On The Road
WHY IT’S A HAPPIER VALLEY FOR CHARLTON FANS THIS SEASON
Not A coffin, fake funeral, plastic pig or beach ball in sight. After all past attempts to force charlton’s owner out, the Valley has been something of a protestfree zone this season.
Why? Well for one, Belgian millionaire roland duchatelet’s managerial merry-go-round has come to a halt.
karl robinson’s players are pushing for promotion to the championship and it is a year ago this week that the former Mk dons manager took charge of league one charlton.
Before robinson, russell slade lasted less than six months, Jose riga lasted four and karel Fraeye lasted three. the revolving door has stopped spinning.
those who dislike duchatelet know how to get their point across, having previously interrupted matches by throwing hundreds of beach balls on to the pitch and making pigs fly.
March last year saw charlton supporters carry a coffin through the streets of south london before staging a mock funeral outside the stadium. It represented the death of their hopes and dreams.
richard Wiseman, the chairman of the charlton Athletic supporters’ trust, led the procession that day, and he told Sportsmail: ‘We are a club who are no longer the laughing stock we were a year ago.
‘the club have stuck with karl robinson, which is what they weren’t doing with his predecessors. I would say I feel less disenchanted than I did. the reason is not so much the good results and position in the league, but the reason we are getting those results is because the absurd merry-goround of inappropriate coaches and players, and provocative statements from duchatelet, have stopped.’
do not think this means duchatelet is back in their good books, however.
At Blackpool, supporters have got what they wanted — a For sale sign has gone up. that is what charlton’s supporters want, too.
‘the overall thing is the club won’t regain their reputation. they won’t regain their heart, some people say, with this owner,’ Wiseman says. ‘ We cannot get back to the real charlton Athletic that had such a good reputation for stability and judgment and supporter engagement. We cannot get back to that under this owner.’
there was no column from charlton’s owner in the official match programme. Yet the front page of the fanzine Voice of the
Valley had the headline: ‘roland on the brink.’
the article inside was about how duchatelet is supposedly ready to sell. there has been no official comment from the club.
It has been a rough ride for charlton, who finished seventh in the Premier league in 2004. Back then, the Valley’s average attendance was more than 26,000.
there were 10,577 there on saturday, including 602 from Milton keynes who came to see if the dons could get the better of their old boss.
robinson spent six years at Mk dons, taking them to the championship in 2015. that is now his aim with charlton. And his side ought to have won this game. they took a sixth-minute lead through Josh Magennis but that was cancelled out by substitute kieran Agard after the break.
It was 2-1 to charlton in the 87th minute courtesy of a dons defender. tarique Fosu played the ball into the box and scott Golbourne kicked it into his own goal.
A soft stoppage-time penalty saved the away side after Peter Pawlett fell to the floor inside the area. Agard buried the spot kick.
charlton’s twitter account chirped up: ‘officials have lost the plot here, to be honest.’
robinson’s post-match press conference was delayed as he was in referee Andy Woolmer’s room. once robinson arrived, feeling robbed, the charlton manager joked about putting the man in black in the cryotherapy chamber with his players.
so there was no win ahead of his one-year anniversary but robinson is optimistic about where charlton are heading. Bit by bit, the fans are getting their faith back too.