Charlton vs. Cardiff City

Did anyone else notice how noisy and rowdy the fans seemed after yesterday's football match? Normally the crowds coming and going are really good and if I'm elsewhere in my flat it's easy for them to slip in and out of the stadium without attracting my attention at all.

Yesterday was a bit different. There was a fair bit of noise and singing going on, there seemed to be police shouting at the crowd getting them to stop pushing and stay back and the crowd were singing back slightly offensive ditties about the de Menezes case.

I can't help but wonder if these were the Cardiff City fans, that would explain the difference in behaviour. They also had just seem their team get a 3-0 drubbing so perhaps they weren't in the best of moods.

However even though the crowd seemed rowdy by usual standards they weren't really a problem. I don't think anything's been broken and it didn't seem to be anything more serious than a bit of shouting and pushing.

It says a lot about how well behaved the fans that come here are that yesterday was the worse I've ever witnessed them behave and it really wasn't that bad at all.

Sure I have to move my car when the games are on but living so close is an interesting experience.

The idiots who were at the "party" in the club thing on Charlton Church Road and were still shouting at top volume to each other in drunken voices at 12.30am were far more of an annoyance.

It's Football Season again

I'm not a follower of football, it's an entire tide to life that just used to sweep me by. I now have to pay a bit more attention to it, if not my car gets towed away when Charlton play at home.

There's been a few matches now and I'm getting back into the swing of keeping an eye on what's happening.

However couldn't it be made easier?

I'm sure that Charlton used to pop a letter through local doors giving the dates of home matches, I certainly didn't get one this year. The little sign up by the station isn't much use as it's often only updated a few days before a match.

I'm lucky, I can get into the habit of checking on the internet for what's going on.

On that matter does anyone know of an online calendar in a format suitable for use in iCal on a Mac? At the moment watch the fixtures page and manually update my diary. Oh how easy it would be if they just offered one on the internet. Maybe I should suggest that to them.

As for last nights match well it all seemed rather subdued, perhaps it wasn't that important a game? I was pottering around at home and hardly noticed the fans coming or going. I've got to say they usually are very well behaved and no trouble at all.

Charlton vs. Parking Restrictions

There was a Charlton home game on Sunday and something odd was going on with the parking restrictions.

The signs are put up, by the police I believe, about 4 hours before the restrictions come into force and that's 2 hours before kick off.

Anyhow the signs said that restrictions started at 1pm, which is usual for a 3pm kick off. The KO was at 1.30pm though, so way before 1 o'clock the area was packed the roads cleared.

I wonder if anyone got a ticket and what rights of appeal they might have.

More ineptitude from those responsible though....

Fair enough I chose to live near a football stadium and there will be consequences of that. However the council could do a lot to make things easier for us residents.

Charlton vs. Bolton Wanderers vs. Roadworks

Well Charlton are at home again and this time I think the trains are working, so all's well then? Well no. Some company's been digging holes in Floyd Road, which is the route thousands of fans take to get to the stadium. There's at least one big hole and two coned off areas restricting access down the road. I'm wondering if someone's going to fall in. Where's the health and safety man when you need him?

Match day in Charlton

It's match day in Charlton all the trains will stop,
It's match day in Charlton the cash machines will flop,
It's match day it's match day in Charlton!
Hip hip hip hip hip hooray!

Thousands of people are flooding into the area and South Eastern Railways have stopped the trains between Deptford and Charlton. Well that's what their web site seems to claim...

"Deptford to Charlton. Bues will replace trains between New Cross and Charlton connecting with train services at Lewisham" (note the spelling error, we're dealing with muppets on a grand scale here).

The line between Deptford and here doesn't go through New Cross or Lewisham, that line breaks off outside of Deptford. In theory the buses should go from Charlton, through Westcombe Park, Maze Hill, Greenwich and then Deptford. So what's going on? Beats me. Probably beats those fans trying to get here for the game too. We're playing Watford so people are going to want to come in from the north and through town. They'll probably have to drive now. Thanks a lot South Eastern Railways, ingenious.

You might think that the allegedly environmentally minded Greenwich Council might have something to say about things like that. However they seem to be too busy threatening to take legal action against a blogging site for having a logo that looks vaguely like theirs.

On the subject of the train company and their engineering policy with it's seemingly random shut downs they're also the idiots who shut down the trains when Elton John played here. Thanks for that. First gig at Charlton Stadium for years, could have been the start of something special. Not when SE Railways managed to botch the day up.

I guess someone at that company doesn't like Charlton Athletic, or Elton John.

It's not just the trains though. There's two cash machines near the stadium that I know of. One at the grounds and another down at the BP garage on Woolwich Road. Both are out of order. Top. All those people flooding in and wanting to put money into the local economy, even if it's just the beer and kebab economy, are scuppered.