Points Over Performance?

November 27, 2008 by Aff · 2 Comments
Filed under: Polls

As I’ve discussed in the blog over the last week or so, what’s the most important thing about watching your club? Is it winning or is it being entertained? Does it matter if the game is scrappy so long as Blues win? Answer in the poll on the right hand side now.

I’ve added four options, yes and no for those who go regularly and those who do not go. It’ll be interesting to see if there is a difference in opinion between regular attendees and those who cannot / do not attend regularly. Obviously I can’t cover every opinion in a poll so feel free to comment.

The previous poll saw just over 70 votes with 46% believing we’d finish in the playoffs, 24% believing we’d finish top, 22% believing we’d finish second and the remaining 8% believing we’d finish in mid-table.

Tags: Poll

Swansea City & Ipswich Town – Reports By Bazza

November 27, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Reports By Bazza

Those of you that have not lost the will to live and have ploughed through my previous articles will know that Mrs Bazza has a congenital absence of the football gene. Last week I announced that I had spoken to our 19-year old son on the phone and that it was our intention to go to the Swansea game on the Friday night. My son is at University in Bristol and it occurred to him and of course myself that it would be an ideal opportunity to meet up, spend some quality time and take in the game to boot. Mrs Bazza did not see it that way at all.

You’re not driving all the way to Wales on a Friday night, don’t be stupid, it’s too far, you’ll spend 5 – 6 hours in the car yadda yadda yadda! I had naturally already checked on distances and discovered that the Liberty Stadium was only 5 miles further away than St Andrews. My wife was not having this and the time to travel there and back was now extending by half an hour with every sentence and there were many sentences intrepid readers! I listened patiently to all the reasons why I shouldn’t set out on this venture, smiled sweetly and said I was bloody going and that was the end of the matter. I did suggest that she may like to join us so that she could see her boy whom she tells me most days she misses. “What! Traipse all the way to bloody Wales? You have to be joking!” I had to accept she did have a point there! – well you wouldn’t normally want to cross Offa’s Dyke from God’s country would you?

That was decided then; tickets were purchased to be collected, car was packed with groceries for our poor wee lamb who was probably starving to death as we spoke, shirt of the faithful was donned and I betook myself down the M4. Apart from the satnav directing me three miles away from where my son was, the journey was without mishap. We travelled on together to Swansea to a well organised Park and Ride which deposited us right outside the ground in time to get in, grab a pint and burger and chips with salt, vinegar, tomato ketchup, the lot! (Sadly there were no pies; a huge sin of omission in my view). The Liberty Stadium is a modern ground with television coverage of the match for late comers. We decided to watch the first couple of minutes in the catering area whilst we finished our chips and pint.

GOAL! 0 -1 and only 90 seconds gone! Gloom already! We finished up and took our seats. Swansea proceeded to batter us and how they were not 3 – 0 by 15 minutes only their forwards will know. We were very very lucky. We were too narrow, lacking pace on both defensive flanks and the Swansea wide men were literally playing kick and rush and getting behind us with consummate ease.

Out of nothing we broke away and following a superb cross to Bent it was 1 – 1. Got out of jail there then? Not so; just in time added on we got opened up on the other flank and Liam Ridgewell’s valiant attempt to prevent the cross coming in from the bye-line saw the ball clip his heel and trickle just over the line. At 2 – 1, I could only see Swansea scoring more and had it been 5 – 1, we could have had no complaint whatsoever.

Due credit has to be given to Alex McLeish and the players after half time. The formation was changed to 4-4-2 pushing McFadden further forward. We started to up the tempo, get in their faces, deny them time and space and hey presto they were playing in front of us. Passing the ball better also helped. Super Kev and Agustien came on and the game changed radically.

Two superb finishes from Phillips turned the game on its head. Although Blues were undoubtedly the better side in the second half, over the whole piece this very attractive Swansea side can rightfully feel aggrieved that they lost this game. Sadly for them, when pressured they are vulnerable and will concede goals to teams that have a go at them. Going forward they are the best team I have seen us play this season. I see them in the play-offs come May.

