I made the short trip over to Chartlon today and boy was it worth it. Harford picked an unchanged team from the one that drew at Preston, which I like. The early stages of the match were largely dominated by Charlton, but the defence stood up well. Barker had a good game for his standards, but it's clear he's not in the same league as Cranie and Mancienne. What a pity they're loan signings and not permanent fixtures. Stewart had a poor first half, but he did constantly seem to take every opportunity to be stretching. I suspect that this may well have been hindering him.

The first half ended 0-0 which was fair enough, but Charlton shaded it. However, the story was much much different in the second half. The team played in a manner that seemed at odds with our position at the bottom of the league. A real passing game was being played, with Vine and Ephraim (loan signings again, *sigh*) combining well to cause constant problems to the Charlton defence that's clearly lacking in confidence. Leigertwood continues to impress, and had a great chance that he put wide. But that's not the key part of his game. Together with Bolder, we're starting to see a midfield that's beginning to win the ball from the oppostion regularly and then play the ball on the floor. When there's talent like Vine up front that often means that chances will be created. And that's what happened when he was brought down in the box for a penalty. Rowly stepped up and struck it low to Weaver's left, but the ball rebounded off the post. "That's why you're going down" the home support piped up. Which was unusual because we'd not heard much from them all game.

Rangers continued to press forward and the goal arrived in the 72nd minute, with Bolder taking advantage of Weaver being tangled up with Nygaard. We went wild. Could we really do this? "That's why we're staying up" we taunted the stunned home support. Speaking of Nygaard, he had a good game. I'm really beginning to take him to heart. He may not be the best technical player, but he always produces the goods. And a special mention for Stewart's near goal off a corner, when he nearly backheeled it in to the Charlton goal. Simply superb. Time and time again Rangers swept forward. Passing and moving. "It's just like watching Brazil" we sang. And for us it was. How long has it been since we've seen such a solid performance from our team? Every man played their part. Camp in particular did well once again making some fantastic saves. Even the fans (about 2000 of us) played our part. Some fantastic singing and banter. "Can you hear the Strawberry sing?" being a memorable one.

So we counted down the minutes until our moment arrived. Our first away win since April. Fantastic. Bottom of the league? You're having a laugh. We're on our way out of the mess. And not a moment too soon.