POST-MATCH THREAD: Blackburn Rovers v Charlton Athletic: Sunday 4th January 2026: KO 15:00

fenaddick

Northern_Monkey

I have faith Jones will get the team to a better place. We need 2/3 decent incoming signings to relieve the pressure piled on those carrying knocks and filling gaps. We also need players to provide more impetus and get on the front foot. The way we tire and invite pressure in many games is hard to watch. 

Leaburn looked good today, Kelman also getting goals, Bell and Jones strong at the back, Coventry industrious. There’s a winning team there if we can relieve some of these pressures.

WSS

Fortune 82nd Minute said:

ForeverAddickted said:

MrBurns said:

Please don't play Bell against Chelsea and give him a rest. We really can't afford to lose him to injury too

Play a similar side to the one that lost at Cambridge!! - Give as many of the first teamers a rest.

Not the time or place to have a debate on this - although I'm sure we will as the week goes on! - but if I'd paid £38 for a ticket to watch this and saw our reserve team run out I'd be mightily pissed off.

 Not sure watching the Charlton first team is the pull for this game.

mendonca

Talal said:

Don't normally let results affect me but really pissed off with that. 99% of fans could tell you that Gillesphey and Campbell is suicide yet that's what Jones goes for. Just bring on Gough. If it has to be Gillesphey then play him centre and move Jones. Bell just cannot be moved.
I don't want Jones out but he's fucking things up more often than not of late.

Agree. Age could not be used as an excuse not to use Gough or Fullah against a team who were forced to field 3 players aged under 21. 

Garrymanilow

Treacey1969 said:

Sorry but NJ has to go. His decision making in both formation and selection is way off thr mark.

Keeps playing ex Luton players who are not up to it.
Plays consistently players out of position. Plus.

Burke...history of injuries but not convinced either.
When he gets injured today replaces him with pulling bell accross on the right.

Campbell...keeps him at left wing back and he can't defend. When Burke went off why not bring on Gough and leave Bell where it's more natural.

Bree...absolutely useless footballer who no longer can take a dead ball kick. Yes he was involved with a good cross for the 1st goal but full of silly flicks. Cannot defend and making suspect also.

Carey..cannot mark full stop let there man run pass for the 2nd goal.

Kelman..great that he scored 2 goals but gave little of no support to the team up front.

Berry....why?.. no control, doesn't mark/track and goes missing.

Coventry...passing and holding onto the ball is poor.

I can hear NJ already spouting his nonsense.

He needs to go and whilst he should have all the credit for what was achieved last season he has run out of ideas.

Considering you have issues with the selection and 7 of our players apparently aren't good enough, including the player who scored two goals today, I'd be fascinated to know what your 11 would be. I'll bet it's a 442

ValleyGary

Think our home form will be enough to keep us up, especially with how poor the teams below us are. But it’s gonna be close.

CAFCsayer

Dazzler21 said:

CAFCsayer said:

That one is totally on Nathan Jones.  He is well in credit, but playing Amari'i Bell and TC on the left is fucking braindead. You either bring on Conor Gough or go 4 at the back... That was so obvious to everyone. TC shouldn't be playing LWB anyway but to have him being covered by Macaulay Gillesphey, who is a liability at the best of times, is a joke.

On the plus side Miles looked quality and Kelman had another good game. We desperately need to sign a lwb, cb cover, a box to box midfielder with a bit of creativity and another option as a striker 

Bell and TC were fine, it was Gillesphey and TC that fell apart. Or to be more accurate Gillesphey. 

Sorry, Gillesphey and TC... Have had a few beers. Bell at LCB is quality

Garrymanilow

golfaddick said:

No problem lads. Our defensive frailties will be addressed as soon as the transfer window opens. 

If we don't sign all our targets on the first possible day we may as well not bother ever signing anyone again, I agree

LargeAddick

PWR, yet, but I put this at the end of the match thread in reply to another comment

‘Sorry but he’s right. Only clean sheet Norwich have kept in 22 was against us and we didn’t have a shot on target, concede very late at Pompey, two up today and we draw. Would be ok if it had been say Coventry, Boro and Ipswich but they were three teams below us and 1 point from nine just isn’t acceptable in the circumstances stated.’

Croydon

TheHerminator said:

This Gilly pile on is a bit much. He was good at the start of the year but now is being asked to do hit parts and replace a very good defender. 

Is he the solution? No

is he as bad as some are saying. No. 

His confidence is shot 

Going to have to disagree with you here, he absolutely is as bad as people are saying. Today he played like he'd won a competition to be there. 

PeaksAndValleys

Not must win, not season defining, but so so poor, particularly following relatively soon after Norwich and Pompey.

Frustrating decisions by the manager for sure, not least Berry for another poor performance. But people calling for his head have seriously lost the plot.

The drop off from our first choice back three is startling and thank god they are trying to address that. 

