Centenary Sunday

Sunday's going to be a big day for the club - you can put your shirt on it, I assure you.

And for anybody attending tonight's centenary bash at the Royal Lancashire Hotel, and spots anything interesting happening - never mind the 3am Girls, drop me a line via e-mail (bottom of the right-hand column) or through the comment box. From what I've heard, it promises to be a good night out. If you are going, have fun - and shake Super Clive's hand for me, will you?

Charlton 2-0 Sunderland

Proper reports: cafc.co.uk, BBC Sport, Sporting Life, Sky Sports, The Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday.

What a relief! A competent 2-0 victory with goals from Darren Bent and Darren Ambrose earning victory over a determined, but ultimately poor Sunderland side. The first half was fairly even until Bent's fine shot capitalised on poor Mackem defending, while we were dominant in the early stages of the second half, sealing victory with Ambrose knocking one in from close range after some crazy Mackem defending. That's where Sunderland went wrong, despite their dominating a nervy last 15 minutes, along with a succession of hopeful shots which flew wide, high, or anywhere near the goal.

In contrast to last Sunday, it's hard to pick out a player who started and performed poorly for Charlton. Dean Kiely's had some stick, not least here, but pulled off some fine saves in goal and has probably secured his place between the sticks for the foreseeable future. Darren Bent was carrying an injury but didn't show it - to the extent that his replacement by the hapless and hopeless Shaun Bartlett provoked jeers across the Valley. Darren Ambrose didn't stop, Luke Young was commanding, Danny Murphy looked closer to his best form than he has done in a while and Chris Powell justified his return to the first team. Jerome Thomas had a great game too, constantly threatening the opposition.

But while he's had some flak from fans, it's time Radostin Kishishev got his dues on this site. His work in midfield helped unsettle Sunderland, and he kept going where others tired. The parachutes are up, our drop down the table has stalled. Bring on Wigan to see what our revival's really made of.

Cup travel alert

Right, you'll no doubt know by now that our Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday has been set for 3pm on Saturday 7 January - with, unusually, Sheffield United kicking-off at the same time as well against Colchester. Could be a busy day up there.

If you want to go by train, get in there quick for cheap tickets - you should be able to do it for £14 if you're going up and back on the day. That is all.

We live in interesting times

A measure of one's class can be observed in how one reacts to a humiliation like Sunday's Citeh rout. Your humble correspondent, for example, took losing 5-2 as his cue to get rather drunk and forget about the whole thing. Which is all very good until you finally wake up, proceed to work slightly dishevelled, and see the headlines all about how crap we were. Poor old City fans, their side gets its act together and all the press can talk about is "Curbishley crisis" - two words which just don't look right together.

Indeed, it's the manager's comments that have pre-empted all the headlines. And the change in Curbishley's tone towards the fans - from "maybe the fans don't want a cup run" to "they have been fantastic so far" - indicates that things may get worse before they get better.

Looking at the table, we're five points adrift of the chasing pack which starts with Manchester City in eighth, while there's a three point cushion between us and the looking-over-their-shoulder brigade including Fulham and Villa. A home game against woeful Sunderland should be a cue for a recovery, but this is Charlton...

But in the meantime, it's time to get behind the players and manager. We know there's players who had hopeless games - JJ's continued presence in the team must baffle most sane observers, while Matt Holland reminded us why last season ended so badly. For now, forget these clowns, because they're not starting XI material.

Jonathan Spector is a worry, as are our keepers - Kiely's awful game showed he's on the way out, but some will be concerned about Andersen as a replacement.

The likes of Murphy, Smertin, Perry and Young can perform much better than they did yesterday. And they will. Bothroyd's goal was a stunner, while Bent and Ambrose weren't exactly on fire, but they weren't dreadful either. Jerome Thomas performed well as a substitute.

It's down to Curbishley to earn his money - if he pulls Charlton out of this slump, he'll be lauded once again, and probably be shipped off to that Big Club job he's bound to get eventually. (If he doesn't, well, there's Rangers...)

But sod it, it's a tight league so far. A couple of wins and we'll be back in the top half. Promotion and relegation aren't decided at Christmas, while Bolton lost eight and got into Europe. Plus there's the January transfer window. We're not even half-way through the season yet.

