Picture unclear for big screen

Over the past five and a half years, it's become an integral part of the Valley matchday experience, but the club's big screen could have displayed its last Addicks goalscorer.

Over the summer, the club has been endeavouring to find an alternative to the current giant screen, which suffered a series of technical problems and malfunctions in the latter half of last season.

But the hunt for a cost-effective substitute has yet to reap rewards with under two weeks to go until the opening match of the 2010/11 campaign.

Charlton managing director Stephen Kavanagh said: "We're working hard to find a solution to the problem, but it's got to the stage where it seems unlikely we'll have a big screen this season.

"We experienced a number of problems last season, particularly in the bad weather, and it just doesn't make sense for us to keep spending money on repairs, particularly given the cuts that are being made across all departments at the club.”

Twelve months ago, it was feared that the big screen wouldn't be operational for the 2009/10 campaign, but Charlton sponsor Kent Reliance Building Society, with assistance from software developer Bream Team, stepped in to ensure the screen ran as normal.

Unfortunately, the issues have multiplied over the intervening 12 months and the club has decided that further prolonging the life of the current screen wouldn't be wise.

In addition to trying to secure funding for a new big screen, the club is currently exploring a number of other options, including the introduction of a simplified scoreboard, potentially just showing the team names, the score and a timer.

The 25.7 square metre big screen was installed in the south-east corner of the ground in January 2004 and made its debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers.