Fuller's a Wiley Old Fox

No, I'm not referring to the latest concoction to come from the West London Brewery, but Charlton's centre forward Ricardo Fuller who effectively won the game for Charlton on Saturday with his tactics.  His year's in the premiership paid off when he managed to earn us two set pieces that eventually won us the game after being 2-0 down after 20 minutes.

A win was required at the Valley

The experienced forward first broke free from the pack connecting with a long ball kicked out by the defence.  His pace was never going to beat the Bolton defenders to goal, but they chose to cut across his path which was his cue to take a tumble.  The contact was minimal but referee Kettle's view was such that it could only mean a second yellow card for the defender who was dismissed.  The resulting free kick from Kermogant was well struck and resulted in a goal by Dervite from the rebound.
The second incident was a Fuller classic, that we have seen a number of times, as he was clipped while charging into the 18 yard box. I was surprised to see Kermogant step up to take the resulting penalty as he's not our regular from the spot.  Another blogger (thank you Dr Kish!) has pointed out that as Fuller was injured he had to leave the field of play unable to take the penalty, hence the change.  While Fuller is a master of this tactic, I am surprised that we don't see Pritchard getting more penalties.  His lighter frame, faster pace and somewhat awkward style would make him a trickier contender for opposition defences and he should attempt a few more runs into the box.

As I said in a previous posting, Fuller has to start the game to achieve these outcomes.  While I have every respect for Danny Haynes and would like to see him start too, his pace makes him a far more dangerous impact subsititute over Fuller.  As Fuller can't play the full ninety minutes anymore this seems a good compromise.

Bolton are a team of large players but they seem to be taking too many tips from their rugby playing neighbours.  I counted three rugby tackles on the Charlton players including a head dump on Kermogant and a high neck tackle on Pritchard, both of which would have been a sin bin offence and earned a citing after the game in rugby.

We still have a tough run in to the end of the season starting with Brighton on Tuesday, but with 50 points I feel a lot more comfortable than I did at 3.20 on Saturday afternoon.  I hope that Fuller's shoulder keeps him in contention for the run in but the win will have bolstered the whole squad and we have a good travelling contingent for the trip to the Seagulls.

I celebrated with a few pale ales from and and resolved not to delay renewing my season ticket until the last minute.

Happy Easter

Lightning Bolt.on Saturday required to brighten home form

With apologies for the poor pun in the title.....

I hope you enjoyed the beer related blogs in over the International break but now we must return back to Charlton and our game against Bolton at the Valley this weekend.  Everyone is aware of the poor form we have suffered at home this season despite some good play.  For those of you still sore at the loss to Millwall take another look at the Football league show highlights where I think you will find that, apart from the final ball we played a reasonable game.

I saw Bolton earlier in the season, at their 5-4 loss to Peterborough.  From what I remember they were pretty much a one trick pony, playing the long ball to Kevin Davies each time who insisted on grabbing hold of his opposition players rather than concentrating on the ball (maybe he just wanted to swap shirts a little earlier?).  As fans we need to be extremely vocal each time he does this as many referees will let him get away with it.  We also need someone fairly stout to stand up against him.  The introduction of the Bulgarian, Martin Petrov, as a late sub added further danger to the Wanderer's attacking line up but thankfully he has gone to Espanyol for the rest of the season so we don't need to worry about him.

At the time Dougie Freeman must have been wondering why he left Crystal Palace as they struggled in a competitive Championship but has now pulled them to within spitting distance of the playoffs, having not lost eight games in a row, prior Ipswich beating them 1-0 in their last game.

In terms of team formation I believe that if we are going to play him, we have to start out with Fuller and see what sort of game he has, rather than introducing him later in the hope that he will be a game changer.  I'd also like to see Danny Green get a bit of a run out.  He has his critics but it might just add something to the mix that has been missing in recent games and I believe we have little to lose.

Given the rain and the cold I don't expect the pitch to be in any better state than a fortnight ago but there should be no advantage to either side as the Bolton pitch appears to be just as bad.

One thing we must not do is turn on the team.  Although it's all very tight in the Championship a few more points will see us safely over the line (the consensus is 54/55 points for absolute safety) and not backing the team is not going to help them win and could end up in us watching league one football next season.   We've not had a decent crowd rally behind the team since our epic comeback over Cardiff and I see that @cafcreddivision have not tweeted a rallying call for over a month now.

Regardless of the result I have a nice selection of beers from the Kernal Brewery in Bermondsey to look forward to after the game.

COYR.....!!