2.30 on Bank Holiday monday afternoon and i’m still thinking, did that really happen last night?

We hoped that we would get a little bit of access to the players and support staff, but never imagined that we would interview most of the first team and get a chance to sit and chat with the Gaffer.

The CharltonLive team arrived at the Valley at 4pm and promptly dismantled the studio and transported the equipment upstairs to Crossbars. Gadget had worked hard in the week to install an ISDN line, which enabled use to go live from the lounge.

We plugged a radio Mic transmitter into the House PA system and hoped that it would work. It did, phew!

Jean and Ian the organisers asked Pete and Terry to shepherd the players into the Business Club lounge before the event started. At 6.50 the players made their entrance, with Pete telling them where to go.

The show got off to a rocky start, tweets were flying in about the quality of the sound being distorted. One described us as sounding like Daleks, think Gadget took that as a compliment! Thankfully after a little tweak to the compressor we got back to sounding like normal.

Our aim was to bring a normal show with reaction from the previous days game, a quick piece Liam had grabbed Mark Kinsella at the game on Saturday and we all had a chat about the failings of the team against Walsall.

We managed to grab a quick chat with Jon Fortune, he confirmed that Benno was eating for England! Liam went roving with a Radio Mic to try and interview guests, just as he did Suthers started to go into the raffle draw, so poor old Liam had to cut off Joe Anyinsah in full flow. Sorry Joe.

Then the presentation ceremony began, many had contacted us by email and Twitter asking for pictures, so we duly obliged. We’d asked the organisers if we could have a brief chat with the winner, what followed was somewhat surreal!

Pete and Liam dived off into the crowd, whilst Terry and myself hurried back to our makeshift position. Not only did Pete manage to get the winner, Jose Semedo, he also managed to grab Johnnie Jackson and Robbie Elliott.

Terry was in his element, I was slightly starstruck! There followed a succession of players. The Young Player of the Year, Callum Harriott. Therry Racon, Bradley Wright Phillips, Miguel Llera, Paul Benson, Alan McCormack, Christian Dailly. Federico Bessone said that he couldn’t speak to us as his English was poor, Therry Racon soon scotched that rumour!

Pete then pulled the rabbit out of the hat, we were graced by Chris Powell – he spoke candidly about his experience, his hopes and his plans.

Pete did an absolutely fantastic job in getting them all over to us.

It was a real pleasure to speak with the guys. They know they’ve not achieved their potential and they hurt. There was a sense of determination and a sense of showing people what they really could do.

One player in particular spoke candidly about his season, his disappointment and his aim to prove a few people wrong next time round.

All in all a fantastic night and a real experience. We know that people appreciated what we provided. I don’t think that any of us could have imagined how well we would do it.

Pity the poor person who’s going to have to edit that show up for the Podcast!

Onwards and upwards!