Why we need the 12th man tonight

The initial reaction to our win at Leicester was so negative from some supporters that it confirmed my suspicion that what they really enjoy is slagging off the manager or individual players.

My concern is that tonight is that after the first mistake, or even worse a conceded goal, the crowd will start to get on the players' backs.   We need the 12th man tonight.

The importance of the crowd is brought home by this except from a recent article in The Athletic: 

'Home crowds airing their frustration is nothing new, and the tension, especially for those teams chasing the title or trying to avoid relegation, will only increase as the season races towards crunch time.

Whether it is Arsenal fans lamenting a defeat to United or Tottenham supporters calling for Frank to go, disgruntlement from the stands in your own stadium can trickle down to the players.

Dan Abrahams, a global sports psychologist who has worked with some of the biggest names in football, is all too familiar with how tension among the spectators can impact what is happening on the pitch.

Speaking generally and not specifically about one club, Abrahams tells The Athletic: “Numerous case studies demonstrate that crowd behaviour can absolutely influence the players.

“When you spend time with players and you talk to them about this, there are some who will say that they can’t hear anything (from the stands), they’re focused on the game, or they can hear it and it doesn’t impact them, or they can hear it and it does impact them.

“We are designed to pick up on cues, so we look around us, and we judge what other people think about us. In a football scenario, that could be a crowd, so tension in the crowd can absolutely impact tension on the pitch. Feelings on the pitch can distract players, and they can evoke anxiety and a stress response. They can impact technical coordination, tactical awareness, anticipation, decision making, all the aspects that are so important.”

In a dream world, Abrahams notes, fans would only be positive towards their club’s players, which, in turn, could lead to better performances and results — but that will never be the reality.

“If you can wave a magic wand and have everybody in the stadium supporting the team from the first minute to the last minute, irrespective of what goes on on the pitch, that would be your ideal scenario,” he says. “But people will say they pay their money and that the players are paid well and living out their dream. People will say they are entitled to their opinion, so that would be a fantasy world.'

Opinions, yes, but also hope and belief. 

Supremo excited about Sichenge signing

Nathan Jones seems as excited as some Kenyans about new signing Collins Sichenge who may make his debut against the Super Hoops tonight.    CAS Trust has even extended a welcome to new Kenyan members.

Jones says he is athletic and has good technical ability.    He has settled in well with the other players.  Getting a centre bank with Championship experience could cost 35 to 40 million pounds.   The club had hoped to sign the Kenyan last May.

Jones said that Sichenge was hungry for success, but all his all round game needed polishing.

Charlton have a good record at home against QPR so at least a draw should be possible tonight.   We have lost just one of our last ten home league games against the Super Hoops and have won the last three without conceding.  Away from home QPR have won four, drawn five and lost six.

Leicester have been complaining that their six point deduction was disproportionate but many pundits were forecasting nine points,

CAS Trust point out that QPR are an incredibly attacking side, but also solid at the back: https://www.castrust.org/2026/02/every-minute-matters-on-friday-night/

Transfer window went better than hoped for

For me, Collins Sichenge is one of the most interesting signings Charlton have made so far.  For once they have looked outside the box and signed someone from Europe who hails from Africa.

Richard Cawley has commented: 'Sichenje had been the subject of interest from Luton Town and MLS side Colorado Rapids.   One experienced recruitment source told us that the player is “one of the most athletic centre-backs in Europe” but added he could be “very erratic”. It is a case of backing the judgement of Jones and head of recruitment Phil Chapple.'

And, of course, many fans are reluctant to give any credit to Jones or 'Chapple of Rest'.

I think signing Conor Coady was a smart move.  He brings commitment, steel and energy to a faltering defence.  He may have slowed down a bit, but he has a football brain.  He is prepared to tell other players what to do.

I have not heard of any reports of supporters in despair at the departure of Karoy Anderson on loan.

The move of Ademola Lookman to Atlético should give us some money, although I have no idea how much.

