Magic Moments !

From where I was sitting Danny Murphy looked quite pleased with his late stunning free-kick. After being mercilessly barracked by the Spurs faithful every time he touched the ball, it was only right and proper that he should sweetly strike home the free-kick, off a post, from 20 yards in front of his ‘adoring’ fans. Quality. And this is exactly the word to describe Charlton’s performance.

From the 4th minute, when Jerome Thomas smashed a quite breathtaking drive from 30 yards past the despairing dive of England keeper Robinson, to the final 4th minute of injury time this was a Charlton performance of which to be rightly proud. Those fans who previously berated the 4-5-1 system are suddenly nowhere to be seen. Instead we exited The Valley to the chant of ’Alan C’s Red & White Army’ and deservedly so. The last time we left it was with boo’s ringing in our ears after the Leicester performance. This time the team delivered. To single out certain players for special praise is probably a tad unfair but special mention must be made of firstly Chris Perry who was at his imperious best, Danny Murphy who worked his socks off and provided real quality with his play, Jerome Thomas who for 45 minutes gave Spurs no end of problems but especially to Paul Konchesky who performed superbly in the centre of midfield in preference to Kish.

I was surprised at the treatment meted out by Spurs, especially on Thomas, and at how niggley and nasty they were. Michael Brown has never seemed like that sort of player to me but tonight he resembled Robbie Savage but without the hair.

For some reason it is always especially sweet to beat Spurs. I don’t know if it is because there are more Spurs fans at work than any other team, whether it is because Judas plays for them or, more likely, because their fans seem to be living in some sort of time-warp in which they are the biggest club in the world. Get real. The hierarchy of English football has changed and Spurs are now amongst the also-rans.

So, now for West Brom. Make no mistake, this will be as tough as any game this season has been but three points will take us another step closer to the European qualification we crave and in my opinion deserve.

Finally, three words for referee Mr Chris Foy. Stop, please, now.