Who Are You?

Two poor teams, put on a very entertaining show yesterday afternoon. I am sure sterner opposition could have seen off either of them, but it felt like a small step to recovery, the first signs that we do have the wherewithal to extricate ourselves from the mess we have got ourselves into. Had it not been for a man of the match performance by Saints keeper Kelvin Davis, Charlton could easily have been three up at the break.

Whilst near half of the starters yesterday were not even Charlton players, I think that this sad indictment of where we are as a club, has a credible contra view, which is that at least three of the loan rangers have not been tainted with the misery that has been served up to us, season to date. Bailey showed yesterday that confidence and form go hand in hand, as his contribution to the game was not good. I don't know if Racon was carrying an injury, but I would be tempted to team him up with Semedo, and let Bailey try and regain his form out of the limelight.

I didn't think that I would ever be glad to hail Fortune as a step in the right direction, but I was happy to see him restored to the side, as our mid table obscurity form at the start of the season, owed much to Fortune and Hudson being at the centre of the back line. McEveley was my pick of the new boys, looking more solid than Youga or Basey defensively, and carrying a real threat going forward. Gillespie also put in a good shift as well.

So, one game out of the essential three down, and a point in the bag. As I have said previously, we need a minimum of six points from Southampton, Blackpool, and Coventry, so on that basis, we need to win the next two games, a feat we have not managed since Noah was a lad. We are still three points behind the fourth from bottom team Norwich, and we have to claw that back pronto, if our bid to escape relegation is to have any credibility at all.

The Acid Test Games

As I wrote on 10th November, the acid test of Southampton, Blackpool, and Coventry is now upon us. At the time of writing, I saw it as Pardew's make or break point. A failure to take a minimum of six points from these three games would probably seal his fate. As it turned out, we didn't have to wait that long, but now the question is, what can Parkinson do in those same three games?, all of which, should realistically, be winnable.

We are now adrift in the bottom three, requiring a minimum of two favourable results to stand any chance of making it out of the dreaded relegation zone. Many times during this depressing run of ours, I have heard people say that "there are easily three teams poorer than us", and until the end of October that was true. Statistically we were the 11th best team in August, 19th in September, 20th in October, but hey guess what? Charlton Athletic are now the worst team in the division for November to date.

If we are still in the relegation zone after the acid test games, the next one up is the visit of Derby, and we will be exactly halfway through the season, so please, no more talk of "it's early days" and "plenty of time". We don't have time, and a change in our fortunes must begin now.

Don't forget, we still have the dreaded end of season slump to come yet!

In Session

Over 300 fans gathered behind the West Stand tonight demanding that Alan Pardew be sacked, after the 5-2 defeat, inflicted by Sheffield United. According to a reliable source, there is an emergency board meeting in progress, and Keith Peacock has been invited to join it. His role will be to put forward the perspective of the playing staff. The board have a tough decision to make, but I am expecting Phil Parkinson to be caretaker manager for the Tuesday night game at QPR.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

According To The Script

Newly returned from Rome, and the somewhat unsatisfactory status quo at Charlton is at least on a predictable course. The loss to Birmingham was easily predicted, although I am heartened by the fight that appears to have been shown by the team. I am not expecting too much against Sheffield United or QPR either, but then the real acid test of Southampton, Blackpool, and Coventry, will, for me, determine Pardew's fate.

So what else? The arrival of Martyn Waghorn is a "so what" for me, but at least he has more realistic pretensions to be a Prem striker than Dickson, Mcleod, or Fleetwood. The potential signing of Powell, and / or Harte will hopefully remain unrequited, but where is the genuinely exciting signing? Somebody, we believe could make a difference, if only for a short while. Where, the touch of unexpected genius, and class?

The dustmen of Rome have it, or at least they did on the morning I saw one of their number emptying the recycling bin outside my hotel. Genius? Difference? Well, it is not every day that I see a vision of loveliness, looking strikingly like Anita Eckberg in her heyday, in a high viz jacket, removing the cardboard. Now that is class!

