Well, January 22 I posted a thread "Promotion and then Champions?" asking when we would achieve both. This was just after the two Sheffield games. There was another thread going on at the same time and the general concensus was that we were chicken counting. I'm not usually as confident as that (especially with Charlton) but I really did feel it at the time. I must say though that In March I was starting to 2nd guess myself mainly because of the wrist slitting on CL even though we were about 300 points in front. :-)
Hudds at home for me, we were the only believers up to that point, Sam Whatshisface on Talk Sport announced afterwards "could Charlton prove the surprise package this season" as if it was some journalistic masterstroke, idiot...after the media darlings of Huddersfield were sent packing before a live TV audience, those outside of SE7 started to think we were a decent side so a major step forward. To a lesser extent, midweek in Milton Keynes, great support, terrible performance but one decent move and we got a result, could even have nicked it at the end despite their impressive football, it was the first of many champions performances on the road.
Am a major pessimist, Oldham and Walsall over Easter weekend when we were very close to sealing promotion was when I really started to believe we would do it.
Felt we had a good chance around the Sheffield week. Everyone around me thought we were as good as up from Jan, but still thought "Charlton will not make this easy".
After the first defeat at Orient and we went on another long unbeaten run I started to believe.
Beating the Sheffield teams back to back added more belief. The clincher though was the Oldham game. When we went down to 10 men I thought "here we go again" but somehow we got our noses in front and despite the second sending off, we held them at bay.
It depends whether you interpret the question as 'feeling confident' or 'feeling sure'. I felt confident as I walked out of Sheffield Wednesday - we had just beaten our main rivals comfortably. I felt certain after the win at Carlisle.
Bournemouth at home took my breath away and I fancied something special over the season. Huddersfield at home I thought we were serious. Wednesday away and Blades at home in January and my Charlton pessimism waivered. But that old Charlton pessimism came back strong with the home defeats from Colchester and Notts County. It was the run after that which showed me that we were out of here. And it was the result at Oldham when I realised these boys weren't going to let me or the club down (not that they had really disappointed before that point) and I let myself believe.
I thought we were onto something from the first day against Bournemouth.
The day I truly started believing was when we beat Huddersfield at home. That was such a huge game for both footballing reasons and also the need to actually shut people up about the streak (which wasn't really a streak), and actually make a few headlines for ourselves. We even made the back page of the Standard!
Sheffield United away but for myself when I was at Bournemouth. We didn't play well but you just knew that we would score late and we did. I think that was the game when even the most pessimistic fan started believing.
Of course all the events leading up to it suggested that it was going to be a strong possibility, but football can kick you up the behind when you least expect it and nothing is certain until the whistle blows. Particularly with Charlton
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Any lingering doubts I had were blown away by what happened in the last 5-10 minutes in League 1 games that day.
Shef Wed away it looked like it would have to happen and I really believed.
Shef Utd home it looked like we would have to do very very well to not win the league.
Felt we had a good chance around the Sheffield week. Everyone around me thought we were as good as up from Jan, but still thought "Charlton will not make this easy".
Beating the Sheffield teams back to back added more belief. The clincher though was the Oldham game. When we went down to 10 men I thought "here we go again" but somehow we got our noses in front and despite the second sending off, we held them at bay.
These are the performances of Champions.
;-)
The day I truly started believing was when we beat Huddersfield at home. That was such a huge game for both footballing reasons and also the need to actually shut people up about the streak (which wasn't really a streak), and actually make a few headlines for ourselves. We even made the back page of the Standard!
Of course all the events leading up to it suggested that it was going to be a strong possibility, but football can kick you up the behind when you least expect it and nothing is certain until the whistle blows. Particularly with Charlton