Colchester Utd 2 v Charlton Athletic 2

Before the game Alan Pardew would probably have settled for a point. As half-time approached he would have given anything to get level and at the the final whsitle he must have felt that a point was something of a missed opportunity. I certainly did.

Deciding to rest Reid after his midweek game for Ireland, Alan Pardew started with the weaker midfield that including Darren Ambrose, Jerome Thomas, Jose Semedo and Zheng Zhi. With the size of our squad and the anticipated quality of the opposition, I guess this wasn't the worst decision he could have made - that would have been leaving Reid out altogether.

The first-half started well enough but Colchester were giving as good as they got from back to front. We were clearly missing Reid's controlling and pushing influence in midfield. We needed a goal to up the ante but it was Colchester who struck first after half-an-hour. Teddy Sherringham continues to haunt us at 40. He fed Yeates who easily beat Nicky Weaver. Six minutes later and Colchester applied salt to the wound. For the fourth time this season a smaller opposing player has managed to beat the Fortune-McCarthy pairing virtually unopposed in the air from a set-piece to score. It had to be Kevin Lisbie. With fears of a rout on the cards, Todorov slid home from Iwelumo and settled the nerves just before the break. Collective deep sigh of relief and the chance to do something about this game.

Credit to Alan Pardew, he acted switfly at the break and introduced Reidy for Thomas. That added the missing ingredient in midfield at least and we began to hold and play. It was a Reid through-ball that resulted in Colchester losing Connolly to a straight red for a challenge on Big Chris. The home crowd were incensed and they may have had a point but I'd need to see it again before making Iwelumo the villain of the piece. As if to shelter Iwelumo from the abuse he was now receiving, Varney came on for him shortly afterwards and made a contribution to Zhengs equaliser with just less than 20 minutes remaining.

Beating 10-men has never been a Charlton forte. Frankly we struggled after the equaliser and some dreadful defending from McCarthy, Fortune and Weaver might have handed Colchester the winner.

We simply can't keep conceding goals like this and expect to get something from games. The Fortune and McCarthy partnership at the back is not working and there has to be a better option. Madjid, Sam Sodje and maybe Cory Gibbs have something to offer here?

On a more positive note, the point puts us up to 5th in the table with two home games to come this week against Norwich and Leicester and we should expect to get 6 or at least 4 more points from these two. The other Championship fixtures are doing us favours at the moment and I can see us climbing into the top 3 if we can take 4 or 6 points this week. However, the table is very congested with only 3 points separating 17 teams so we must take this opportunity. We have to be picking the players who are playing best for us....

Layer Road hasn't improved since I was last there in the early-80's. For me it serves as a perfect reminder of how far we've come as a club because the Valley wasn't much better in the early 90's after we returned. The Championship is the limit of Colchesters' ambitions because they cannot progress with their tiny and delapidated ground, however, that doesn't mean you can beat them just by turning up!

Crystal Palace 0 v Charlton Athletic 1

How good was that? A hat-trick of 1-0 wins at Selhurst Park (what a dump - it gets worse every visit). A battling team performance inspired in defence by Danny Mills, encouraged by Reidy and finished by Todorov. A nice drink before the game in pleasant surroundings (which meant a late train to the ground) and a few celebratory pints after the match up town in the company of gentlemen. Such a perfect day!

Super Alan Pardew must be a very satisfied man indeed today. He got the improvement he sought in defence instantly with the addition of Mills. McCarthy and Fortune looked the better for it and the concentration levels were evidently better. Powell was peerless as usual and a five man midfield was industrious. Iwelumo lead the line well enough but I would have preferred to have played 4-4-2 from the off. Having said that, Pards got it right because we competed well for an hour before Toddy's arrival and were having a lot of possession and creating chances.

Todorov's introduction and the move to 4-4-2 quickly lead to the winner. A scrappy enough goal that the raucous Charlton fans helped blow over the line. We played out the remaining 20 minutes relatively easily. Sub Idrizaj forced a fine save from Weaver but Palace didn't really step it up enough to look like getting anything. McLeod had the best chance of the game in the dying minutes when through one-on-one with the keeper but his shot was blocked. Palace were very ordinary, much more like I had expected at the start of the season, so their 4-1 win at Southampton begins to look like a fluke. Peter Taylor must be feeling the heat at the moment and they look like they have a long season ahead.

