Epic match

What an absolute epic tennis match in Melbourne today between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. For almost six hours these two incredible sportsmen were like gladiators as over and over again they each found implausible energy reserves and a single-mindedness to hurtle around the court often covering over 100 meters per point to gain an advantage over their opponent.

With the time difference we put the box on when we woke up, correction when our daughter woke us up (around 6am) and Nadal had just won the first set. We then sat transfixed and I was honoured to watch two great men contest an historic final.

Exeter City 0 Charlton Athletic 1

Exeter had come of the back of three clean sheets so today was always going to be tight but we came through another test in Devon today to go 9 points clear.

Danny Green’s goal sounded fortunate and I can assure you (I haven’t looked) the Sheffield forums will be proclaiming that we are the luckiest side alive. A bit like Birmingham City I guess.

In the middle

Chris Powell has talked this week about his central midfielders and coincidentally Blackheath Addick summed up perfectly the different midfield partnerships available to him.

Powell talked highly of Dale Stephens, a player I was very impressed with early season. “He’s a creative player, a player I do like and I just want him to be right and ready so that when he is called upon he does himself justice and adds to what we already have.” said Powell.

He was less gushing over Mikel Alonso. “We’ve got a long list of midfielders and there are plenty in front of him.” Alonso has been the forgotten man and he may now be fit but he still didn’t feature in the Kent Senior Cup tie the other night when Stephens, Waggy, Hayes and Ruben Bover did.

Fans that we don’t want

I’ve not seen any other blogger mention this, but it was widely reported this week that nine so called Charlton followers were arrested by police in dawn raids on Wednesday morning investigating suspected racist chanting on a train into Waterloo Station following our cup tie at Fulham on 7th January.

He’s played more games than Shaun….

….Bradley Wright Phillips has played more games than Shaun….

He’s also scored 14 more goals than his step brother too. Good news that he is staying, we don’t want to start dismantling the squad now and the varied talents of Haynes, Hayes and Clarke have yet to prove they can be as dangerous as BWP in front of goal at this level.

The Giant Apple

An early start tomorrow as I’m off to New York for a couple of days with work. NYC saw its first real snow of the winter on Saturday (photo) but fortunately for me it has rapidly cleared as the temperatures warmed with it supposedly set for 50°F (11°C) tomorrow.

The trip will be typical of many, i.e. airport, office, bar, restaurant, hotel, office, airport but I’m looking forward to being away from my desk which has been a bit mental since the new year.

Charlton Athletic 1 Sheffield United 0

I think I am falling for Johnnie Jackson, I have some serious man love for the bloke. I mean, even David Beckham in his pomp would have struggled to pull that rabbit out of the hat. Again.

Two massive games and six points. What a week. What a team.

Today in front of a crackling atmosphere it sounded an excellent game but although we conceded a lot of possession in the 2nd half we just seemed to have too much for our nearest rivals and once again our back four were awesome.

Journey

The eve of another big day in our season. There are hopes that over 23,000 will fill The Valley tomorrow for the second half of our steel city double.

Sheffield United have gone about their business slightly quieter than their north-city rivals. Danny Wilson slowly garnering support amongst Blades’ fans.

I will have to once again do with the radio commentary tomorrow but as I write this (sat on a ferry) I can vividly picture the Charlton team and their proud gaffer embracing in the middle of the Bramall Lane pitch after our victory there in October. Another collective team effort tomorrow cheered on by three sides of a packed Valley will be essential to us carrying on our incredible run.

2011 Top 5 Albums

Strangely enough I’ve never gotten into Bermudian music, so my iPod is never far away wherever I am. I seek my recommendations from a lot of places so please feel free. It wasn’t a great year for bands’ albums in my mind, but these were my top five:

1. Smother by Wild Beasts
I hadn’t listened to their earlier stuff before I got a heads up on this album and I’m glad I did. This is a smoldering, slinky analogue of tunes and it takes the crown as my favourite from last year.
Favourite track – Loop the Loop

Sheffield Wednesday 0 Charlton Athletic 1

As they would say in Sheffield, S6…. “An absolute fooking massive result that was.”. The locals will be crying into their chips and gravy tonight!

For a change I listened to the Wednesday commentary on Player, which was as expected horribly biased but occasionally it’s nice to get an opposition view. However I lost count of how many times a smile crossed my face as the two Wednesday-ites urged the long ball or long throw forward and blamed the referee for everything. Mind you the co-commentator, who I later found out was a certain John Pearson, did say we were the best team to come to Hillsborough this season and was complimentary about a number of our players, namely Green, Hamer and BWP.

Steel city

These next two games caught the eye when the fixtures came out last summer. Like us Wednesday were undergoing a rebuilding job and had already recruited our player of the year. Their cross-town rivals United meanwhile had dropped to the 3rd tier for the first time in 23 years and had a new manager in ex-Owl Danny Wilson.

Not unexpectedly both Sheffield sides find themselves competing for automatic promotion at the halfway point. What will be a surprise to them both though is that a little club from south of the River Thames lead them in the chase.

AFC Wimbledon’s own little Thierry Henry moment

Looks like we have had our own little Thierry Henry moment in South London today with the news that Jason Euell will move to AFC Wimbledon on loan until the middle of February.

Euell was a trainee at the original Dons and scored 47 goals in a 177 games between 1995 and 2001. He was then sold to us for a then club record £4.75m in the summer of 2001.

Green light

The January transfer window is normally the green light for football club chairman and owners to do their own bit of shopping but usually for a new manager.

The highest profile so far has been Neil Warnock (the man with the best anagram in football), who was relieved of his duties, with the League Championship trophy still without dust on it in the Loftus Road trophy cabinet. Mark Hughes is Tony Fernandes first choice and it is now left to Hughes to weigh up whether QPR will pay him more represent a bigger challenge than Fulham.

2011 Top 5 Restaurants

The next installment in my Top 5 collection from 2011. There was plenty of nominations, but here are my Top Five Restaurants of 2011:

1. Joe Fortes, Vancouver
An atmospheric seafood and chop house in Vancouver. I remember the night more than the food, but it was a great night mostly because of Joe Fortes. Tip-top service, sensational and flavourful food.
Website

Fulham 4 Charlton Athletic 0

Hardy heartbroken by that and proud of the display and the excellent support.

I listened in on Radio London and their view was although Fulham deserved to win the game, it was never a 4-0 result and we can be very proud of ourselves. My brother held the same view and indeed until Dempsey’s second goal there was only one team in it, and David Stockdale was playing a blinder.