I can't deny it, I couldn't see Charlton getting anything at Leicester. None the less, I settled down for a nail-biting evening constantly updating the clubs official twitter feed, forever hoping, whilst desperately trying to convince myself another defeat wouldn't be the end of the world.
And then we scored. Our Breton warrior, Yann Kermorgant, latched on to a neat pass from Pritchard (after some typical never-say-die work from Wagstaff) to slide the ball into the home net. The scorer remained calm, not wanting to offer disrespect to his former club despite a barrage of abuse, but elsewhere Addicks the world over were dancing around their living rooms. I nearly lost my head in a collision with my light fitting. It's not possible for me to love Yann more!
Like everyone else, when Chris Woods equalised I feared the worst. The home side piled on the pressure and it looked all-ends-up like it would be another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. History repeating itself. Groundhog day. Daja vu. I'd have settled for a point but my heart grew heavier.
With a little over 10 mins to go Powell bought on Haynes for his defensive midfielder, Dervite. In the time it took me to tweet 'Brave move from Powell', Haynes had scored with a left foot wonder-strike! Powell has taken some stick recently for the timing of his substitutions, but this one could not have been timed better.
As strange as it sounds, I sat motionless this time. It was as if I was expecting a tweet moments later saying 'Sorry, assistant linesman's flag was up. Goal disallowed'.
Those final minutes seemed like hours. Thankfully we held on. This result lifted Charlton up to 12th and perhaps most importantly, edged us a giant step closer to the 52 points many are predicting we'll need to ensure consolidation in the Championship.
Top marks to the 680 travelling Addicks. Your efforts were rewarded. A splendid team performance all round.
I though Dan, who writes the Ramblings of a Football Fan blog site summed it up perfectly when he tweeted "I love supporting a club where a win feels special, as opposed to a formality. Enduring the lows means the highs are a lot higher". Spot on!
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