Six thousand fans see a four-goal thumping

By Nick Martindale on May 1, 2007 12:00 AM |

IT WAS one of the biggest mass mobilisations of supporters ever seen in the Premiership but Charlton fans will remember Operation Ewood as one of the lowest points in a season that looks set to end in relegation.
They travelled to Blackburn Rovers last Saturday (April 28) in the hope of seeing their idols achieve legendary status, turning around odds that had seemed stacked against them and securing Premiership football and all its riches for the club next season.
On a day when fans all over the country paid tribute to one of the sport's true greats in World Cup winner Alan Ball, who died from a heart attack last week, the Charlton faithful needed their players to show the spirit of that England team from 1966.

Instead, they got a display that was more akin to the country's cricket world cup team after a booze cruise on a pedalo.
It's unfair to pinpoint one game as the reason why a club is relegated - had Charlton picked up just half the points they should have secured this season they would have been clear of relegation by Easter.
But if ever there was a game when the club and its fans deserved a big performance, this was it. Scott Carson's uncharacteristic mistake that allowed Blackburn to take the lead after an hour was the most embarrassing but Ben Thatcher's dismissal just four minutes later for his second wild challenge was far more damaging.
And after those 6,000 fans who had made the long trip up from south London finally had something to shout about when Darren Bent headed home, an own goal by the unlucky Hermann Hreidarsson sent them back into despair, into freefall for the remainder of this match and almost certainly into the Championship.
Pardew's personality is such that he will refuse to accept Charlton are down until it is mathematically certain - which could be as soon as next Monday when the Addicks entertain Tottenham Hotspur.
And his attempt to paint West Ham's win, which saw his team slip back into 19th place, as a reason to be positive smacked of utter desperation.
"The result from West Ham versus Wigan has almost helped us so we have to be thankful for that," he said. "We've still got a chance of getting out of it. I thought even before this game that four points might be enough. I just genuinely don't know now.
"I'm not even going to bother to work it out," he added.
"It's obvious that when we play on Monday night we're going to be playing after everybody plays on Saturday so we're going to have a good idea by then."
The biggest shame for Charlton's long-suffering supporters is that while the results of other teams - West Ham apart - have been largely favourable for the past month or so, Pardew's men have wasted their chance to escape by reverting to the kind of inept displays they produced at the start of the season.
After going on a run of four matches during which they picked up 10 points and gave themselves real hope of surviving the drop, the Addicks have now picked up just three points in five games.
And this performance was the worst of the lot.
"It was an even contest until Scott's first error," said Pardew.
"Then we lost a man when Ben got sent off. Events conspired against us in the end. But we've still got a chance of getting out of it. There are so many twists and turns to come."
Yet for Charlton it's hard to see how the twists and turns are part of anything but an irresistible vortex, slowly but surely sucking them away from the Premiership.
They may yet be able to survive but the chances are they will need to win both their remaining games and hope the sides above them fail to win.
And on the form they're showing right now, that's surely too much to ask. 
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