Pleasing though this result was it was once again a game of two halves and highlighted the main problem Blues have had this season. Hard work and a high tempo throughout are required to beat these teams. Sluggish, off the boil performances will result in dropped points and one only needs to point to the games against Blackpool, Coventry City and QPR for evidence of that.

So onto to Ipswich at home; I had been offered a VIP ticket to watch Arsenal in the Champions League on the same night. Deluded fool that is the blind, faithful Bluenose that I am, I turned it down to drive up to Birmingham instead!

Actually I’m glad I did because for once I think I saw the better match. We came out of the traps at pace and having scored two in 14 minutes and had another Phillips effort disallowed a wonderful start highlighted an excellent first half performance. Ridgewell’s goal was a fabulous finish and I was pleased for him after his mistake against Charlton. As for Phillips? Imperious, brilliant and sheer class. The guy’s movement is a delight to watch. It just shows that the truly great strikers don’t necessarily have to be big or tall they just need to get in the right places and Super Kev does time and again.

The second half was a bit of an anti-climax as we went of the boil a little and sat back allowing a very ordinary Ipswich Town side to come back into a game they should have long since been out of. Despite this with more fortune and run of the ball a third and fourth could easily have accrued. The customary nervous last few minutes were guaranteed when we failed to defend a corner properly and concede to Alex Bruce’s near post header.

2 – 1 fails to tell the story of how dominant Birmingham were. Despite the rather disappointing second period the overall performance was much better than of late and we can only hope that Blues are finally getting to grips with what is required. We will have to be at our best against Wolves on Saturday and prolonged lacklustre periods in that game will result in null points. I am hopeful that Blues’ perennial tendency to up their game against the better sides in whatever division we’re in will come to the fore.

Certainly, the boys in gold and black do concede if they are attacked. Let’s hope so because defensively we are not good enough to defend a narrow lead for long periods. I always say that I am never wrong with a prediction except lottery ticket numbers and Birmingham City’s scores so I’m not going to attempt to call it but I believe we have nothing to fear providing we play to our best.

KRO, SOTV

Tags: Ipswich Town, Swansea City

Swansea Vs Blues – Report From Down Under

November 25, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life In Australia, Matches

I have to get a couple of things out of the way before telling you about my experience of Blues away at Swansea this weekend. Firstly, the point of today’s blog, to report on Blues away at Swansea City. Here’s a selection of match reports for your viewing pleasure :

- Beeb
- Teamtalk
- Guardian
- Singing The Blues
- BCFC.com
- Swansea City site

Secondly, there hasn’t been any updates for the last week. You may or may not have noticed. I apologize for that. You see, I’m having second thoughts about the blog. Not about running it, you understand. I love running it and the new angle has re inspired me somewhat. However, for every match, I’m finding that my reports’of “Got up at stupid O’Clock, listened on radio via painfully slow internet, didn’t get an impression of what really went on,” might get a little bit tedious after a while.

Thankfully, I’ve already had offers of help from various people and I will get around to replying to them soon enough. It seems as though the more time I get online, the more things there are to do. I’m pleased to say that it looks like Bazza will once again offer his regular column – complete with travel reports! – and Nat has agreed to do some work on match previews and match reports. Anyone else willing to offer will be hearing from me shortly. I’m after Blues-specific articles. Obviously, you’d think, eh?!

Basically I’m trying to say that whilst I try and get back up to speed with blogging regularly and signing up people to write articles etc, it might be a little bit ’samey’ for a while. I’m trying to build a picture of what it’s like to be supporting Blues from afar. I don’t think I’ve done that too well yet. The time difference, the lack of sleep, the lack of access to every day news, the finding time to specifically ‘catch up’, the onslaught of local sport that’s more important etc. It’s not easy. I hope to, in time, mix experiences of exile life with the every day articles that once made Joys & Sorrows such an interesting read.

