Calm down! Sandgaard, Bowyer and Gallen know what they are doing.

Football fans have always been notoriously fickle. Just how fickle has always been tempered by expectation and reality. Typically, the clubs whose supporters have the most ludicrous expectations tend to suffer worse - you know, the likes of Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday and latterly Arsenal. Those of us who have learnt over the years not to expect too much and as a consequence have harboured more realistic ambitions have been less fickle and more grounded.

I am saddened then to see a growing impatience amongst our fanbase. We have a sizeable, vocal minority of supporters whose expectations are increasingly way out-of-line. No justifiable or reasonable excuses appear to be sufficient for these people who demand success and don't see why they might have to wait for it.

Two years ago, managerial novice, Lee Bowyer, had his side battling away in League One fighting for a play-off place. Not only did his side take that fighting spirit to Wembley but Bowyer won that promotion against the odds. He had not been backed by Roland Duchatelet, an owner, who very publicly wouldn't gamble on promotion and who had deliberately weakened Bowyer's side during the January transfer window by selling goal-scoring Karlan Grant to Huddersfield. The same Roland Duchatelet who after collecting the Wembley bonuses refused to give Bowyer a pay rise and very publicly tried to call him out on it, only to have to fold embarrassingly the same day and given Bowyer and his managerial team the pay rise they had just earned.

Fans will remember this period because no-one could stop singing "on Saturday, we follow, the boys in red and white..." and dancing manically as we celebrated what Bowyer was achieving. Images after the Doncaster play-off semi encapsulate that and will live long in the memory.

Several months later we kicked-off back in the Championship. Bowyer had been given no money and we had lost a core of the promotion side. Some like Bielek and Cullen had been loaned elsewhere but we lost the likes of Patrick Bowyer, primarily because Bowyer had not been supported in securing his contract extension and he felt he had to move on. Our replacements, in true Duchatelet fashion, were all cheapies, and loanees, largely tied-up at the end if the window when we had more purchase with the leftovers. 

In spite of this, Bowyer's boys began well and during the early months of the season we were up at the top of the table and winning on merit. It didn't last though. Injuries on our small squad inevitably took their toll but we were still hanging on come Christmas. I had zero expectation of Duchatelet supporting Bowyer but worse was actually to happen. Duchatelet was conned into selling the club to ESI for £1 and Bowyer's problems really began. A laughable January window, even by Charlton's standards but particularly given the supposed oil wealth of ESI. 

We all know what followed and Bowyer was unable to prevent a protracted relegation. Our failure to keep Chris Solly and Lyle Taylor on board didn't help. Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of refusing to play outside of their contracted end dates, the facts are that both players did not feel enough loyalty to the club to risk injury by playing on. Make no mistake, this would have been bourne by months of frustration at not being able to get improved deals that both players felt they were worth. That would not have been Bowyer's fault. It was Duchatelet holding the purse strings and he had made it patently clear he wasn't putting his hand in his pocket. When Solly and Taylor saw the bottled water being removed from the training ground, they should have know what to expect. Matt Southall certainly wasn't going to let any spare cash be spent on players when he could rifle it for himself and his cronies. Bowyer might have been prepared to let Solly move on but he had just finished his testimonial season and was still a good enough player to have made the squad. What he certainly didn't want was to lose his top goal-scorer. 

This year's pre-season was only saved by the eventual acquisition of the club by Thomas Sandgaard which took months and at times looked like it might never go through. Remember that it took a sharp legal team to get the deal done by seeing that Nimer was free to sell the club whilst the crooks of ESI went to war with conman at Panorama Magic.

Once again Bowyer, Gallen and Jackson were forced to do their transfer business in the last two weeks of the window, albeit with the support of Thomas Sandgaard, who got our transfer embargo lifted and supplied funds. The issue though was not only a shortage of time in which to do our business, but the fact that League One now operates under a tight salary cap. That meant we simply couldn't hire who we could afford. Every deal had to work within a season's salary cap which was already distorted by players on Championship wages.

