Chelsea away. What was the score? Drew 1-1 Back home in Chicago with a good night's sleep and an 8-hour flight to ponder yesterday's magnificent point at Stamford Bridge. It was not only a return to the battling performances we know and love but it was punctuated with some good possession football as well.

I have read that we were not at the races in the first half but I don't remember Chelsea causing us too many problems, other than the goal, which was Myrhe's fault. We kept our heads and tried to play football, albeit we were very shy going forward. Rommedahl did look a threat though and I hope his injury, caused by a clash with Luke Young, is not anymore than a knock.

In the 2nd half, we grew in confidence, with Darren Ambrose driving our ambition forward and with Stamford Bridge quiet, on the verge of bored by their status, we started to become less star-struck and eventually found our reward as Marcus Bent assuredly headed over the advancing Cech - the first Charlton goal I have seen in the flesh this season - from another long Ambrose assist.

Amazingly after that I felt pretty confident of our ability to hold on, even with four added minutes. I tried to dispel fateful thoughts that we could even snatch it, but we nearly did with Ambrose and Darren Bent, following excellent attacking play by Young, going close.

Maybe we lacked a little ambition after Carvalho was sent off but the final whistle was a time to celebrate a wonderful team performance and not criticise it. Lets hope this result has the opposite effect of whatever it was after our win in the Carling Cup.

Ambrose was the Man of the Match I understand - John Terry was announced as MoM at the game! - but it could have also gone to any of the our back four. A word about Jonathan Fortune. Introduced for his first start of the season against Arsenal on Boxing Day, he has been excellent, proven by nobody (including me) shouting for him to be replaced. Maybe the Palace goal, a need for him to quietly buckle down and some patience from us fans means that we have finally got an Academy player to be proud off. I hope so.

Around me Chelsea fans were asking who that "number 22 is?"

"Surely it's not Chris Powell?" they said. Well hello, it was and what a fantastic game the boy had. HH and Young too. Holland and Hughes are not Smertin and Murphy but their inclusion is well deserved at the moment. Kish, heading for a player of the year nomination at the moment (god, I must be jet-lagged or something) put in another top performance.

Finally Marcus Bent not only scored on his debut, he plugged a gap wide out on the right to maintain the shape that we started out with, he worked hard and was an extra defender when needed but he also did something that will remain in the 700 away Addick's minds this week. After scoring he ran straight over to celebrate his debut goal with them. We like that. Well done Marcus, well done Charlton.

Reports from others that were there: cafc.co.uk: Addicks Diary; The Times: BBC Sport.
Photo: Addicks in away end before kick-off.  ¶ 23:44