Charlton 1 Rotherham 1

What a frustrating afternoon. It was like a Carry On film: everyone clearly, dearly wants to do one thing but their own comic clumsiness and a conspiracy of happenstance prevent them. In both cases, what they want and what they can't is the same thing: score.

A first half where Charlton surprisingly allowed the visitors a lot of space gradually subsided into the expected dominance of the home team, but there was no real goal threat. The crowd silenced. My mind, inspired, if that's the word, by the shape of the visitors' manager - was drifting away into Donald Magill territory.

Eurgh.

The referee (Keith Stroud) then gave a very dubious freekick to Rotherham, which safely bounced away behind the goal line off a Rotherham player's back. So naturally Stroud then gave a corner. Outrage! Charlton's played showed their disgust by refusing to defend it, and Rotherham went 1-0 up.

It wasn't deserved, of course, but such shocking defending can't be excused.

The second half saw Vetokele replaced by Makienok after 63 minutes. Vetokele hadn't been making a huge impact - perhaps he's still not quite match fit - and the game changed. Makienok is still improving and he shook up play, eventually creating the chance for Bauer to get his first goal for the club.

No-one had a really bad game, and on the whole Charlton should have won, probably quite easily. But I felt that almost everyone was slightly off their best, and there were only fitful signs of the close, almost telepathic, relationship between players that we've sometimes seen. *shrug* These things happen. A game to forget.

Charlton 2 Hull 1

One of those days that reminds you why you watch football. Bizarrely, I was offered a free sample of crackling - which I think is the same thing as pork scratchings - before the game. I didn't think I'd like it, but I'd just paid £2.10 for a cup of tea so I took it. I didn't like it but I ate every tiny scrap.

And that was the least of the treats the afternoon had in store. An extraordinary team lineup had Jordan Cousins filling in at right back, only one (if that) forward, and a bench of babies. This didn't look good.

Luckily Hull Tigers didn't turn up. Nothing feral and savage about the away team's first half display, which made me think that the FA's refusal to allow them the name-change was due to pressure from the WWF: maybe we can't conserve the tigers of the world, but we can at least protect their reputation, their brand value.

Steve Bruce was an unhappy man at half time. He wasn't the only one. Here's what some idiot tweeted:

Really want Makienok to be a good player but so far he's unconvincing #cafc #noYann (#moveon)

— Brian Haines (@brianhaines) August 22, 2015

Seven minutes later he had elegantly glanced a header off Gudmonssohn's cross into the net and everyone (every repentant idiot) was calling him #nuYann.

At this stage, Charlton were rampant. I'd have loved to see what Tony Watt could do in this position: goals were there to be had but were hadnt. As the hot, hot afternoon wore on Charlton's defence looked weary and wilted. With 90 minutes almost up they gave far too much space to Hayden, who should have done better than shooting straight at Nick Pope, who should have done better than spilling the ball to Hernandez (who should have been on the pitch much earlier than he was) who scored.

But then 8 minutes of extra time was announced. Absolute despair when Hull seemed to have stolen all three points followed by relief as the goal was ruled offside, followed by mad scenes of celebration as Makienok returned a favour and set up a goal for Gudmondssohn's powerful neck on 98 minutes.

.@CAFCofficial manager Guy Luzon celebrates the teams 98th minute winner and then gets a red card! http://t.co/de2HZEbbZf

— Football On 5 (@footballon5) August 22, 2015

Absolute bedlam for the rest of the game and long after the final whistle. The feeling was not just that Charlton had deservedly beaten a side widely thought to be favourites to be promoted, but they'd done it with a depleted team. And maybe the reason they'd won was there to be seen in the way Makienok's goal was celebrated by the whole team - just as Fox's had been two weeks ago. These guys really are playing for each other.

Eight points from the first four games is more than anyone could have predicted. Early, really early days, but this looks like a team that can make us proud.

Charlton 0 Bournemouth 3

I suppose I can't really criticise Charlton's players for not turning up for the past few weeks, when I similarly have found it impossible to be arsed to write about the games. This report is late because on Sunday, when I might have spent the usual hours and hours lovingly polishing and ruthlessly honing the cruel stiletto of my prose, I was watching cricket.

