Charlton, the council... and Arsenal

Word reaches All Quiet In The East Stand that people living immediately near The Valley got a Valentine's communication at the weekend which wasn't full of love and roses. It was from Mike Donovan, the secretary of the Charlton Athletic Residents' Liason Committee. You'll remember him from his little outburst in Petts Wood-based "local" paper the News Shopper last year.

You'd think a man with a title like his would be impartial over the club's plans to expand The Valley. Unfortunately, he's about as impartial as Jose Mourinho is scruffy. He distributed a letter from Greenwich Council confirming the plans have been received, and adding his own response to them.

His views are, well, hostile to say the least...

"Greenwich Council has a duty of care to its residents whom it should protect against the unreasonable plans of major commerical organisations seeking to advance their profits to the detriment of the quality of life experienced by their local stakeholders. It may very well be convenient for Greenwich Council to enjoy the attentions of a rich Premier League football club within the Borough. It is not so convenient to listen to the complaints of individual voters and Council Tax payers who lack the co-ordinated single voice and massive lobbying ability of CAFC.."

It just makes you wonder what the bloody hell Mr Donovan thought that large structure at the junction of Harvey Gardens and Floyd Road was when he moved in, really.

For those who want to see, the East Stand planning application summary can be seen in this document here.

But a few lines further down from Charlton's application, there's another one which caught my eye...

Dial Arch Square No 1 Street Royal Arsenal Woolwich SE18: The erection of a stone and bronze tribute plinth to Arsenal Football Club.

With Arsenal's time at Highbury running out, expect a lot more history-milking to take place. It's a funny reminder if it hadn't been for one corrupt chairman 1913, football around here would be a different world altogether. Although I expect Paul Scally would still be unhappy. And so would Mike Donovan.

Oh, and I stupidly neglected to plug this before, but the estimable City Addicks are meeting tonight - with Peter Varney, commercial director Steve Sutherland and club development kingpin Ian Cartwright. It all kicks off at 6.30pm upstairs at the City Tavern in Trump Street, off King Street which is off Cheapside. (Or you could just look at this map.)

Withdrawal symptoms

A weekend off - was it a welcome break or does it not feel right? After the crazy fixture pile-up after Christmas, a weekend off was just the tonic at Sparrows Lane. But for us fans - well, I decided to ignore all competing attractions and went shopping instead. But I'm sure Welling's larger-than-normal crowd against league leaders Grays can't have been a coincidence.

But at least we've had time to appreciate what we've got. What a bloody good team Curbs has put together. And how we seem to have stopped panicking when results go against us. We'd better bloody beat Leicester on Saturday now, I like this sense of calm about the place.

And instead, we can dwell on other questions. Why do people even bother watching England friendlies? Why didn't Arsenal score seven past the Nigels last night instead of five? How poor were West Ham in the Cup on Sunday? (And would any Charlton fan pose for West Ham Lass? - not work-friendly.) How does Paul Scally justify his season-ticket hike for soon-to-be-third-division Gillingham? Did you see Claus Jensen run for Fulham on Saturday? When did he do that for us in his last season? Have people realised that Wigan - a club with almost no fans - will be in the Premiership next season? And why was Woking v Crawley the needle game of the weekend?

So many questions. But the one that's really perplexing me is closer to home. Our away match at Fulham - the chance of a good day out, no? A chance to get a few new people along to an away game and roar us on to another win. How many tickets have we taken for the game? A mighty... 1,800. Apparently Fulham wanted Charlton to pay up front for any extra tickets, a bit cheeky bearing in mind the Cottagers' appalling attendances at Craven Cottage.

Strangely, Fulham's Putney End contains a "neutral area" - which sounds like it's going to be full of Charlton fans. If you want to join them, click here and see if there's any left (hover your mouse over block 2 of the Putney End). I should be getting commission from al-Fayed for this, shouldn't I?

The secret life of Alan Curbishley

By Thursday night I've had enough, and settle in for a quiet evening at home with my family. We eat together, then all watch a DVD: all I remember is that Jennifer Aniston was in it. Even watching the DVD was interrupted by our physio ringing to tell me that Jerome Thomas is unwell. (more)

There's an admirably candid Curbs piece in The Observer about the pressure football management brings upon his family life - how he doesn't see much of his family, because he's always out at games. Wyn has his own thoughts - it's interesting how often Curbs nips over to Lille or Lens to check out players in the French league, for example.