Leaburn 10/10, not surprised he cramped up 

PeaksAndValleys

Also, what a shame Kaminski's calf injury has cleared up - needed the team talk bad in that second half

Croydon

aliwibble said:

Well I'd have taken that before kick off, but to go from 2-0 up to drawing 2-2 is deeply frustrating.

Croydon said:

Played 3 of the worst teams in this division and have come away with 1 point. Seem to have lost the same fight and grit we have had under Jones, and doesn't help that he himself is making some questionable decisions now. Hopefully January sees him take some advice from others and we make use of the loan market.

I still think we'll be fine but that'll be due to how poor those below us are. 

Bit selective on the stats there Croydon, that only applies to the away games. We've played:
Blackburn twice, got 4 points,
Portsmouth once, 0 points, 
Norwich once, 0 points
Oxford once, 3 points
Sheff Wed once, 3 points

That's 1.66 points per game, and we've won all of the home games out of those. It could be better, but it's not wrist-slashingly awful.

Yes, I should have clarified over recent weeks rather than the season. But you make a good point.

philcafc

I'll try and be a bit more optimistic than some on here.:-

We didn't lose to a relegation rival.
Norwich & Swansea both lost.
We have 12 of the last 21 games at home

Laddick01

philcafc said:

I'll try and be a bit more optimistic than some on here.:-

We didn't lose to a relegation rival.
Norwich & Swansea both lost.
We have 12 of the last 21 games at home

It’s a fair take. Home form is what keeps us in The division I think.

Have a feeling it’ll come down to the last few games mind.

killerandflash

PeaksAndValleys said:

Also, what a shame Kaminski's calf injury has cleared up - needed the team talk bad in that second half

I wanted to LOL this, then realised that we needed a time out half way through the half, as there was a sense of inevitability about them equalising. Something had to be done.

Making_all_the_noise

Genuine question, as I never saw him play before he joined us but why was everyone so excited about us signing Harvey Knibbs? What did he do at Reading that has hasn't yet delivered for us?

Maybe he just hasn't settled yet but other than a reasonable 45 mins away to Cov, I just don't know what Knibbs is meant to bring to the team. What are his main assets meant to be as a player?

Chippycafc

blackpool72 said:

TheHerminator said:

This Gilly pile on is a bit much. He was good at the start of the year but now is being asked to do hit parts and replace a very good defender. 

Is he the solution? No

is he as bad as some are saying. No. 

His confidence is shot 

His lack of pace gets him into trouble. 

Neither good enough of fast enough for this league 

I am on the fence with him mate. Blows hot and cold. Fact we signed him from Plymouth reserves I think sums it up. 

Off_it

Garrymanilow said:

Treacey1969 said:

Sorry but NJ has to go. His decision making in both formation and selection is way off thr mark.

Keeps playing ex Luton players who are not up to it.
Plays consistently players out of position. Plus.

Burke...history of injuries but not convinced either.
When he gets injured today replaces him with pulling bell accross on the right.

Campbell...keeps him at left wing back and he can't defend. When Burke went off why not bring on Gough and leave Bell where it's more natural.

Bree...absolutely useless footballer who no longer can take a dead ball kick. Yes he was involved with a good cross for the 1st goal but full of silly flicks. Cannot defend and making suspect also.

Carey..cannot mark full stop let there man run pass for the 2nd goal.

Kelman..great that he scored 2 goals but gave little of no support to the team up front.

Berry....why?.. no control, doesn't mark/track and goes missing.

Coventry...passing and holding onto the ball is poor.

I can hear NJ already spouting his nonsense.

He needs to go and whilst he should have all the credit for what was achieved last season he has run out of ideas.

Considering you have issues with the selection and 7 of our players apparently aren't good enough, including the player who scored two goals today, I'd be fascinated to know what your 11 would be. I'll bet it's a 442

WM formation

Chippycafc

ShootersHillGuru said:

We definitely need to start picking up a win here and there. 

That was on a plate 3 days ago Wrexham were 2 up and saw it out. We didn't. 

fenaddick

Making_all_the_noise said:

Genuine question, as I never saw him play before he joined us but why was everyone so excited about us signing Harvey Knibbs? What did he do at Reading that has hasn't yet delivered for us?

Maybe he just hasn't settled yet but other than a reasonable 45 mins away to Cov, I just don't know what Knibbs is meant to bring to the team. What are his main assets meant to be as a player?

Pressed well (yes really) and scored a lot. He looks half the player he did 

paulsturgess

ValleyGary said:

Think our home form will be enough to keep us up, especially with how poor the teams below us are. But it’s gonna be close.

I hope this too, although looking at the fixture list a lot look tough to actually get wins. 

bromdog

A bit of context to these results. 3 out of 4 away fixtures, Championship away fixtures are very tough not matter where the teams we play are in the table, we are a prime case in point. Before these were played I would have been happy with 4 points. We’ve picked up two. Teams around us have struggled too. All we want to do is beat the drop this year, I think some fans have got carried away. Jones needs some help with recruits, we’re working hard in the situation we are in and are scrapping.

sirjohnhumphrey

I’ve said it previously and I’ll say it again - although I get that it’s a simplistic and relatively unemotive  position to take.

