Musings on Charlton's first friendly of the Season at Welling

First Friendly of the Season

I'm pleased to say that I am now an expert on the streets of Welling having spent the best part of an hour looking for free parking for the duration of Charlton's friendly of the season at the Wings.  In the end I caved in and paid to park at the Danson Festival car park.

Unfortunately this meant missing out on a visit to the Door Hinge micro pub which was recommended to me, and has had some great real ale reviews.  That will have to wait another time, but certainly well before next year’s friendly.

I’ve also increased my road knowledge to the West of Welling, after being diverted away from Shooters Hill Road on the way back owing to what seemed to be a fire on the railway track over the A207.  I’ve no idea where I went suffice it to say every road I took had those blasted speed bumps on them.  This normally wouldn’t be so bad but given the good weather I had decided to take the kit car out for the journey and with about 4 inches of ground clearance I can say that there is not a lot left to my sump tank after negotiating all those humps.

Anyway, on to the game and the noticeable absence of Rhoys Wiggins and Ben Hamer.  However, there was nothing suspicious about either, with Wiggins carrying a small injury and a chance for Pope and Button to show their skills.  It was also a good to see a run out from the youngsters after their successful campaign last season.  I was perhaps a little disappointed that Ade Azeez did not get a run out, but Joe Piggot made the most of it, neatly linking up with Kermorgant to score a hat trick.  The chants of “Get in there Smudga” clearly showed that the more youthful Charlton supporters need to use their social media a bit more, as they would then have known from the various Charlton feeds that it wasn’t Michael Smith hammering them in.

Good Crowd of 2104

There were rumours in the previous few weeks that Cedric Evina was still with the club after apparently having turned down a renewed contract offer as being too short.  Some fans had said that they’d seen him at the training ground but I was more hopeful that things might have come to an agreement when I saw Ceddy’s tweets on Thursday.  An “Optimistic” was then followed up with:-

“Putain, a la fin j’en es marre d’attendre mdr”

which, using my basic French skills, roughly translates as “dam, in the end I am tired of waiting ! I believe the “mdr” is short for "mort de rire” or “died laughing” and is the equivalent of our “lol” or “rofl”.  I really hate these abbreviations but Google translator had no problem deciphering what it meant which shows how common they are now used.  So it was good to see that the rumours appear to be true as I believe he has a lot to offer the club.

It’s always difficult to tell about form in a single friendly, especially when the players only had a 45 minute run out but I thought trialist Richard Wood handled himself well in defence.  My one issue though is that if we are trialling a central defender then why get rid of Matt Taylor at the end of his contract in the first place?  The only thing I can think of is he might be a cheap replacement.

Scorching Play in the first half

The fans were in fine form that afternoon with Captain Johnny Jackson got a taste of his own medicine on the pitch.  Well known for showing the “red card” on twitter to his fellow team mates for their fashion faux pas he was on the other end of the stick as he lined up to defend a corner.   I just wish I had caught on film the look on his face as he was jibed by the Charlton faithful with chants of “White boots, straight red, white boots straight red”.  Their taunts turned to the rather less slim Welling keeper Turner in the second half with some less than friendly comments but I have a feeling he’d heard them all before.

While it was good to see a number of fans sporting the new season’s shirt, it was noticeable that the team were still wearing last year’s kit.  There may be a number of good reasons for this but I really don’t have a problem with it and would rather it was used in these apparently austere times than wasted.  Given our current financial constraints it’s good to know that the money is hopefully being spent on more useful things elsewhere.  In any case, I was there to see the players and not their outer wear. 

Strong Support from Rose of Denmark

Elsewhere the Jon Obika rumours are still doing the rounds.  Given their recent signings and the depth of the Tottenham squad I can’t see him staying at White Hart Lane if he is serious about playing first team football (which of course any self respecting player is) but it is clear that Spurs will want a fee for this promising youngster.  It may be fortuitous timing that Charlton will be receiving an incremental fee from Liverpool for the sale of Jonjo Shelvey to Swansea, which could be deployed to ensure that this transfer gets done.

Finally I have taken the plunge and joined the CAS Trust.  It’s very easy for us fans to sit on the side lines and moan, or in my case blog, about the club but we should all really get a bit more involved.  At £5 for the year its a snip (just sacrifice your first pie and pint at the first home match and its paid for).

Update
Did anyone take advantage of the 2 for 1 local restaurant offer on the back of the Welling ticket?  I think Charlton are missing an advertising trick!