There'as a nice image there, though of Curbs watching the Sky highlights with his 16-year-old son on Saturday nights - it must be a bit strange watching the football with your Premiership manager father... "Dad, that bloody was offside!" Not much room for argument there, eh?

But never mind Footballers' Wives - how about Managers' Wives?

When the wives get together, they always ask each other where they're going on holiday, and how much of the season is left, and always say the same things. 'He's never in; he's always out; he's always on the phone.' And 'he talks to me like he talks to the players sometimes' - that's a classic.

The mind boggles!

England U20s 2-0 Russia U20s

Proper report: cafc.co.uk, TheFA.com.

See, price it right and they'll turn up in their thousands. A stonking 10,426 turned up at The Valley for tonight's England Under-20s friendly, with the Charlton contingent rewarded by a Lloyd Sam goal on what was his almost his first touch of the game, sending the ball rocketing into the net after picking up a cross from Bradley Wright-Phillips. Sam didn't come on until about 15 minutes before the end of the game, while Stacy Long made his appearance 10 minutes earlier, having a quiet game on what was an easy night for England's youngsters. Manchester City's Chinedum Onouha scored the first goal, early in the first half.

It was clear the attendance took either Charlton or the FA by surprise - I'd suggest the latter, simply because match programmes were rarer than gold dust, a little annoying when you've come to watch two teams of largely unfamiliar faces. Indeed, with the whole west stand, north-west quadrant and lower north stands largely full, it looked like the north-east section was opened specially to take the extra crowds, with people still taking their seats twenty minutes after kick-off.

But whatever the problems, it was an entertaining night in front of a lively crowd of kids and families. Hopefully it'll lead to us getting an U21s game soon.

Down the road

Since I'm going to nip along to The Valley tonight for the England Under-20s game, what better than to turn the spotlight on the club which, of course, is England itself - Millwall?

Their search for a new chairman's just ended, with longtime board member Jeff Burnige taking over from Theo Paphitis. Which would indicate that nobody's turned up at Zampa Road bearing any huge blank cheque. Our Jeff describes himself as "a bit of a talker" - what, a Millwall chairman who's mouthy? I thought they were all shy and retiring chaps. There's some thoughts on fan site House of Fun if you're interested.

But fair play to the Spanners who complained after The Sun ran an unintentionally hilarious stitch-up of their recent game against Brighton. It sent a reporter who usually writes for the ethnic press down to the Den to prove just how racist our friends from SE16 can be. Millwall have managed to force an apology out of the Sun, which is quite an achievement...

This was my first visit to The Den and in my article I wrote that I saw and heard certain things.

While the photographer with me told me that he saw a racist banner, TV surveillance proves that this wasn't the case.

I also concede that there is no evidence to prove that I heard 'Sieg Heil' chants as I suggested.

Indeed, numerous Millwall and Brighton fans have suggested that what I actually heard was a reference to Brighton's nickname 'Seagulls'. (Millwall's PTV site/ Google cache)

Oh dear, oh dear.

The toothless Toon army

"Graeme Souness, is getting the sack..."

A draw which, for the enormous fun we had at our hosts' expense, felt like the win it should have been. A best-forgotten first half in which both teams largely cancelled each other out was followed by a second half which saw the barcodes resurgent - footballing gentleman Kieron Dyer's goal woke up 50,000 dozy, silent Geordies who'd booed their side off after half-time.

But then Dennis Rommedahl equalised barely a minute later, and that cowed the home team, the Dane's runs absolutely terrifying them. Unfortunately, what he couldn't do was turn it into a winning goal.

But as the Geordies steadily streamed out of St James' Park during the second half, it was the Charlton fans high up in the Sir John Hall stand (too high up for me to be able to even pretend to give you a decent match report, you'll have noticed) who had the most fun - except did we really expect the Newcastle fans to start clapping us when we demanded Souness's sacking?

I'm told the noise from the away section goes straight down to the touchline. Judging by the petulant mood he was in during the game, Souness will need more than his team's well-deserved-my-arsehole trip to Dubai in their weekend off to calm down. And frankly, given the mendacious bollocks he came out with in his post-match interviews ("They came to put 10 men behind the ball... they could have nicked the game and it would have been hard on us... overall, we should have won the game" - the front of the ex-manager of pygmy team Blackburn is just astounding), it'd be a shrink this pampered tosser needs, and not a bloody trip to the sun.

