Sunday, March 04, 2007
The Late, Late Show
Watford 2 Charlton Athletic 2
It is horrible when you are overseas and cannot watch your team play on a Saturday afternoon; no TV stations in Thailand (or anywhere it seems) carried this match live, so I had to make do with watching the Arsenal vs Reading game (kick off 10pm l;ocal time) and looking out for the score updates (courtesy of Tiger Beer!) that flashed up at the base of the screen every time a goal went in somewhere, and the overall updates of every game twice in each half.
As the Ashburton Grove game got underway, I was otherwise involved in setting up chargers to power up all those gadgets that one deems necessary these days, and also with trying to catch a rather massive red/brown cockroach which had found its way into the downstairs of our pavillion. This took a little bit of time, and coupled with me reading the local newspaper, the first Tiger update after 25 minutes took me a little by surprise. As always with the non-big clubs, the Charlton score took a while to filter through - Liverpool and Man Utd (the early kick off) came first, then the Fulham, Man City, and Newcastle scores. Then up came Watford 2 Charlton 0. Oh dear. A goal conceded after 15 minutes, then another after 21 minutes. Still, plenty oif time to fight back hopefully. At half time, ESPN are quite good, and show the goals from all the Premiership games that kick off at 3pm in England. Again, last up were Watford's two goals.
Two short crosses, not dealt with, and though Carson made a fabulous save before the first goal, he was helpless to stop either resulting shot. There was El Karkouri, Sankofa, Young, Song, and a couple of other players, but no news on the starting eleven.
Spirits wer not lifted by Wigan winning at Man City, and then early in the second half when the Tiger beer goal flash said Sheffield United took the lead against Everton.
Finally, as the Arsenal machine started to hit the right gears, a decent scoreline - Everton equalising. Soon after Luke Young brought Charlton back into contention in the 67th minute. Come on lads; you can do it.
The Tiger beer score flashes kept coming but brought no further joy. As the Arsenal game finished with 4 extra minutes added, the programme ended just before midnight and the adverts came. No news yet of any final scores...
The next ESPN programme is luckily called Final Score, but unlike the BBC version, it does not start with a results round up, but the studio panel look at highlights and digest each game in turn. Of course, big clubs always come first, so I had to sit through the Liverpool game highlights, then Fulham, then Arsenal (again!), then Man City, before finally, at a very late Thai hour, the host announced that the best had been kept till last - did this mean hope for Addicks fans?
The two first half Watford goals were screened again (hopeless defending...); then apparent Charlton captain Luke Young (who doesn't get many goals we were told) poked in after a delicious through ball from Song. What next - would fial score flash up? No, another Charlton attack. Yippee! The ball goes to Rommedahl (no doubt on as a sub) and his cross is nodded home by Ambrose. Yes! This time, final score 2-2 does come up. I turn off and go to bed - how many did you lose by the wife asked? We didn't I said. Night night!
It is horrible when you are overseas and cannot watch your team play on a Saturday afternoon; no TV stations in Thailand (or anywhere it seems) carried this match live, so I had to make do with watching the Arsenal vs Reading game (kick off 10pm l;ocal time) and looking out for the score updates (courtesy of Tiger Beer!) that flashed up at the base of the screen every time a goal went in somewhere, and the overall updates of every game twice in each half.
As the Ashburton Grove game got underway, I was otherwise involved in setting up chargers to power up all those gadgets that one deems necessary these days, and also with trying to catch a rather massive red/brown cockroach which had found its way into the downstairs of our pavillion. This took a little bit of time, and coupled with me reading the local newspaper, the first Tiger update after 25 minutes took me a little by surprise. As always with the non-big clubs, the Charlton score took a while to filter through - Liverpool and Man Utd (the early kick off) came first, then the Fulham, Man City, and Newcastle scores. Then up came Watford 2 Charlton 0. Oh dear. A goal conceded after 15 minutes, then another after 21 minutes. Still, plenty oif time to fight back hopefully. At half time, ESPN are quite good, and show the goals from all the Premiership games that kick off at 3pm in England. Again, last up were Watford's two goals.
Two short crosses, not dealt with, and though Carson made a fabulous save before the first goal, he was helpless to stop either resulting shot. There was El Karkouri, Sankofa, Young, Song, and a couple of other players, but no news on the starting eleven.
Spirits wer not lifted by Wigan winning at Man City, and then early in the second half when the Tiger beer goal flash said Sheffield United took the lead against Everton.
Finally, as the Arsenal machine started to hit the right gears, a decent scoreline - Everton equalising. Soon after Luke Young brought Charlton back into contention in the 67th minute. Come on lads; you can do it.
The Tiger beer score flashes kept coming but brought no further joy. As the Arsenal game finished with 4 extra minutes added, the programme ended just before midnight and the adverts came. No news yet of any final scores...
The next ESPN programme is luckily called Final Score, but unlike the BBC version, it does not start with a results round up, but the studio panel look at highlights and digest each game in turn. Of course, big clubs always come first, so I had to sit through the Liverpool game highlights, then Fulham, then Arsenal (again!), then Man City, before finally, at a very late Thai hour, the host announced that the best had been kept till last - did this mean hope for Addicks fans?
The two first half Watford goals were screened again (hopeless defending...); then apparent Charlton captain Luke Young (who doesn't get many goals we were told) poked in after a delicious through ball from Song. What next - would fial score flash up? No, another Charlton attack. Yippee! The ball goes to Rommedahl (no doubt on as a sub) and his cross is nodded home by Ambrose. Yes! This time, final score 2-2 does come up. I turn off and go to bed - how many did you lose by the wife asked? We didn't I said. Night night!
Labels: Charlton, Premiership, Thailand, Tiger Beer, Watford
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