed to be like life, ask Platini. On the other hand we Addicks are lucky ( trust me) – our team tells us about having character, keeping your chin up, taking any s**t that comes our way. It don't give us illusions, don't set us up as fools. We know they're going to lose so what the hell. Life goes on.

Meanwhile the dog had finished his business and tired of the bullshit was pulling on the lead - he wanted to go home.

Only a Point

After the let-down of the promised “Big Week”, with its two supposedly easy games against Fuham and Watford we’ve now just completed "Huge Week" featuring games against Bolton in the League Cup and Newcastle in the Premiership.

So are there any crumbs of comfort to take from the week? Well, one good thing is that, including the Watford game, we’ve now managed three clear sheets in a row which must prove that the defence is coping, with El Karkouri being given man-of-the-match by one paper. But as with life in general when one thing goes well something else fails and so it seems with our attack. We only have one headed Marcus Bent goal to show from our efforts over the three games. Our forwards are getting fewer chances and are snatching at the ones that they are getting.

But be positive you say. If you had whispered in my ear last weekend that your crystal ball had told you that we would end the week unbeaten with an away point and a place in the next round of the Cup, I would have been pleased, surprised but pleased.

But I need more reassurance, more facts and as the wonders of technology have failed to reach the wilderness here I have had to reply on words and impressions rather than seeing for myself. Is it best to read the friendly Blogs first? They’ll be biased, of course. Some players they won’t like because of past performances, conversely some players can’t do no wrong. The newspapers are more open, hopefully, but annoyingly sometimes choose to concentrate on a topic outside the game to make it interesting(!). Harry’s TV problems, the ex-players jinx etc.

The newspapers don't give me much confidence. I read words like “abject”, “feeble” and "dishevelled" that don’t play well with my indigestion. And of course, the players are reading the same reports as well and that can’t be good and if results don’t improve soon the players are going to lose what belief they may have at the moment.

But whatever the reports say, it has proved to have to been a week of lost opportunities. We all hoped for more than a draw against Watford at home, what better chance to get three points. And then meeting a below-strength Newcastle, without Owen, Dyer, Emre, Martins and Ameobi - what an opportunity to snatch something. Fulham went there and did just that coming from behind with 2 late goals to win the three points. How far away are we from achieving the same? Even Monica says we didn't deserve anything. Since when has that been important?

So make no mistake, its only October but we are definitely in a relegation battle. Every game from now on is going to be a cup final; every single one of them is vital if we want to stay in the Premiership. Next up are Man. City, another club suffering from bad results and just 4 points above us. They also have the worst away defence having let in 13 goals away from home.

Going back to the Newcastle reports - telling it like it was is chicagoaddick who says that Marcus Bent was our best player. It shows what a strange game it is that some reports say the team played better when he was replaced. The telegraph is a bit positive and apparently saw the entrance of Bryan Hughes as a general improvement while the Observer as usual dismisses us as abject and feeble. The guardian simply says we were bad.

All the footballing textbooks will tell you to start at the back. First get a strong defence, good goalkeeper and build from there. After three games not having conceded a goal I suppose that we at least have that.

For the record the Charlton team was (4-4-2): Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Diawara, Hreidarsson; Rommedahl, Holland, Faye, Reid (Kishishev 71); D Bent, M Bent (Hughes 59).

Subs: Andersen (g), Hasselbaink, Fortune. Booked: Faye.

The Big Week - Part Two (Watford)

Its time for another Big Game, as far as we're concerned anyway. I'm sure than the rest of the footballing world couldn't care less about a relegation battle at the end of October but that's life. What's important to you ain't worth tuppence to anybody else.

But a "Must Win" game? No, course not, its just another chance to get ourselves off the bottom thats all. But, you're guessed already, it wouldn't be easy and the team will need to be at its best to get the win. As for the fans, well, we'll also have to be at our peak. Sorry, but there's just no room for those petty frustrations to get the better of us. We've gotta make a noise that'll be heard right across the capital for the 90 minutes and no matter what happens on the pitch.

In fact we need more of those "plastic" fans that nobody likes. Ship 'em in from anywhere, just make sure they shout, pay 'em if need be. We're got professional footballers, now we need professional fans, those that shout themselves hoarse just because.

So anyway, back to the opposition. The last time we played Watford was a friendly last pre-season - we won 2-1 with goals by Jefferies and Murphy. Well they wouldn't be scoring today. I wonder what price is there on a Chrissie Powell goal?

History

Looking back over time, we lead Watford by 20 wins to 14 with 18 drawn games. And at the Valley it stands at Charlton 14 wins, Watford 4, Draws 8. Last time we played them in the league was back in August 1995 when we won 2-1 through goals by Bowyer and Leaburn. More of the same, please!

Talk the Talk

Monica obviously understands exactly what's in store come tomorrow as he had this to say to the press yesterday - “The match against Watford on Saturday is important. We don’t want to go into it with fear. We must have fire in our bellies and win the physical battles.”

