I could have got to Withdean almost as late as I did last Saturday. No more than 30 seconds after kick off, our cherub like referee awarded Charlton a free kick. Whilst we awaited this to taken a Charlton player and Adam El Abd appeared to tussle on the edge of the penalty area, what happened next was almost brilliant.

At the request of most of the south stand, the linesman twirled his flag once, put it down by his side, then twirled it again. Young Master Ward hadn't spotted his semaphore and seemed to be engaging a host of players in his life story. Many in the cheap seats around me were insistent El Abd had been head butted. I'm not so sure. The linesman, realising he had flagged twice but had not been acknowledged by the ref, (who by now appeared to have a photo album in his hand) , suddenly initiated the highlight of the evening for me. Our man with flag side stepped in a semi circular fashion, from the touch line to the opposite side of the penalty area and stood on the edge of the six yard box. But still the ref didn't spot him. By this time Ward had moved on to his plans for Easter, and with the linesman occupying a position I'd like to see Tommy Elphick take up,this referee, of Football League standard (or so we are told) motioned to Charlton to play on! Only then finally,and almost five minutes after the original incident, did he see the lino and the two conferred. They almost seemed to hug for a split second. The upshot of it all was a yellow card apiece for El Abd, and his tormentor. Two minutes played! For the next half hour Albion thoroughly out played Charlton, until another highly dubious referring decision gave the Addicks a free kick.From this Burton scored via Smiths hand. A while later Wagstaff double the lead. If only Tunnicliffe's header prior to Charlton's first had gone in, Ward could have disallowed it. From the start of the second half Ward missed three blatant handballs.One so obvious, the Charlton player was still rubbing his stinging hand two minutes later. At least when the players did handle the ball, they made an effort to pass it backwards. A couple of dreadful fouls on Murray brought a couple of free kicks, for Charlton. But really the Albion huffed and puffed just like they used to under Slade, albiet with some South American flair, well Gary Dicker trapped the ball with his thigh at one point .Dickinson came on, Davies came on, and most notably Mcnulty came on and replaced El Abd. Jim showed us what we'd been missing. He is a superb attacking full back. Get him fit, keep him fit, and we might just move on.In the end, apart from a couple of half chances the Albion offered nothing, although Smith made a double save. Not of Montgomery or even Keeley proportions though. I think he was trying to get out of the way of the second shot but it hit his hand as he covered his face. No, that's harsh well done Graeme.

Actually I think he might have been trying to cover his ears as Gavin Ward said ''oh yeah Glasgow? I've been there'' blah blah blah!