Portsmouth 4 Charlton 2
Charlton back down to 9th if Tottenham don't lose this afternoon. (They didn't, ed.)
Since the opening day of the season, 14 August last year, after the first of what now add up to six defeats while conceding 4 goals, Charlton's goal difference has been a minus number. After leaving the Reebok Stadium with a deficit of -3 after the 4-1 defeat, Charlton now, after the 4-2 defeat at Fratton Park yesterday, have a goal difference of -9, and I don't think it has climbed above -2 at its best, most probably after the 4-0 defeat of Norwich City. The only clubs with worse goal differences are the bottom six, with Blackburn, 7th bottom, now also on -9 after their 3-0 win yesterday, though they are evidently improving, worse luck.
So, as Curbs admitted yesterday, it is down to the defence. We are conceding too many goals; and it isn't Dean Kiely's fault as he has largely stopped Charlton conceding loads more, as he did against Manchester City last week.
Naturally, the finger of suspicion has to point somewhere, and while the defence as a whole has to be held responsible in some ways, see
the Inspector's terse summing up of the situation, I am still inclined to keep on about the mystery of why Mr Halsey, who is not only from Bolton, but also goes on training runs with Big Sam (as Mr Allardyce apparently insists on being called) and the lads of Bolton Wanderers, was allowed to referee Charlton's match against West Bromwich Albion. You will recall that he sent off Talal El Karkouri after 30 minutes, and that 10-man Charlton were not strong enough to deal with 11-man WBA, especially when Mr Halsey was acting as an unofficial 12th man for them, as Wyn Grant suggested at the time. However, TEK's sending-off meant a 3-match ban, of which he has now served 2: 2-2 at home to Manchester City, and now 2-4 at Portsmouth.
So there is one game left of the ban, and guess who that is against. Right first time: Charlton v Bolton, who have been moving nicely up the table these past three weeks, next weekend at The Valley. I wonder if Mr Halsey might be in charge of the game, too, though in fact he has done well enough for his new chums without that. In any case, someone might say something. Well in fact Wyn Grant and I both have, and so has
Oliver Holt of the
Daily Mirror, yet there has been no official reaction so far, and anyway, there's an election on, the Pope and Prince Rainier have died, Prince Charles has just got married again, so why can't we draw a line under it all and move on? But it is where Charlton are moving on to that is giving me cause for concern.
Mr Grant, by the way, thinks that Charlton must have decided that they aren't going to finish high enough to qualify for the UEFA Cup, and have rearranged their priorities to ensure that Crystal Palace go down by losing to their relegation rivals. An attractive theory, but I wonder how different things would have been if we had had TEK available for these matches.