Shipshape and Bristol fashion

Charlton went down 1-2 to Bristol City at The Valley this afternoon.  They started brightly enough with a great effort by Harry Clarke, but then Scott Twine put Hodgson's heroes ahead.

Last ditch Dykes equalised on 29 minutes with the assistance of Kelman.

The visitors then went ahead from a free kick delivered by Scott Twine.   Noah Eile was able to score after Mannion fumbled the ball.

Charlton seemed lethargic with the crowd of nearly 21,000 subdued.

But then a series of substitutions livened things up and there were a number of opportunities in the last ten minutes of normal time with the keeper saving with his legs from Dykes and Campbell sending the ball off target.    The keeper also had to make a great save from Matt Godden.

Ramsay had to make an excellent tackle to prevent the Robins going 3-1 ahead.

The referee behaved as if his retirement plan was with Hargreaves Lansdown as every marginal decision went the way of their works side and he was taken in by their play acting

In truth it was the usual incompetence.  We should stop sending referees to Specsavers and use a more up market optician like Bayfields.

Charlton remain 18th, eight points above Leicester City.

Frustrated manager Nathan Jones said: At the start of both halves, we were poor and that's cost us the game today.

"We work every single week on starting fast and being front-footed and in the first 50 seconds, we mess about it and give a corner away and that sets the tone.

"It was a game we could have drawn or won in the end but we didn't show enough quality in the final third and some of our defending was so un-Charlton like, it was crazy.

"The start killed us. When we're in the game, we know we're going to be strong late on attacking that end, but we're not giving ourselves a chance.

"It's a carbon copy, the last three home games, we're not learning from that and that's tough to take."

Do you remember the 1971/2 season?

That was the challenge laid down by Ramsgate-based fan Rick Everitt in a recent Richard Cawley podcast.

My honest answer has to be, no.   In September 1971 I moved to the Midlands to take up a job offer in Coventry and then met a new girl friend.

In the preceding two seasons the Addicks had finished third from bottom in the old second division.  That was not a relegation position way back then.

In 1971/2 things seemed to be going quite well, at least in terms of survival.  Admittedly, the home league gate was down to just over 10,000, the worst figure since 1927/8.   The club had to sell two houses at a profit to make ends meet but the overdraft was nearly £100k.   (£1.17 m in 2026 prices).

Then, a collapse set in.  Our last win was Game 38 in mid-March.  There were a few draws, but our last two matches were a 0-2 home defeat by Millwall and then a 5-0 thumping at Blackpool which sealed our fate.

The Rickster's point is that it could still go pear shaped.  We need one more win for safety or perhaps a few draws.   Let's hope we can get that win against Bristol City tomorrow. 

Roy Hodgson says that his training session went well, although he seems to be under the impression that his first game is on Saturday.

Bristol Live reports: 'Despite the change in the dugout, the Reds will have to continue to deal with the injury issues that have plagued the side over the course of the last two months.

The expectation remains that Rob Dickie, Rob Atkinson and George Tanner will not play again this season while Luke McNally and Joe Williams have also been sidelined in recent weeks, with no exact time frame placed on when they could return to the fold.'

As a client of Hargreaves Lansdown for some 40 years I have indirectly contributed to the considerable sums of money that Steve Lansdown has put into the team, albeit without achieving the goal of promotion.

To be fair, they have got me into a club that, whilst it may no longer be exclusive with 3 million members, is still worth joining.   More importantly, when I was recently accused of money laundering, they came resolutely to my defence.   Still want to beat their works side.

CAS Trust points out that Roy Hodgson is the fourth new manager this season to have his first game against Charlton: https://www.castrust.org/2026/04/bristol-city-on-good-friday/

Jones the preacher man

Charlton manager Nathan Jones is going to use some of his summer break to preach in a Welsh village.   The elders of the tin tabernacle in Llanddewi Brefi have been impressed by his style of delivery.  Instead of using the pulpit he runs up and down the aisle shouting at the congregation.

Jones has prepared a number of football themed sermons which will also be available as podcasts:

God does not need VAR as he is the ultimate referee and never makes a mistake in his judgments.

2.     God does not need a fourth official: the Holy Trinity is enough for Him.

3.     With divine help it is possible to resurrect a club like Charlton and see it ascend to the Promised Land of the Premier League.

4.     You can save penalties – if you have been saved.

5.     There has never been a Saint Nigel.

6.     You discover that your neighbours are Millwall – are they beyond redemption?

T

   

Charlton can't sell stair lifts, what about funeral plans?

I have finally got round to listening to the Richard Cawley podcast on club finances and I thought it was very good value.

It starts by interviewing the financial supremo at The Valley who I thought was impressive, in particular straightforward and transparent in his answers.

It would appear that the £1.4 m profit on player sales is largely down to Alfie May.   Much criticised at the time, it has proved to be good business on and off the pitch.

The second part of the podcast is an interview with fanzine editor Rick Everitt.   Rick also worked for the club for 14 years, primarily in a development role, pioneering the 'Rickshaw' coach service which penetrated parts of Kent I did not know existed (to the fury of Gillingham)..

The Rickster stressed that he is not an accountant, but he has been studying the club's accounts for decades and knows where to look to find information that would not otherwise be in the public domain.  (One of my findings in the past was that Richard Murray had originally gone under another name which appeared to be East European).

