With only ten minutes or so to go the match was still goalless and what seemed like a reasonable penalty claim by Charlton was turned down. At that point it seemed that Charlton's consistent pressure would go unrewarded, but then Lloyd Sam bundled the ball over the line to general jubilation. If we carry on like this we might even claw our way into an automatic promotion place.

The entertainment tonight was pretty well continuous, with the home crowd constantly a-buzz with excitement. The villain of the night was the referee, who did his reputation no good at all when he enraged the locals by awarding a goal kick instead of a Charlton corner. Still it goes to show that the officials can't spot everything.

To his credit the ref did spot some first half timewasting by the visiting goalie, and he added a full three minutes of addition time at the end of the first half, even though there had been no goals, substitutions or injuries.

Again, recruiting visiting supporters for the matchday photo was straightforward. Word seems to have spread in the Championship about our initiative, which is now in its sixth season, and so there's not much explaining to do when approaching visitors, thank heavens!

Stoke's supporters must have had very real hopes of an away point for all of the match, which must have made their long midweek journey to The Valley seem fairly worthwhile!