Gambling doesn't pay

CHARLTON 2 NARCH 0

5 minutes to go and we get a Penalty which will give us a deserved win against Norwich. My niece sitting next to me is overjoyed as it means she will win the pub prediction competition and £40 sovs. That's a lot to a college girl. She is devastated as Reidy fires home again 2 minutes later. This gets me interested now as I've got a 3-0 so I'm encouraging the lads to shoot and not fart about in the corner. My daughter on the other hand has a 2-1 win and is encouraging Norwich to pull back a late consolation to win it for her. In the end of course we all lose but the Addicks had put a smile on our faces as we move up to 3rd.

Back in the small time.

COLCHESTER 2 CHARLTON 2

So off to Layer Road. A ground that defies time and the sterility of most Premier League 'Bowls'. The U's fans sang "welcome to Layer Road" after each of their goals and I am sure they were sarcasticly saying welcome big boys we might play in a dump but we are beating you fancy Dans. To be honest I thought it was great, standing on the 9 step deep terrace at the away end and experiencing the banter with around 100 voiciferous 12 year old Essex boys was great fun. The Colchester fans were lead by a little fat bloke in a pink top. Oh how we laughed at him as ZZ hit the equaliser.

On the pitch Iwelumo was totally flattened on his way to score. This was apparently a deliberate dive according to the hosts but TV pictures showed what we all knew and that was that the defender fully deserved the red card that followed.

What looked like calf strains meant Charlton lost both Iwelumo and the excellent Todorov but Luke Varney took the chance to impress the travelling Addicks in his cameo at the end. Charlton non entity Lisbie managed to score but this had more to do with a Weaver flap than any outstanding ability.

So 2 home games to come and a real chance to consolidate a promotion push. All we need to do is defend properly and there is every chance we could be nicely placed after next weekend.