Dowie out - so what's the story?

Well, blimey. "Iain Dowie has tonight left Charlton," trilled my phone half-an-hour ago. So instead of sitting in a Hammersmith pub, contemplating a evening watching The Flaming Lips at the Apollo, I'm sat on an internet terminal in a video shop, with the slowest connection possible, trying to work out just what the hell is going on.

Could be worse, I suppose, I could be watching Sky Sports News go ballistic on it - especially now I've just heard the Tango Man is gloating and calling our board "gutless".

All Quiet In The East Stand understands Dowie's contract was termimated this morning. Despite his morose comments after the Wigan game, it's unlikely he'll have walked out on us a this early stage. Richard Murray is unlikely to have sacked him at this stage on football reasons alone.

So is it something outside football? The forthcoming court case with Simon Jordan has been a distraction - and according to statements issued by Charlton earlier this season, the club's lawyers have been involved in the case. Is it something to do with that? A statement will be issued tomorrow, but I suspect we may discover more below the DOWIE SACKED banner headlines tomorrow morning. For now, all is speculation.

And just who will we have as boss? A fairytale return for Curbs would delight the sentimental, but remember the rot set in under his watch. Is the way now clear for the Pardew conspiracy theorists to be proved correct? Heaven knows.

But, for the second time in six months, our club's in flux again. We seem to have that Chinese curse about "interesting times" all over us at the moment. I just hope our players respond in the right way at Reading.

Hope and fear

Wycombe at home in the League Cup, but defeat to Wigan at a wet and windy JJB Stadium. From optimism to gloom in one short afternoon. And a strange feeling for me, since this is the third Charlton match on the trot I haven't seen! Thank heavens I'm off to Reading next weekend to get back in the picture again.

Firstly, the cup draw - Wycombe at home sounds easy, but they've a good record as Cup conquerors and they'd be looking to expand on that. The match isn't until the week before Christmas, so at least there's a bit of time for us to build up a bit of optimism.

From what I heard of the Wigan game, it sounded as if we had a dreadful first half, but got right back into in the second half. It's hard to know just what to say, though, when you're told yet again that we played well, but couldn't get a win. Not quite back to square one, because it was always going to be a difficult match, but a depressing sense of deja vu's kicking in here. And when are our midfield players going to start scoring?

Still, good news down the road - Dartford moved back home for the first time in 14 years today, kicking off at Princes Park with a 4-2 win over Horsham YMCA. Let's hope we can get down there one day soon and give them a friendly.

Bring on Southend!

Sod it, I don't care that it went to penalties, we're through to the 5th round of the League Cup for the first time, in what was probably our most important win of the season - beating fading stars like Manchester City is all well and good, but going to a side like Chesterfield who play good football, have nothing to lose and who are going to be in your face all night, and squeaking past them, is arguably the most important achievement so far from the team that Iain Dowie has put together.

The view from the back of a car on the M1 (ta, Rothko) is that we should have sealed the win in extra time, blowing chances and eventually letting in a third goal from a set piece. Also news of Iain Dowie being abused by someone in the crowd after our manager lobbed his jacket into the crowd after the game, and Dowie giving back as good as he got.

I'm pleased Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink finally started to show some value by scoring twice - but missing a penalty? Maybe it'll put that ego in check the next time he tries to criticise one of his teammates.

Onwards and upwards, hopefully - and interesting to note the fortunes of two ex-Addicks tonight, with Jamal Campbell-Ryce playing well in Southend's fantastic win over Manchester United, and Danny Shittu scoring for Watford (and Scott Parker equalising) in their defeat on penalties to our fellow basement dwellers Newcastle, who will also take great hope from their win.

The draw's on Saturday - fancy a trip to Roots Hall? Thought not... but before then, have we really turned the corner? Wigan will provide a stern test.

Lennie's a City Addick

Former manager Lennie Lawrence is the guest at the next City Addicks meeting, which is being held at the City Tavern off Cheapside on 16 November. Lennie's now director of football at Bristol Rovers, and is coming up especially for the meeting. 6.30pm start, upstairs bar. A mystery ex-player is also on the bill.

Of course, this clashes with the club's Q&A session with Iain Dowie, Les Reed and Mark Robson, announced on Saturday and to be held at The Valley on the same evening. The City Addicks gang announced the date of their next meeting a month back, and they're pretty sore about the clash of dates - justifiably so, in my opinion.

