Monday 18 August 2014

Positives outweigh negatives

It's been an unusual experience this weekend to see the number of Charlton fans expressing positive sentiments outweighing those with negative views. Fans are taking to Big Bob Peeters. He is getting the team to play football: I expect to see 'hoof and hope' at a non-league game, but not at The Valley. He is also a bit of a character, to say the least.

Of course, the fact that we are in the play off places means nothing at this time of the season and a defeat tomorrow night could soon change the mood music (BTW, the new programme format needs to make a clearer distinction between home and away matches).

One area on which further work is needed is holding up the ball: come back Carl Leaburn, all is forgiven (even better, Andy Hunt).

The attendance was a bit disappointing on Saturday at just over 15,000: no wonder it wasn't announced. Wigan brought relatively few supporters. When I went there in Premier League days, most of their supporters seemed to be lippy twelve year olds: perhaps they have grown out of football. It is also still the holiday season. There is an element of resistance to Roland, but success on the pitch may help to overcome that.

In that connection I was walking to the ground from the Rose of Denmark and a bloke came alongside me and asked if I was going to the match. He asked who were playing and where we finished last season. Then he went into his house. How can we appeal to people on our doorstep?

Although morale is good, nothing like a joke or two for Monday morning. Heard on Radio 5 last week:

Interviewer to former undercover police officer: 'Did you sleep with any of your targets?'

'No, they were Millwall football hooligans, so that didn't arise.'

An interview in the Football League Paper revealed that former Addick Dale Stephens has a tattoo which reads 'Dale'. I suppose it's useful if you forget your name. Why not your house number and postal code as well?

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