My first sport blog

Where better to start my first sport blog than on a Coach on the way home to London following the Southampton Vs Charlton Athletic game at St mary's.

Charlton recorded their first win in 13 games on Saturday,with a 3-1 win against Leyton Orient. While Southampton continued their push for promotion with a 3-2 win whin against fellow promotion hopefulls MK Dons, despite going 2 goals behind. However there was only one winner in this contest despite a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture only 2 weeks ago.

Southampton dominated the game and Charlton rarely threatened the goal of Southampton keeper Kelvin Davies, despite a few wayward efforts from the likes of Wagstaff and Stewart. Do Padro opened the scoring on 11 minutes with a cool finish close in to take advantage of some poor Charlton defending. The lead was doubled by Barnard in the second half to ensure the 3 points for the South coast side. Charlton goal keeper Rob Elliot was made to make a few outstanding saves from long range, but the match ended 2-0 to Southampton.

The win pushed Southapton to within 2 points of automatic promotion and cemented their place in the play-off positions. But where does the loss leave Charlton? A former established Premier league side who have been steadily declining for the past 4 seasons.

Now in league 1, the south London outfit have changed manager and squad so many times it bearly represents the side relegated in 2007. Lacking direction and the ability to gain promotion this season, Charlton manager Chris Powell must surely rebuild again in the summer, and hope that the reported £8 million available to spend on players following new investment can bring success to the Valley.

For Southampton however the only way is up, destined for automatic promotion, a squad full of potential and an up and coming manager can only mean success for the 125 year old club.

In other football news; Tottenham's 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid means that they are almost certainly out of the champions league, and German side Shalke's 5 away goals in their 5-2 away win over reigning champions Inter Milan means that their name is almost certainly in the hat for the semi-final draw.