Later in the year I suspect that a child in a deprived and war-torn village somewhere in northern Eritrea will be asking ‘Who are Charlton’ after I donated my unopened pair of ‘lucky’ junior socks emblazoned with the club’s name and sent to me as part of my membership gift package…..to an Oxfam clothes bank.

I’m still puzzled by the ‘gift’ of children’s socks to a 74-year-old. Was there a job lot of these socks leftover or did someone accidentally add a zero to the numbers ordered and feel the need to get rid? 

This club never loses the capacity to leave one shaking one’s head.