Charlton cruise through

What is it about Charlton and the 7-6 scoreline? In 1957, Johnny Summers led a spirited comeback from 5-1 down against Huddersfield to win 7-6. Then on that famous day at Wembley in 1998 we won the penalty shootout 7-6. And now on a night of excitement and shocking defending, we finally overcame Chesterfield by a combined scoreline of....you guessed it, 7-6.

It seems we can hold off four Premiership clubs for over six hours without conceding, but we couldn't hold off the Spireites for more than two minutes. The fact that we came back not once but twice, and then found the bottle to win on penalties after a last-minute Wayne Allison equaliser suggests that whilst our quality is still inconsistent, our fighting spirit is not. It's the least we would have expected from an Iain Dowie side, but it's welcome all the same after a terrible exit at the same stage last season.

We are on a nice little run now in both the Premiership and the Carling Cup, and with a strong Man Utd side dumped out at Roots Hall, we can at least begin to dream of a a first final since 1947 (I don't count the Full Members Cup not surprisingly). Some more luck in the draw would be welcomed of course in the meantime.

Although some of the doom and gloom after the Fulham game should now be partly lifted, the one 'striking' concern must surely be the fact that in fourteen competitive games this season, only three players have reached the scoresheet, all of them forwards of course (Bent D 8, Hasselbaink 3, Bent M 1) for the record. I sense it won't be long before Andy Reid gets off the mark amongst others, but this must surely be a priority for improvement. Why has it been so long since a Hreidarsson goal for example given he is our main target at set pieces? And the likes of Thomas and Rommedahl need to contribute more too, else the pressure on Darren Bent will be unmanageable.