Such a perfect day

Summer is finally here and this year it has fallen over a weekend. Yesterday was a spectacular day. Slightly overcast at 7am when I was in the garden on snail patrol but warm enough to promise the wall-to-wall blue sky that appeared by 10am.

I had decided to finally confront the promise I had made to a neighbour and make her a hatch for her loft conversion. So three hours of dripping sweat later I tuned in to Radio 5 and the dulcet tones of Steve Claridge. Surely an omen, this, the man who knocked Palace out of the play-offs in years gone by "in the last minute."

Never has the last couple of hours of a job flown-by quite so quickly as I listened to Palace being outplayed at home for large spells of the game. Without Moses and Sinclair, you would have struggled to hear another Palace player mentioned. City took the lead and restored it near the end with a 25 yarder which sparked premature celebrations of a Wembley trip. City are obviously confident that they can finish the job but they need to remain focused as Palace may well bite back on Tuesday. Neil Warnock was none too pleased about the City players reaction and I would expect a bruising encounter on Tuesday.

A few pints of ice cold cider in sunshine outside the Royal Oak and dinner in the garden with the family early evening. No nagging depression of a poor Addicks performance and the satisfaction that Palace are half-way out of the play-offs. Bliss.

Elsewhere, Wyn reports Charlton interest in prolific non-league scorer Stuart Fleetwood from Forest Green Rovers and wonders if it indicates the departure of one of our existing strikers. As a Championship club with limited finances, we simply can't buy the finished article as far as strikers are concerned, so have to take chances with the likes of Iwelumo, Mcleod and Dickson. Todorov has scored regularly at this level but that was several years ago and he was also a risk. Varney was a hot shot at Crewe but he was still young and we paid reasonable money for him. Gray, too, was something of a risk based on his age and again we paid a fair price for him.

So, buying second rate goal-scorers is a risky business and I think it's a case of having to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. Therefore, Fleetwood sounds like a good move to me. For only £250,000 and presumably modest wages, we will get the chance to see if he can cut it at a higher level. I wouldn't argue that with him we have too many front men but rather that than too few. If Pards can get his money back on one or two of the existing strikers (Todorov, Varney and Dickson excpeted), then so much the better.

Today is another belter - let's hope it lasts past Tuesday evening.