The January transfer window is a tricky one to operate in and this is one of Charlton's better performances in my opinion, but no doubt many will disagree.

With the third smallest budget in a very competitive division, anything better than relegation is a considerable achievement.

Crossbar challenge or fans squaring up on the pitch?

Should the crossbar challenge be suspended for Friday’s game against QPR so that Hoops top fan Lord Toby Young of Acton and VOTV fanzine editor Rick Everitt can square up on the pitch?   Young challenged Everitt to a confrontation on Margate beach earlier in the season.

Toby Young is a genuine QPR fan.  He lives in West London and goes to away matches in places like Hull accompanied by his 17-year old son who has to write up their adventures in a blog.   The travails of QPR are a regular theme of his column in the Spectator.   If the Super Hoops do win, the noble lord opens a £80 bottle of wine: no cheap plonk for him.  Fortunately for his budget, they don’t win too often.

To give some context, those of you have been watching the banking bonkathon Industry will recall that a recent episode involved a team of financial services predators heading off from Canary Wharf to persuade an Austrian aristo to surrender control of his private bank.  He lived in a weird castle with paintings by A Hitler on the walls.

The verdict was that if some of his neo Nazi views could be given a platform in Britain he might look more favourably on the takeover.   Someone mentioned the Spectator, but the quick response was that a magazine that carried articles on ‘Why I love the Wehrmacht’ would not fit the bill.  (Eventually, he got published in a Daily Mail/Telegraph type newspaper).

The Speccie certainly has some eccentric writers, particularly favouring Catholic reactionaries who want to question whether the Pope is a Catholic.  No articles have yet appeared on the toilet habits of bears who live in the woods.

Young is the head of the Free Speech Union which many believe exists primarily to give him a platform.   (His father, Lord Young of Dartington, was a really smart guy).

Anyway, Young decided to attack Everitt in his column as a ‘town hall tyrant’.   I’m not sure that being leader of a district council gives you that much power and while even some Addicks dislike the Rickster, he is hardly a threat to western civilisation as we know it.

Young challenged Everitt to meet him on Margate beach at 10.30 on a Tuesday morning.   The idea of two men in their early 60s having handbags at six paces on a windswept beach seems a little ludicrous to me.   Everitt sensibly refused to have anything to do with this bizarre publicity stunt and Young returned to London fulminating about a wasted day.

The really odd thing about all this is that I don’t think Young has realised that his adversary is an Addick.   Friday would give him a chance to put that right.   The winner could receive a bottle of Chateau Charlton Athletic.

Maynard-Brewer impresses on debut

Ashley Maynard-Brewer made his debut for Dundee United today, having only just been measured for his kilt and had his first meal of haggis and chips.

Maynard-Brewer saw his side go down 0-3 to league leaders Hearts having been reduced to nine men.

He failed to save a penalty, but BBC Radio Scotland was positive above him: 'The one positive to come from the game was the performance of Maynard-Brewer, who made eight saves in total and looked capable of solving what has been a problem position this season.'

Why the moanfest?

Perhaps I should have expected it, but I was taken aback by the wave of negativity from keyboard warriors after the win at Leicester.   Only one game, we only won because we were up against ten men etc.

It seems that many fans enjoy their football most when the club is failing.   One fan characterised it as a ‘moanfest’.  But perhaps it isn’t just a Charlton phenomenon?   The following extract is from today’s Sunday Times article written by Martin Samuel.   He starts with booing at the Royal Opera House when the lead singer had to withdraw during the performance because of illness.

‘There is anger surrounding almost every club this season, but how many are in genuine crisis? Very few. There is an ocean of difference between a club battling for existence, such as Sheffield Wednesday or Morecambe, and one having a rotten season. Yet reactions are very similar: sack the manager, sack the board, protest, boycott.

Fans stayed away from Blackburn Rovers’ match with Watford last weekend, with the 11,640 crowd a 16.7 per cent fall on the season’s average. Think that helped?