As for us, Konchesky had another superb game - and hopefully Rommedahl's confidence has been boosted by a start and a goal. Bolton's win over Palace may have seen us fall to eighth, but whatever we do for our weekend off, it's hugely deserved.

Toon trouble

All Quiet In The East Stand isn't a website to do things the established way - no weekend piss-up for me. I'm just about to leave for Newcastle now, and if things are going well for easyJet I'll be back in a Greenwich boozer not long after nine. And once I return, I'll pass on my thoughts about the game.

In the meantime, for an account of the Toon troubles of the past few weeks, read Black And White and Read All Over.

Danny Murphy: A song

From Netaddicks:

Danny Murphy's magic! He wears a magic hat!
And when he saw the Valley, he said I fancy that!
He fecked off all the yiddos and told em where to go!
And now he plays for Charlton and always steals the show!

It's not exactly original, but boy, do I want to be hearing that on Saturday.

Sweet FA

Nice to see the FA, under new boss Brian Barwick, is continuing the same hard line as before...

The Football Association has said it will not be bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the Arsenal and Manchester United game.

Arsenal's Patrick Vieira had earlier denied accusations that he threatened Gary Neville before the 4-2 defeat.

Vieira also clashed with opposing skipper Roy Keane and referee Graham Poll had to separate them. (more)

I don't know about you, but I'm sick to the back teeth of this. If their captains can't behave, if the managers insist on continuing a petty row, fine both teams three points for dragging the game into disrepute. Oh, sorry, these clubs run football now, don't they?

I've just read David Conn's The Beautiful Game? and I'm working my way through Tom Bower's Broken Dreams - both are sobering and depressing reading on how a bent league has seized control of the game.

Charlton 1-2 Liverpool

Proper reports: cafc.co.uk, BBC Sport, Sky Sports, Sporting Life, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, The Times, liverpoolfc.tv, Shankly Gates.

Well, only one thing beats a paracetamol for Cup fever, and that's a smack in the chops in the league. From hanging around shiftily after the game, I think everybody has a slightly different take on this game. I think this win will mean more to Liverpool than the defeat will mean to us, so I'm not too downhearted. But after a bouyant few weeks, it's bloody disappointing.

But, truth be told, Liverpool played like a team who'd had the weekend off. We played like the team who'd been forced to run for our lives by a lower-division side at the weekend. We flagged just as the Scousers found their confidence and their form - and Fernando Morientes is going to smile each time he thinks of The Valley now.

Things were so different in the first half. We soaked up that Liverpool pressure, and a Steven Gerrard shot cracking off our crossbar hinted at our luck being in. Danny Murphy being applauded by the Koppite faithful as he took a corner in front of the Jimmy Seed Sand hinted at something else.... a Charlton goal as Shaun Bartlett headed the ball home.

Liverpool's heads went down for the next quarter-hour or so, but we couldn't turn that pressure into a second goal. Liverpool's strengths were at the back of the field - Igor Biscan and Dijmi Traore, who appeared to have the measure of Jerome Thomas.

The second half, however, was a different story - Liverpool came out of the traps and turned the screw. But it was our stupidity which opened the door for them, Bryan Hughes ballsing-up a pass in front of goal which allowed Milan Baros to get in, pass it to Morientes, and send the Liverpool fans into pandemonium. You get the feeling it won't be the first time they do that.

We never really quite recovered, although Danny Murphy was inches away from scoring shortly after. It's almost a cliche now to say Murphy was at the centre of most of our good work, but it's true - he's come a long way since his horrible return to Anfield. But Liverpool grew in strength, Gerrard always looking threatening - and we never quite got to grips with him and John Arne Riise, who scored the second.

As well as Murphy, our other major strength was Paul Konchesky in midfield, while Hermann Hreidarrsson also had an impressive game. Deano kept us in it with a string of saves. Should we really have taken Thomas off for Kish, or gone to a 4-4-2 with Jeffers up front? I can't say, but I do know we looked knackered, however we played. With Newcastle coming up on Saturday, it's a worry. Spurs may have done us a favour by inadvertently giving us next weekend off...