Marmite Toasted

And so Marmite Man has left the building, temporarily at least. Every team has a player who provokes polar opinion from fans, and we have been graced with a few in our recent past, Rommedahl, Jensen, Kishishev, and latterly, the now departed Ambrose. On balance, I liked him, but his favoured position "in the hole", was too restrictive for a team, where utilitarian has always, more or less, remained in fashion.

So who do we bring in? I can't say I have been hugely enthused at news of either Powell or Harte, but both are indicative of the economic reality that is Charlton Athletic in 2008. It is all very well removing wages from the books to provide headroom for a player, or players, who can take the team on, but two players who can't even secure a club? I know we are looking to improve from a pretty low base, but are we really not able to do better than Harte and Powell?

I shall watch from afar, for the promised signing before the Birmingham game, as the current Mrs DD and I shall be in Rome for the next five days. I am particularly looking forward to the Capuchin Crypt beneath the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception. I am working on the reasonable premise that a crypt largely made up of bones has to be a more cheery place than The Valley currently.

Good luck on Saturday, and big respect to the travelling faithful. Come on you reds!

Quiet Desperation

Well, we took a point that could have been three. Two points lost in the blink of a prematurely celebrating eye. I think most of us would have taken a point before the game began, and it does take us out of the bottom three, but once again, it feels like underachievement. On to Birmingham, a game where I suspect expectations of a favourable Charlton outcome will be minimal.

As has been reported elsewhere, Pardew will almost certainly not be with us come Christmas, unless there is a marked upturn in Charlton fortunes, and I am interested in what criteria the board will be using to define "upturn". League position whilst important, is too nebulous, unless we are in the bottom three, so I assume that points will indeed make prizes. For me, the logical decision point would be mid December, as by that stage, we will have played exactly half the season, once the Derby County game has been played. The telling games between now and then, are the three games immediately preceding the Derby game, against Southampton, Blackpool, and Coventry. All of these should be winnable, and a decent haul of points from them would probably save Pardew's job until the summer at least.

Over the past ten seasons, the range of points for the team finishing third bottom, has ranged from 42 - 52. Indeed, Leicester's relegation last season, saw them go down with the highest points total in that ten year period. So, using that as the worst case scenario, means that we should really be sitting at a minimum 26 points at the halfway stage. We currently have 16 points, so three wins and a draw in our next seven games is required. I am assuming here, that the board are accepting survival as a positive result.

Pardew has been oft quoted, regarding his dislike of using loan players, and yet, it would appear that we are about to juggle the books, and bring more of them in. Much will depend on Ambrose going out on loan, as I suspect he still retains a Premier League salary level, but does anybody else on a high salary need to go out? As to who comes in, I think this highlights the poor position we are in, as essentially we are looking for a spine to the team, comprising a central defender, central midfielder, and a striker. Quietly desperate times indeed.

Seventeen Minutes

That was horrible, truly, truly, horrible.

At half time, I actually thought about leaving. I never would of course, but I thought about it. Who are the team playing for right now? It isn't for us, that's for sure, but more damningly, it isn't for Pardew either. The Valley is an increasingly depressing place to be right now, and there are no easy answers as to how to put that right, beyond winning games, and at present, we are nowhere near good enough to do that. I deliberately left this posting until this morning to try and put some perspective back into the situation, but quite frankly I can't. The players should be good enough, and at present Pardew is not good enough.

I believe he is a good manager, but crucially, whenever he has shown that in the past, he has always had money to spend. There is none at Charlton, and even sacking him, is going to mean members of the Board putting their hands in their pockets yet again. How long can they keep doing that? Who would we be able to afford to replace him?

I sit directly behind the home dugout, and whatever I hear, Pardew hears. There was a fairly steady stream of invective being flung at him yesterday, albeit by a vocal few, but the momentum continues to build. The Covered End will be more voluble next time out, and the thirty or so who chanted for his head in the West Stand car park after the game, will be considerably more.

As somebody shouted out, when any pretence of aiming for promotion was finally obliterated, seventeen minutes into this game, "Taxi for Pardew"