The Opposition

Adrian Boothroyd's side will probably contain another ex-addick or two in Dan Shittu and possibly one other. After Claus Jenson's first game for a year and first goal for even longer, we could now face the awful prospect of seeing Chris Powell in an opposition shirt. If Jenson was our favorite in times gone, what would you call Chrissie Powell?

So anyway who have Watford played so far?

On their travels they've managed a 2-1 defeat at Everton, a 1-0 defeat at Bolton, a 1-1 at Wigan and, most recently, a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal.

At home they started with a 1-1 draw with West Ham, then a 2-1 defeat by Manure, a 0-0 against Aston Villa and lastly a 3-3 against Fulham.

So four draws and 4 defeats, not bad exactly for a first year pupil with a Play-Off winning team and until the last two games when they've shipped 6 goals they seemed to be holding up well. Whatever they've changed they'll be trying to get back to holding the opposition and keeping the chances offered to a minimum.

The Addicks

With the need to combat the style of play of Watford we'll need to spread the play and make them work harder. We'll need plenty of tall bodies to combat the aerial threat and plenty of passing ability. And lots of hard work. And there's no room for any half fit players. We'll need Rommedahl and Thomas out wide. We'll need Diawara and El Karkouri in the air. And we need Reid and Faye in midfield.

As for the rest, they almost pick themselves, Carson, Young, Hreidarsson and Darren Bent. Which leaves just the one place up for grabs. Its an important spot because we can't afford to waste anything on Saturday.

So who's it to be? Hasselbaink, Hughes, Marcus Bent, Ambrose, Kish or maybe Pouso? It'll be a battle for sure and I'm not sure that Hasselbaink, Ambrose or even Pouso are suited to battles, so I think it'll be Marcus Bent to add muscle to the attack with Hughes, Kish, Fortune and Myhre on the bench, plus Jimmy-Floyd to scare the opposition.

Predictions

From a man who got 8 Premiership predictions right last weekend we have lawro predicting a 2-1 Home win. Not sure whether that makes me I'm happy or sad. Meanwhile Sporting life also go with a 2-0 home win saying that the pace of Bent and Rommedahl will be crucial. The big apple settles for a conservative 1-1 while Pedro45, seeing that Watford have let in 3 goals in both their last two games, goes overboard with a 3-0 victory for the addicks.

It has to be a Home Win but being a pessimistic Charlton fan it'll probably end 2-2

It's all a Conspiracy!

Its a Friday and already most people are getting heated about tomorrows game and its importance. Well, not me. I'm for following Monica who is trying to keep things calm and in perspective and I can't blame him. Heated up footballers don't perform too well.

So I turned my mind to other things and I'm made a discovery. The whole thing's a conspiracy! Just take a look for yourself. Open the paper and turn to the premiership table. Yeh, the table I told you we should all throw away a few days ago.

Look at it. You see any thing strange about it. Now type the table into your computer and sort it A to Z. See what I mean, its almost the same, isn't it. Go back to the original and you'll notice that all the A's, B's, C's, E's and F's are in the top half of the table and all the L's, M's, N's, S's are in the bottom half while down at the bottom are the 3 W's. Its almost completely alphabetical isn't it!

OK, there's a couple of teams that don't do what they're supposed to do and I'll explain them later.

It's seems obvious that there's this weirdo programmer in charge of the fixtures and he's determined to prove that the whole thing is all a complete waste of time by making sure that the table finishes the same as it started, in alphabetical order. He's trying to poke fun at the sponsors, probably got something against Barclays, wouldn't give him a loan or something.

What about the teams that are out of seq you say. Reading, Portsmouth, Manure. Well, who was going to say that Reading and Portsmouth would be playing as well as they are. By rights they should be where they belong in 14th and 15th places and by the seasons end that's where they'll be. And Manure? Well, who's going to believe it if they were down in their proper 11th position.

So which other team is left out of sequence? Charlton, of course. We stick out like a sore thumb. What's a club starting with a C doing at the bottom. Which of course proves the whole conspiracy. They simply had to be a team that was out of position, just the one so as to complete the sick joke. And it's us. This sick person has obviously got it against the Barclays branch in Vanbrugh Park, Charlton.

If you can't find a table, here is my pathetic attempt to illustrate the whole conspiracy.

Team.................G..........Pts

1.Man Utd..........8..........19
2.Chelsea............8.........19
3.Bolton.............8.........17
4.Portsmouth.....8.........16
5.Arsenal...........7.........14
6.Aston Villa......8........14
7.Everton...........8........13
8.Reading ..........8........13
9.Blackburn........8.......12
10.Fulham...........8.......12
11.Liverpool........8.......11
12.Man City.........8........9
13.M'brough........8........8
14.Spurs..............8........8
15.Newcastle.......8........7
16.Sheff Utd.........8........6
17.Wigan.............7........5
18.West Ham.......8........5
19.Watford..........8........4
20.Charlton.........8........3

Whose Playing Who?