Crisis? This is certainly more than a little local difficulty. But be careful what you wish for - if we don't back the team, then a crisis is what we'll get.

"All Quiet On the East Stand"?

Thanks to programme editor Matt Wright for the mention in Sunday's programme - nice to be noticed and all that. Also mentioned was Chicago Addick, for his efforts in covering Jonathan Spector's efforts for the USA at Soldier Field.

Mind you, feeling a bit proud, I mentioned this to somebody today who promptly burst my bubble by telling me that Frankie Valley was the talk of his Upper North neighbours. Damn. Better try harder! In the meantime, should you notice an increase in references to Peter Shirtliff and "the mighty Stags", that's me sucking up to the programme editor...

Charlton 2-5 Manchester City

No, I'm not even going to bother.


But if you were Alan Curbishley, what would you do?

Wednesday in the Cup

We've been drawn away to Sheffield Wednesday in the third round of the FA Cup. We haven't played them since they sent us down in 1999, but since then our fortunes have diverged somewhat, with the Yorkshire club having struggled in what's now League One. This is their first season back in the Championship, and they've had a rough time of it so far, currently lying fourth from bottom.

The tie is due to be played the weekend of 7/8 January - I can't see it being picked for TV, but as Sheffield United have also been drawn at home, we could be lumbered with a Sunday game.

In the meantime, it's Manchester City coming up at The Valley, with Dean Kiely keeping his place in goal despite his howlers against Blackburn. And I should be off down there...

Jerome Thomas arrested

Jerome Thomas has been arrested after a fracas outside a nightclub, All Quiet In The East Stand can confirm. Details are pretty sketchy, but Thomas is alleged to have attacked a bouncer, something he denies. He remains on bail. The story was broken in the Daily Mail, but hasn't been picked up by anybody else so far. Thank heavens for being little old Charlton, eh? More information will appear here as it emerges.

But on top of our poor run and everything else, we could do with this like a hole in the head...

Fill your boots

If we're going to be rubbish, you might as well cash in on it - I've just noticed that according to an ad on Manchester City's official site, Totalbet.com is offering 28/1 on us leading at half-time on Sunday, and the Massives coming back to beat us. Well, you might as well.

Charlton 2-3 Blackburn

Send in the shrinks, that's all I can sensibly say as we slumped to our fifth defeat in a row after pathetically surrendering a 2-0 win in just 15 minutes. Late last season Curbs talked about getting a psychologist in to try to work out why our seasons almost always end in frustration. Maybe it's time to do it now, before the season can get any worse.

And as for me, I probably need one, because I cut short a refreshing break by the Baltic Sea to get back for this. I knew it was a bad idea on Sunday night, in a Helsinki bar, discussing Jonatan Johannsson's shortcomings with a pissed bloke in an Ajax scarf. And boy, did we see JJ's limitations tonight.

First, the positives. We didn't go 2-0 up by being crap. Darren Ambrose was excellent throughout the game, while Darren Bent looked hungrier than he did during the Villa debacle. Murphy and Smertin's partnership looked on-song again, while Luke Young almost got a goal himself in a fine display. Chris Powell also performed well as we gradually won control of the game from Blackburn.

But now, the negatives. Or should this just be a list of scapegoats? Alan Curbishley, for substituting Young for a poor Jonathan Spector? Returning keeper Dean Kiely, whose muffed-up clearance allowed David Thompson to score Rovers' second? Danny Murphy, whose head dropped visibly in the last quarter of an hour? JJ's poor performance on the wing? (Where's Dennis?) Or just the whole team, for defending a 2-0 lead so deeply, we looked like a beaten team when we were well in front.

This isn't to take anything away from Blackburn's achievement - they showed more guile than we have done all season, while Brad Friedel showed why he's one of the league's more under-estimated keepers.

But the Charlton team - and manager ("Everyone talks about wanting a cup run but I'm not sure how much the fans want it - it was a half-empty stadium out there." - Planet Curbs slips out of alignment with most sane people's ideas about cold Wednesday nights against unpromising opposition) - need to know they've let the fans down badly. This isn't a crisis. But Sunday's game against Man City now looks like a must-win. Or the moaners will become unbearable. Anything else, and I'll start to fear for our already-fragile morale.