Scraps of positivity in lost season

I’m not normally one to dwell on season’s past, especially crap ones, but I had ten minutes and was toying with some thoughts around if there was actually anything positive to say at all about the last nine months.

We began the season being fed the tag line of ‘new team, new era’ which coupled with Andy Scott pushing the mantra of ‘action not words’ told us in hindsight all we needed to know of what a cycle of incompetence we were to expect.

Bromley FC memories

The Glades would’ve been quiet today.

Congratulations to Bromley on their promotion to join the 92 football league clubs this afternoon after beating Solihull Moors on penalties.

Blues’ nose dive

I had no doubt that Birmingham would win today. I was at St. Andrew’s for the last game of the 1992/93 season when the Blues had to beat Charlton to stay up.

Saying the atmosphere was hostile does not do it justice and if Peter Garland’s shot had gone in instead of hitting the post I feared we would not got out alive.

Jones takes cleaver to squad

Charlton have issued the names of players that will leave and stay for next season.

The only player offered a new deal was Tyreece Campbell, who has signed a new unknown length contract.

Chris Solly

Only Chris himself and Lee Bowyer will know what happened during a conversation at the end of the COVID delayed 2019/20 season.

Lyle Taylor has since gone on to be loathed by Addicks for declaring that he would not play, instead waiting to run his contract down before he got his big money move to Nottingham Forest.

London Calling

For the second year in a row SE7’s Charlton Athletic was engraved on the London Senior Cup after beating Hendon 2-1 tonight at Champion Hill, home to Dulwich Hamlet.

Young hot prospect Patrick Casey scored both goals in the first half, his 37th and 38th goals of the season.

Alfie crowned POTY

With a record breaking 82% of the vote 27-goal Alfie May won Sunday’s POTY award voted for by supporter’s.

In 2nd place was George Dobson and 3rd was Terell Thomas, somewhat surprisingly but I bet that the top two made up about 98% of the vote and the rest was shared amongst a number of players.

Alfie May

Congratulations to Alfie May on his League One Golden Boot win. He truly is a very nice bloke. Lovely interview with him here.

May’s 23 goals are the most by an Addick in a league season since Andy Hunt who scored one more 24 season’s ago.

Only Bradley Wright-Phillips and Lyle Taylor have scored 20 or more goals for us in those intervening years.

Wycombe Wanderers 1 Charlton Athletic 0

And the season finally slams shut, and locked and thrown in the river tied to a concrete slab!

More defensive clumsiness followed by a gift of what was the decisive penalty was an apt way to finish the season ending a 14-game unbeaten run.

New Valley pitch investment

More evidence of investment by the club’s owners in that today they have announced the installation of a new Valley pitch this summer.

“Work begins on the pitch in May to ensure everything is in place for the men’s first-team’s final pre-season friendly on Saturday, August 3rd.” (more)

Sell out

Wycombe has all but sold out for Saturday’s early kick off – remember it’s a 12.30 start (7.30am here in Florida).

It’s another fantastic effort by Addicks for a dead rubber that closes down a season which will end with our worst league placing since 1926.

Addicks through to final

The Addicks U21 side are through to the London Senior Cup final for the second consecutive season after beating the Met Police tonight 2-1.

Haringey Borough were beaten last year and this year the opponents will be Hendon, who play in the Southern League Premier South.

Dobbo going or staying?

The conversation on whether George Dobson will stay or leave in the summer has got louder and louder these past few weeks. There are over 3,300 comments on the Charlton Life Forum, and Nathan Jones spent the bulk of his post game chat throwing the club’s decision makers under the bus whilst singing George’s praises.

The people that matter – those that were witness to the deal in the first place including Fehérvár, George’s agent, Andy Scott and George himself have been pretty silent on the matter.

Travelogue – Clermont, Florida

Rarely do you ever see rolling hills in Florida, but running down the spine of the sunshine state is Lake-Wales Ridge, a 100-mile white sand ridge that tops out at 312 feet, the highest natural point in the state called Sugarloaf Mountain…. Not to be confused of course with the other Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro.

About 10 miles south of here on the same sand ridge is a pretty little place called Clermont. We were there this past weekend for a swim meet at the National Training Center staying at an AirBnB a couple of miles from the historical downtown area.

Charlton Athletic 1 Shrewsbury Town 1

Draw no. 20. Very disappointing to finish off without a win, but at least The Valley had George Dobson to serenade on his final Valley appearance.