A very wet Thursday morning in Spain, so I thought I'd play around with one of those spreadsheet jobbies that I used to be so fond of. And what better thing to do than try to figure out what Monica's been doing with his team selection over the last 8 games.

So here are the total minutes played, per player, for what its worth.

Goalkeepers - 1
Carson 720 minutes played (out of 720 total)

Defenders - 7
Young 720
El Karkouri 720

Hreidarsson 626 - one Red Card
Fortune 315
Traore 165 - one Red Card

Diawara 142

Sorondo 61

Midfield - 9

Faye 667
Hughes 593

Ambrose 372

Rommedahl 338

Reid 306

Holland 292

Kishishev 219

Pouso 57
Thomas 18


Strikers - 4
Darren Bent 720 - 5 goals scored

Hasselbaink 626 - 1 goal scored
Marcus Bent 165
Lisbie 100

Players Used:21 - Injured Players ( and suspensions) - 10

So it terms of our 8 games so far the "usual team" has been:

Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Fortune, Hreidarsson,
Rommedahl, Faye, Hughes, Ambrose, Hasselbaink, D.Bent

The most interesting facts are the number of players used and the lack of goals from anyone else other than Darren Bent. And while the defence has at least been "settled", the midfield has 7 players having played over 200 mins showing how unsettled it has been. there's also the fact that, judging from the fans, there are in the "usual team", three players who are not really good enough, or not playing well enough at the moment, and in the Premiership thats probably 3 too many.

Its also interesting to compare this line-up with what Curbs was doing last season. In our first 8 games the team was:

Anderson, Young, Hreidarsson, Perry, Powell, Rommedahl, Murphy, Kish, Smertin, Thomas, D.Bent

with only three other players having a single game each, Ambrose, Hughes and El Karkouri, so only 14 players used against Monica's 21 and Perry, Rommedahl and Murphy had also scored.

It all goes to show the effect that a difficult start in terms of fixtures, a plague of injuries leading to forced changes, plus a changed squad trying to familiarize itself with the play of the others can do to results.

I'm a Believer

Belief! Apart from talent, its the most important attribute in a sportsman. Coolness under pressure comes a close third and already we're got enough stickers for a manager to pin on the wall. Tell them they've got talent, pick out the ones that can ignore the pressure and get them to believe.

Problems for a manager is that talent doesn't go away but its either good enough or it isn't and you either have coolness under pressure or you don't. The trouble with that is you don't know who has it till you've under pressure.

But belief is the tricky one. You can argue that this season we are only 2 points worst in the same games against the same teams as we were last season. A point at West Ham and Chelsea and a home win over Portsmouth gave us 5 points, we currently have 3. We scored more goals in the same games, 6 against currently 5. That'll make them believe that its not so bad.

But there's a thing called a "Table" showing you how well you'd done against the others in the same class. And its this thing that provides the pressure because every week in this class there's an exam and after the results the table is shown to everyone and the world.

Bottom of the class and you get laughed at and people say that you're no good. It might be true and it might not be but peoples' laughter can upset some people. It affects the belief that they may have had in their abilities and makes the next exam all the more difficult.

Its a pity that we can't do away with the table and that's what leads to the idea of "we take it one game at a time" implying that the table is a lie, all that matters is the next game, in isolation.

So its good at least to see that our Monica is a believer. His job is to convince the players that they believe in themselves and that they have the talent to succeed.

So its time to throw the league table out of the window and tell ourselves that Charlton are a better team than last year. Now, after injuries, our defence is better than last year. With the addition of Faye and Reid our midfield is an improvement. Last season we only had one forward Darren Bent, now we play with two. Maybe two is one too many. For of the total of 7 goals in 9 games played, Darren Bent has scored 6 of them so maybe its time for a Plan B.

Meanwhile there's one word that we must ban - Worry. That's the evil nonsense that eats at your belief and tells you that your useless. Makes you loss sleep and makes you loss energy and its a complete waste of time.

So worried! No, course not, its not even close to Chrismas and who knows when the clocks are going to be changed. Time to worry, about football anyway, if you're playing crap and we ain't, yet........

Dear Iain

Dear Iain,

Just one thing I want to say, well several things actually. I don´t want you getting all moody and dispondent now, ´cause of what has happened. Its normal to get upset and angry but that doesn´t do no good does it? There´s another game coming and you´ve got to be thinking of that.

You´ve got to be tough and make tough choices. I´m not going to give any advice, you know what needs to be done. You had to build a new ´cause the old wasn´t good enough, we all know that. The teams improved since last year, with your new players Carson, Diawara, Reid, Faye, all good additions and better, obviously than the players from last year.

But the most important new addition is You. So we need to look after you by supporting you. There´s no talk about Saturday being break or bust, its just another game in the 38 we have to play. Keep being positive to get them players heads up and it´ll turn around.

