Next... Bristol Rovers at home

This season started on fire, it was the most I've enjoyed watching Charlton for many years. The way we were playing was as much to do with the excitement as the results. You can't fail to enjoy winning though.

The league form has been less impressive recently, and the chances of us winning the division have looked increasingly remote in the last month or so. The FA Cup game at Northwich Victoria was a bad result, but in the grand scheme of things it was no real loss as we were almost certainly not going to progress very far. Let's face it, we should struggle to beat all but a few of the Championship teams, so the sooner we were knocked out the better for the league form, bearing in mind we have a small squad with significant quality in a few places.

The JPT game at Southampton was important to me as I thought it would give us a chance to play at Wembley, but despite playing well for some of the second half we were second best on the night and didn't deserve anything.

I have been much more busy since I have sufficiently recovered from my operation. Due to a number of factors (that I won't bore you with here) Mrs KHA works full time and I run a business from home and take my son to school and pick him up every day.

I'm lucky to have a job that can be reasonably financially rewarding in relation to the hours that are necessary. I'm not bragging, and I can assure you it was rare before the 'Credit Crunch' and non-existent since, but with luck, and a following wind, I can earn more in a month than someone on minimum wage would earn in a year. This means that with business very slow (as it has been this year) I can still earn more doing a few hours a day than I would in a full time job, based on the skills I have.

However, things have picked up a little in the last few months, and coupled with me taking over the school run, that Mrs KHA did while I was unable to drive after my operation, I'm struggling to find the time to write this blog like I used to. There was no intentional decision to 'take a break' and I can assure you it is merely a coincidence that I seemed to go very quiet after we spanked MK Dons.

I have little to say about the Southampton game. In all honesty I was disappointed by just how quickly I managed to disregard the competition as irrelevant when we were out of the JPT. The MK Dons game needs little discussion. There has been more than enough to read elsewhere, and despite my initial worries when we went a goal down, we showed many of the signs that I was convinced would win us promotion in that second half to re-ignite my interest in our league season.

I had a bad feeling about Yeovil. I think this was mainly because the last three years has taught me not to get carried away when things look good. On reflection the draw was a good result with a man sent off in terrible conditions. It sounds like it was a special day out for all those that went, probably not for the football, but then really supporting a club is not always just about the football. I remember losing an FA Cup tie at West Brom in terrible rain in 1990. The discussion at the time was that we'd lost to a goal scored by a puddle. On the day the game could have gone either way, but the rain just kept on coming and when the goal was scored it was going wide but the standing water changed the direction of the ball and we lost 1-0. To be fair we (My Dad and I) were in a stand with a roof that day, but never the less it created a memory that will last longer due to the conditions. I suspect that Yeovil away in 2009 will be the same.

This brings us on to Bristol Rovers tomorrow night. After being third at the end of September, just one point behind us, they went on to lose all five games in October before winning back to back games in November. We have won two and drawn four of those seven games, so our lead over Rovers is now five points. This is significant because they now occupy seventh place, just outside the playoffs - something we need to consider a real possibility for us this season. Back in 2008 our obsession with automatic promotion and the loan players brought in to get it cost us a dead cert playoff place.

Anyway, their two wins were home to Carlisle and Gillingham, sides that are hardly world class, and if we can play like we did against MK Dons, or the second half on Saturday I think we will be too good for Rovers.

It will be interesting to see if Chris Dickson finds enough form to make his move there permanent. After starting with a few goals he has not been quite so impressive as I understand it. It would be good to get some money for him, and either way I cannot see us giving him a new contract in the summer. With him not allowed to play in this game I suspect that we will never see Chris Dickson take the field at The Valley again. As a character he sounds like the kind of bloke you'd want around. As a player he sounds like like the kind of bloke you can never trust to do what is needed of him at crucial times. It's a shame, but the lad has talent, and I suspect that if you are gifted you are allowed to get away with things that create bad habits. It is no surprise that Man Utd have developed so many young talents into great footballers. Ferguson doesn't allow players to pick up bad habits, non league managers clearly don't have exactly the same approach.

I'm going to go for a win tomorrow night. I think it could be a large one too. I'm going to plump for 4-0. Don't ask my why I just have this feeling.

Up the Addicks!