Anyway, Swansea away…

A Friday night fixture at home meant an early Saturday morning for me. I’d been a bit disconnected this week with news of finding a job and buying a car being at the forefront of my mind. Blues sort of took a back seat although British football in general was beginning to seep into my consciousness thanks to the adding of Setanta Sports to our Austar TV package – for just $6 a month, no less! They show English international football, English international cricket and perhaps most importantly Setanta Sports News.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking : Setanta Sports News is crap! And yes, when compared with its more slick Sky Sports counterpart, it is. But when you compare it to Fox Sports News, you’d be counting your blessings. Especially when you see some of the presenters. Sky Sports News can boast Jeff Stelling and Georgie Thompson… Fox Sports have some chick whose head is so square that I keep thinking Buzz Lightyear is bringing me the latest NRL results and a guy who is so wooden that Pinocchico has started drinking, such is his worry that someone might take his job at next year’s panto at the Sydney Opera House.

Setanta Sports don’t have the best presenters but its heavily football-based and so at least its easy to see what is going on – and they show the Premier League highlights at 11 AM Sunday, a full 30 hours before Fox Sports. Plus it has Steve Claridge who makes me laugh by his absence. You just know that he’s thinking about the 10/3 outside bet at the 3:20 at Newmarket instead of focusing on the football. The quick-flick of the Sunday papers are good too. All the ridiculous headlines without the inconvenience of having to surf the web to these sites or find someone daft enough to buy the rags (because, let’s face it, who buys the Daily and Sunday Star?)

Blues were set to kick off at 6:45 AM on the Saturday morning. I decided that instead of getting up, I would run the internet cable down through the hall, leave my laptop next to my bed and simply lie in bed with some headphones on. There were no live games on the TV to accompany listening to Blues and so staying in bed seemed like the most sensible idea. Besides, having coffee whilst listening to Blues probably wouldn’t be the most sensible idea. My nerves are frayed enough…

After some minor scrapping – and swearing – with my power saving features on my laptop, I managed to tune in just as the game was kicking off. For once, McLeish and I were on the same wavelength and he picked the same side that I would’ve away from St Andrew’s. I think Kemy’s more of an option at home but at a place where a draw might be considered a good result, it’s important to be strong in the middle and Nafti is certainly that. Quincy getting a start, McFads up top alongside the much unfairly maligned Marcus Bent. Well done, Big Eck! I can sense a victory.

D’oh. 30 odd seconds in and it’s all going wrong. I had been warned not to celebrate when we scored or berate our lot if we went behind. After all, it’s one thing lying in bed listening to Blues when you’re alone, quite another thing to inflict Blues on your partner who is sleeping soundly next to you. To my credit, I huffed and left it there. I did want to ask just what the fudge was going on, question how much we wanted it, and generally berate everything and anything from Wales – possibly with the exception of Katherine Jenkins because her accent seems pretend.

From the “Great commentary, Tom!” I was getting via 1152, it sounded as though Swansea could’ve gone in three or four up. Jaidi was being run for pace and isolated each time whilst Blues seemed sluggish and generally clueless. Since I’d arrived in Australia, I’d heard us win just once on the radio, last week against Charlton when everyone agreed that it was just one of those games where mad things happen and that our victory was more by accident than design – and hearing us struggle was something I was, sadly, becoming all too familiar with.

Tom Ross and Jon McCarthy tried to be positive but there was no denying the fact that Marcus Bent’s equaliser was rough justice on our hosts. Still, taking your chances is perhaps the most important aspect of this game of ours and we’d done that. But the fact that we’re still being outplayed by most teams is a worry. The scoreline took a more correct turn before the break and I spent the half time break lying on my side – sulking. To make matters worse, it was absolutely lashing it down outside. We’ve been in drought for a while here and the rain was welcome news for the locals. I was supposed to be pleased that having come from two years of solid, almost uninterrupted rain, I had walked into yet more torrential rain. Pft.

I avoided falling asleep and tuned in just as the second half was kicking off. Honestly, off the top of my head I can’t remember the subs or when the Swansea injuries happened. It’s been over 24 hours and I’ve read nothing up on the match yet. It’s amazing how much you forget when you go simply by commentary. Especially when you’ve listened to as many games as I have over the years. I really should do the geek thing and save the text match reports from Blues Live before attempting to write any sort of match report.