And don´t you go thinking you´re on your own in this situation, man at the top, lonely life and all that. No, you´re got 20,000 people in this boat with you, all supporting you. There´s a couple of hundred tossers, of course, there always is, always complaining about life and how hard it is but come hell or high water the most of us we´ll keep shouting, "Come on you Addicks".

What did you think? That we were out there crying and looking miserable and depressed just ´cause we´re losing. F**k No! We´re Charlton fans, we´re as tough as old boots, we´ve been there before, so don´t go getting worried about us.

And don´t you get worried about any pressure - pressure is what you have when your names Fabio Capello, and your 5 points behind Barca and just lost to a team from a little suburb of Madrid without even managing a shot on target. That´s pressure.

Bottom of the league, bah! We all knew we´d lost the first 8, in fact we´ve done better than we thought by getting 3 points. In fact some people are even enjoying it!

And we know Rome wasn´t built in a day. So forget last night, that´s past news. Just tell us, who the F**k is Next!

The Big Week - Part One - (Fulham)

So, like that unavoidable visit to the dentist that you always book weeks in advance, D-Day has finally, and inescapably, arrived. And for Monica himself, the exam results are waiting for you right there on the doorstep. It remains to be seen in the next 24 hours if we have passed or not. For us fans there's no escape, although I suppose that staying at home and watching on Sky is close.

With no away victory for nearly a year ( Portsmouth 2-1, October 22nd 2005) we now we expect the Addicks to raise from the ashes of bottom place in the table and perform a miracle. Well, it's only Fulham you say. But a Fulham in 12th spot and we haven't won there since 1986, 20 years ago. So not as easy as we might hope but belief is the main thing at the moment. And I suppose that for Monica, whose season starts today, an away draw might be seen as a victory.

I have to say I have no idea what's going to happen. With our opponents in 12th place, there's more at stake for ourselves than there is for Fulham. And perhaps they can afford a defeat, we cannot.

Everyone seems very optimistic about the game with nobody predicting a defeat. But that would be seen as defeatist, I suppose, and as I say belief is the most important thing at the moment. But I remember the same optimistic feeling against Portsmouth a few weeks back. Despite their unbeaten record, how were we going to lose to Pompey? And after an hour we were clearly on top, but we couldn't break them down.

But Fulham are no Portsmouth at the moment. In fact they are a bit topsy-turby. While only scoring twice at home in the league they have managed 6 away! And while they have conceded more goals in the first 20 minutes of Premiership matches this season than any other club they have scored more in the last 10 minutes than any other. So clearly a fit bunch, high on confidence. The Addicks, on the other hand, are clearly better in the first half, for of the 13 goals we have conceded, 10 goals have been conceded in the second half - that's more than any other club.

So obviously the plan will be to hit them hard from the word go, score a couple, bring on Diawara and shut up shop.

The Opposition
Fulham have obviously got a few problems at home. After drawing with Bolton with a Bulland penalty in the last minute, they then managed to beat Sheff.Utd 1-0, again with a single Bulland goal. They then managed to lose against Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 in the League Cup ( no advertising here), before losing to Chelski 2-0. So four games in all and only 3 goals scored, and 4 league points, to show for it. And tonight here's no Bulland! But as far as points on the board are concerned, Coleman is probably happy with 4 from the vists of Sheffield Utd, Bolton and Chelski.

Their away form is, however, much better as far as scoring is concerned with late combacks being the style. After a howler of an opening game 1-5 at Old Trafford, they beat Newcastle 2-1 with both goals coming in the last 8 minutes and then managed a 3-3 at Watford after being 2 goals down.

Talk The Talk

Monica says: "We have had patches showing what we are capable of - and that has not been done enough. Now everyone should be embracing the new ideas and they all know what I am about, what we are trying to achieve. We have had a period where we have had some difficulties, but now we all have to kick on."

History
Our record against Fulham is about equal with a total of: Fulham 18 wins, Charlton 17 wins, Draws 17
At Fulham the record reads: Fulham 12 wins, Charlton 6, Draws 8

Whilst in our 10 games against them in the Premiership we have only won 2, so recent history is not all that bright.

The Addicks

The injuries, at long last, seem to be improving with Diawara, Pouso and Jerome Thomas all making a comeback in the closed-doors friendly against Arsenal last Tuesday. Is it too early for them to take a part? That's the first question for Monica. He would like to include the experience of Diawara in his defence but it may be too early for him as well as Pouso. Thomas should earn at least a place on the bench and the rest really pick themselves.

Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Diawara ( or Fortune), Hreidarsson, Rommedahl, Reid, Faye, Hughes, Hasselbaink, D. Bent.

Predictions

Our own Frankie has us down for a win while armchair-cynic Lawrenson gives us no hope with a 2-1 home forecast. Wyn goes for a draw (but points out that the Times rates a home at 58%, an away win at only 20%) and Pedro45 also hopes for a draw.

