Get Amongst 'Em

"Hey gaffer, we'll both be leaving Crystal Palace soon. What do you think about that?"

There are lots of quirky British phrases that are guaranteed to flummox Americans. So with an apology in advance to any of my Yank readers, I sincerely hope that if nothing else, Charlton "get amongst 'em" at Upton Park tomorrow.

We have been offered the 'fresh start' that many of us demanded, the Board eventually delivered upon their promise regarding signings, and we've even sold all of our tickets. The team will won some and it'll lose some (it may even draw a few too), but we won't countenance any more of those listless performances that unfortunately characterised much of last season (think Wigan or Arsenal away for example). Hence, if I was doing Iain Dowie's teamtalk tomorrow, only the injured Floridian, Cory Gibbs might be left in any doubt about the key message.

I was pleased to learn that the game will be shown in full but delayed (until 2.45pm local time). Thus if you happen to be in New York this weekend, and see a chap walking around in a Charlton shirt wearing Bose noise-cancelling headphones, please come over and say 'hi' and tell me how I can improve my blog (just don't tell me the score).

It will be strange to be one of only 3,000 or so Charlton fans that will be able to see the whole game, but thanks to the new scheduling guidelines in the US this season, it will likely be a more regular occurrence. The broadcasting rights are now split between Setanta and Fox (ie. Murdoch) and there will be even more games available this season and beyond.

For example, this weekend one can watch fully 8 of the 10 games in full (6 of them live). Indeed, I may well be in the unusual position of being able to watch more matches than almost any Charlton fan (except the hardy few hundred that continue to travel to most away games). This blog can be criticised for lots of reasons, but hopefully not for being ill-informed this season.