Southampton Preview

A week is a long time in politics they say and this week has also seemed like a long one in football. This time last week I had all but written off our season, now there is a glimmer of hope. A stunning result at Plymouth and a lot of results going our way (with the exception of the Palace win away at Stoke) and suddenly tomorrow’s match against Southampton becomes a bit more interesting, added to which it looks like we might be approaching something close to a full house.

The result at Home Park was immense and I couldn’t contain my delight when I got the news through. To go a goal and man down away from home and come back to take all three points doesn’t happen very often and it couldn’t come at a better time. By all accounts Elliot acquitted himself very well in goal when called upon, we worked a lot better with a narrower midfield with Zheng on the right (although I guess that only got tested for about 5 minutes before Lee Cook was hauled off to make way for the substitute goalkeeper) and Iwelumo and Lita again looked good together up front. On the evidence of this performance, Pardew seems to have instilled a shit or bust attitude into the players (or at least I hope he has) – nothing but a win from here on in will do.

I am hopeful that we can keep the dream alive a bit longer tomorrow, although how typical would it be of our season to follow up such a victory with a mediocre draw? There will be a couple of enforced changes – Sodje seems to be out for the season but the return from injury of Madjid Bougherra and the part he played in last week’s game would suggest he will start with Fortune warming a spot on the bench. The goal keeping issue presents Pardew with a real poser – go with Elliot who performed so admirably on Saturday or choose the recalled Randolph who has (marginally) more experience? My feeling is that he will go for the latter although Elliot should feel extremely unlucky. Other than that, I do not think any further changes are required – this is about as close to a settled side as we are going to get at this stage.

In football outside of Charlton, Kelvin and I set very nervously through the Champions’ League semi-final between Liverpool and Arsenal on Tuesday, the best game I have seen for quite some time. Walcott’s surge up field for Arsenal’s second deserved to win any game, but you have to admire Liverpool’s tenacity to come from behind twice. In my opinion, they also have the league’s best striker in the shape of Fernando Torres – an incredible finish for the Reds’ second. It was a rollercoaster of a game to watch and I think the feeling at the end for my Scouse friend was one of relief.

Charlton are some way off the Champions’ League and I’m not sure we will see such an exciting game at the Valley tomorrow. As long as we get three points, I don’t care. We’ve been given a play-off life line, let’s hope we don’t hang ourselves with it.