Cannon Fodder

Chelsea 1 Charlton 0

It would seem that when Jon Fortune brought Frank Lampard down in extra time in Saturday's lunchtime fixture at Stamford Bridge, it was well outside the area. However referee Mike Riley evidently thought it would be nice for Chelsea to wrap up their championship-winning (small c or otherwise it would refer to Sunderland - bring back Division 2!) season with a win, so he gave them a penalty anyway, which Stephan Andersen saved, but then unfortunately the ball was hit again on the rebound giving the final score as above, which was hardly deserved, apparently.

What is even odder is the fact that although the media was out in force to celebrate Chelsea's league title, Charlton were hardly mentioned at all, and not one of the reporters on things like Match of the Day or Sky even remarked on the fact that the penalty was unfair, apart from Andy Gray, who said something on the lines of it being Chelsea's day, so why not let them have one? So another defeat, though the league position is unchanged, and the performance was considerably better.

And as the season ends for all but the Premiership, I, rather like children at Christmas, look around the various ups and downs to see if I got what I wanted. Well, like the Inspector, I was miffed that Milton Keynes managed to stay in League One; I had rather hoped that the idea of uprooting a club and plonking it down in another part of the country could be severely demonstrated to be a Bad Thing; and now it might encourage others, though not very much, I would have thought. My other club, Burnley, with a relatively inexperienced young manager, have done very well to end up in 13th in the Championship. Other clubs whose success I am pleased about are Yeovil Town and, to a lesser extent, Swansea City. I am not happy about Wigan at all, nor Sunderland, really. I am also sorry that Burnley's ex-manager, Stan Ternent, having done such a good job at Gillingham, was pipped into the final relegation slot into League One. I'm not that keen on the return of Barnet, either, while Forest Green, a team I have followed ever since I spent about a week trying to find out where they were from, have dropped out of the Conference, unless Northwich Victoria's ground fails to pass the upgrade inspection.

Stay tuned for news of tonight's quiz, and an attempted explanation of the counters which are proliferating on the page at the moment.