But a Defeat! Well, I'll take it on the cheek and get ready for Saturday. Rome wasn't built ( or even rebuilt) in a day....

Who's David Healy?

Its good to read that the official Charlton site have at last heard of Blogs and have given Les Reed the chance of having a few words here. And very interesting stuff it is too.

He tells us about an email he got from his mate in Dublin saying that Andy Reid was Irelands' best player in the 1-1 draw against the Czech Republic and then gives us a forecast of "9 out of the next 15 points". So everyones pretty confident inside the club as well.

But what was the man doing in Copenhagen watching Denmark v Northern Ireland? There's only one reason that I can see and that is that it was his turn to watch David Healy. He seems to have liked what he saw because it appears that Monica himself then gave him the once over at the following Northern Ireland game last Wednesday v Latvia game, where he scored the only goal of the game.

As all quiet told us via the times we're been keeping tabs on 27 year-old David Healy of Leeds for a while.

He's been scoring a lot recently and back in early September was the first Northern Irish player in 15 years to score a hat-trick in an international. As the game was against Spain, it was shown live on spanish TV. He took the three goals well, the second a replica of Chris Perrys' last season at Middlesbro but the third was his best. A long clearance from Maik Taylor, Healy ran through a static spanish defence, followed the bouncing ball and without trying to control the ball, simply lobbed Casillas from outside the box.

D-Day Minus 1

D-Day minus 1 and the tension is growing in the Head Coach household.

“So have you decided on your team for tomorrow yet Dear?”
“There’s still a doubt over Jerome’s fitness for a full game and Amdie will have a late test but its starting to come together.”

“But what about Omar, dear?"
“Who?”
“The Uruguayan, dear. The one thats learning english with Souly and Kish”
“Oh, him. He might be ready, I'm not sure yet.”
”Well, tell me the team then. I'm dying to know.”

“Don't be silly. You don't know who could be listening.”
“Iain dear, don't get paranoiac about them neighbours again. They can't hear a thing through that wall.”
“Its not that. You don't realise how many people read this blog. Before you know it it´ll get back back to Coleman and he´ll know the team.”
“OK, Iain dear. Tell me their squad numbers”

“What! Don't be stupid - all he's got to do then is buy a program before the game to find out.”
“OK. Tell me their nicknames, then.”
“Right. But I'll do it in reverse order to really fox anyone.”

So, its benty, jimmy, hughsie, amdie, reidie, romme, the ice man, soly, el tal, youngie and scotty.”
“Oh, no! Not hughsie again. What's wrong with Omar.”
“Look. Hughsie a good player. And I've even heard McClaren is thinking of calling him up. Just ask Darren, he swears by 'im. All them great through balls."

"He swears to him more like. Well, who're the subs then?”

“Can't tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“Cause Omar hasn't got a nickname, yet. Well, a couple of the boys call him argie to wind him up. Thats nearly started a fight, I can tell you.”
“Well, call him Sharif.”
“Good idea. So its Tom the cat, Kish, Sharif, Jerry and big benty.”
“Iain dear, which one is Jerry?”
“You know, Thomas, tricky winger. Can get you points out of nothing. B**ger. Look what you made me do. Now they'll all know who the subs are.”

”Don't worry so much, Iain dear. Just wait an hour, call a press conference and tell everyone that that blog got it all wrong as usual and you´ll got loads of friends and team spirit couldn't be better. Oh, and you've never heard of anyone called Jerry."

Happy Days

In the good old days they used to shoot messengers of bad news. String-em-up and quarter the buggers, that'll teach 'em to go around upsetting people. So bad news was a cause of some concern and it was often ignored for as long as possible. When Stalin went into a coma, they ignored him for a whole day, so scared were they of telling him he wasn't very well.

Well, obviously Charlton fans are made of sterner stuff. All across the internet, followers of the Addicks clearly seem to have a problem with what exactly is the meaning of "bad news". Beaten again last time out, for the 6th time on 7 games, and now rock bottom of the league is clearly not appreciated as "bad news" or a situation worth worrying about. Where most people would be crawling about on their hands and knees in the garden shed looking for the rat poison, we shrug it for as nothing. "Who's next", we say?

Bad News, course it ain't, the reason is this or that, dreaming up excuses like innumerable injuries and more positive stuff than you can shake a stick at. What's going on!

One reason could be the way we're playing. We were "unlucky" against Chelski and we deserved something against The Arse. This has obviously given everyone heart and it's almost as if we are looking forward to the Fulham game, not a common occurrence for a team at the bottom.

Even our own frankie - whose prediction of an opening 8 defeats isn't so far wrong - goes for an away win and if Monica can do it on Monday - our last chance to prevent a year's winless away run - we'll carry him all the way home.

Bad News! Thats for the opponents to worry about - here come the Addicks!

