Charlton Athletic 4 v Blackpool 1

A fine win by all accounts with a supportive Valley crowd to boot which has evidently cheered-up Alan Pardew. The win keeps us in touch with West Brom who won at the KC Stadium. We make three points up on Watford who lost at Preston and two points on Bristol City and Stoke who both drew. The bad news is that Palace won again, this time impressively at Wolves and can leap-frog us next weekend if they beat Bristol City at Selhurst and we fail to win at Watford. If we are good enough, we shouldn't be worried!

Yesterday was a footballing disaster for me - I turned up at Elgin City at 1pm hoping to meet up with a former work colleague who is now the Albion Rovers Chairman, only to find that the game had fallen victim to a frozen pitch and that the Albion team had turned around and headed back to Coatbridge. Hard to believe as it was such a nice day. Underterred, a friend and I then decide to go to Lossiemouth to see them play Wick Academy in the Highland League. The frost beat us again here, so I was reduced to following sporadic updates from the Valley via Sky. At least I will be able to watch the Watford game here on the box.

A couple of signings this week would help lift the club a tad and Pardew revealed on Friday that he told the Board he was looking for a replacement for Todorov and a "link-up" midfielder. No mention of full backs or centre-halves....

The trip to West Brom for the cup replay will come as an unwanted diversion ahead of the Watford game, but a result up there would boost confidence, although it looks extremely unlikely and I can see Pards resting four or five. Ordinarily, Watford are ripe for a beating and if Fulham can further upset them on the Marlon King front, or even sign him, we might find the task a little easier. This is definately one of the games we need to win and certainly avoid defeat in if we are to maintain our challenge. Stoke and Palace follow in the coming weeks at the Valley and these games will be piviotal.

Up the Addicks!