The second half sounded much more even with Blues having a lot more of it. Super sub Kevin Phillips (oh how he must hate that tag) came good and showed just why he’s on the wages he is with two goals to win the game for Blues. The descriptions of the goals weren’t exactly superb with lots of “ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” and “OHHHFDGSAFSDAfdsavfsdfgfdsg!!!!!!!!!” from Ross. Someone really needs to tell him to stop that. We know how to celebrate a goal. We don’t need him celebrating on our behalf. The only thing I really learnt about Super Kev’s goals were that the second one went into the top right hand corner. Aside from that, not a clue.

I greeted the equaliser with a clenched fist and a punch of the air. Which annoyed Mrs Aff because she decided that 8 AM on a Saturday morning is a good time for a “cuddle with Aff”. If she was mildly annoyed by that, I’m pretty sure she considered divorce when the winner was greeted with “YESSSS!!!!!” and a rendition of “Super, Super KEV!” Actually, in all fairness, the rendition did seem to last at least four hours. In fact, I woke up singing his name this morning. Ex-Villa or not, he’s doing the business at key times this season.

Blues winning on a Saturday morning is a great way of starting your weekend. The main focal point of the whole weekend is over with and you know it’s gone well. When the game kicks off at 3 PM on a Saturday – or 5:20 – it still has the potential to ruin everything. It’s even worse if Blues play on a Sunday and we lose. After all, it just reminds us that work is just around the corner and ruins at least half of your weekend. On the plus side, at least Saturday could be enjoyed. It’s a quandary.

As I touched upon in my previous blog, being an exile brings a unique perspective on performance versus points. Whether Blues win or lose, commentary rarely changes and there’s exciting bits and not so exciting bits. Even if Blues are crap, there’s hope when Ross’s voice goes high-pitched and unfathomable and bad news when you hear a cheer but no squeal. The commentary doesn’t describe the action, it doesn’t paint a picture in your mind, it doesn’t help you work out what’s happening. For an exile, all that matters is being connected and winning the points. Do I care if we didn’t play well when it’s 5 AM in the morning? Not really. All I want is for us to have won so I can go to bed with us in a better position than when my alarm woke me up. In the cold light of day, I can read and analyse a lot more and realise that we’re being quite fortunate but when we’re playing, I honestly don’t care.

Against Swansea, it didn’t sound like we played particularly well. Jon McCarthy (one of my all time Blues heroes) and Tom Ross were struggling to be positive and when this happens, you know that it must be truly bad. But we took three points. And I can forgive the bad performance and I can forgive the lack of entertainment and value for money because we won. I haven’t spent my hard earned money following and watching Blues so therefore, all I care about is the success. I’d love us to play Arsenal-esque football (only, with the ability to win from time to time!) and have people rave about us but I’m a bit more realistic than that and for now, and especialy in this league, winning is the most important thing.

Some believe that Blues fans, and football fans in general, are now treated like customers. We’re customers of the entertainment industry and as such, we should be offered up suitable entertainment for our hard earned. After all, when you come out of the cinema or away from a concert, you will inevitably compare the outlay with the quality of the product on offer. Why should football be any different? I agree with this point of view but again, as an exile, I’ll take a win over a performance every day of the week.

Had I been writing this six months ago, my opinion might have been different. I’ve seen some turgid stuff at St Andrew’s over the years and having walked out of the ground shaking my head, I’d wished I’d stayed at home. But when I take five minutes to think about such games, they’re all cheap cup games where we’ve struggled to knock over sub-standard opposition with aplomb or games where we’ve failed to get a favourable result. Not too many times have I walked out thinking that I wish I hadn’t bothered if Blues have won.

But then, that’s just me and when you’re starved of watching the club regularly, any visit to St Andrew’s to watch Blues is an event and any chance to see us win is one that’s taken. So maybe that should be the latest poll… performance versus points. Versus Swansea, I’m delighted to take the points. I’m now off to read what others thought of the performance.

