Thanks For Nothing Sven

Before we get on to Sven a few quick points. It is often said that fans know nothing about football. Well, on this occasion we obviously did. Many, me included, were suggesting that Spector should replace Chris Powell at Fratton Park and a few, myself included, championed a start for Darren Ambrose ahead of Jerome Thomas. In the end it took a knock to Thomas in training to give Ambrose a start but he took his opportunity with both hands in a Man of The Match performance. Two good chances well saved in the first half, an energetic performance throughout and an excellently taken goal. No disrespect to Jerome but Darren showed more in this one game than Thomas has in the last three or four. Now I’m sure that Curbs doesn’t read this blog or other fans sites so we can only conclude that fans really do know something about football. Personally, I’m pleased that Alan preferred Spector to El Karkouri who I really am not convinced about. Praise to Curbs for the half-time rollocking the team must have received as second half we were a different team and two pieces of Murphy magic and two fantastic finishes were all that were needed to see off a determined Pompey team. Praise too for under pressure Stefan Andersen who, without much to do, produced a brilliant save from Vokic and cannot be faulted at all for their goal.

And so to Sven. I don’t think that Darren Bent’s call up to the recent England squads has done him or us any favours. Curbs may feel that by him not playing at all and perhaps not training as frequently as he otherwise would, have led to Darren perhaps not being as fit as he could have been but I feel that something much more precious has been damaged, his confidence. I’m not saying that Darren has been missing chances he would have previously taken or that he isn’t working hard up front but it looks as though a certain sparkle has gone from his game and personally I can understand why. Sitting on the England bench, top scorer in the Premiership and not being given a chance to show what you can do must be demoralising. Consider how much more demoralising it must be when a ’striker’ is chosen over you who is still yet to score this season for his club side. I really can’t see how the whole experience wouldn’t have had anything other than a negative effect on Darren. Before there was a spring in his step and he was on-top of his game but now he seems to have lost that little bit extra that he had. All I can say is Dazza, forget Sven. He wouldn’t know an in-form striker if he saw one and let’s face it he saw the Spurs game and still couldn’t see what was in front of his very eyes. Us Charlton fans know what we’ve got and we are very happy with what we’ve seen so keep it up Darren, we are right behind you.

So, to Stamford Bridge and the mighty Chelsea. I just hope we go there and give it a go. I’d rather come away on the back of a 4-3 defeat happy that we’ve given it a real go than lose 1-0 to a dodgy goal in a tight game without having made their keeper make a save. We have nothing to lose so let’s show them what we are made of.