A Respectable Position

Charlton 2 Southampton 1

Difficult to find a title which hasn't been used. Seventh Heaven is already rife on the net tonight. Magnificent Seventh? Secret Seventh? Seventh Day Adventists? Getting silly. So I opt for the prosaic over the flashy.

I started supporting Charlton in 1957 when they were relegated, along with Cardiff, to the Second Division. I was a young boy living in the north of England, quite near clubs such as Burnley or Blackburn, and family and friends alike were horrified that I should spurn the delights (?!) of Ewood Park or those (rather better) of Turf Moor, and nail the colours of my allegiance to the mast of the recently-relegated Charlton Athletic. To this day I do not know why. A colleague of mine, who comes from north London, supports QPR, and he maintains that it is your club that chooses you, not the other way about. It's a nice theory.

Stranger still, I have only seen Charlton play a handful of times, as I have lived here in Madrid ever since leaving university, but I assure you my feelings are just as intense. Unlike Inspector Sands, whose writings about Charlton inspired me to start this page up, I wasn't sitting in the East Stand biting my nails this afternoon; I was glued to Livescore, frantically pressing F5 every half-minute for the update to the score, especially after it went from 2-0 to 2-1.

This is Charlton's highest finish in the League since I began supporting them, though not, it turns out, in my life, as they finished 5th in the pre-Premiership Division One in 1952-53.

As 2003 turned into 2004, Charlton occupied 4th place in the Premiership, and were being talked of in the press, rather grudgingly by those fools who complained about the league being boring because teams like Charlton, Bolton, Fulham and Birmingham were doing well, and Leeds and Manchester City, not to mention the absent Ipswich and West Ham, weren't, as the surprise contender for a Champions League place. But the moaners needn't have worried. Chelsea looked over their shoulders from their 3rd place, and saw Charlton coming up right behind. An offer of a large sum of money for our key player would settle our hash, and although the offer was rejected, our hash was settled anyway, as the player in question, now immortalised for me by the above-mentioned Insp. Sands as 'Spotty' Parker of SW6, winner of the Greediest Young Player of the Year (or any other year, come to that) Award, got wind of Chelsea's interest, explained that he had been at Charlton since he had been a boy, and flatly refused to stay there any longer, despite the fact that Charlton, with his help, were on the brink of doing something great.

He went to Chelsea, tripling, so they say, his wages, and yet to our great relief, has done absolutely nothing since he got there. His first-half performance against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final second leg was abysmal, and it was only when he was taken off at half time that Chelsea got into their stride. And anyway, in the end Chelsea won nothing at all.

Our season, however, was blown apart. Since 'Spotty' departed for SW6, Charlton have struggled for every point, and have rarely looked like their late-2003, confident selves. So to come in, finally, at 7th, is an achievement which has to be recognised for what it is. And it is well worth celebrating. There will be a further year in the Premiership; there is money to mount another assault on the upper slopes. It can be done.