Watching cricket is a very unusual experience for me, but it turns out that "watching cricket" is a euphemism for "getting slowly blotto", so I took to it like a duck to whisky. Here's my report: shortly after lunch (a few glasses of wine) one of the teams was all out for 250, then the other team started batting. Then I went for a drink. Then sat in the "Ladies Pavilion" for a while until friends came and took me away to a place where there was beer.

Apart from the almost-continuous drinking, saturday at the Valley wasn't that different. One team played really badly; the other team was really good and was given a shiny trophy at the end of the game. It almost didn't matter who was who. In fact, I could have could have sworn that at least three of the team that was really good used to play for the team that was really bad. Maybe the teams had been picked playground-style to celebrate the end of term.

But, like the cricket, it was a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Perhaps I should "watch cricket" more often.

Charlton 3 Reading 2

Surprising admission: the evidence is building that Guy Luzon is the kind of manager/coach I like. Not just because of the results, but because he seems able to release the inner child inside his players: to get them to play with the sheer fun and enthusiasm you will see on any school playground when the kids get a chance to kick a ball about. No-one takes up football because they want to excel in zonal defensive patterns: it's the pure thrill of doing something clever with the ball that gets people hooked. Get that feeling back, allied to technical skill and physical fitness, and you'll get good performances.

Not always good results, though. The result against Blackburn and the halftime score today showed that the balance can be missing. Charlton had played with some verve but no finish. The energy faded and the game dwindled into snooze, allowing Reading to score a goal that felt ridiculously unimportant.

Luzon's halftime talk must have been something like "Carry on doing what you're doing, just do it a bit better." And so in the second half the performance of the team was more adventurous, and the score could have been higher than it was. Of course, there's a downside. Once again, the defence had occasional lapses, one of which gave Reading late, delusive hope but generally speaking any team that regularly scores three goals in a game is regularly going to win.

Unsurprising confession: I never really warmed to Bob Peeters. It's partly my (perfectly rational) prejudice against really tall people, but he finally lost me after the game against Ipswich in November. Charlton had played brilliantly, particularly in the first half, but lost. Peeters said afterwards he hadn't spoken to the team after that game, because he didn't know what to say. It's obvious (isn't it?) that he should have said "Carry on doing what you're doing, just do it a bit better." Instead, in the following weeks we saw his pattern of play get even more rigid and, ultimately, negative.

Peeters, I suspect, would have destroyed Tony Watt, who is closer than most to the child in the playground. You need to accept that he will do some ludicrous, wasteful things every game, but occasionally he'll do something unbelievable, like setting up Simon Church's goal from an apparently impossible position. Luzon seems happy to give him the freedom to do this.

If you've ever been on a management course you'll recognise that Luzon's management is a vindication of theory Y. But of course you'll also have realised that management theories are pseudoscientific nonsense, so I'm not sure where that leaves us.

Other views:
Hungry (despite the pies) Ted
Chris Powell's Flat Cap
Chicago Addick
Drinking During the Game

Farewell, Lawrie Wilson

So Lawrie Wilson is on loan to Rotherham for the rest of the season. Hopefully, he'll do his bit in ensuring Millwall's relegation, and I hope he'll get a few more chances to play and get back into the form he had last year.

He's had a difficult season at Charlton. Clearly, Bob Peeters didn't like the look of him, and he didn't get many starts. Some of the times he did play were when Peeters was imaginatively playing everyone out of position and no-one looked as if they knew what they were doing. He looked at home in those games.

What we hardly saw this season was the right-side partnership of him and Chris Solly, a partnership that at times had looked majestic. Instead, he was always seemingly the last resort - last on the teamsheet, last off the bench - and it patently affected his confidence. Half the time he was trying too hard and made a dog's dinner of simple situations, and half the time he backed out of anything complicated or risky.

He probably won't be back, and it's sad that his Charlton career has ended with such a whimper. He deserves better than to be remembered for this season. He used to be all right, you know.

Charlton 1 Blackburn 3: catching up

I seem to have taken a month's break from this blog, and I've largely missed out a remarkable transformation in Charlton's fortunes.