Shame, really, because with a near-dead supporters' club, they're among the few people who've really put effort into doing things for fans, and they deserve better treatment than this, as well as an explanation as to why the club's chosen a date which clashes with theirs.

Chesterfield tonight, I'm not going, but making sure the Spirites don't make it a hat-trick of Premiership scalps will be another massive lift for us. Fingers crossed.

Supporters' director shock

After his little run-in with the leader of Greenwich Council, supporters' director Ben Hayes has decided to consolidate his position as Charlton's Mr Controversy by going on a speaking tour of Ireland. Did anyone see him at Saturday's game, at all? I thought not.



Thanks to Stuart for minding the shop while I was away this weekend - cracking goal, wasn't it? And what a miss from Hasselbaink, which sent the hotel air blue as I watched the RTE highlights. Let's hope the tide keeps turning.

A glimpse of what we've missed?

Charlton 1 - Man City 0

Proper match reports: CAFC.co.uk, BBC Sport, The Observer, Currant Bun.

Well, well, well. It was bitten fingernails time at the Valley as Charlton sneaked past Citeh by a single L'il Bent goal.

On reflection though it shouldn't have to be like this. For all the blues trudging back to the station whining about having 'been robbed', Charlton could and should have had the game wrapped up in the first half. Openings came and went, but we couldn't build on a one goal advantage. And then, inevitably, we began to brick it as we saw the winning post in sight.

Mr Dowie, sum it all up for me please: "I would say that for 70 minutes we performed well. We passed the ball very well in the first half and caused them no end of problems, but when we sniffed victory about 20 minutes from the end we stepped off a bit and invited pressure."

We're hardly out of the woods, but the performance showed much of what we've missed of late. We tackled and defended our box like our lives depended on it. Scott Carson's saves were amazing. We had a cutting edge and some true flair in the shape of Andy 'Tank' Reid. Matty Holland put in another committed performance, earning a hearty slap on the back from Mr Dowie towards the end of the game.

Yeah the performance was far from perfect. We gave the ball away by trying to do too much and we're still shot shy. But even when the lads looked lost, Lady luck, not seen in SE7 for months, donned her Joma kit to protect the precious points.

But all in all the team earned what to me is the sweetest football chant of all: "We're proud of you".

Speaking of chants, the nerves seemed to bring out the best in the faithful, who played their part with a great Valley atmosphere. It might not be Christmas yet but there was even a pantomime villain in Nicky Weaver (oh how he must regret his antics in front of the covered end all those years ago).

So we're on the up and everyone's pulling in the right direction. I don't even care that Watford and Sheffield United won too. They dragged two more sides into the mire with us. If the Arse can smash Wet Spam we've got our own basement mini-league to work with. Add in Citeh too. And with 'high-flying' Reading shipping goals alarmingly, they're welcome to join in. We'll take you all on.

Big game previews

Another must-win, relegation-six-pointer, 'gotta win your home games, Richard' morning of sport broadcasting looms.

I won't be watching. Being a Charlton fan seems to come with an in-built scepticism to the footie media, but normally I'm straight to the back-pages of the paper to see the latest.

Our current situation has finished all that. I don't want to know what hacks and pundits have to say about Charlton, why we're in the doo-doo and how we can get out of it.

It's got to the stage where I physically avoid anything that has football in it. I don't know the top-six in the Premiership. I don't know the bottom-six (well I know one). I don't talk about football with fans of other clubs. I have no view on whether ManUre can win the title or Liverpool's rotation system. I watched ten minutes of Barcelona vs Chelsea before turning off.

The only time I feel safe to talk about football is with other Addicks. Part of it is that misery loves company - like when you wallow in a hangover if your mates feel as rough as you.

But there's a seige mentality too. Everyone has a view or a 'told you so' sneer. But its our business. We'll sort it out together like we always have done.

Am I alone in feeling this way? I see fear in our play and nerves in the stands. I want to see us circle the wagons.

Help yourself. Help your fellow fans. Get to a game. Cheer. Don't boo. Talk to a bloke at the ground you've never spoken to before. Tell your non-Charlton mates you believe. Pick a bookies and put 50p, a pound, ten pounds on Charlton to beat the drop. Make us odds-on favourites to get out of this mess.

Its gonna take a big squad to get us safe. Are you part of it?

