"Oi Charlton, look over there and you'll see your 100% record disappearing"Charlton have had a similar descent down the leagues as Saints have. A season after Saints did it, they got relegated out of the Premier League by exactly mirroring the mistakes that Saints had made. This makes us pioneers and them just stupid. Anyhow, both clubs had established and very good managers – we had Gordon Strachan and they had Alan Curbishley. Curbs had been there for years and by our standards, Strachan should have been given a gold watch for racking up nearly two and a half years at the helm.
We replaced Strachan with Paul Sturrock and they replaced Curbs with Iain Dowie, two managers who were seen as up and coming with something to prove who had done well at other clubs. They were also two managers who had hit every branch of the Ugly tree on the way down. We sacked Sturrock two games into a season and they fired Dowie after 12.
Saints surpassed themselves with the next appointment by putting Steve Wigley in charge, a man who didn’t want the job and was excruciatingly out of his depth…. nice guy, well respected, not fit for purpose. The phrase ‘as much use as a chocolate teapot’ was invented for him. Charlton’s Chocolate Teapot was Les Read who was similar in being a nobody and being useless.
To attempt the rescue the mistakes, we turned to dear old ‘Arry and they turned to Alan Pardew – both clubs taking what looked like safe bets and in both cases, getting relegated at the end of the season and plunging themselves into the downward spiral which has ended in League 1. Three managers in a season doesn’t work. You will get relegated… I think Pompey should try it.
Another relegation for both clubs later and here we are in League 1 and there the similarities end. Charlton avoided going into administration and have won 6 games out of 6 – Saints on the other hand…. you know the rest…. 24 points behind. So, a trip to The Valley was a pretty daunting prospect.
Waigo and Jaidi had been granted work permits and were on the bench with Joseph Mills and Schneiderlin getting starts for marginally impressing in the bag of crap last week. Saganowski returned from not playing and watching his Polish mates get all but knocked out of the World Cup and took his place on the bench.
As usual, I was out doing a tour of shops and parks, trying to amuse 3 kids and keep tabs on the game. My wife was having a Saturday on the red wine so I was going to find it a bit difficult today. The lack of text messages being received was seem by me as a good thing. I had a feeling it was going to be tight as we have a decent defence now but at the end of the day, it’s top versus bottom so you’re expecting to get beat. Oh for that optimism you had as a kid where you were sure you were going to win every match. Man Utd away, no bother, we are the Saints, by far the greatest team the world has ever seen. Ha Ha. Kids must be more cynical these days as my five year old now asks me ‘Are Saints losing yet?’ whenever he sees me check out my phone…. One day soon my son, all this Saturday misery will be yours.
We happened to be in the car at 3.45 and I’ve got two messages – I know one will be the half time score and I assume the other will detail that we’ve gone 1-0 down in the 45th minute but with a loud ‘get in there’ we are 1-0 up through Adam Lallana. The radio is saying that Saints are the better side and should be winning by more which is good by at the same time annoying as we all know what happens when you don’t take your chances. Five minutes into the 2nd half and it’s 1-1 as Deon Burton has taken advantage of a Kelvin flap. I manage to keep the radio on for the rest of the 2nd half and it’s a nightmare. What is about listening to the radio? Every time the opponents get into your half you imagine the ball is pinging around your six yard box and you also know you are under the cosh as none of your players aside from defenders are being mentioned. Jaidi and Waigo make their debuts as subs and we come away with a draw. A very creditable result.
It was a difficult day for Alan Pardew who of course, is not popular at Charlton. If he was under any illusions (I don’t think he was) then he isn’t now. He got dogs abuse for 90 minutes by all accounts so it must have been nice for him for Saints to break their 100% record. I can imagine that if we’d won he’d have been tempted to do an Adebayor and do a 90 yard sprint to celebrate in front of the baying mob. A bit of a shame that he didn’t get the opportunity but I’m sure he’s happy enough with a point.
I have a quick check of the message boards after the game and I’m amazed that for every fan happy with the point, there is one who is not happy in the slightest. Just staggering… get a grip you miserable sods. We ARE getting there…. Slowly
-5
As a footnote… who do you reckon are going to get to 1 point first, Saints or Pompey ?. We have -5, they have 0, our next two matches are glamour fixtures against Yeovil and Carlisle, theirs are against Everton and Villa.
I was at this game - but had to sit with the Charlton lot. We nearly filled our end, and there was a good friendly atmosphere around the ground before and after the game.
ReplyDeleteTheir fans were good though - I know they're top, but the atmosphere they created was better than anything I'd seen at St Mary's (though I hardly ever get there nowadays).