Thank You

The lot of most football fans (obvious exclusions being Spanners and Palarce supporters, whose lot is too awful to contemplate, and Gooners, who can only ever hope at best to have their expectations fulfilled, never exceeded, leaving them miserable most of the time) is pretty similar. There are ups and downs, even spells where you might start to wonder whether it is all worth the commitment as the disappointments mount and appear permanent. But then there are the good times, moments that you wouldn’t swap for all the proverbial tea in China – at least I wouldn’t.

Every Addick can rattle off our glorious moments and their stories of the incident/game/season. And to the list we can now add away at West Ham in August 2026 (for the record I was at Upton Park in 1986 for Jim Melrose’s goal and the 3-1 win). That might seem an exaggeration to some, but please cut me some slack. I was taken into a French hospital via A&E on Wednesday, had a few very difficult days (all good enough now, let home today but wobbly), but by midday Saturday the tubes had been taken out and I was able with the help of my partner Suzanne to rig up a lap-top to watch the game on CATV. And what we were served up with gave us a reminder why we are Addicks. A performance of heart and resolve, with serious attacking intent thrown in, and a victory to warm the cockles of the heart of every Addick. For that, in the circumstances, all I can say to the players and management, is a very heartfelt thank you.

Let’s get the Hammers’ side of things out of the way first. The Leeds guy with the post-match diatribe got it pretty much spot-on. I commented after the game that West Ham – with the exception of Bowen - had been sloppy, complacent and arrogant and deserved everything they got. Of course its early in the season, they are still gelling, good time to play them etc. And of course on another day we don’t begin the game with an overhead kick goal from a central defender and they don’t finish it with a penalty miss. But they so badly lacked drive and leadership on the pitch, moving the ball sluggishly – even though they had ample evidence that when they did speed things up they not surprisingly threatened. All the heroes on the pitch were in our new away kit.

I found it odd that their manager Nuno Espirito Santo commented that “we got punished from situations we knew Charlton would create problems from”. So, if you knew how, where and why we would cause problems how did you set up your team to head off such problems? Or did you – and/or the players – just not bother? Just assume that there would be too much firepower to outbalance anything we might throw at them. West Ham were punished from a throw-in and a centre-back getting caught in possession. Fact is, through the game West Ham mustered a free header just before half-time, a couple of efforts that Okonkwo saved well, one goal, and a fortuitous penalty at the death (unlike Steve Brown and the rest of the CATV crew I thought the ref had no choice but to give it, however harsh and unfair on the excellent Coventry). Set that against two scored and at least half a dozen situations where we were almost in. Jones the Boss was right, we deserved our luck at the end.

Okonkwu had an excellent debut. Jones the Talisman was top-drawer but so too were his accomplices, Koumetio, McNamara and Bell. It’s not a back four which many of us would have predicted a few weeks ago, but one which has got off to a great start, helped for sure by the astute Chalobah (please can he stay fit!) and Coventry, who is benefiting from not having to focus just on clearing the lines. Assuming Mannion stays (and Kaminski departs), to that six in front of Okonkwu the current back-ups are another six: Ramsay and Edwards, as and when they are available again, Burke, Mesik (who is still recovering from Blackett-Taylor having skinned him), Sichenje and Asiimwe. You assume that if suitable bids come in Burke and Asiimwe will depart (and if they do they go with all best wishes); if they do, we really do need Ramsay and Edwards back available at least for when the injuries and suspensions start.

Coventry and Chalobah are so far nailing down the two defensive midfield spots. The alternatives would seem to be Docherty, Ouma (of whom we so far know very little), Rankin-Costello and Mwamba, with Captain Doc so far not involved. Here too you feel we can mix and match to some extent but struggle with any sustained absence through injury.

The three in front of them – in my view the powerhouse of the team – is not yet settled but looking full of promise. Some people wonder what has happened to galvanise TC, but the answer seems clear: ask him to play in a role which maximises his abilities and don’t ask him to switch from front two, winger (on either side), and wing-back. He can switch sides with Grant but as a matter of choice. Add in Alli and Apter and we have options on either side. The enigma is the central role, currently held by Carey. He’s been a great signing and you hope he will grow into the different role being asked of him compared with last season. I still suspect that as things stand Knibbs could offer more when it comes to knitting together the three. But that’s for Jones to decide, it’s another area where we have good options, especially if you include Rankin-Costello. Those options would of course increase if a certain Rak-Sakyi appears on the scene.

For the one up top, Godden joining Kelman on the unavailable list did hurt us yesterday. Leaburn came in and was outstanding, the best game I can remember him having for us, effective and an unsolved problem for them throughout. But he had to leave the field on 70 minutes and his departure clearly affected our play. Mbick is clearly a great prospect and it’s enormously encouraging to see him back playing the game after his long injury. But it was an enormous ask. If I have one minor criticism of yesterday it was that perhaps Jones could have come up with a different option than asking Mbick to do what Leaburn had been doing for the final 20+ minutes away at West Ham, with Alli and Apter on the bench. I don’t know what the situation is with Kanu. That said, there were so many exhausted players on the pitch at the end that we were going to be under the cosh late on whatever Jones did.

The 4-2-3-1 formation is so far working a treat. Slipping into a back 3/5 late in the game to defend a lead seems reasonably unproblematic, given the players available. The question is how do we switch as and when we need to chase a game? With Dykes having gone somewhere else, we need forwards on the bench not just to replace a tiring one up top but also to be able to switch to say a 4-4-2 with the wingers. Hopefully Godden and Kelman will both be back shortly and at least we have the numbers, even if Kanu remains frozen out.

So, there was a very happy hospital room in Chalon-sur-Saone on Saturday afternoon and the grin hasn’t faded yet. Just how Jones fashions a side to go out and compete against Spurs on Wednesday night I haven’t the faintest idea. In other circumstances it would have been reasonable to anticipate us putting out close to a first-choice squad and Tottenham to pick from their reserves. But with them having been humbled at Brentford and needing match-practise and us with an exhausted group of players and a match at home to Preston on Saturday to prepare for, perhaps the reverse will be the case. Who cares? It’s a bonus.