We are a bottom six team/squad/club in this league. More realistically bottom three. This is mainly due to the quality and depth of our squad. How many of them would start for a top half team in this division? 

Jones and Ramsay maybe?

Edwards when fit?

Bell, perhaps at a push.

None of the others would. Not Kelman, not Leaburn, not Knibbs, not Carey, not Bree, not Berry, not Coventry, not Docherty, not JRC…

It’s a squad that would probably be top 6 in league one. It relies on the sum of its parts rather than individuals. It’s made up of free transfers, experienced yet older players, and signings from league one. Plus some that have come through the youth set up.

This will show on the pitch in terms of decision making, moments of quality, game management etc. 

A glut of injuries like we’ve just experienced will challenge us. We haven’t got players worth 5 million plus on our bench. We have Fullah, Anderson etc.

And dropping points against teams around us is hugely frustrating - if we get home wins against Pompey and Norwich and get something away at Oxford then our record against them will be ok (plus the four points we’ve taken off Blackburn)

A long way to go with it all in our own hands given the number of home games we have. And hopefully annoying days like today will be tempered by some surprise gained points against those above us.

RonnieMoore

Think on the 90 mins a fair result don’t think either team done enough in tough conditions to win it … but frustrating that both their goals were down to Campbell not doing the simple job of stopping a cross into our box .. Burke going off changed the games so did our subs .. seem to affect us more … if we could have gone in at 2-0 I think that would have been different, but it’s a good point ….

think NJ needs to give most of these players week to go and find some sun and relax .. get ready for Sheffield …. Chelsea , Mannion Gough Knibbs Apter Fullah Anderson Olaofe can all start 

mid_life_crisis

ValleyGary said:

Think our home form will be enough to keep us up, especially with how poor the teams below us are. But it’s gonna be close.

Exactly my thoughts.
We have 12 games left at home, just 9 away.
I'm not banking on more than 6 away points, which would mean we would need around 15 from the home games, which is realistic.

Treacey1969

Garrymanilow said:

Treacey1969 said:

Sorry but NJ has to go. His decision making in both formation and selection is way off thr mark.

Keeps playing ex Luton players who are not up to it.
Plays consistently players out of position. Plus.

Burke...history of injuries but not convinced either.
When he gets injured today replaces him with pulling bell accross on the right.

Campbell...keeps him at left wing back and he can't defend. When Burke went off why not bring on Gough and leave Bell where it's more natural.

Bree...absolutely useless footballer who no longer can take a dead ball kick. Yes he was involved with a good cross for the 1st goal but full of silly flicks. Cannot defend and making suspect also.

Carey..cannot mark full stop let there man run pass for the 2nd goal.

Kelman..great that he scored 2 goals but gave little of no support to the team up front.

Berry....why?.. no control, doesn't mark/track and goes missing.

Coventry...passing and holding onto the ball is poor.

I can hear NJ already spouting his nonsense.

He needs to go and whilst he should have all the credit for what was achieved last season he has run out of ideas.

Considering you have issues with the selection and 7 of our players apparently aren't good enough, including the player who scored two goals today, I'd be fascinated to know what your 11 would be. I'll bet it's a 442

As with other responses to my comments of course it's my opinion. Firstly at what point did I say all 7 'aren't good enough. Some certainly I don't think are. To one point NJ constantly exposes TC to a position that I don't think suits. A Bell/Macca partnership on the left is stronger than a Macca/TC. Carey has been poor for several games. Name a decisive pass Coventry has made or an assist. (My comment doesn't mean I don't think he is good enough nor am I backtracking either.)

ossie64

this one is on Nathan Jones poor game management. The decision to bring on Macca for Burke? to play Berry (why)...to not replace Campbell (being played out of position I know but he is asked to do a job he can't do) ... he backs off challenges and lacks awareness for the position and although keep reading he is only young, he is 22



9

Addicktion_to_red

Callumcafc said:

Frustrating when you’re in the middle of a discussion in the match thread and it gets locked before you can post your reply!


Apparently you can’t dress it up or take positives from that. So here’s a few:

- Kelman scored twice, he’s finding form

- Leaburn once again aerially dominant for yet another game

- Bree looks like he remembered how to cross a football

- Jones and Bell still look quality

The major issue, which has been a problem for over two months and cost us 5+ points, is the LCB/LWB conundrum.

There is nothing to be done about it in the current moment apart from wait for reinforcements to arrive so we make do with the 5 points from our last 5 games and look forward to those reinforcements arriving.

We’ve taken 4 points off Blackburn this season. I for one would’ve been happy with that before the season kicked off.

just need to sort the left side out with reinforcements before the next league game.

DOUCHER

not for the first time, a player has gone off injured and we've played with 10 men rather than put a sub on - we concede whilst down to 10 - effing joke that is