Tags: Swansea City

Blues Vs Charlton – Match Report By Bazza

November 25, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Reports By Bazza

Like the addicted fool that I am I proceeded towards Birmingham from my home in Surrey believing that Blues could not get any worse than the last three matches which I was present for. It couldn’t get any worse could it?

I had my youngest son with me (now 17) who whilst not exactly reluctant to make the journey, still had the home game against Blackpool fresh in his memory. He thought we were absolute dross that day and he is of course so right but I assured him it was nowhere near as bad a performance as our home encounter against Norwich City two seasons ago. He looked at me incredulously as if to say ‘you’ve got to be joking right?’

On the subject of the season so far, given that joys and sorrows is back (to resounding cheers to that as loud as us scoring a goal) I am yet to see our beloved team play anywhere near their potential apart from short bursts. The first half display against Bristol City at their place and the home game against a hapless Sheffield Wednesday defence apart the form has been fair to middling at best interspersed with some absolute rubbish. It is commendable that despite being under par for the most part we find ourselves in second place in the league.

Enough of this, back to the game; we arrived at the ground, got in, pie and a pint and took our seats. Thirteen minutes in and a beautifully executed goal from McFadden lifted the apprehension from the St Andrews faithful. A very classy finish when the obvious ball out wide would have been so much simpler. Charlton have been struggling this season and are unlikely to pull up trees enough to suggest that they will feature in the promotion mix come May. However, as we all know, Birmingham has a perennial inability to beat the sides they should beat on a consistent basis.

A complete cock up at a free kick just outside their area resulted in a pacy counterattack from the visitors resulting in a beautifully taken goal from Bouazza. Excellent first touch and a bullet shot into the top corner of the Tilton Road net for 1 – 1. We got caught napping and left exposed with a three on two which I have to say was unusual from our normally resilient defensive unit. The starting line up we had with no Jerome and Quincy for the second match running exposed our lack of pace and mobility all too graphically.

That was bad enough but the demons that haunt Ridgewell were back as he got caught under a big hoof down the middle, took the wrong option by waving a hopeful boot at the ball as it bounced past him allowing Andy Gray to smack the ball across Taylor from 20 yards for another excellent finish. This was exactly the sort of problem we encountered time and again in the Premier League last season. The difference being that the forwards in the league above punished us every time as apposed to now and again. Once again we were losing to an inferior side.

At least the half time interval seemed to galvanise the troops but it could have been worse when Sam struck the post early in the second period. 3 – 1 and I truly believe there would have been no way back. Fortunately, we appear to not be the only ones to make serious defensive errors. We received a gift of a goal when Weaver in the Charlton goal slipped just before taking a routine catch and ended up on his knees. He played patter cake with the ball onto the head of the predatory Kevin Phillips who coolly allowed the ball to dink off his head over the genuflected keeper into the net for 2 – 2.

After that we looked likely to score again which we did in rapid fashion through Franck Queudrue who pounced on another ricket in the Charlton defence from a corner. Queudrue has been our best player over the last month or so in my view and I was delighted for him to score. Now Blues never do anything easily and instead of going on to bury our opponents who were now rattled and all over the place, Quashie lunges in on Sam and gets himself a second yellow card with half an hour still left.

He had had a decent game until then but was lucky to be on the pitch when following a nasty challenge in the first half from Sam, Quashie reacted angrily knocking his opponent to the ground with his chest. I think it was only because he didn’t raise his hands or make aggressive gestures with his forehead that the referee took such a lenient view. I am sure however that if Messrs Styles or Bennett had been in the middle it would have been a straight red. Interestingly, my son said at half time that Quashie should be substituted for his own good but to be fair he did contribute to both our second half goals so I suppose you can’t have it all ways.

Blues hung on for the win which I am of course pleased about but I have a couple of observations regarding our season so far; our problems occur when we fail to dictate the pace of the game by not pressing the ball and we look so much better when we get it on the floor and pass it about with a decent tempo. When we hoof it down the middle to Bent or down the channels we become just like any other team in the division. Whenever I’ve seen glimpses of good form from Blues it has been because of these two factors.

