Oh yes…………The Duke had just scored a wonderful goal against Arsenal. After which the world went mad and we won three in a row, including another Duke Goal at the Sheepshaggers and a Worthless Cup win at Dartmoor In The North. A win against Charlton would make it four in a row. Oh well. Much more of this and we'll all need medical treatment. Or at least regular inhalation of pure oxygen. It's all very nice and long overdue. And nobody deserves it more than the fans who have stood by our club in amazing numbers for the last five dark years or so as lightning forked all round us.

Said fans walk around with a slightly glazed look these days. Gawd knows what they'll look like if the current run keeps up. I'll be happy as long as they steer clear of gradually returning loonballs amongst other fans. As we all know, these things come and go in cycles, and right now fans' behaviour is on a relative downward curve. The signs are not good and the media are next to useless in helping us arrive at a sensible solution.

Be that as it may, it wouldn't do to get too carried away by Moyesy's revolution. He has indeed wrought minor miracles and his obvious honesty has rightly captivated anyone who comes into contact therewith. He looked on amazed at the directorial shambles of the Annual General Meeting. His straightforward speech was the only thing which prevented it turning into an outright farce punctuated by stand-up bewilderment-as-comedy routines from the floor. But an increase in players' fitness and the addition of a few new players has a limited shelf life. I hope I'm wrong when I say I can't see it lasting at the present rate much beyond Christmas. Whatever, his management has refreshed everyone for the time being and that can only be good news. Relish it while it's there. As time goes on it will be natural for the New Manager Syndrome to wear off.

More to the point, he has an even more straightforward way of dealing with the players. Much to my joy he's fucked mind games right off into the pages of our shite local and national newspapers and left it to the arsehole TV pundits too. You fit and in form? Okay, you play. Lose your concentration too often and likely you'll get dropped. All of this with a squad with too many players over thirty and/or past their best. Meantime, he gradually drafts in younger players and buys a couple of real bargains. That's a razor blade he's walking there. Don't forget it, friends. Make allowances when the inevitable slips appear.

Not that this appeared to bother Keith too much when he showed up pre-match V Charlton in the Pacific. The words "championship" appeared in his first sentence. I wanted to throttle him. Fortunately, this is the only piece of outright lunacy I have encountered in our fans since the current resurgence. Most of us are just happy to feel good about it.

Me, I expected some kind of reaction to the midweek extra-time penalties win over The Skunks. Time was when it wouldn't have mattered. But now things are so much more "professional" (the most misused word in the preposterous media footy lexicon) it seems the bouts of "tiredness" and injuries are so much more "professional" too. You can rationalise anything if you try hard enough.

Which is one reason The Duke's arrival has created so much interest. All he wants to do is play and score the way you used to in the school yard. None of this total shite about "professionalism" for him: just gerritt at me feet and I'll run at them and score if I can. The boy WANTS it and wants it ravenously. The "professionalism" will of course arrive with "maturity." That is, getting older. I hope it doesn't rationalise away his freshness and enthusiasm. All great players retain this. Needless to say most elements of the media can't wait for him to show signs of vulnerability. Then they'll have their media event to make a crummy vicarious living out of. Small wonder they are so despised.

Give me The Duke and his enthusiasm any day. Even if he failed tomorrow nobody who was there is ever going to forget that goal against Arsenal. Which is what the game's all about. Ask all those kids with "Rooney 18" or "Roonaldo" footy shirts or any one of the wildly imaginative tee-shirts on sale. The dream lives for them in Rooney, and he's one of us. Fingers crossed, he'll be alright.

I anticipated the Charlton match would be a tricky encounter. I admire Alan Curbishley's terrific achievement in rescuing them from oblivion but they've never been easy to watch even when they've done well. They remind me too often of one of those people you sometimes meet in the pub, the ones who are mildly interesting until they breathe alcohol induced halitosis all over you. Few things are more likely to guarantee my exit. Last season of course the drunk deservedly walked all over us at GP. Not a happy experience, that and the halitosis.

So…………………a slightly above average gate and a tiny pocket of Charlton fans came on the back of our good run. It was an overcast but not chilly day at the start. There was a genuine air of expectancy during the walk up to the ground. For a change it overwhelmed the false eye-glitter of lager. Nice too that it supplemented the usual enthusiasm for footy. When it's like this there's no better game in the world.

The Gravedigger was back, Stubbsy kept his place and Unsy returned in place of Own Goal Sandro. Pembo was back at wide left mid too. The Duke was benched.

The game went pretty much according to expectation. Mostly it was us doing the biz, then Charlton got hold of the last half hour and should have equalised.

They got back into the game through the efforts of a marvellous young midfield player, Scott Parker. Diminutive, sharp and willing, he played like an old time inside forward and appeared brilliantly all over the place. On one occasion he went on a 50 metres solo run against a steadily retreating defence and almost got through. If this was a true sample of Parker's ability then he's destined to be a great player. They didn't have much apart from him, though Jansen made an occasional nuisance of himself.

Our best man by some distance was Joey Yobo. Yet again he showed what we've missed for years in central defence, an able partner for Davey Weir. But he's so good he even had Stubbsy playing really well until Davey subbed for him late on. The ground was abuzz with his efforts every time he went near the ball. He can do the lot: head powerfully away, control it, pass it well and tackle nigh perfectly at crucial moments. He's an absolute joy to watch, especially when he does things like a backward-over-the-head lob to Tony or has a sudden surge of pace when all looks lost.

