GEOFF Billingsley is a member of the new Charlton Athletic Fans' Forum, which meets regularly with the club’s hierarchy to raise supporters’ concerns about life at The Valley.
The Woolwich-based Addick will be regularly reporting for News Shopper on what goes on at the meetings and today delivers the latest instalment of his column.
Where do we start? The Swindon ticket problem probably.
While we certainly could have used a more generous allocation of the 2,000 tickets Swindon did allow us, it was quite within Football League rules and obviously they weren't going to do us any favours were they?
The club only had four clear working days to arrange things and while we all sympathise with anyone who couldn't get hold of a ticket, under the circumstances they performed a very difficult job in a very short space of time.
Charlton have since admitted that they may not have got it 100 per cent correct and I know they’ll already have a strategy for any potential visit to the London Borough of Brent at the end of the month.
I had intended these words to form my end of term column but as we are all now aware, the Addicks season has hopefully been extended to the May 29.
We obviously need to ensure we don't return to London with a deficit to retrieve in the return leg at The Valley on Monday evening.
With so much going on at the club of late, it hasn’t been possible to pin the directors down for a meeting recently and I have to say this has been one of our main frustrations throughout the season.
All Fans' Forum members agree.
We need to insist on an undertaking from senior board members next term they will make themselves available to the Forum so we can report back to the fans, explaining what is going on and why some decisions, however unpopular, have to be made.
I and eight other fellow Reds fans spent last weekend in Glossop, Derbyshire - about a half hour drive to Oldham - and it was great to see so many had made the effort to attend Boundary Park, the highest placed ground in the UK above sea level.
We had fans in fancy dress, as well as being surrounded by people with ear-pieces from transistor and digital radios, I-phones and God knows what else, keeping us informed of goings on at Elland Road and The Den.
As it turned out we won to climb above Swindon, which means we go there first and assuming we can dispose of the Robins, can look forward to possibly becoming the first club to gain promotions via the play-offs at two different Wembley's.
One of the stark contrasts I noticed from the Oldham matchday programme was the Latics’ equivalent of our jackpot half-time draw which yielded just £126 for the lucky winner a couple of weeks back against Southend.
As you probably know, our jackpot usually pays out anything from £750 to potentially £2,000, depending on the size of the crowd.
One thing they do better at Oldham is their refreshments.
A meat and potato pie, or steak and kidney pie, was just £2.10 and was excellent.
Take a note please CAFC because if the Fans’ Forum has learned anything it is the kiosk food at our place leaves a lot to be desired by our supporters.
In less than a week we could be planning a Wembley play-off final. In a week which has seen one Prime Minister leaving and another stepping up to replace him, it proves that virtually anything is possible.
If Parky and his squad keep their nerve, play with the confidence they showed against Leeds and Oldham, keeping their heads up if things don't always go their way, we’ll be ok.
With your support we can all be victorious.
May the sun shine on you and I look forward to writing a pre-Wembley piece in a couple of weeks.
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