A final word about last Sunday

For the next few weeks I will be publishing stories simultaneously on this blog and Addick's Championship Diary before switching completely to Addick's Championship Diary.

Soon we have to start thinking seriously about next season and the big challenge we face, as big as going up to the Premier League in 1998: the Championship is now effectively the Premier League Division 2 that Richard Murray foresaw. However, first a final few words about last Sunday.

There have been many good pieces of writing about the experience of Sunday, but one of the best has now been published online by CAST board member Heather McKinlay, one of the small band of Scottish Addicks: Of Magpieand Robins

I went to see my osteopath yesterday: he lived in Greenwich for fifteen years at the time of our ascent to, and participation in, the Premier League. He said that when the second goal went in, he thought of me and almost thought of contacting me, but decided it wouldn't be very professional.

Finally, I have been thinking of how delighted my father would have been, particularly as he was at the first FA Cup final at the old Wembley. He would be particularly pleased that our song mentions Jimmy Seed and Sam Bartram. He would be delighted to see as many Addicks supporting the clubs as was the case before and after the war. And he would be surprised but pleased that I was still there supporting them, after disappointing him by failing to follow in his non-league footsteps and become a professional footballer.

Katrien Meire leaves the UK

Former Charlton chief executive Katrien Meire is leaving the UK although where she is going and what she will do is unclear.

She posted on Instagram as follows: 'My Brexit I negotiated it in less than 3 months instead of 3 years and counting Thank you so much...these last 5,5 years gave me some of the best moments in my life, beyond any wild imagination! This not a goodbye but merely a see you later!' Hopefully, never back at The Valley.

I feel glad all over

I have just come across my horoscope from Sunday which said: 'The events today and over the next week will be brilliant, but they could throw you off balance. The remedy? Take a deep breath and try to enjoy them.'

One of my pleasures in leaving League One is a number of teams we will not have to play next season. Here is my top ten:

• 1. Accrington Stanley, the dirtiest team I have seen for many years and prize whingers. Shame as they are a well run club.
• 2. Doncaster Rovers Sour losers. My Charlton friend in Doncaster had a series of messages on the lines of 'We will enjoy seeing Sunderland beat you.' but expressed more vigorously.
• 3. Gillingham A humiliation having to play them in the so-called Kent derby. Their 'temporary' stand is a disgrace and we can do without their caravans clogging up the roads.
• 4. AFC Wimbledon Playing in a non-league ground. Well up themselves. Can't get over the franchise issue after all these years.
• 5. Fleetwood Town Bumped up non-league team. Congratulations to those away fans who went there.
• 6. Oxford United Gobby. Three sided ground.
• 7. Wycombe Wanderers. Should be an easy away game for me, but ground is up a dead end road a long way from the station.
• 8. Shrewsbury Town. Rural team with weird supporters.
• 9. Portsmouth Unpleasant supporters, strange city.
• 10. Bristol Rovers Another odd ground. Gasheads an appropriate name for their supporters.

I was going to include Coventry City, but after a gap of several years following their 5-0 defeat in the Mayoral Cup, they have agreed to play Leamington again to open the season on July 6th (!) Hospitality packages available if you have a few hundred quid to spare.

Tomorrow I will look at the clubs I am looking forward to playing in the Championship.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee

The time has now come to consider the challenge we will face in the Championship next season. It has the least level playing field of any division. Many clubs are receiving generous parachute payments and/or have been able to sell higher level players at a big profit (Stoke City want Bournemouth to pay £30m for Butland).

Others have generous owners who are prepared to bend the financial fair play rules to help their clubs, most recently Derby County with a sale and lease back deal for Pride Park which has led Boro to sue them.

One thing is clear: the last thing a Championship club needs is a stingy owner: Championship finances: an authoritative verdict

Charlton do not want to be the new Rotherham.

As the dust settles, Richard Cawley of the SLP gives his verdict on the scale of Lee Bowyer's achievement: Unbelievable that contract has not been sorted

Roland silent as Bowyer goes on holiday

As Lee Bowyer goes on a well-earned holiday, Roland Duchatelet has not contacted him about contract negotiations, reports the Evening Standard: Silence

Lyle Taylor has warned that there will be a revolt at Charlton of Bowyer is not confirmed as manager. One might add, not just from players.

The end of despair

Ramsgate fan and VOTV editor Rick Everitt can be a bit of a glass half empty guy. That is understandable enough where Charlton are concerned. But the Rickster seems to be in a hopeful mind following our win at Wembley. He regards it as the defeat of despair and the start of a new chapter in the Charlton story: Addicks beat more than Sunderland

The Rickster points out that it was safe enough for the Duke of Cambridge to come to yesterday's Championship play off final whilst it was too insecure for Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet to come on Sunday. However, Prince William is at least a dedicated fan of his club who displays some emotion whereas the barmy Belgian regards it as a business venture worth at best two per cent of his time.

Prince William training with Charlton

This story notes that a variety of celebrities are Villa supporters and explains why Prince William is, given that he doesn't come from Birmingham: Royal supporter

Oddly the list does not include famous economist John Maynard Keynes who wrote an evocative account of an early 20th century match and the time in the pub afterwards (which I think he enjoyed more). Curiously, he also had a great loathing for Ramsgate, something on which he wrote at some length.

I try to console Sunderland supporter

My pharmacist and his two sons are keen Sunderland supporters. His shop is just 100 metres from my home. I went to see him this morning and give him my genuine wishes for their success next season. He said that on Bank Holiday Monday they were in a state of shocked disbelief saying, 'Did this really happen'?

He said that he thought the own goal incident had helped us as it had made our players more determined to fight for the cause.

He feared at the beginning of the season that we would beat them in the play off final. I would have been happy to see Sunderland go up automatically rather than Barnsley.

Sunderland director Charlie Methven has complained that Sunderland fans were quieter than those of Charlton at Wembley which has evoked a mixed reaction on Wearside, some saying you shouldn't criticise your own fans, others that he is telling it as it was: Fans were quiet

Methven does add that Sunderland were up against a bigger club in Sunderland as Charlton have been in the Premier League for much of the last 20, 30 years. I think he needs a fact checker.