Midfield was iffy this time round. The Twin Slapheads were staccato for most of the game and Li Tie's tackling still needs more meat to it. If and when he gets that, he'll be a really good all round player. Pembo's lack of pace once again showed up but he tries to make up for it with work rate and outstanding free kicks and corners.

Nevertheless, we played reasonably tightly and every now and then made some smart moves without threatening goal much. These days we look and play so much more like a team.

When the goal came it was a direct contradiction of the last two paragraphs. The Gravedigger dispossessed one of theirs centre left, maybe forty metres out. Then he stuck a good ground pass right through a strangely untenanted centre and The Rad ran on to it and got it home from about the penalty spot. For a second I thought it was pulling wide but it arrowed into the keeper's bottom right corner. Altogether a smart opportunist goal, though doubtless Curbishley broke a few cups over the dispossessed one's head in the dressing room.

Immediately afterwards the Gravedigger smacked one narrowly past the goal. By this time we were in control without looking anything special. The difference now though is that we've started to do the simple things properly.

In the second half we had a couple of good chances before Charlton imposed themselves on the game. One of them was one of The Rad's notorious misses. As usual, he did all the hard bits first. That is, killed the ball mid penalty area goal line left side, accelerated away from one defender like a jaguar, skinned a second, closed into the middle and faced a gaping goal. Naturally he smacked it over from seven metres. It was maddening. Peter said, "If he could put those away he'd be the best striker in Europe." And you know what, so he would. One day he's going to get them all on target and score a hatful. And nobody will have earned it more. His work rate has grown enormously this season.

Wrighty gets more confident with each game too. He only flapped at one cross all match and caught everything else even under a lot of pressure.

For the last half hour the arse fell completely out of our game, a timely warning to all of us not to take anything for granted. Charlton were all over us and were unlucky not to get it level. We had a couple of last ditch tackles from Joey and some goal line clearances to thank. Had we let an equaliser in we might well have let in another goal. But this is Moyesy's team, much less likely to surrender to seemingly inevitable fate. We kept them out.

Then Rooney came on and didn't see much of the ball. Maybe his impatience led to an avoidable flashpoint. A Charlton defender got away with a half-hearted foul on him, a routine sort of thing, nothing vicious. The ball went out, the same lad took the throw-in, got the return ball and pushed it away…………just as The Duke came rushing in with a deliberately aimed boot. Fortunately it made only the slightest of contacts. Had the recipient been caught squarely there's no question it would have injured him badly and a red card deservedly flourished. The referee took a benign view and waved a yellow. Which has me concerned about the derby game. Local lad……………Jeffers and the pinky Gerrard sent off in other derbies……………lots of flashpoints……………Wayne Rooney up for it and no mistake. Which means he can't afford to be impetuous or allow himself to get goaded. He has to keep a cool head in his kecks.

By the time the final whistle came we were only just hanging on. Then we did some quick calculations after the scores came in and everyone jeered the pinkies' loss at The Smoggies. Christ, we're fourth! Christmas is early, then. Looking at the fixture list a month ago, who'd have thought it? So a sense of perspective is in order.

What we don't want is the kind of shite reported in one of the tabloid rags during the week. According to the rag, the popeyed Gaul in the House of Comedy said something like, "Apart from the team, the only thing which matters is god and family." Firstly, I don't believe he said it, not with his own mortality so recently in question. Secondly, if he DID say it, given contemporary local history, he ought to be suitably ashamed. Thirdly, as usual, we haven't got "god's" personal opinion at yet another crucial moment, just like all the other crucial moments you've ever known. It goes without saying that I can think of hundreds of things much more important than footy. It's a recreation, a sport, a pastime, a hobby. But it's not the fiftieth thing in my life, never mind the third.

I admire what Moyesy and the players have done hugely, in the way I admire anything well done by our species. I fervently want it to continue and get better. And for some unknowable reason I share elements of the tribalism which permeates every one of us, lower middle class self-styled "objectivists" (no, not the Ayn Rand ranting-righty variety) included. And of course I am as elated as the next Blue Belly over the current situation. There's absolutely no question it makes you feel as good as Moyesy says it does when you win. We all know that. The point is how you deal with winning. If you want a lesson in how not do it, look across the park or at the Ozzies, where too many need a good malleting to get them to rejoin the human race. Win - smile and enjoy. Lose - get mad, use it as a catalyst, get even with fate, shrug and move on. C'est la vie.

Enjoy the smiles, friends. You've earned them. We all have, thanks to Moyesy and co.

On the injury front, Toby (hamstring tear) joins Dunc and Juli on the Bellefield table. Pisto, Nace, Stubbsey and Stevie Wat are all fit again after their run out at Newcastle. The only decion David Moyes has to make is who he will keep in or will he bring back Yobo, Pembo, Hibbo, Rado , & Gravo. I think he will. That means only a place on the bench for the Dook.

Whoever plays will need to give it their all against a Charlton side at the wrong end of the table. On paper after beating Arsenal, West Ham & Newcastle it seems that Charlton will be a piece of piss. This is the attitude the players need to leave in the dressing room, & I'm sure Moysey will have the boys ready. (08/11/02)

Lard's eleven to start: Wright, Hibbert, Weir, Yobo, Unsworth, Carsley, Li Tie, Gravesen, Pembridge, Radzinski, Campbell.