The Welling game which has usually been played a week or two weeks before the opening day of the season is now the first game on a Wednesday evening on 8th July (yet to be finalised). The first team squad will just have returned from their Summer holidays and this match will appear even more like a practice match than in previous years. It hardly maximises the money-making opportunity for Welling either being played during the week. Strangely it comes almost a fortnight ahead of the next friendly game against Crawley Town - what's the logic here? Maybe Welling couldn't fit us in after this.
I hope Crawley aren't expecting a bumper Charlton following when we go there on Tuesday 21st July because they will be disappointed. I can also see this being used to play a younger Charlton eleven.
Barnet away is next up on 25th July and at least it is league opposition on a Saturday, although it's a venue we've been to several times in recent seasons and won't attract me to venture around the north circular.
Our annual home game won't be against an exotic sounding foreign team or a hoped-for Premier League side. Instead will be Ipswich Town on Tuesday 28th July. The fact that Roy Keane is now their manager appears to be the big draw that the club are pinning their hopes on (I hope they know he won't be playing). Again, I suspect the turn-out will be poor, due to the quality and familiarity of the opposition and the fact that it's an evening game as opposed to a Saturday.
So to Dean Court then in Bournemouth on Saturday 1st August. This is probably the only one I will definitely attend (Ipswich if I am doing nothing else) unless I decide to be on holiday at this time.
The fixtures are out on 17th June and they promise to be more interesting although our opponents might make sobering reading when we actually see them printed in black and white. Please let the rumoured takeover come to pass!
The Welling game used to be on the last Saturday before the season started. When it first started it was a big event, I went every season for years. Being the last game it meant that the starting eleven would probably be the same as the opening league fixture.
ReplyDeleteDowie made a real insult to both sets of fans in 2007 with so many young and on trial players. He also, from memory, changed the whole outfield ten at half time. It was debatable if we would bother going to the following years’ fixture - £10 to watch players that would never play for our first team was just too much.
Pardew's teams were a little better but I can't help feeling that if the club are going to show such little respect to what was once a 'traditional event' maybe it's time to scrap it.
Bearing in mind we are now a third division club I can't believe that Welling would be all that bothered either.
You're right, it's a very uninspiring list...though I've never found our friendlies very awe-inspiring.
ReplyDeleteMy unfootballing sister is off to the Gillingham play-off final. That's how sobering the League One fixtures reading could be!
No doubt there will be at least one if not two more friendlies arranged. We usually play 6 to 8 each pre-season, clearly they won't leave a big gap between the Welling game and Crawley.
ReplyDeleteKHA - 2007 was also my last visit for this fixture and for the same reasons. Agree we should take it more seriously or scrap it. The only friendly fixture we've fielded a first-team and played properly for the last few seasons has been the home game which has usually been the Saturday before the season kicks-off. It's made the pre-season a bit of an irrelevance.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest, when did we first play Welling every pre-season? When was it made into a regular event?
ReplyDeleteAnon - ooh er, now you're asking. Someone out there may know but not me. It's been an annual fixture for as long as I can remember....
ReplyDelete