A top quality craftsman in midfield would not go amiss but nearly every team needs one or two of them but January will be upon us and there is no reason not to add to the squad in this area if such a player is available. Another quality centre half is needed too but I’ve felt that for the last 18 months. I hope and pray that Blues will learn the lessons of this recent slump. It is no use being the best team in the division on paper. There is no substitute for hard work and just recently that aspect of the game has been wanting. The only difference on Saturday between the first and second periods was work rate. It needs to be at a high level for 90 minutes not 45.

KRO, SOTV.

Tags: Bazza, Charlton Athletic

Blues Vs Charlton – A Report From Down Under

November 25, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life In Australia, Matches

After staying up until stupid o’clock (3:30 AM to be precise) playing Xbox games at a relatives place the previous night, the 2 AM Sunday kick off time for Blues – Charlton was always going to be a big ask. I had planned to go to bed at around 7 PM on the Saturday night and get about 6 hours of shut eye so I could be fresh for the game when my alarm woke me up at 1:45 AM.

No such luck.

Have you ever played Football Manager? I suspect so. I found a copy of FM 2006 in a shop for $5 (about 2 quid) the other day and decided that, with the majority of my entertainment stuff still floating somewhere around the Atlantic on its way to Australia, it would give me something to pass the next few weeks. It’s beginning to cost me.

Have you ever seen the screen that tells you your Addictiveness Rating and it starts off ‘Just One More Game’? Well, this is where I found myself on Sunday evening having led an average Perth Glory team to the top of the A-League at the expense of the Dwight Yorke and Steve Corica inspired Sydney FC. 7 PM rolled by, I carried on playing. 8 PM rolled by, I carried on playing. 9 PM rolled by, I carried on playing, 10:30 PM came and I finally switched it off. I eventually got to sleep close to midnight.

My alarm buzzed and my first instinct was to throw it through the window. Then I remembered that I have a blog to keep and it would look unprofessional to sleep through a game. Actually, I just can’t stand the idea of missing a Blues game and so I leaned over to switch the alarm off before grabbing my pocket torch off my bedside table. It’s pitch black in the middle of ‘the bush’ and no street lighting means that a torch is the only way I can navigate to my dressing gown and into the living room without waking most of the house up. I’m dreading the day I’m mistaken for a burglar and shot.

By the time I’d plugged in the dial up cable, plonked my laptop on the table and found Fox Sports, I’d almost fallen asleep again. I fumbled around my favourites looking for Blues World. Eventually I found it. I started up the commentary for Blues – Charlton. I was greeted by silence. Nothing. Notta. Zip. Zilch. I cleared my cache and tried to reload. Still nothing. I got angry. Then I realised that it might be my PC. So I tuned in to Torquay versus York City via the same medium. Commentary came through loud and clear. Useless. Utterly useless. Blues World that is, not York or Torquay, both of whom I quite like. Although I suppose me liking them doesn’t prevent them being useless.

I listened for a while whilst keeping one eye on the Villa versus Arsenal on TV (and I know they’re our local rivals and I wouldn’t waste water if they were on fire but anyone who makes Arsene Wenger look like he wants to cry deserves congratulating) and watching a bit of Blues text commentary. Blues took the lead. I was frustrated that I’d missed it. Apparently it was a corker too – Championship highlights are on on Tuesday nights here in Australia, if I can ‘book’ the TV. Other people in the house watch stuff on Tuesday nights. Fingers crossed for tonight.

I was in a funny headspace. Blues were winning but I wasn’t particularly happy. I was annoyed by Blues World not working, annoyed by my own lack of self discipline in going to bed at a reasonable hour and annoyed that I’d found out that Blues commentaries are readily available online for free if you know where to look. Eventually – after twenty minutes had gone – the commentary kicked in. Success. I settled in for the long haul with Fox Sports on the TV and Blues – Charlton on the radio. Okay, I’d paid £20 for a commentary that people were getting for free but fudge it, Blues were winning and that’s pretty much the only thing I’d wanted when my alarm assaulted my ears just under half an hour earlier.

