There is a God !!

And his name is Dennis Irwin. As Dennis pulled Crippled Alice's name from the hat/bag/whatever, a whoop of delight was my reaction. After Luton/Bournemouth/Exeter etc a game against the Stripey Nigels at least gives us a game to look forward to and a chance for early bragging rights. Not that I expect it to be easy but only because of our poor record in the cups and not due to anything Palarse may throw at us.

I have a major dislike of Palarse and nothing would give me greater satisfaction than seriously turning them over. Admittedly, if they hadn't let us 'ground share' at Sellout, I prefer 'fleece us', then we may have either gone out of business or at the very least we would have not seen the formation of The Valley Party, the Sunday gardening at The Valley, Target 10,000, The Valley Investment Plan etc, etc and so not have given us the rich history we have today and a great sense of togetherness. But forget that. We have absolutley nothing to be thankful to them for. Bring it on. I can't wait.

Let's hope that we can produce a Sky TV performance at The Valley on Monday against Blackburn Rovers to match those of recent seasons. The only consolation is that it can't get any worse than the Southampton debacle. Hopefully a return to the midfield of Matty Holland will allow Danny Murphy to express himself more and bring a much needed more balanced look to the midfield. Up front it's Jeffers and Lisbie for me, Romm on the right and Konch on the left of midfield and a back four of Young, Fortune, Perry and HH. I beleive this team will win more than they lose and propel us to a top-eight finish.

Up The Addicks !!

Grim (sby) Ooop North !

Well, it has been so far this season. Grim, up North, that is. Even a point against 10 man Birmingham did little to alleviate the away day blues. Now comes the news that our leader, AC, has had lowely Grimsby watched four times in recent weeks. Why ?? Surely we can beat the Mariners without having to know that there centre half is Chapple-esque or that there top-scorer has the ability of Carl Leaburn. C'mon !! Just go up there, put out your best team (no El-Kak, Hughes, Kish or Fish please) and give them a damn good footballing lesson. A defeat you say. Ok, as long as we are not totally humiliated right, at least let us score one.

Chris Perry. Welcome back from the Bermuda Triangle that is the Sparrows Lane Training Ground. You have been sorely missed mate. Let's hope you are back to stay.

El Karkouri in midfield. Now what is THAT all about. Nice try, but it didn't work so move on and don't do it again. While you are at it take Hughes (B) with you. Matt Holland, hurry back for Gawd's sake, we don't arf miss ya.

Points wise a good start to the season but performance wise things can only get better. Wasn't there a song along those lines ? Oh yes, and Tony and his mob hijacked it and look where that's landed us. On second thoughts ........