“League Two football with proper owners would be better than this,” said Jamie Hoyles, of the Rovers Trust. Better than what? Blackburn aren’t going out of business. They’re having a bad year. Last May, they were in the play-off places with 30 minutes of the season to go, until conceding at Sheffield United.

 They sold players in the summer and recruited unwisely on the cheap with the technical department in disarray. Big mistakes were made. But to wish for League Two? Why catastrophise?

Even trailing at half-time is now deemed unacceptable. The boos drown any other noise. When did it come to this? ‘

I was reading an article recently about someone who had emigrated to Western Australia (admittedly a great place) and said that one reason was that people in the UK seemed so miserable and always looking for someone to blame.  ‘Broken Britain’ doesn’t seem such a bad place to live to me, although the constant rain recently is a drag.

Moaners confounded as Leicester are outfoxed

Andy King made a losing start as Leicester City interim boss after Charlton capitalised on Caleb Okoli's red card to ease their Championship relegation fears.    It was a difficult afternoon for the club’s many moaners,

Okoli was dismissed after just 15 minutes for pulling back Miles Leaburn, and Charlton took full advantage through Sonny Carey and Lyndon Dykes goals to climb further away from the drop zone.

The 2-0 defeat added to the sense of misery at Leicester after Marti Cifuentes was sacked on Sunday following their shock home loss to Oxford.

Jordan Ayew hit the post from a second-half penalty to compound the Foxes' woes when they threatened a comeback.

Conor Coady, written off as useless by  armchair managers, impressed on his Charlton debut as a holding midfielder against his former side following his loan move from Wrexham, and Nathan Jones will be delighted with his side's response after he accused them of treating last weekend's defaat by Millwall "as a day in the sun".

The game's decisive moment came when Okoli was rightly shown a straight red card for pulling back Leaburn when the Foxes defender was the last man.

And after Harry Clarke had a header controversially disallowed for a foul by Leaburn, Charlton's top scorer Carey gave them the lead in the 36th minute with his seventh goal of the season.

Clarke swung in a cross from the right and Carey lifted the ball over Ricardo Pereira with his first touch before volleying home left-footed with his second.

Leicester were a mess, and in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, 'last ditch' Dykes steered home Luke Chambers' cross right-footed to register his first Addicks goal since joining from Birmingham just over two weeks ago.

Leicester rallied in the second half, but spurned a glorious chance to haul themselves back into the game on 56 minutes when Ayew hit the post from a penalty after Abdul Fatawu was pulled back by Amari'i Bell.

Thomas Kaminski saved a 20-yard drive from Pereira, and many unhappy Leicester fans left the King Power Stadium before full-time.

Avatar Desmond from Deal said: ‘I was looking forward to Charlton getting thumped and Jones getting the sack.   In my view he still hasn’t a clue, but he always manages to get lucky results when he needs them.;

Relieved supremo Nathan Jones told BBC Radio London: '“That's a massive win, the result was everything today.  Last week [losing 4-0 to Millwall] was damning, it was really hurtful to the football club. One, because of who we played, two, because of the manner of it, and three, because we care.

"I'm immersed in this football club, so it hurts me because I live and breathe this club, so I wanted to have a reaction today.

"Miles [Leaburn] was clean in and got pulled back, a definite red. That kind of changed the complexion of the game, but I'm really pleased because we wanted to be aggressive against them and put it on them."

“That's a massive win, the result was everything today.  Last week [losing 4-0 to Millwall] was damning, it was really hurtful to the football club. One, because of who we played, two, because of the manner of it, and three, because we care.

"I'm immersed in this football club, so it hurts me because I live and breathe this club, so I wanted to have a reaction today.

"Miles [Leaburn] was clean in and got pulled back, a definite red. That kind of changed the complexion of the game, but I'm really pleased because we wanted to be aggressive against them and put it on them."