Hanging On

Birmingham City 0 Charlton 1

When I wrote about Charlton's 3-0 win at Middlesbrough a couple of weeks ago, I said that the Sky News commentator reported, after 80 minutes, that Charlton were "hanging on".

The reason for this was that after 80 minutes, Charlton had been leading by 1-0 for quite a long time, and the commentator, who had clearly been hoping for (preferably Middlesbrough) goals to liven up his afternoon and make the Sky football transmission more entertaining for the discerning viewers, was beginning to realise that the score would stay that way.

In fact there were two more goals in the final stages, but as they were scored by Charlton, the commentator was not appeased, and put them down to Middlesbrough being "tired".

In fact, though, Charlton were not "hanging on", in the true sense of the words. Hanging on is a metaphor derived from the real world, after all; "hanging on for dear life" is the usual form of the expression, conjuring up an image of someone clinging to an upturned boat, or clutching at a bit of couch grass at the top of a cliff from which they will otherwise drop; hanging on in the face of almost certain disaster, for an unlikely rescue.

So of course Charlton were not hanging on against Middlesbrough at all; they were defending competently and continued so to do, and scored again (and again) anyway.

The 1­-0 win at Birmingham was, apparently, competent too, although reports do seem to agree that this time, there was an element of hanging on. Of course if all a team have is a 1-­0 lead, then they will hope that there won't be a sudden mysterious penalty (of the type so often awarded to Real Madrid if it looks as if they might lose, or denied to their opponents, as at Cádiz the other week) or gust of wind driving the ball in the wrong, disastrous direction. But they are supposed to defend, and if they do so competently, then I submit that this is not hanging on.

Birmingham did indulge in some all-out attacking play for part of the second half; they were very poor in the first half, and Charlton's defence held firm, anyway, and gave Alan Curbishley another three points to mark his 600th game as Charlton's manager (though he was joint manager for a while at the beginning, I know).

And considering that the referee was Bolton Wanderers's Mr Mark Halsey, after what he did to Charlton near the end of last season, it is just as well that the defence did hold firm. (See my post about the Portsmouth game).

Darren Bent once more scored, but I have posted so many pictures of him already that I am sure you all know what he looks like by now.

So, four wins out of four; is that the end of the adventure? Or might Charlton fans hope for at least a point from the confrontation between the two leading Premiership sides at The Valley next weekend?