Tonight was my first taste of pre season and it was an enjoyable night.

Due to the Central line being slow I missed Les Ferdinand opening the club shop which looks quite good inside now it has been re furbished.

The evening started off with the all stars game was pretty good. They could have done with announcing the teams as it was hard to tell who a few players were. The All stars won 3-2 or were they the Legends I got confused after a while. Trevor Sinclair got 2 and Les Ferdinand the other. Sinclair second was a quality goal from outside the box whilst Ferdinands was a typical Les header from a good Sinclair cross.

Tony Roberts scored two penalties and played up front and almost got a hat trick but Mcdonald blocked his effort.

Other players on view were Brevett, Ready, Darren Peacock, Steve Hodge, Clive Wilson, Mark Stein and Gary Waddock in Tony Roberts side. Les Ferdinand, Fenwick, Mcdonald, Paul Parker, Brian Law, Wilkins, Holloway, Sinclair, Dennis Bailey and Gary Penrice were in the winning side. Wilkins looked a different class until he got knackered after 10 minutes and Ferdinand and Sinclair looked pretty good too.

The main game was pretty good too. Roberts gave a thank you speech before the game and stated that we will win the league this year which got a nice cheer.

We started with a 4-4-2 of Day, Forbes, Carlisle, Shittu, Williams, Langley (left), Palmer, Bean, Ainsworth, Pacquette and Gallen.

Shittu had a goal disallowed early on and we started well. The goal came from a Williams free kick but Shittu was offside as he smashed it home. Not the anyone realised as the fans celebrated, pig bag was played and the tannoy man announced the goalscorer before rather embarrassingly saying, "Sorry Mr Gallagher has disallowed it"

Day made one good save from a long range effort tipping it wide before Pacquette went off with a slight knock with Furlong coming on.

Gallen gave us the lead with a brilliant goal, with his back to goal he turned his man and fired in from 25 yards. A bit like his goal at Orient last year.

Charlton then stepped up a gear and equalised pretty quickly. Julian Gray got it, he looked a decent player for them on the left wing.

For us Ainsworth and Langley looked our best players. Bean had a good game in the middle and the back four were doing well.

Sadly Palmer looked a few yards off the pace, on this evidence he doesn’t warrant a place this weekend. Ainsworth was causing problems running at the defence and they had three men on him at one stage.

Williams went on one forward run like in the playoff final but my scream to square it worked this time although no one was around for it to be squared to.

Half time 1-1 was pretty fair. Second half we started ok but Charlton looked the side with more quality. A poor lazy pass by Williams gifted them the second goal. They still had a lot of work to do but we were on the backfoot and the Bartlett did well to go round Day and slot into the empty net.

Williams showed his good and bad points tonight and committed one really bad tackle on Scott Parker which would have seen him booked in a normal game. Still as I’ve said before he is good back up for Gino and he showed some real quality at times. If he was as good defensively then he wouldn't need to come here on loan.

Jason Euell got the third for Charlton with a stunning goal to show what he is capable of when he's not moaning at the referee.

We made several changes in the second half. Oli, Kanu, Sabin, Rowlands and Daly came on. I was very impressed with Rowlands he looks a cracking player.

Oli was also a different man to last year, running at defenders and having a few shots. He is a vast improvement on the player we saw last season. One run saw him step over the ball in his own half and charge towards goal with pace but he was eventually crowded out.

Sabin was nowhere near as bad as I had expected. Sad to hear the groans when he came on and he does lack confidence in front of goal but I’ve seen worse players than him. Kanu didn’t do much, probably worth signing just to piss off Barry Fry.

Tony Roberts came on near the end before Charlton’s young winger Campbell-ryce tried to pick a fight with Rowlands and Shittu for some reason and it took about four Charlton players to calm him down.

I’ve left the game quite happy and looking forward to the weekend. It was a pretty good game and Charlton deserved the win but weren’t that much better than us although you got the feeling both sides could step up a gear if it the result had mattered.

We do need another forward but the midfield looks very strong and I was very impressed with Rowlands and Ainsworth. Langley also looked in good form and was unlucky with one free kick and as I said before Oli looks very good at the moment.

Roll on Saturday and well done Tony Roberts who fully deserved his testimonial night.