Can we cut down Forest?

I have to say that I took particular enjoyment in the win over Leicester, in part because it was unexpected, in part through taking a perhaps rather unfair pleasure in the discomfiture of a friend who is a rabid Fox. When they equalised, she thought the three points were theirs, as did many Addicks who were predicting that it would be 2-1 in a minute which it was: just in the other direction. With the final whistle, she blamed Richard III and went in search of a consoling glass of wine to find that she had run out.

Now we have a home game and Forest have won as many matches away as we have lost which does not bode well. They beat Huddersfield 6-1 in the week, although that may say as much about Huddersfield as it does about Forest. However, they are also something of away draw specialists, a draw being the most common outcome for them for an away game (seven in all). So a draw does look like a possible outcome and at the moment I would take it.

Billy Davies is partly to blame for Charlton suffering the curse of Dowie. I recall Richard Murray recalling at a bloggers' meeting how long and apparently fruitful talks had been held with Davies at The Valley after Curbs left. Davies was booked into a room at the Swallow Hotel, but he never used it, instead heading north through the Blackwell Tunnel. Quite why has never been clear.

4-5-1, or on Tuesday 4-1-4-1, seems to work well for us. The question remains whether we have enough quality in the midfield to make 4-4-2 work by giving good service to the strikers. Too often the midfield seems to go awol or lose its shape. Stephens does show flashes of real quality, but then his next ball often goes straight to an opposition player. We miss Jackson when he isn't there, but he doesn't have the pace these days to be a game changer, other than from a set piece. Pritchard and Wagstaff epitomise honest endeavour. Topping my shopping list for the summer would be a creative playmaker in midfield.

Would Billy Davies have been a better bet?

Billy Davies has been sacked at Nottingham Forest despite having a year left on his contract and having got to the Championship play offs two seasons running. However, it is not good enough for Forest who consider that they have an historic right to be in the Premiership.

Davies’s sacking came as no surprise after months of rows between him and the Forest board. He was perceived to be irascible. The club were concerned by the time Davies, whose family live in Scotland, was devoting to the job.

Billy Davies was, of course, Charlton's preferred choice to succeed Curbs. He met with Richard Murry and other members of the board and did say afterwards words to the effect that they were 'good people' (which may be another way of saying they were nice guys but lacking in the moolah Davies thinks he has not got at Forest).

As Richard Murray told the story, Davies was booked into the Swallow hotel so that talks could resume the next day. However, rather than enjoying the gratis three star luxury, Davies headed north through the Blackwall Tunnel in the general direction of his native heath and was never seen again. This created an opportunity for rocket scientist Iain Dowie with his DVD to move north from Palace.

I quickly formed the view that Dowie was short of the full complement of rocket fuel, although I have to hold my hands up and say that I welcomed the appointment of Alan Pardew as his replacement. But perhaps Pards inherited a poisoned chalice.

If Billy Davies had decided to come as far south as Charlton (perhaps making use of convenient flights north of the border from London City) how different would our recent history have been? Some would say we were already on a downward curve towards the end of the Curbs era.

However, Davies might have at least kept us as a competitive Championship club which we would certainly take today. It's one of the great 'might have beens' of Charlton's chequered history.