Charlton Home. Saturday October 26th.

By Mark Deeks
October 31 2002

Charlton Home
Saturday October 26th.

Well, considering myself to have had quite enough
experience of the state of the British train service after the Juventus escapade, I decided to return to the tried and trusted method of foot on accelerator pedal. Although the mildly intimidating sign that read "A1 North, Long Delays" was a bit of a shame. Mind you, nothing a quick trip across to the A19 couldn't sort!

Regular readers of this column will be aware of my
ever increasing frustration with a certain lacklustre left-sided Frenchman who answers to the name of Laurent Robert. Or as I prefer to call him, "RROOBBERRTT MMMAAAANNNN!!!!" Following the victory against Charlton, I was curious to read such media descriptions of our illustrious continental wanderer as, "stunning" and "when he's good he's very good" and "man of the match, fantastic".

I ask simply: "What?"

Granted, he took his goal marvellously. It was a
fabulous move, rounded off in the style it deserved. It merely confirmed that we really should be beating teams like Charlton easier than we did. But as far as I could see, this moment of magic was very much in the minority in another game of Robert's bottled tackles and aimless wandering when we weren't in posession. I repeat readers, I really do want the guy to be fantastic, it's not as if I'm sat booing him every
game. In fact, when he does something good I am the first to offer my applause and cheers. But right now, (and indeed all season), he has not offered enough.

On the plus side, I have to say that I thought that in the main, our defence were very good today. Titus had what I considered to be his best Toon performance yet, at one point spraying 50 yrd passes with ease. Andy O'Brien was mostly good, Hughes was solid as usual, and Andy Griffin? Well, what can you say? That strike
was clean as a whistle, and the only down side is that those of us who sit behind one of the goals are going to be ducking Griffin goal attempts for the next 6 weeks whilst he attempts to recreate it!! Apparently, Shearer asked him later why he looked so stupid when he scored and why he didn't have a goal celebration ready!!! That's what sheer astonishment will do to you
Al!.......

All in all, another good result, especially
considering the exertions of 4 days previously against Juventus. But why oh why must we give teams head starts? Is it just that we're not happy unless we feel we've got something to prove? Whatever it is, it certainly isn't good for the heart. But let the results keep coming.