Euell Inspires Charlton to Vital Win

Ok, so I'm being facetious, but there must have been gasps of disbelief around the Valley when the name of Jason Euell was uttered over the tannoy for the first time in months. Perhaps Curbs can forgive and forget after all?

Curbs swung the axe again, replacing the injured Fortune (who had been terrific until the Spurs game) and retaining the services of the underwhelming Hughes (but dropping Ambrose) to accommodate livewire Thomas. The replacement of Powell was perhaps no surprise, after all he isn't the future, but then again neither in all likelihood is Jonathan Spector.

It seems like we were a trifle fortunate to go ahead not only because Liverpool had bossed the game until then, but because the highlights showed Dudek didn't come anywhere near touching Bent. I've seen more physical contact at a monks and nuns 'singles night'. As for Young's goal, full credit to the defender for showing more attacking nous than the likes of Lisbie and Bartlett - I'd love to know what he screamed at Darren Bent to get him out of the way, "LUKEY'S BALLLLLLLLLLL"

Nonetheless we'll take it because I can't recall the last time we won a League penalty at home (a free New York Addick t-shirt to anyone who can remind me). After that we sounded pretty comfortable and with a bit of luck could have won by three or four. Given Marcus Bent hit the bar at Spurs, he's unlucky not to have three goals in four after hitting the woodwork again.

No-one ever said supporting Charlton was easy. I've been known to use statistics to help add some objectivity to an inherently subjective and emotive topic. However this season we continue to defy any rational attempt to make predictions, or if I'm frank truly assess if our cup is half-full or half-empty. Should we be optimistic because we are on course for 52 points? Or pessimistic because we're so inconsistent, and those early wins might have been an aberration? Should we be optimistic because we're six points from 6th, or pessimistic because we're seven points from 16th?

How do you explain why we can win our first five away games, and then fail to win any of the next six? And then how do you explain how we can limp through our first seven home games, only winning one, and then concede just one goal in the next six, winning four of them? I want us to win all our games of course, but it's better for business to win the home games - those season-ticket renewals forms will start hitting doormats in a couple of months.

I maintain the criticism of Curbs is valid. As I've reiterated before, we don't expect to win every game but the manner of a number of our defeats this season was unacceptable (Wigan, Man City, Everton, Villa, Blackburn x2) following on from a worrying trend from last season. No-one has ever suggested he's not a good manager, or has not been an overwhelming success for Charlton, but has merely questioned whether he was inflexible or had gone stale.

Either way, it really has been a peculiar season. I think the lack of draws (only 3 in 24) has not helped our schizophrenia - I hate draws (too much time spent in the US maybe?), but they at least keep you on an even keel.

Somewhat poetically, we played Liverpool at home last season exactly 38 games ago (a full season). That game was also midweek and the disappointing defeat that night really took the wind out of our sails, and frankly we never recovered. Let's hope the surprise win tonight has the opposite effect and hence let's see if we can build on this win against an equally inconsistent Man City.

We followed our home wins against Sunderland and West Ham with dire defeats against Wigan and Everton respectively, dashing hopes of fans who thought we had turned a corner. With the European Champions dispatched (it feels strange saying that, but let's say it proud), let's put our away form back on track as we lead towards the Brentford game, which I'm daring to describe as our most important game for years.

ps - Thanks to everyone for taking this blog past the crucial 20,000 hits mark since I put the counter on sometime in the Autumn of 2005 (that's 'the fall' to me and you). Admittedly about 6,000 of these are me checking to see how many people have hit the site but anyhow, it makes it all worthwhile.