Calm Curbishley curbs the crisis talk

If Charlton are a club in crisis, it isn't obvious from the players' parking area at their south London training ground. Of the first 12 cars in line, seven are Mercs, two Range Rovers and two BMWs. The twelfth is a Porsche. And, just in case there might be a touch of panic fluttering around the owners of those expensive machines, the comforting presence and soothing comments of Alan Curbishley provide balm and antidote.

After 11 years in the manager's chair Curbishley has seen this situation before. And, he points out gently, so have quite a few of his players. So, then, no panic as Charlton prepare to visit Fulham's temporary home at Loftus Road this afternoon; except that Curbishley, his players and the supporters will be looking, as the saying goes, to get a result. Friday's edition of London's Evening Standard had suggested "0-0 would suit Charlton fine". Not so, reckoned Curbishley: "We won't be going there thinking about trying to get a draw. We will be playing our normal game."

Normal? In this season's chaotic start, Charlton have lost all four home Premiership matches, plus the Worthington Cup penalty shoot-out humiliation by Oxford United in midweek, while winning two and drawing one of their away games. The pool of five strikers have managed one goal between them and the manager's planning has been shoved off course by injuries.

"We are only eight games into the season," Curbishley pointed out. "If we were in this position with eight games left it would be different. Anyone who has been around long enough has been in this sort of position before. There is so much hype flying around in football. West Ham were supposed to be in crisis until they went to Chelsea and won last weekend. It is only a crisis when you get into the last month of the season."

The manager insisted that in the last two games at The Valley, against Manchester United and Oxford, his team had been "not that bad, except for the results, and I am confident about the visit to Fulham if my players perform like they can. Against United it was two calamitous pieces of defending that sank us and against Oxford it was calamitous finishing when we had dominated the game.

"I have been around long enough not to overreact. I have just asked the players to have a look at themselves and analyse what they think they need to improve." What they can't improve, he maintains, is their work rate and effort. "Sir Alex Ferguson told me last weekend he had never seen a team work so hard against United and get nothing. All our games with them have been close but we have never come out on top. Yet look what happened to United. They have come out of our game, then won 4-0 in Europe and it has all turned around for them. It could change that quickly for us, too. But it has got to change, we have to pick up a result. If we can pick it up against, Fulham, so be it.

"I've got players who were strutting around last season and they've got to show that level of confidence now, not let the situation affect them." With a glance towards the glittering array of machinery in the car park, Curbishley added: "They have to take the criticism and get on with it. That's why they get paid enormous amounts and why they are in the Premiership."

Curbishley feels, with reason, that the club's position has been distorted by the fact that the first four home losses were against top opposition. "We beat Chelsea and Spurs at home last year and people thought that might happen again. But those teams came to The Valley determined not to lose, and when you haven't got anything from the first two games and with Arsenal and Manchester United coming up, you realise you could be on the end of four on the spin without picking anything up. That's exactly what happened.

"Yet if we had picked up points against Chelsea and United, which we deserved to do, we would be in mid-table now. The tightness of the Premiership is something else to be taken into account. If we win at Fulham I am sure we would find ourselves in mid-table. But we have to turn it around, get a result, hopefully a win because wins in the Premiership are a big boost."

The break in league competition after this weekend will offer Curbishley the chance to have a full squad to pick from, with his biggest long-term absentees, Scott Parker and Gary Rowett, ready for action on the Premiership's resumption, along with Jesper Blomqvist, the summer arrival from Everton. Blomqvist has twice suffered facial damage in bizarre training accidents. Now with a special gumshield fitted, he trained again on Friday for the first time, ready to play his part in lifting the season.

He, and all the other owners of those posh cars, will be needed. As the club's website points out: "It's crunch time."