Just When you Thought Things Were Looking Up!

Oh, no. With all the encouraging news regarding Diawara, Thomas and Pouso returning from injury on the eve of Charlton's most important match for ions we once again are stuck down with terrible news.

Lisbie's out for THREE months. How depressing is that? Will our luck never change? What chance have we got now on Monday. Means we'll have to endure Rommedahl out wide and Darren Bent, minus his cushion, up front. Seems Kevin feel awkwardly and damaged his shoulder in a freak accident in training.

And in keeping with his recent history young Kevin, who at 27 isn't that young any more, it was reported it was funny the way he landed. Sorry, that should read "he landed funny".

It also seems that in my search for players that have had more sub appearances than starts, Young Kev joins the pacy Martin Pringle in the hall of fame with a total started games of 68 and a massive 95 appearances from the bench, all for a total of 19 goals. Well, OK, Kev we do remember the 3 against Liverpool.

Well enough of the bad news. Central defender Diawara played for exactly an hour in a friendly against Arsenal on Tuesday and doubled his time in a Charlton shirt while Uruguayan Omar Pouso played the full 90 minutes. And there's more good news with the return of Jerome Thomas in the same game who also left the field after 60 minutes. Monica showered him with praise with a "He's a lad who can grab you points out of nothing." Well, that's encouraging because points is exactly what we need.

Back with the defence, its only to be hoped that the full hour on the pitch will be enough to see Souleymane Diawara back in the back-four on Monday as he's sorely needed, although he does seem to have blotted his copybook with an own-goal against Arsenal.

Is it me or do we seem we are putting all our faith in players we don't really know. After so many signings during the summer, due to injuries, we still haven't seen the best out of anyone except Scott Carson. And its now that we read that there's a clause in his loan deal where he could (!) go back to Liverpool in January. I think its time to start praying now.

A Different World, Apparently

We all have different opinions and ways of thinking - thank god for that or we've have a world full of Addicks fans. How bizarre would that be?

But its nevertheless a bit of an irritation sometimes. For example, how many times have you gone to a football match and then the following day picked up the paper and realised either you or the journalist were at a different match. The paper says how unlucky we were, when, in reality, we played crap. Then they say that so-and-so was our best player when we all saw that he was diabolical. How can that be? We've all got eyes to see, ain't we?

So it was with the same feelings of surprise that I read an interview with Andy Hunt on addickted.net. Now I must admit I liked Hunt. Held the ball up well, he was strong and he knew where the goal was. So it was with some interest that I looked towards his answer to the question - "Who was the best player you ever played alongside?"

Must be Mendonca surely? But no, it wasn't. Hunts choice for the best strike partner ( apart from Bob Taylor at West Brom) was.................................Martin Pringle!!!!!

Hunts answer was: I had a great partnership with Bob Taylor at West Brom for several seasons. But Martin Pringle was an absolute joy to play with at Charlton. He could tear teams apart with his pace and created so many opportunities for me. Plus he was very unselfish so would always be looking to provide me with goal scoring chances.

Tear teams apart, what's he on about? And there's me thinking the man was shite! The only player I can find whose had more subs appearances than starting games, a striker who scored 8 times in 58 games and was crap every time I saw him. How can this be? Was my eyesight deceiving me?

Now I know there have been the same comments on frankies page about jungle juice and Andy Hunts' mental powers going AWOL sometimes but maybe we're all wrong. Got me to thinking that maybe I was wrong about other players.

Is it the same problem that we have with Brian Hughes, perhaps. He gets picked again and again and we all don't understand why. In years to come will we read read Darren Bents autobio and he gets asked the same question, "Who was the best player that you ever played with?

"Well, I enjoyed my time at Real Madrid and playing for England under Curbs, of course, and Real had some really great players everywhere on the park, but the one player who really comes to mind, who was always great to play with, was when I was at Charlton, old Brian Hughes."

So I started checking up the numbers, again. Maybe I was wrong about Leaburn as well and do you know what I found? Who do you think scored the most goals for the addicks, Mendonca or Leaburn? Wrong, it was Leaburn, 53 against 40. Well, he did play a million games.

Well, anyway, I'm going to try something. Next time I see the Addicks, I'm going teetotal. I'm going to lay off the Guinness and watch stone cold sober, see how that works. I think it'll work miracles. All those players that I thought were crap will suddenly be seen in their proper shining light. I'll be able to see why players really get picked and maybe I'll see a different game as well.

And then maybe I'll see an away win for a change and tell you what - I'm going to start on Monday.

International Duty, Not

The reason we're all sleeping a little easy these days is because there's no club football to worry about due to "International Duty". Not that many of our international contingent will be enjoying themselves too much. Of those that are playing both Hreidarsson and Reid face difficult games against two teams that have 100% records in European qualifying.