Before jobs adverts went online, the FT was full of positions for chartered accountants.   I have always seen it as a job that is both boring and stressful.  One day a typesetter at the Pink 'Un changed an advert to 'Chartered Alcoholic'.   I got that reproduced in Private Eye.

One puzzle that Rick uncovered was that directors' pay had gone up to more than £300k which is high for Charlton.  His first thought was that it must have been to grease the palm of Charlie Methven, but he is not listed as a director at Companies House.

Rick pointed out that the commercial figures had been artificially boosted by taking the club shop in house and that the club's record on commercial were poor, as it always had been.

He thought that the explanation for this was structural in terms of geography: where the club was located and where the fan base was to be found.   I take his first point to be is that it is an unfashionable part of London (despite recent boosting of Plumstead by The Times as the  next fashionable place to live in London).

The biggest concentration of fans is in Kent which has a relatively elderly population in the coastal areas where many fans to be found and many areas of real deprivation.  There isn't much commercial mileage in stair lifts, zimmer frames or funeral plans (although given the latter market is currently very competitive, I would give it a try.)

We could have a demonstration stair lift in one of the stands and perhaps sell the naming rights so that it became the Pure Cremation Valley.    Perhaps not.

Commercial sponsors are interested in young males in particular who think they have money to spare and are receptive to brands.  My step grandson is happy to pay £300 for a top with the right label.

Finally, the Rickster took issue with the assertion by football finance guru Kieran Maguire that the finances of clubs like Charlton are not sustainable.  Sure, the current owners have put in £15m but if they backed up someone else would come along with the readies.  Maybe, but I will feel more comfortable if we owned the stadium and the training ground.

Why did Robins sack manager?

Chris Dunlavy writes in the Football League Paper yesterday: 'Why sack Gerhard Struber when the season is stone dead?   Why drag a 78-year old client out of retirement who stands no chance of being there next season?'

Presumably the board had grown weary of Struber's public grumbling over the state of City's squad and their chronic failure to tie star players down to longer contracts.

The Austrian had the Robins playing energetic, attacking football and they were in contention for the play-offs prior to the January departures of Anis Mehmeti (Ipswich) and Zak Vyner (Wrexham) - both of them key players who were sold for cut rate fees due to contracts that expired in the summer.

The dreary performances since then were inevitable and predictable, and sacking Struber will not fix that.'

I would add that Bristol must be the largest metropolitan area in England without a top flight side (Bradford may come close).

Steve Lansdown (of funds supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown) has poured money into the club and justifiably may be disappointed at the return on the pitch   He has put in £280m over the years.

The stake of the Guernsey-based billionaire in Hargreaves Lansdown is now down to 7 per cent but share sales and dividends have helped fund his sporting investments.   City lost £18.6m in 2024/25, even more than Charlton.

The writer is a satisfied client of Hargreaves Lansdown.

Clubs should handle politicians with care

You can't keep sport out of politics, but clubs would be well advised to keep out of partisan politics.  Fans necessarily hold a range of political views and appearing to favour one position can undermine unity as recent events at Ipswich Town and Sunderland have shown: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2026/03/many-sunderland-fans-opposed-to-farage.html

There are two exceptions: politicians who have a long track record of support should be tolerated and the local MP should always be welcome as his or her help may be needed.

That applies to MPs in an area where there are many fans although the miserable Edward Heath was a Gooner and would never discuss Charlton.   Although he may not have danced in the streets of Raith, Gordon Brown was a long term supporter of the Kirkcaldy club.    Dave Cameron claimed to support West Ham Villa.

I think there was a time when Charlton seemed to become closely associated with New Labour, although to be fair to those in charge at the time they could claim simply to be working with the government of the day (and one that was long lasting by current standards).

Nevertheless, I was very interested in what Peter Varney had to say on this topic in his latest discussions with Richard Cawley.

Tony Blair asked for help with the sports side of turning Thamesmead School into an academy.  Varney recalls: 'I spent about 20-25 minutes with Tony Blair when he officially opened the academy. I found him very good on the details, which you often are left wondering about with a lot of politicians, but he was also very PR obsessed. He said it was a government initiative - that he dreamed of having these academies - more than talking about the Charlton side of initiative.'

'Not long afterwards, Gordon Brown came to the training ground. I found, out of the two of them, that Gordon was more focused on what we were doing, rather than wanting the PR.'

I never met Tony Blair, but I thought he was slippery.   A friend who was no longer with us was an education adviser at No.10 and drew up a plan to boost FE colleges which in my view are an important but under estimated part of the education system.  Blair's immediate reaction was 'Great!  Let's screw them.'

I did have a long conversation with Gordon Brown and it was like having an intellectual hoover attached to you.  I then got invited to No.11 during the Blair/Brown transition and got a second invite.  I didn't go back.  Not the easiest person to work for.

If Brown was intense, Dave Cameron was laid back and charming even in the face of rudeness from Boris at an event I attended at No.10, but even things he cared about about got delegated to incompetents.

The competition that Charlton faces

Wrexham have reported a record turnover of £33.1m for last season, a record for a League One club not receiving parachute payments.

What is more striking, reports BBC Sport is that it is almost three times as much as the £11.2 m turnover posted by Charlton   - who followed Wrexham in gaining promotion from League One last season - for the same accounting period.

In other news, 78-year old Roy Hodgson will take charge of Bristol City at The Valley on Good Friday.  Wags are saying that he was motivated to take the interim role because he had never taken charge of a team at The Valley.