Glory Be

Charlton 2 Aston Villa 1


The heading for the current piece is still in line with the current policy during the 12 Days of Christmas, of using lines from carols. These two words are from one of the later verses of Once in Royal David's City, but of course they were pretty much what I felt like shouting out at about 1555 Madrid time earlier today, when, having resigned myself to another home draw, and nothing to cheer the upcoming turn of the year, I saw the Livescore readout suddenly change from 1-1 to 2-1. This was followed soon afterwards by the number 90, indicating that the game was still on, though in extra time, being replaced by the letters FT, standing for full-time.

OK, Charlton still have a long way to go, and Sheffield United's win over Arsenal later on was not really good news, but one thing at a time. Charlton have drawn, and won, the two games under our new manager Alan Pardew, who, God help us, was appointed only six nights ago. Yes, they were home games against clubs we might be expected to beat, but even games like these were not producing anything much earlier in the season.

So, in honour of our new manager, and by the way, he is, according to The Inspector, the manager, none of this 'head coach', 'management structure' business, I have decided to abandon the series of nice Christmas pictures from the Spiritwolf website with which I have headed the two previous Christmastide pieces, in favour of a shot of our new hero, and as you can see, Mr Pardew (to sound like an Evertonian for a moment) looks just like what a Charlton manager should look like: i.e. he is fairish-grey, not unhandsome, and blue-eyed, just like Curbs. Not only that, also like Curbs, his nickname is self-selecting: you take the first syllable of his name and add an s. What could be simpler? Frankie Valley christened Iain Dowie 'Monica', for some convoluted reason which you can find for yourselves on Frankie's archive if you are so inclined, and when Les Reed came along, Frankie dubbed him 'Lou'. This was not really in keeping with the way things have to be done at Charlton, and so the new manager and his name are a Good Thing (for even older readers).

At least now that Steven Pressley has signed for Celtic rather than Charlton, we will be spared any references to Elvis, though I have already seen two distinct mentions of Mr Pressley having left the room, during that brief time when he might have been going to become a Charlton player.

As for the game, well I have only read Frankie and The Inspector so far, and of course the BBC. The BBC, as is par for the course with them, emphasised that Charlton's second goal was a last-minute one, seeming as always to imply that it shouldn't really count, and that it was against 'ten-man' Villa, again rather implying that Charlton had had one of them shot, whereas if Mr Gareth Barry hadn't thought it a good idea to haul down Dennis Rommedahl on his way to goal (he invariably misses, anyway) then Villa would have ended the game all square, personnel-wise at any rate. However, even the BBC conceded that Charlton deserved the win, especially after being robbed on Wednesday night. Frankie and the Inspector are of the opinion that Charlton were still not terribly good, and Frankie went a bit further and said that Villa were the worst Premiership side he had ever seen, or something. Surely not?

All in all, much food for thought as the year ends, and we look to Tuesday and Charlton's first visit to the Emirates Stadium, yet another new lump of concrete with a silly name. What has Arsenal FC got to do with the UAE that they name their new ground after it? Eh?

PS: In response to rather fewer requests than I had hoped for, but there has been one, the reference to Mrs Freeman's cat at the end of the last piece is to do with the 'fifties radio serial Mrs Dale's Diary; Mrs Dale's mother was called Mrs Freeman (played, how these things stay in one's memory, I can hear the announcer reading the cast list now, by Dorothy Lane); Mrs Freeman had a cat. He was called Captain. Pronounced, in the style of the day, "keptin".

Happy New Year.