The Herminator's Iceland are at home to top-of-the-group, Sweden, while Andy Reid joins Irelands pointless squad ( ie No points after 2 defeats) as they face the their top-of-the-group the Czech Republic in Dublin. Meanwhile, Kish is probably the only Addick that's going to enjoy himself as he plays away to the minnows from Luxembourg although Myhre can also take it easy as Norway, 2nd in Group C, don't have a game.

Of the remainder, six are still injured ( Traore, Rommedahl, Sorondo, Pouso, Gibbs, and Diawara) , a couple ( Holland and Jimmy-Floyd) have retired from playing for their country and it seems the remainder are deemed not good enough, athough El Karkouri is playing friendlies with Morocco.

Closer to home, there's one player thats going to be sitting on a bench way out there in the Balkans in Zagreb. And that, of course, brings us to tonights all important question. Will Darren get a look-in tonight against Croatia? Will he hell! It'll be the usual mismatch of Rooney and Crouch with Defoe in the dying minutes if he's lucky. Take some warm underwear, Darren!

On a brighter note, at least we have a goalkeeper that regularly turns out for England U-21 and we can only hope that his season-long loan can be extended next summer.

Arsenal - Last Stop on the Roa

The Arse. Not a nice name for a football club but I´m sure they don´t mind what we call them. Especially as this weekend they´ll be shitting all over us again as usual. OK, its not a foregone conclusion, anything can happen in football but we don´t have any Di Canio´s, Jenson´s or even Euell´s anymore. Since 2001, we´d had rather a bad run against them that now extends to, I believe, 9 games. But I don´t mind. I´d rather be playing The Arse than.... for example...... Barnsley. All respects to Barnsley, I´m sure they´re a very nice club. But back in the bad old days of lower division football they were always the the sort of perfect illustration of where exactly we were in life - in the same league as Barnsley. Kind of said it all really. So its with some delight that after browsing Colin Camerons brillant thome I can now inform everyone that we have played The Arse more times than we have played Barnsley. Where did I put those numbers? Can´t find them now but you can check yourself or take my word for it. So as for todays result. I don´t care. It´ll be Charlton Playing the Arse, and dear old Barnsley will be somewhere else .

What a Character.

When I made some recent remarks about "thriving on adversity", I was referring, of course, to the man in charge. He´s the one making the decisions, he´s the one that gets all the praise - God forbid - and also all the shit.

But, as you all can appreciate, it also applies to all of us. We can scream and shout - Get Rid of the Useless Bastard - for all the good it will do, or we can keep our mouths shut. There´s not a lot of other useful things we can do really.

If we really can´t handle it I suppose we could run away, go and follow some winners. Drive over to the Arse or save up to watch Chelski. Get enthusiastic about the Hotspurs or the Hammers. Or even better we could get on one of those buses that travel all the way to Manchester to support a real Big Team. You can all suit yourselves.

We´re supporters. Thats what you´re called if you follow a team. We don´t pick the team, although we pretend to every Saturday morning, we don´t buy the players, and we don´t run the club. We just pay up and watch. If we don´t like it we can go somewhere else and watch. If we want.

And there´s really only one man, and his players, that can do something about the situation, at least we hope he can, we cannot. All we have to do is handle the disappointment the best we can.

So its good to read the Official Reports from the "Charlton Chief" and hear that he, at least, is still upbeat about the current situation. And willing to take whatever blame, if thats the right word, for the state we´re in.

"I've got no concerns about the lads' commitment and if anyone is to blame then it's me. We've had a disappointing start but we have to get on with it and get over it."

"It's much sweeter when you overcome adversity," he added. "Character is what you show when things aren't going right, not when they are.

"Anyone can show character when everything is rosy in the garden so now we will see what the character of everyone, including myself, the staff and the players, is all about.

"If we stick together we will be fine."

Crumbs of Comfort

In difficult times such as these, we are all in need of something to raise the spirits. A couple of beers maybe or a few days off. And, of course, next week our prayers are answered in one respect as its an "International break", that time when our better players get to forget boring league games and hopefully jet off to more exotic climes.

As for ourselves, a couple of beers later, and we´re still in need of something to lift us so its back to searching the papers for more crumbs of comfort as we perversely case our beedy eyes over our peers in search of other hard luck stories.

Some of us are obviously suffering from our recent results but its worth remembering that in an environment where only one team can win, it´s usually true that there will be other teams that are also performing "badly". How you can quantity "badly" is open to question. Compare points, player scores, shots on target, even corners but however you do it there are obvious candidates for worst team of the weekend and it wasn´t us.

The pick of the crop over the weekend were london rivals Spurs and West Ham, neither of which managed a shot on target, according to the Guardian anyway, in their games against either Liverpool or Man. City. Both are slipping down the table, with "big-team" Spurs now down in 17th place with only 4 points to show from their 6 games and more significantly only 2 goals scored. In their 6 games, Spurs have failed to score against fulham, bolton, everton, manure, and liverpool and in their only win got 2 against lowly sheff.utd.