We had lost a host of players and could barely put a side together in July but a dozen late recruits enabled us to start this season well enough. It should be said that few had anticipated us to compete quite so well. We looked light up front but a new found defensive solidity provided the foundation.  The positivity towards 'Bows' reached a new high by October when a tight-fisted Charlton defence propelled us to seven wins a in-a-row and top-of-the-table billing on games in hand. Manager-of-the-Month and it was 'in Bowyer we trust' and 'we're gonna win the league' etc. 

Unfortunately, pre-Christmas injuries took their toll again and we have all had to suffer a change in fortunes. A failure to shore-up the loss of Inniss and Famewo having seen us conceding goals and some poor ones at that. The midfield lost confidence and that exacerbated the pressure on the defence. A mixed set of results has seen us lose our games in hand and slide out of the play-off places. 

Bowyer came in for some fair criticism of his tactical changes and substitutions but suddenly there were hysterical calls for him to be sacked. Some fans were even running to Sangaard on Twitter after every disappointing result and demanding he be removed. There were even a few suggestion g we were better off under Duchatelet without any sense of irony. I haven't done the correlation and frankly I can't be bothered, but my anecdotal impression is that a lot of the screamers were the same people who couldn't stop singing 'and now we've got lee Bowyer, we're fucking dynamite,' only months ago. 

The January window opened and we brought in Ronnie Schwartz who would not have been cheap. Want away injured Alfie Doughty was allowed to go in order to free up wages and maintain the salary cap headroom. Not only that but we brought in Liverpool youngster Liam Millar and experienced striker Jayden Stockley. That was good business because it meant we could ditch Omar Bogle who had been particularly disappointing.

Paul Smith has been allowed to return to QPR and today we have seen Bowyer willing to move Marcus Maddison (Bolton) and Jonny Williams (Cardiff) on. The intention being to create salary space for Matt Smith from Arsenal and possibly purchase of Charlie Kirk from Crewe. Rumours are we also made a bid for Wigan's impressive Solomon-Otabor. The hours are running down now but the feint-hearts are back on Twitter shrieking about how this window is worse that Southall's (!) and that Bowyer must go.

Get a bloody grip. Marcus Maddison was always going to be a risky signing because his attitude stinks. It's held him back everywhere he's been but Bowyer thought it was worth a go. We got a few glimpses of his vision and ability but precious little else. He always came on (mostly a sub) and tried defence-splitting passes from forty yards when we were moving well in midfield and he had options to help us create sustainable momentum. That wasn't what I suspect he had been asked to do but it's what he tried every time he came on. That might be better than nothing in a really poor side but we are a team and he needed to contribute in every game, not just one in four. As it was he only wore the shirt eight times. That's still not enough though for some who think we have just let a young Glenn Hoddle go. If you want any confirmation of my point here, he's gone to 87th placed Bolton.

Similarly, Jonny Williams. It must be apparent to everyone by now that Williams is unable to play 90 minutes any more. He has always been injury prone and lacked pace but he has been a successful signing for us but the time was rapidly approaching where he needed a move. He hasn't been the same player this season and Bowyer has rightly questioned his commitment at times. Cardiff is a dream job for a player who is actually much nearer the end of his career than his age (27 or 28) suggests and where he has played nearly as many games for Wales (at all levels) than any of his club sides. 

The other very obvious point about Maddison and Williams is that they would have been top earners and the headroom they give us funds players who can do a better job for us this season. 

With Famewo returning to the squad this weekend and Inniss hopefully only a few weeks away, I am confident results will improve and we can compete again for a play-off place. Bowyer knows what this is all about and the importance of finishing with momentum. He has done it before and will be eyeing it up again. Please, give the man a break and get behind the side. It's been painful to watch in some games of late but that's life but and we should have been capable of seeing why it was happening. 

Some of the less thoughtful moaners have actually been blaming Sangaard and saying we were better off under Roland Duchatelet! Have a word with yourself eh lads? Oh and whilst I have been writing this at the end of the window, we have bought Diallang Jaiyesimi from Swindon. An exciting 22 year old from South London, who scored a very good goal against us this season and had a good game.