Charlton 2 Leyton Orient 1
Charlton, according to the reports I have seen up to now, did not find it easy to defeat Leyton Orient from League 2 (whilom Division 4, subsequently Division 3), but come on, no one thought they would. Charlton have a desperately poor record against lower-league teams in the cups, and how did Leyton Orient get into the Fourth Round of the FA Cup except by winning away at Premiership Fulham in Round Three? So, as I say, it wasn't going to be easy, and so it turned out, even though the result, thanks to a deflected 90th-minute free kick, came through when I had resigned myself to wondering if Charlton would get through the replay at Brisbane Road.
Reading the report by my old online acquaintance The Inspector, I see that he seems to think that Leyton Orient have joined the growing ranks of clubs who have set up home in a new concrete stadium with a silly name, and maybe they have, but the two reports I have read make reference to a replay at Brisbane Road; and in any case it makes no difference to the nature of my 90th-minute wonderings.
Charlton still were without Danny Murphy, rumoured earlier this month to have fallen out with Alan Curbishley, and maybe to be on his way to Newcastle in the transfer window, but as the day for the closing of the window approaches, denials continue and the latest rumour is that he is being given time off to deal with a personal problem. New signing Marcus Bent couldn't appear as he played for Everton in Round Three, so Shaun Bartlett was trotted out again, much, I imagine, to the dismay of many fans down at SE7, who don't rate him very highly. For my part, I was glad to see the return of Jerome Thomas, who has not played since mid-December, mainly because of a virus infection, but I was beginning to wonder if Curbs had forgotten about him. Jerome came on as a sub after sixty-odd minutes, and seems to have made a difference, even if he didn't score. The all-important winning goal was scored by Jay Bothroyd, also a sub, and also someone who has been ill. The first was scored by long-standing squad member Jon Fortune (above, though the picture is not the goal-scoring action) after 7 minutes, from a perfect through ball from rapidly-improving Darren Ambrose. Orient equalised and gradually came more into the game early in the second half, but Charlton hung on and grabbed the winner, OK, a trifle fortunately, but there it is.
I see that there has been another giant killing in West London. In the last round Fulham, as indicated above, lost to Leyton Orient; today Brentford did for Sunderland, so what do you bet they'll be Charlton's opponents in Round Five? North-Western opponents we might reasonably fear, on the basis of the season so far, Wigan and Blackburn, are out, though.
The other narrow squeak was at the quiz on Thursday. The quiz has finally got into its New Year stride, and there were five teams, four of them quite good and the other, complete newcomers, who never do all that well. We thought we were on the way to victory, being four points clear with one round to go, and the final round was sport, which our main rivals are not usually good at, but of course this week they had our sporting Irish friends Rory and Sean in their side, and we made a couple of silly mistakes (or shot ourselves in the foot, as our ex-military chum and rival Luis usually puts it) and let them through to win by two points.
There was then another vote about changing the day, and again it was a tie, so again the decision has been postponed, again for another fortnight, although positions seem to be entrenched, but, as with the Fifth Round of the Cup, time will tell.