Next... Forrest away

It has been a little bit of a stressful week in the Kings Hill Addick household this week. If all the excitement of Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, HBOS falling then being taken over by Lloyds TSB and the Stock Markets going down, down, down then up, up, up Mrs KHA and I were called to KHA Jnr's school to discuss his behaviour.

After a lot of effort we chose a school that we thought would be good for him. It's not terribly local, but we were happy to make the sacrifice of 'The School Run' for his education. He is four years and four months old (much too young to be going to school in the first place, if you ask me) but it would seem that he has failed to settle in to this absolutely new way of life in the first three weeks.

It would seem that a number of the other children went to the school run nursery, which has helped them to settle in. I know this is hardly about Charlton, but it does focus your mind a little when (please bare in mind that I can be excessively paranoid at times) you suddenly find yourself called in to discuss your off spring. The call went something like this "We need to discuss KHA Jnr's behaviour. I will meet with you tomorrow after school." Needless to say the sleeplessness that night was not because I was thinking about our chances of picking up back to back away wins for the first time in ten months.

At the meeting I actually put on a suit, shirt and tie for the first time in ages so that I would look like the kind of Dad that wouldn't have a badly behaved child - why do we do that? It would seem, however, that he is, in fact, a four year old boy - shock horror. The purpose of the meeting (it would seem) was simply a method of keeping us involved. So, basically, I spend a whole evening and half the night worrying and took an afternoon of work so that I could be kept in the picture. I guess that is actually a good thing, but the worry leading up to it did nothing for my health.

Anyway, all that stress behind me I started to think ahead to Forrest away. It would seem that we were a little 'lucky' at Doncaster. Pardew's suggestion that we decided to defend and allow them possession sounded like a great plan - after the result. I'm not convinced, to be honest, that that was his plan before the game started, but let's give him the benefit of doubt (again) and assume that we had a plan, stuck to it and came away with a very creditable three points against the type of team we failed to beat last season.

In truth the Doncaster game could well be more important than we think - or would like - if we end up at the bottom of the table this season, but we could well still make a challenge for promotion. I think one such test is our ability to win back-to-back games, something we have failed to do since last December. This could well be a problem, but a win today would banish that and provide us with a huge confidence boost.

I, as most of my peers, suspect that Pardew will keep an unchanged side. I would like to see Moo2 playing for all the same reasons as Chicago Addick, but I don't think we are going to see him again any time soon, sadly.

As for a prediction? Well I think we are going to win. Don't ask me why, I just have this feeling. Before you all run off to the bookies, I am normally wrong, and I am always overly optimistic. Either was it will be nice to be able to sit down in front of Sky Sports News without the worry of having Satan's child in the family.

Thanks for small mercies.

Up the Addicks!