So its not all bad news and while Spurs bemoan the loss of Lennon as the reason for it all, I can´t believe that any other team has 7 potencial first-teamers out through injury.

Further afield, Middlesbro, in 16th position, were also found wanting against Blackburn with their entire front line of Parnaby, Mendieta, Aiyegbeni, Jason Euell and Morrison all receiving an equally appalling score of 4 each from the Guardian scorer. And they couldn´t score goals either. Since the 22 July, Middlesbrough have played 13 games, including friendlies, failed to score 9 times, managed only 7 goals in 1170 minutes, and won only twice.

Over the same period the Addicks have played 12 games ( including friendlies), won 4, failed to score 4 times and netted 14 goals. The bad news, of course, is that we don´t play them until 23 Dec.

Heads Up Lads - Only One More Hill to Climb

When things get a little bit difficult its easy to see that different people will react in different ways. Some will sit there nervously not knowing what to do, others will start to loss control and scream and shout to get rid of the pressure while others who cannot handle it either will just get up and walk away. There will be some, however, a minority admittingly, that will seem to thrive on the adversity, that will actually go looking for problems. For these few people a problem is a challenge, a solution waiting to be found.

Given the state we are in at the moment it can´t be long before we´ll be able to place Monica in the appropriate category. But it´ll be the players that will have the first chance to see how he handles the pressure. And this mornings session will be very important for them all.

So what´s our Monica going to say this morning, always assuming, of course, that he gave the boys a day off yesterday.

The first thing he´ll be doing is sitting them down and showing them the Premiership table. A nice big picture, in fact, so that the "Big Picture" can be appreciated.

They wouldn´t need telling where they are in the table, down there at the bottom. But it´ll be the other end of the table that he´ll be pointing to.

He´ll stand at the front with his chest out and imagine he´s Hannibal with one last Alp to cross before Rome, he´ll pretend he´s Montgomery facing Rommell demanding one last push from his men and he´ll be saying:

“Thank God we´re got rid of that lot”, he´ll be saying. “Now just one more to go, next weekend, and then we can really start the season.”

He will then point out that the top four ( he´ll be using the Sunday´s table before Everton moved up to 4th) have played 23 games and only lost 2 of them so we´re not alone in losing these games. Its just unfortunate that we had to play all 4 in our first 6 games. He´ll explain that last seasons games against the same teams won us just 5 points, only 2 more than we currently have and we scored the same number of goals - 4. The minus 11 goals that we now have he´ll explain as being mainly due to the 10 man 3-1 defeat at West Ham, where last year we managed a boring 0-0 draw.

He will then point to the coming fixtures for the months of October and November where we have 5 sucessive games against clubs more on our level, all in the bottom half of the table. Its these 5 games against, Fulham, Watford, Newcastle, Man.City and Wigan that will define our season.

"These are the important games", he´ll be saying. "Middle of October we´ll start to ease our injury list and thats the time to start playing".

And like a tennis player 5-1 down with one set left to play, he´ll tell them that we´re going to relax and enjoy the visit of Arsenal at the weekend as they are going to save themselves for the important set.

Villa 2 The Addicks 0

So what else could the man do? Plagued with injuries to key players purchased during the summer and against another team cruising at the moment his opinions were extremely limited.

He could have put the Herminator in defence instead of Fortune and chanced Ashton at left-back. In midfield he could have played Kish who was keen to compare himself against his fellow countryman Petrov in the Villa midfield and with hindsight, ( a wonderful thing that ), he could have kept Simon Walton instead of packing him off to Ipswich till January. But with our dynamic H & H duo in midfield it was a game that we were always likely to lose, especially with our strikeforce also having an apparent off day.

Perhaps Monica should watch his opponent and learn. When O'Neill took over Villa they were everyones favorite to go down and now after only 1 signing, Petrov, they remain unbeaten. So take a leaf out of O'Neill´s book and see what he´s done with Gabriel Agbonlahor. After making his Premiership debut in March the nineteen year old has played in every game since O'Neill took over, and yesterday played with a confidence that won him the Man of the Match award in the Observer.

Perhaps with so much missing in effort and confidence its time to try the same with some of our youngsters, for example striker James Walker, who had such a good pre-season up front, at least for the last 25 minutes when the game was lost anyway.


Charlton: Carson; Young, Hreidarsson, El Karkouri, Fortune; Rommedahl, Faye, Holland (Ambrose 66), Hughes; Hasselbaink (M Bent 66), D Bent.
Subs (not used): Myhre, Sankofa, Kishishev.
Booked: Faye 90 (foul on Petrov)

Aston Villa: Sorensen; Hughes, Barry, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Moore (Baros 82), Davis, Petrov, McCann, Agbonlahor; Angel.
Subs (not used): Taylor, Laursen, Whittingham, Berger.

Goals: Agbonlahor 34, Moore 62