Charlton Athletic Penalties And Chelsea Shoot Out of The Carling Cup

Picture by Lee Harrison of Keith Peacock
Taken at Birmingham City V Charlton Athletic


You might ask what has this got to do with Travel and in a way you'd be right, except Lee Harrison of Select World Travel is a Charlton Athletic Supporter and has been for approx 32 years. I don't get to see many live matches unfortunatly, as our Travel Agency is open six days a Week and generally Saturday is one of our busiest days. Also being based in the Midlands makes it difficult to travel to Charlton's home Ground in South East London.

Charlton Athletic does of course have travel connections and former player Andy Hunt is now running The Belize Jungle Dome . The Jungle Dome should be on every body's Wish List as a place to Visit for Culture, Adventure, Exploring and as a great Family Holiday destination as well. For More information e-mail to enquiries@selectworldtravel.co.uk

Last Season was very strange as far as Charlton were concerned, they were the only team in the Premiership not to be awarded a Penalty for the whole season. This season has been completely different with the First Penalty being awarded in Charltons pre-season Matches, and Several have followed.

Last nights game bought back happy memories of Charltons finest game against Sunderland, played at Wembley Stadium in May of 1998 when Charlton gained top flight football in an epic match that ended up 3-3 at Full time. A Tense Extra time produced 1 more goal for each side to make it 4-4. The football had been end to end for 120 minutes and Wembley had not seen anything like this before. The atmosphere was undescribable as the Penalties took place, with Charlton eventually coming out on top with 7 penalties against 6 and Sasa Ilic the Charlton Goalkeeper the hero of the day.

My Lasting memory of that day was when Alan Curbishley asked a parent in the crowd if he could take their Daughter down on to the pitch to meet the Players and join in with the Celebrations .

And So to Last Nights Hero, Stephen Andersen
having to re-live that great Penalty shoot out of 1998 as the game at Stamford Bridge ended at
1-1 after 90 minutes and at the end of extra time the score remained the same.

Alan Curbishley has shown this season that he now has some difficult choices when choosing his Squad. Stephen Andersen has stepped into the Keeping gloves of Dean Kiely. Dean has always been a stalwart in between the Posts and over the last three seasons, I can't really remember him being injured or out of favour. A pre-season hand injury has given the position to Andersen and on last nights performance, I can't see Dean Kiely featuring in many matches this season


Photograph by Lee Harrison of Stephen Andersen
Birmingham City V Charlton Athletic



Matt Holland is another Player that is finding it hard to get into a playing position at present because of the size of the team, and last night he showed Alan Curbishley why he should be a member of the first team squad.

And So to the Penalties, always nerve racking, and apparently Curbs struggled to find players keen enough to take the honours or disappointment. Having scored 1 a piece Robert Huth stepped up and placed the ball to the right of Stephen Andersen, The Ball was Struck well, but at a height that had Andersen punching the ball away from danger, and was Certainly a better Save than Sasa Ilic's Lucky windfall against Sunderland in 1998. For me the best Kick came from Charlton's Hermann Hredirasson, especially as ITV's Commentators almost put a curse on him as they suggested he looked nervous and could miss. The Summersault celebration looked clumsier than the well taken penalty.

And finally the Honour of Scoring the Winning Goal lay at the feet of Bryan Hughes another Player finding it hard to get into a regular playing position. A superbly struck penalty and Chelsea are out of the Carling Cup

Photograph by Lee Harrison
of Hermann Hredirasson

There is a new Phrase in Football " Doing a Charlton" and most clubs in the lower divisions hold Charlton with high esteme and aspire to be like Charlton. We are no more " Little" Charlton and The Managers, Directors and all of the Staff at Charlton should be congratulated on getting the Club to where it is today. Today's Blog started off with a Photo of Keith Peacock, an unsung Hero who has stuck with Charlton through thick and thin, I expect that the Cheeky Grin was probably wider than ever last night