For the Addicks, everything suddenly looks rosy and the talk on the train back to London was understandably optimistic. One win at Selhurst doesn't make a season but it certainly helps cement our start. The international break next week will give us the opportunity to draw breath and get a couple more players ready for the fray. Luke Varney must be licking his lips in anticipation....

I should also report that Simon Jordan got the loud and frequent abuse from the travelling Charlton fans that he deserves. He spent the whole match standing in an exit, presumably so he wouldn't have to sit anywhere near Richard Murray and Co. The man really is a prick.

Charlton Athletic 4 v Stockport County 3

As if Saturday's dramatic 3-2 win the Valley wasn't enough, Charlton went one better this evening by losing a two-nil lead and then going on to win the match in the last couple of minutes.

Increasingly, early round League Cup games take on the form of handicap matches with the "bigger" club usually deciding to rest players and field a team that they hope should be good enough to get the result, usually with some big gun reinforcements on the bench. That was precisely what happened tonight.

Randolph started in goal, with a back-four of Semedo, Fortune, McCarthy and Powell. You could add Faye to that but I think he was supposed to playing in midfield with French debutant, Thierry Racon, Zheng Zhi and Lloyd Sam with Todorow and McLeod up top.

The side acquitted themselves well in the first half and were unfortunate not have scored earlier than Todorov's opener from 20 yards which was a quality strike and a reminder of some of the class difference on show. McLeod was very busy and the front pairing were supported well from Zheng Zhi, Racon and Sam who was thriving on strong and quick raiding support from Semedo, who looked even more comfortable at right-back than he did at left-back on Saturday. Indeed it was Mcleod who was brought down after turning and wriggling free in the box that lead to a twice taken penalty for the second goal just before half-time; Zheng converting after the initial effort was missed by McLeod.

The second half started much as the first had, a reasonable League Cup crowd (8,000-ish) were looking for the third to kill the game. Unfortunately, this was the signal for Stockport to dominate for a 15 minute spell during which they scored three times and forced a superb reflex save from Randolph in the process. The back four, and probably the centre-back pairing, in particular, went to sleep during this period. They were not helped by a careless back-pass from Faye which lead to the equaliser or by McCarthy failing to cut out a secondary ball from a corner for the lead. I don't think this did much for fledgling Randolph's confidence either. Stockport's noisy 400 following could barely contain themselves on taking the lead and the Valley faithful took a deep breath and braced themselves for the finale.

Charlton stepped up a gear at this point and created a string of chances, the best of which was a 50-yard, three man inter-passing and running move involving Sam, Zheng and Todorov. Todorov's deft flick over Adamson just missing the post. Todorov also clipped the bar with a delightfully curled shot from out left. Lloyd Sam was having the best ten minutes of his career in his best Charlton performance to date. He was up-ended after another powerful run and from the resulting free-kick exacted his revenge. He struck a perfect low and hard shot which looked to have moved slightly around the wall before streaking in at the keeper's left hand post. The Valley was buzzing and Charlton pressing for the winner to avoid 30 minutes of extra time.

Iwelumo was on for McLeod and Ambrose came on for Racon. Iwelumo was threatening and had one header ruled offisde for pushing before Ambrose fired narrowly wide after a burst through the box. With two minutes remaining Paddy McCarthy finally jumped to head a ball and his delight was obvious as his header crashed home our last corner of the game.

Alan Pardew's post-match comment will be interesting. Plenty more positives but the centre-back pairing is not right yet. I sincerely hope someone comes in for Amdy Faye. He's had plenty of opportunity to prove his worth and tonight was the straw that broke the camel's back for me; I can forgive a player without the ability but not one who repeatedly doesn't try his best. Unless Pards has a good explanation, he was playing nowhere this evening in between defence and midfield. He was by-passed with ease and failed to make any telling contribution other than handing Stockport the equaliser. Ten men wouldn't have fared any worse.

For my money, Lloyd Sam was man of the Match. Another couple of performances like this and he will begin to emerge as the talent we hope he is.

Next stop Norwood Junction!