Two steps forward...

Joss texted me to let me know the Horns had triumphed at the Valley. After Don Cowie had got his second goal for WFC, Charlton scored twice to be ahead at the break but second half goals from Grzegorz Rasiak and Tamas Priskin must give us confidence for the home game against Notts Forest.

Home and Away, Away and Home

Watford v Charlton Athletic

Saturday 16^th August

Though the season has just begun, I couldn’t help but feel a bit Groundhog Day as the minutes passed on our first home league game of the 2008/9 season. The starting line-up was (slightly) different to any I’d ever seen, the subs’ bench included new on-season-long-loan Grzegorz Rasiak, and the first-team is trying to play a new style of football. Nevertheless, the elements of familiarity have bred sufficient ennui for me to recognise it in my own celebration of man-of-the-match Tommy Smith’s goal after half an hour.

Although Charlton were down to ten men before half-time, the Hornets didn’t really look like adding to the total until after Rasiak had come on for Tamas Priskin and put himself in the sort of positions the Hungarian doesn’t seem to find. It finished 1-0 though.

Got back to go out with Nicola and say goodbye before she went back to Brisbane. Beers in the Montagu Pike, where I was regaled with Julie’s exploits in too much detail, were followed by more and boogie in Bordeline, watching Faisel try to chat up every member of a hen party and more.

Nottingham Forest v Watford

Saturday 23^rd August

Followed the latter part of the match through TV updates as we watched highlights of the Olympics. The three clean sheets we’ve kept were undone by Forest, who took the lead twice only for Tommy Smith to equalise. Their third goal was the final one of the match.

Hanna and Rodney came round later and I proceeded to lose at tennis, golf and boxing on the Wii and at Texas Holdem too.

Predictably drawn

Charlton Athletic v Watford

Saturday 16^th February

Each of the last three meetings between these sides has ended with honours even but Charlton would have been expecting better when they went in at the break 2-0 up. Betty’s rousing speech in a huddle on the pitch after the break galvanised the team (as did John Joe O’Toole’s second-half appearance (Tuesday’s red card has been rescinded)) and we were level ten minutes after the break. JJ got the first and Danny Shittu made up for an earlier own-goal by heading in again at the same end for his current rather than former team. This was a better point for us than for our promotion rivals.

Are you watching?

Watford v Charlton Athletic

Saturday 19^th January

The news that Calum Davenport had come in on loan from West Ham was insufficient to quell doubts about our future after the week that saw Watford reject a four-and-a-half million pound bid for Marlon King, Aidy Boothroyd saying “We don’t need to sell”, before accepting a five-million pound bid, with the manager now saying “We are a selling club”.

It is the lack of ambition that is disturbing. We have sold “The King of Vicarage Road” to Fulham, currently second bottom of the Premiership with exactly the same number of points (15) that we had at the same stage (23 games) last season. Why would he want to go there? Ten or fifteen thousand more a week is the answer. Why would we want to sell him? Do we need the money? What happened to the ambition the club has been talking about? If promotion is worth £60 million, why wouldn’t we look at investing for that?

As we walked down Hagden Lane, Joss created a new version of an old favourite: “Ee, i, ee, i, ee, i, oh, down the football league we go. When we get relegation, this is what we sing, we sold Marlon, we sold Marlon, we sold Marlon King.” We got in with a few minutes to spare and sat a few rows back to stay out of the drizzle. Nathan Ellington, in the starting line-up, got a big round of applause as did the new loanee defender.

Davenport started well and looked a far better player than Matt Jackson but did make a small mistake in the middle of the first half. Twenty minutes later, though, he was stretchered from their six-yard box after a four-man collision. We clapped the prostrate figure off and Adrian Mariappa came on, necessitating a change around at the back. Four minutes of stoppage time saw Charlton go nearest to scoring but it was goalless at half-time.

Tommy Smith was our man of the match, running at and passing his man time after time but Damien Francis had looked closest to scoring in the first half. In the second, he dummied a Darius Henderson ball, allowing the Duke to pass the ball into the net in front of us. Things might just be OK after all. The back row sang “Are you watching Marlon King?” and “Fulham are going down” and even added the line “We hate Marlon King” to the “ee, i,” song, which, considering the number of members of staff leaving the club recently, was a bit harsh.

But it was not to be three points. Richard Lee, who’d already made one great stop and made another with five minutes to go, somehow mistimed a dive and allowed the ball to bounce through him and in for a Charlton point. They even threatened to score again but I think honours-even was a fair result.