Three from four

Back in the days when I used to go to every home Charlton game and was a regular away traveller, people that would hardly go but spent the whole game moaning used to wind me up. I’ve become one of those irregulars, although I learnt a long time ago that if you pick your games you cannot expect to see a world beating performance or even the best performance of the season or even a lucky win.

As an aside, which is food for thought for the board, sadly I am seeing more and more of my mates and family picking their games and I can tell you that once you stop buying a season ticket then rarely do people go back to spending their Saturday’s at football.

Anyway, the point of this is that I watched three games of football this weekend and each in their own way was disappointing.

On Friday night I was at the Boleyn Ground to watch West Ham and Manchester United’s U21 Development Team’s play out a bore 0-0 draw on an ice-cold East End night.

I was hoping for a carefree passing game with lots of young abandonment but instead we got a dreadfully dull game strewn with misplaced passes and had to wait until the 65th minute for the first shot at goal. The Lee clan were out in force in a crowd of over 800, to see youngest son Elliot have a neat and tidy game up front for the Hammers. He is a strong lad and has a very good first touch and on the ground was a real threat to United’s defence which included the 6ft 3 ex-Addick Sean McGinty.

West Ham’s team also included two other players with family ties. Midfielder Dan Potts’ Dad Steve is on the coaching staff at Upton Park and lining up alongside him was George Moncur, son of John.

Brazilian Wellington Paulista, who is on loan from Cruzeiro, played up front with Elliot Lee and was unpredictable at best but I was most impressed with right back Jordan Spence, who had a very good game, which had me confused as to why Sam Allardyce has an interest in Chris Solly, who is the same age.

The best player on the field though was another player that Addicks will be familiar with, and that was United’s Jeffrey Schlupp. Chris Powell knows him well from his Leicester days and was said to be keen on taking him on loan, but Schlupp is on trial at Man Utd, and the BBC are reporting today that Sir Alex is close to making an offer for him.

We all know what happened on Saturday, and then Sunday morning I was shivering again on the touchline in Mote Park in Maidstone watching my son play for his club. Unfortunately he didn’t get on until half-time, which I know upset him, but similar to watching Charlton occasionally, I have to accept that all the kids have to take their turn on the sub’s bench, and I don’t watch him week in and out.

He did well when he came on, playing in midfield, but he got frustrated, because the only thing I have ever told him to do is get the ball, pass it simply, and move into space, dispiritedly they appear to be coached just to hoof it up the park, and only a few can give it any real welly anyway, so the game transcended into a bit of a scrap.

The other side were better, and beat my son’s team 3-1 and went top of the table with this win. One annoyance was having to listen to a couple of the Dads giving the young referee some abuse after he awarded a 1st half penalty to the other side, which I thought was locked on. It was completely unnecessary and told them so, and I made sure I saw the referee after and congratulated him on a good game.

My plan tonight was to be up at Peterborough, but the primary reason I’m back at home is to attend my son’s GCSE Options meeting at his school tonight. Originally the meeting was “after school” but in the last couple of weeks it got moved to 7pm, which saves me a schlepp up the M11 and potentially another bleak football experience.

Hopefully it won’t be and later tonight I’d wish I’d have been there.