Charlton Athletic Online

Ian McCulloch may have been more interested in the Liverpool score where I was, but my mind (while listening to the music) was firmly on events at the Keepmoat Stadium as Charlton reversed recent results and secured a one-nil win.

It was Andy Gray (left), with his fourth of the season, who scored the all-important goal, looping in a header in only the third minute.

Of course, if the team had listened to me then the goal is unlikely to have been scored, as I suggested in my preview that Jon Fortune should be thrust forward at every opportunity; however, in this case, Pards knows best, and Forch took the free kick from which Gray headed in...

Match reports suggest that Donny had most of the possession, but Charlton defended resolutely, which makes a change! The team was the same as that which took one Wolves at the weekend, but with a 4-5-1 (or was it 4-4-1-1?) formation change, and hopefully they are now starting to learn that we need a solid defence to go with the work rate and skills that they all have. Crainie seems to have had a good game while Youga, Bailey and Hudson all made crucial interventions at times.

Doncaster were without talisman and ex-boyfriend of one of my staff - Jason Price; the official Charlton site seems to have caught on with the qudos of highlighting the "Afro goal-machine", adding a picture of the boy to the match preiew, and including "the towering presence of Jason Price (was) not among the substitutes" to the match report. When shown this, Laura responded - "Towering? He wasn't that tall!"

The result pushes Charlton up to eighth in the Championship league table, with three wins and three defeats, which is a reasonable start for the team this year. With Zheng Zhi, Todorov, Ambrose, McLeod, and Primus all getting closer to full fitness, the Addicks shouldn’t be short of talent to push the team on to greater things over the coming weeks.

The away game at Forest on Saturday is another important one where victory will get everyone excited, while defeat will be same-old same-old. Fingers crossed eh!