The loneliness of the long-distance fan

Get a load of this:



There, that woke you up, didn't it? The trouble with most reporting of Charlton matters at the moment is that all sports editors want is stories about PRESSURE. "Ask that ugly sod if he's under pressure!," the sports editor barks at his reporter every Thursday. And every Thursday, you get a story like this.

Charlton manager Iain Dowie accepts "pressure comes with the job" as he looks to bring Manchester City back down to earth at The Valley on Saturday.

"Pressure comes with the job. You can have sympathy for people to a certain extent, but I do not want sympathy for me," said Dowie.

Which, to be fair, could have been used at any time over the last four or five weeks. However, there's a new, follical twist to this.

"Is it a difficult time for me at the moment? Certainly - but I am not pulling my hair out." (more)

HAIR? He's hardly got any to pull out...

While the Addicks look to smash a few past Nicky Weaver tomorrow, I'll be either sightseeing in Dublin or visiting a long-lost old pal in deepest County Meath. (But not in the village of Nobber, alas.) It'll be the first home league game I'll have missed since we lost 2-0 to Leeds in September 2001. And even then, it was on the box. Tomorrow, RTE is showing Manchester United at 3pm. Funny, that. People with my number are welcome to text me updates, it's going to be an odd feeling.

So how do long-distance fans do it? With only occasional jaunts to The Valley, and if there's little TV coverage where you are, does the flame fade? Or do you actually start looking at the game a bit more closely, to compensate for the fact you can't moan about the person sitting next to you?

I can't moan about the person who sits next to me, because Stuart's going to make this site interesting and readable for the next couple of days. Please make him feel welcome, and COME ON YOU RIP-ROARING, GOAL-SCORING ADDICKS!

whogivesatoss.co.uk

You'd think that some day, the people who do cafc.co.uk or the e-mail bulletin would stop and think: "Nah, nobody gives a toss about that. We shan't do it." There is such a thing as "too much information". Now, how many words into this can you stay awake for?

"The next phase of Charlton's switch to a 'one-stop shop' for all commercial transactions took place this week with the decision to refer to the club's new commercial centre instead of the previously used ticket office.

Addicks fans will notice no difference in the way the club sells tickets, either online at www.cafc.co.uk, via the 0871 KER CHING! hotline or from the windows in the west stand at The Valley.

But the official website and all club literature will now refer to the commercial centre rather than the 'ticket office'." (more)

I mean, come on, did we really need to know that? Couldn't the poor sod who had to write that been given his Thursday morning to do something more worthwhile? Does it make us look that bit more go-ahead and dynamic? No, it makes us look like a bunch of pillocks who fret about what a ticket office is called. Tomorrow, Sir Reg Varney tells us what he's had for lunch. Only on cafc.co.uk.

Actually, they could have spent the morning using the text message mailout thingy to remind us that tickets for Chesterfield in the League Cup are now on sale, as are tickets to Reading in the league, to lucky holders of season ticket vouchers C and B respectively. A week ago I was pretty excited about a trip to stand on a Proper Old Terrace, but all these instructions from Derbyshire Police make me fear it could be a grim and costly night being treated like idiots by provincial coppers, with no train home afterwards. The romance of the cup, eh? This is probably just me being pessimistic, mind.

Blogs are big and clever (really)

A couple of Charlton things on the interweb which made me chuckle recently...

Charlton Life's AFKA Bartram muses on a BBC Radio Five Live investigation which found Premiership players have become addicted to gambling and porn websites (listen or download it here):

"Blimey o’ Reilly!!! 16 times a day!!! That’s knocking out more than a card shop at Christmas.

If any of ours are involved, no wonder our Throbbin’ Red Red Robin has not been Bobbin’!

No wonder at a set play we can’t lift it past the first defender.

We’re knackered, a spent force." (more)

Which is probably not a good time to introduce Toon blog Black & White & Read All Over's impression of Newcastle's efforts against us: "Impotent".

New York Addick pictures a horrifying vision of Iain Dowie:

"In a sensationally frank press conference, Charlton boss Iain Dowie has admitted that he recently had a negative thought. (more)

And while I'm here, can someone remind the press office that a column written sporadically for its website, by random people, with no way of responding to them and few links back to other connected pieces, is definitely NOT a frickin' blog? Imitation should be flattery, but this is taking the mickey. I expect they've probably given it up as a bad idea already, but if they want to do it properly, there's a few people who really know how to do it...