It was all about Powell

The surname Powell has cropped up a lot in the sports news in the last few weeks.  Anyone that wanted a football fix since the end of last season has had to make do with the efforts of England manager Hope Powell, courtesty of the Women's Euros.  Despite the surprisingly poor performance of the England team, the football has been of a good quality and entertaining.  The heroic penalty saves of the Norwegian goalkeeper on Thursday night ensured that Denmark did not progress to the final without having won a single game in playing time.  Its a shame her colleagues were not as good when it came to taking penalties against Germany in the final.



Good to be back at the Valley



Then, on almost the eve of the anniversary of the 2012 Olympics there was the unfortunate news that Asafa Powell had tested positive for a prohibited substance.

However, on Saturday we could concentrate on and enjoy our own special Powells in the form of  the testimonial game for groundsman and former player "Colin" and Charlton manager "Chris" who are much loved characters at the Valley.  As a relatively new fan (1996) I can't claim to know much about Colin Powell and can't add to the excellent reports on the official website and fellow bloggers' write ups.  For those of you interested in finding out more the supporters trust reprinted an excellent interview undertaken with him in 2010.

However, I do know that testomonials are not handed out on a plate and when fans such as Charlton bloggers Chicago Addick and Drinking During the Game, amongst others, buy tickets to contribute towards the testimonial, even though they can't be at the match you can tell how much the man means to the fans and history of our club.

After almost three month's absence since our 4-1 thumping of Bristol City on 4 May, it was a good feeling to be back at the Valley whcih looked resplendent with the newly laid pitch.  Not much else seemed to have changed inside the ground except for some new advertising hoardings that withstood the "Yann Test" extremely well as he clattered heavily into them during the game. 

The other addition outside was the opening of the first phase of Addicks Place.  As with any newly installed item (whether at the Valley or not) the builders did a great job of the marble itself but left everything else in a complete mess with concrete dust all over the previous bricks laid down.  I know that many of those bricks are very special to the people that commissioned them (see here why http://blackheathaddicted.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/addicks-place-total-disgrace.html) so I hope this is just a temporary glitch while we wait for the concrete and marble of the new stones to settle in and they will be brought back to the condition expected once the barriers and tape are removed.



Our opponents Inverness Caledonian Thistle , best known for the famous tabloid headline "Super Cally go balistic Celtic are atroucious" for the February 2000 3-1 mauling of Celtic that ultimately ended John Barnes time at the helm of the Glasgow club.  As the team that finished fourth, narrowly missing out on Europa league qualification they were not going to be a pushover and the 1-0 win over Charlton was probably the right scoreline

I did have some decent draft copy penned on Charlton's choice of strikers for the coming season but it had to be abruptly binned following various news items being published which scuppered my carefully crafted words.  However, even with Coulibaly off the table and no word on Obika it was good to see Ricardo Fuller and Simon Church still training at Sparrows Lane. There is still time and hope for us yet as playing the lone striker upfront is not a comfortable formation for the Charlton team.

Our first game of the season is at Bournmouth on Saturday.  Away tickets were quickly snapped up by supporters that qualified by attending away matches last season.  While its a shame I couldn't get tickets it's good to know that the more faithful fans still get first choice on tickets.  It looks like the only way of Charlton fans legitimately getting tickets is to sponsor the match ball which works out at about £170 a head if you're feeling flush!

http://www.afcb.co.uk/news/article/2013-07-29-charlton-sponsorship-package-available-952274.aspx