Saturday, August 13, 2005
Top of the league!
First game over of the new Premiership season, and Charlton sit proudly on top of the league!
As usual, Charlton won it the hard way; taking the lead through Darren Bent, they squandered a host of chances to put the game out of Sunderland's sight before half time. A scrambled equaliser following a good save by Anderson left the teams level at the interval, and then Darren Ambrose got himself sent off for a rash challenge. Ten-man Charlton then played at their best and a great free kick from Danny Murphy, and a last minute breakaway by Darren Bent proved decisive in the 3-1 win.
Smertin had a good game, and the central defence also looked reasonably solid, with big Herman winning most of the aerial challenges.
With three goals, and a goal difference of two, Charlton are top of the league tonight, albeit by alpha order, as West Ham also won 3-1.
With the midweek match versus Liverpool postponed, the next game at home against Wigan could see Charlton maintain their 100% start to the season. Other sides do have midweek games though, so (thankfully really) Charlton won't be top of the Premiership for long (maybe not even after tomorrow if Chelsea get the expected bucketful against Wigan...) and I'm glad about that as it can only add to unwanted pressure.
This was Charlton's first league win since beating Spurs way back in March.
The expectation will now be on Darren Bent to continue to score goals, and there is no reason why he should not as long as he stays fit.
I expect that some of the moaners who frequent other blogs/message boards will wonder why Bartlett was preferred to Jeffers on the bench, and others will question why Curbs brought Hughes on for Smertin in the last few minutes when Fortune may have been a more obvious defensive choice, but I don't care really. We won, won well, and we cannot start the season much better than that.
Roll on next Saturday, when the crowds will flock to see the real Athletics (Charlton and Wigan), rather than the second rate stuff currently on TV from Helsinki!
As usual, Charlton won it the hard way; taking the lead through Darren Bent, they squandered a host of chances to put the game out of Sunderland's sight before half time. A scrambled equaliser following a good save by Anderson left the teams level at the interval, and then Darren Ambrose got himself sent off for a rash challenge. Ten-man Charlton then played at their best and a great free kick from Danny Murphy, and a last minute breakaway by Darren Bent proved decisive in the 3-1 win.
Smertin had a good game, and the central defence also looked reasonably solid, with big Herman winning most of the aerial challenges.
With three goals, and a goal difference of two, Charlton are top of the league tonight, albeit by alpha order, as West Ham also won 3-1.
With the midweek match versus Liverpool postponed, the next game at home against Wigan could see Charlton maintain their 100% start to the season. Other sides do have midweek games though, so (thankfully really) Charlton won't be top of the Premiership for long (maybe not even after tomorrow if Chelsea get the expected bucketful against Wigan...) and I'm glad about that as it can only add to unwanted pressure.
This was Charlton's first league win since beating Spurs way back in March.
The expectation will now be on Darren Bent to continue to score goals, and there is no reason why he should not as long as he stays fit.
I expect that some of the moaners who frequent other blogs/message boards will wonder why Bartlett was preferred to Jeffers on the bench, and others will question why Curbs brought Hughes on for Smertin in the last few minutes when Fortune may have been a more obvious defensive choice, but I don't care really. We won, won well, and we cannot start the season much better than that.
Roll on next Saturday, when the crowds will flock to see the real Athletics (Charlton and Wigan), rather than the second rate stuff currently on TV from Helsinki!