Only, then it went wrong. Shortly after tuning in, we conceded – twice. My bad language cup runneth over. All under my breath in case anyone had gotten up in the night and crept into the room behind me. Bad language isn’t appreciated in this household! Except, interestingly, the word tw@t because they don’t have such a word in Australia and my relatives happen to think it’s ‘cute’. Tw@ts!

And speaking of, Blues seemed like they were playing like it. Half time came and quite how I managed to stay awake through those fifteen minutes, I’ll never quite know. I don’t actually remember the half time break but I remember half time coming. It’s possible that I fell asleep. It’s also possible that I wandered around completely naked. I might’ve done coffee, I might’ve gone out onto the balcony and belted out Keep Right On, I might’ve updated my Facebook status with something tw@t related. I genuinely have no idea. This is how those murderers on God-awful shows like NCIS must feel when they swear they blacked out the second they caused ‘blunt force trauma’ on the back of the poor victim’s head.

No matter, Blues were losing – again.

The hardest place to be in the world is away from St Andrew’s on match day. You have no idea of the shape of the team, how individuals are performing or even what the crowd is like. Sure, commentary gives you an idea but I’ve been at matches when I’ve had different opinions to others on pretty much every single details of the game – including atmosphere. It all depends on where you watch the game from and match reports really are tricky to judge because you don’t get a sense of what a player excelled at or what he struggled with. Highlights aren’t much better out here because they try and squeeze the League Cup, the Championship and Leagues One and Two into a half an hour slot. Might as well attempt to dunk a Travel West Midlands double decker through a basketball hoop – impossible.

For example, they showed Quashie’s (or Squashie as he’s become known in this house) second booking but not his first. Superb considering the first incident is shrouded in so much opinion. I’ve read people say there was no contact, people say he headbutted the Charlton player and people say that he simply chested him in a squaring-up sort of motion. I’ll never know. Which annoys me. But it was 25 degrees and gorgeous yesterday so I’m not regretting missing out on Nigel Squashie possibly or possibly not headbutting someone just yet…

The team for Saturday was a bit of a mystery. Was it 4-4-2 with McFadden out wide left or was it 4-3-1-2 with McFadden having a free role? Again, I’ve read both. Considering where McFadden scored from (and what a goal although Fox Sports gave Goal Of The Week to Stewart from Derby) perhaps it was a free role? Although in a post-game interview, McFads says that he is put there at corners to shoot from range. Answers on a postcard for where he played (and perhaps I should add here that I started writing this article before Tuesday’s highlights show – I finished writing it afterwards hence me having seen McFads’ goal.)

Not much to say about the second half, really. Mostly, I battled to stay awake with the commentary little more than background noise. Thankfully, we scored both of our goals early so I managed to get a couple of celebratory “YESSSSS!!!!”’s in before I went off to the land of ARGHSTAYAWAKE! About the last thing I heard was Squashie’s dismissal. Pretty much my last thought was that he’d get stick after the game and probably a lot of Blues fans hoping that we send him back to West Ham sooner rather than later.

It’s typical that according to most, we threatened to play some nice stuff in the second half before we were reduced to ten men and that after the sending off, the crowd really came alive. The web-stream here runs at a dreadful bit rate and it sounds as though it’s been broadcast from the middle of a very echoey shed – that’s underwater – but still, the strains of Keep Right On are a joy and a much better stimulant than coffee.

We remain second and from my point of view, there’s not much to complain about. After reading the match reports, trying to debate tactics and chewing the fat about Alex McLeish’s decisions, we’re still in the automatic promotion slots. This got me thinking about points versus performance and just how the views of exiles might differ from those paying their dough week in and week out. God knows, I’ve walked out of St Andrew’s complaining – even after we’ve won but this soon simmers down a little by the time I’ve reached town – but when I get up at 2 AM to listen with a cup of steaming coffee, I just want three points and though it’d be nice to hear us knocking it around like Real Madrid, all I want is for us to succeed and bag three points at the end of the ninety so I can go back to bed with a smile on my face.

It’s food for thought and probably something I’ll come back to and explore a little bit more in the coming weeks. As far as Charlton goes, we won, I’m happy. Promotion is still on.

Tags: Blues World, Charlton Athletic