I think, despite his promising start, Bob Peeters won't be remembered kindly. I've seen it argued that Charlton have been better organised under Guy Luzon. I'd argue they are less organised. Instead, they are set free to improvise and make opportunities for themselves whereas under Peeters they were over-organised into immobility and caution. As results had got worse under Peeters, he'd only increased the rigidity of the team's play, and the players had become frustrated and impatient. Some played for their own self-respect; some effectively gave up.

Luzon's had an even better start. The last time we were gathered together, brothers and sisters, was after the out-of-the-blue win against Brentford. That game saw two decisive changes: Watt and Vetokele playing together, and some brilliant imposter in Bulot's shirt. Those changes have been maintained, and you can see that the players have a new liveliness about them. They're happy to be part of a team.

Four wins out of five effectively brought the season to a happy end: relegation fears swept aside and nothing but a healthy serving of schadenfreude pie to look forward to when Millwall and Blackpool go down. I feel quite sorry for Blackpool fans, totally ripped off and betrayed by the club's owners, but not for anyone else (you know who I mean).

And so it was no surprise that Charlton started Saturday's game with the kind of lackadaisical folderol more commonly seen in late April, when the holidays are booked and players are mainly thinking about how to avoid hidden cameras in the late-night hotel bar.

After 15 minutes Chris Solly needlessly gave away a throw-in. Quickly taken, it set up Rhodes to score the first of his two goals. You might have hoped it would jolt the Charlton team into life, but the second goal, just two minutes later, was even worse. A desperately slack back-pass from Buyens, which Johnson treated with patrician contempt, preferring to concede another goal than touch the ball, and the game was over.

The man next to me was enraged by this. Fair enough, I suppose, but Charlton's defence was so hapless on the day, it felt mean to have a go at them: like swearing at a new born kitten because it can't do differential calculus. The rest of the team did what they had to do, even though it was pretty much pointless from then on.

The result dented Luzon's record, but it's still too early to say if he's a good or bad manager. Someone needs to sort out the defence, and I'm pretty sure it can be done.

The real concern, though, is this. In a normal club, Luzon could use the remaining games to prepare the team for next season: bringing on promising youngsters and planning the replacement of some loanees and senior players. He's obviously got the core of a decent squad which, when given the right conditions, can beat almost anyone. In Duchatelet world, though, nothing can be taken for granted. Luzon, I would suggest, has very little idea what his squad will look like in August, or even if he, regardless of results, will still be here. The club has an opportunity to grow, but will it be taken?

Charlton 3 Brentford 0

Let me begin with a quote from someone else who saw the game:

What we saw today was a team playing without belief and seemingly going through the motions. Their confidence and pace had been sapped as if by an unseen force as the ball was turned over with monotonous regularity ...

But, for a change, this was not about Charlton, but about their opposition from this - I think - very fair summary of the game by a Brentford blogger.  I actually didn't think Brentford were that bad: technically, at least, they were well above Charlton at their recent worst, but there was a recognisable lack of pep and vim about them.

From a Charlton point of view the match proved what an unpredictable and therefore addictive game football is. After Tuesday's game, when everyone, even Solly, was off-form, here everyone, even Bulot, was playing well.

Especially Bulot. His performance was a revelation - a nice revelation, not a horrible one like at the end of the Bible. What made that happen?

The obvious answer is that for once Charlton played with a free attacking spirit. At last we saw Watt and Vetokele together from the start, and we liked what we saw. They seemed to like it too, with all the signs of a bromance blossoming on the most appropriate day for it. Watt's sheer enjoyment of the game is, I suspect, infectious. He simply loves to run at defences with the ball at his feet, and to find out what he can get away with. He also blatantly loves the limelight, which might be a problem later on when, inevitably, he will turn in a bad performance but for now he's out to dazzle us, and by god we need some dazzle in our lives after the last few months.

Maybe the Brentford blogger is right and they were really bad and Charlton were lucky to meet such a demoralised team. A more demoralised team than Charlton? These are strange days, indeed.

A curious and almost forgotten feeling suffused Floyd Road after the match. Happiness, and a slight aftertaste of optimism. Maybe this will be the performance and result that turns around the mood. Winter isn't necessarily over, but this felt like a spring breeze.