City’s search for a first league win continues tomorrow against visitors Charlton Athletic who led the table after taking ten points (including a win at West Ham) from their first four games. Subsequent results have not been so impressive with a 4-0 loss at Stoke (all of the goals coming in the first half)followed up by goalless home draws with QPR and Portsmouth.
Charlton have scored just six times in their seven league matches with four of them coming in their first two games, so goal scoring looks to be a problem. However, that forty five minute aberration at Stoke apart, three goals conceded in six and a half games shows that a City side with just two goals themselves from four games will need to be far more sharp in front of goal than they were against Stoke and Bolton – games which BBM said yesterday produced, by many statistical measures, the best since he took charge.
There’s better news on the injury front for what, disappointingly, is another lunchtime kick off. Dylan Lawlor is fit enough to be considered for selection, but with no pre season behind him and no games played for around three months, I’d be surprised if he’s in the starting eleven. Will Fish is also back in training, but will not be ready for tomorrow.
On to the quiz, seven Charlton related questions with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. With an older brother who was a winger who had a long career mostly spent in the lower divisions and a surname that had you in mind of another sport, this Salford born defender’s league career began with two sides who wore red , then finished with two who wore blue. He began with a few games for a team that were probably the nation’s darlings at the time before signing for Charlton. He barely missed a game during his two years at the Valley before moving to a club that were probably at their historic peak a decade or so earlier. He became an Essex man for a while after that before dropping into the non league game to become player manager of a team whose phoenix club were very recent visitors to south Wales. Can you name the player described above?
70s. With a surname which sounded like an admonishment, this Londoner seemed set for a long and illustrious career as he racked up the appearances for Charlton as a teenager following his debut at 17. He gained more experience while on loan to a team from the north which last played league football nearly fifty years ago. However, his career in the UK was effectively ended by an eye injury which prevented him from playing for eighteen months and when he resumed his career, it was in South Africa for a couple of years, before settling in the Atlanta area in Georgia,USA where he played for various clubs before founding and then coaching the team at Life University for ten years. Can you name him?
80s. Wave stoned male at first on his way to becoming Charlton defender. (5,6)
90s. Sounds like what a religious man might wish for on a Sunday!
00s. Name two Charlton players to be shown red cards in Cardiff in games during this decade.
10s. Possible song writing combo, which would probably have to have been in existence in the late 70s or very early 80s, consisting of members of bands beginning with the letter B?
20s. Sounds like the name of parts of a writing implement manufactured by a film rabbit!
