Charlton Athletic 1 Brentford 0

On Wednesday night, to steal from Lee Bowyer, we battered Forest. Today the battering was on the other foot, but heroic defending, and total commitment saw us gather another 3 points to our early unforeseen total.

8 points above the relegation zone, it’s how I’m looking at it, and another wonderful Valley occasion as second best throughout we showed another side to our game. If Wednesday was about slick passing and movement, today was about blood and guts with the back three of Lockyer, Pearce and Pratley immense and Duracell bunny Lapslie and Purrington leaving no blade of glass unturned.

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Pratley extends contract

Darren Pratley was Lee Bowyer’s second signing (his first was Lyle Taylor, so not a bad first couple of picks), and the 34-year has been an exceptional force on and off the pitch in his time in SE7. His performances and fitness at the latter stages of last season, especially in the play-off’s, were exceptional and he’s started this season in the same vein.

Today Pratley signed a years contract extension taking him to June 2021. Our most experienced player alongside Bowyer and Jackson must be an inspiration for our roster of excellent young midfielders.

Charlton Athletic 1 Nottingham Forest 1

Again, if someone had told us a year ago, even in the middle of the summer, that we’d be gutted not to beat Nottingham Forest in The Championship, then we’d be left with no choice but to unravel that ‘Liar’ banner again.

A sublime first half performance that had Addicks salivating at The Valley and at home sadly couldn’t be sustained, as Forest equalized late to grab a point.

Bowyer made a number of changes as Erhun Oztumer and Sam Field made league debuts and Naby Sarr took Jason Pearce’s place as Bow again showed he is not afraid to make changes depending on the opposition. Deji Oshilaja took Solly’s place at right back and Lyle Taylor was given the armband.

Announce Hemed

The transfer window may well have closed but Steve Gallen keeps rocking on. Ehrun Oztumer signed on Friday and today after a week and a half of waiting the EFL finally gave the clearance for Tomer Hemed to move from Brighton to Charlton on a free. Incredibly Lee Bowyer’s 14th signing of the summer.

Brighton had already agreed to cancel the final year of Hemed’s contract so we could sign him as a free agent, it was just that the paperwork went in right on the 5pm deadline allowing for the FA and EFL to do some long drawn out stroking of chins.

Barnsley 2 Charlton Athletic 2

Barnsley haven’t lost at home for 17 months, so very happy grabbing a late point on Saturday. Lyle Taylor as cool as you like from the spot.

Barnsley are technically very good and had some strong moments and we appeared to struggle when they ran at us. We are overloaded with midfielders but feel we still need more Championship quality at the back, but were good going forward and our late revival coincided with Aneke coming on for a tiring Leko.

Boom. Oztumer joins

This came out of the blue. Or did it? This morning Erhun Oztumer signed for the Addicks on a 2-year deal 12 years after he was released.

The adaptable midfielder was minutes from being signed by Lee Bowyer in January and all summer he has been on Steve Gallen’s speed dial as his time at troubled Bolton got resolved. Eventually he was released by Bolton this week, yet last week it looks as if the steps were put into place for him to sign for the Addicks. He has been part of Bolton’s somewhat fraught pre-season and played in their first game of the season.

Hemed update: No update

Hello, anyone at home? The FA have passed the Tomer Hemed transfer decision onto the brains trust of the EFL, which may explain just about everything. Roland has probably asked them to buy him.

It’s a week today since Brighton and Charlton attempted to rush through the permanent move of Hemed, and still we wait on an answer to whether the transfer can go through, or not. A simple yes or no, but nothing is simple at those renowned decision makers, the EFL.