Brad light.......

First, a big thanks to fellow Blogger Hungry Ted and many others of you who have read and retweeted about my blog.  My short review of Leeds Brewery's Monsoon IPA got picked up by the North Notts CAMRA daily news as well which left me chuffed to bits.

I really am not looking forward to the Burnley game on Saturday and just don't have the heart to write about it.  It will be interesting to see how Chris Powell sets up the team with no Yann Kermogant but I am surprised at the panic by fans of the perceived lack of strikers now that we have loaned Bradley Wright-Phillips to Brentford.  We know that Fuller can be prone to the odd injury and I can't believe that Powell would let a striker go out on loan without having thought about plan B in such an eventuality.

However, my home brew will have completed conditioning by then so regardless of the result there will be something to console or celebrate with.  Its provisionally called London Bus as its taken two weeks to prepare but when its ready there will be one pouring every minute.  Its a London bitter style with a deep ruby red colour and provisional tastings this week deem it acceptable.

On other football related matters, why was the Middlesbrough v Chelsea game not on television on Wednesday?  I know there is radio commentary but none of the UK TV stations seemed to be showing it.  I can see the arguments for not showing games at 3pm on Saturday but this is a fifth round tie (not a replay) on an evening with no other game showing, and featuring a top Premiership club versus a Championship club vying for promotion. 

Despite their loss on Sunday I was very pleased for Phil Parkinson and Bradford.  It was also good to see that many Charlton fans appreciated what he managed to achieve at Charlton on a non-existent budget.  While their local derby away to York is a sell out, I noticed that their Wednesday game reverted back to the standard crowd of about 10,000.  I appreciate that not everyone is flush with cash in these times and many will have dug deep to attend the special occasion at Wembley but a team is for life and not just Cup days and it would be nice to see some of that success converted into more regular support.

Valley Parade holds over 25,000.  2,000 extra supporters at say £16 a go (a mix of adult, OAP and junior ticket prices) gives the club an additional £32,000 revenue per game or £736,000 over a season.  Think what they could do with that?  Come to think of it, think what we at Charlton could do with it - so come on, who's bringing a friend to the Bolton game?

COYR