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POST-MATCH THREAD: Blackburn Rovers v Charlton Athletic: Sunday 4th January 2026: KO 15:00
Comments
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This 100%...some fans need a reality check. We can all moan if new additions don't work out but 29 points is still good. After the last 10 games avoiding defeat was more important today... Yes we could of done better but we are stretched big time. We can definitely avoid relegation but it's way too early to be conceding defeat and relegation.bromdog said: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.20 -
He seems like a good lad does Macca but he was very much as bad as everyone is saying today, useless at every aspect of the game today, couldn't make a pass or clear, let his man get away from him and pulled TC further backTheHerminator 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 shot4 -
We’re Josh Edwards light at the moment, and it sounded like he was back this month, so that will resolve a ton of pain for me.We could do with having a decent run of home games, seems we’ve hardly been at the Valley this first half of the season, so winning those games will be huge, especially against Pompey, Norwich and others around us.9
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I agree with most of that except that Jones should not be sacked, that would be madness.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.
Nathan Jones is trying to mould our team into a decent Championship outfit, when he's only got half a dozen Championship quality players.18 -
100% agree today was shocking.YannTheMann said:
He seems like a good lad does Macca but he was very much as bad as everyone is saying today, useless at every aspect of the game today, couldn't make a pass or clear, let his man get away from him and pulled TC further backTheHerminator 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
my point is when he’s confident he’s actually a very solid defender who’s really good in the air. We’ve all seen that from him this year.He clearly suffers when his confidence is down.
dont forget last year people were calling for him to be shot! Then his form picked up, his confidence came back and he was first name on the team sheet at the back end of the season.1 -
Of course they are two different things.se9addick said:
Hold on - a “must win” and a “six pointer” are different things. Today, Pompey and Norwich were six pointers but they weren’t must wins.Braziliance said:Disgraceful result after being 2 up, disgraceful.
They were so bad, even their fans were singing "how s**t must yous be, we're drawing 2-2"
Shame our team didn't seem to realise like most of our fans do. Jokers.
Load the question and you ensure you get the answer you wanted.1 -
Yeh, because TC is a WINGERDazzler21 said:FWIW Gilly was fine alongside Edwards because Edwards defending and reading of the game was so much better than TC's but even then he'd still make mistakes.2 -
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. Because he’s been out a while, people might be forgetting how good Josh is and how integralRothko said:We’re Josh Edwards light at the moment, and it sounded like he was back this month, so that will resolve a ton of pain for me.We could do with having a decent run of home games, seems we’ve hardly been at the Valley this first half of the season, so winning those games will be huge, especially against Pompey, Norwich and others around us.
he is to us being a solid defensive unit0 -
I know I've harped on about this before, but I don't think it's necessarily a confidence thing, but having to worry about the player on his outside, as well as his own game. He always looked worse with Small at LWB last season, but with Edwards outside him he was fine. This season with Bell outside him he's looked fairly solid, but Gillesphey having to cover for TC is the stuff of my Charlton nightmares.TheHerminator said:
100% agree today was shocking.YannTheMann said:
He seems like a good lad does Macca but he was very much as bad as everyone is saying today, useless at every aspect of the game today, couldn't make a pass or clear, let his man get away from him and pulled TC further backTheHerminator 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
my point is when he’s confident he’s actually a very solid defender who’s really good in the air. We’ve all seen that from him this year.He clearly suffers when his confidence is down.
dont forget last year people were calling for him to be shot! Then his form picked up, his confidence came back and he was first name on the team sheet at the back end of the season.9 -
If I was TC, and indeed Apter, I would be putting in a transfer request this month. Neither fit in to NJ's system or ever will. It must be terrible knowing you are probably going to fail the team before you even go out on the pitch. Sometimes they manage to just about pull it off, but it is no way to build a career.0
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Where is the suggestion we'll have Josh back this month? - Great if its trueRothko said:We’re Josh Edwards light at the moment, and it sounded like he was back this month, so that will resolve a ton of pain for me.We could do with having a decent run of home games, seems we’ve hardly been at the Valley this first half of the season, so winning those games will be huge, especially against Pompey, Norwich and others around us.0 -
They are going to be mightily pissed off then.Fortune 82nd Minute said:
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.ForeverAddickted said:
Play a similar side to the one that lost at Cambridge!! - Give as many of the first teamers a rest.MrBurns said:Please don't play Bell against Chelsea and give him a rest. We really can't afford to lose him to injury too1 -
He has had great games including at this level and ironically against Blackburn at the valley.TheHerminator said:
100% agree today was shocking.YannTheMann said:
He seems like a good lad does Macca but he was very much as bad as everyone is saying today, useless at every aspect of the game today, couldn't make a pass or clear, let his man get away from him and pulled TC further backTheHerminator 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
my point is when he’s confident he’s actually a very solid defender who’s really good in the air. We’ve all seen that from him this year.He clearly suffers when his confidence is down.
dont forget last year people were calling for him to be shot! Then his form picked up, his confidence came back and he was first name on the team sheet at the back end of the season.
however, what is now clear is that you just cannot rely on him, and unfortunately you need reliable players at this level / in this situation. Obviously Every player has poor games, but I feel with Gillesphey it’s just clear he cannot be relied upon over a period of matches, the good games are few and far between and the difference between him and our other 4 centre halves (the 3 starting today + Ramsey - and actually even Edwards) is clear.
that said, we’ll very likely need much more of him this season, partly because he’s basically our fittest/ least injury prone defender, so we have to hope he finds a period of good form2 -
At least say Leaburn was good.blackpool72 said:My dad always used to say if you have nothing nice to say , say nothing.
So tonight I shall say nothing1 -
Looks lower on fucks givenLaddick01 said:Carey’s refusal to play a forward pass today was also really worrying. At least twice he had the chance to release TC into an acre of space and failed to make the pass.
Looks low on confidence.
hasn’t tried a leg the last few games
and shitting his pants to get out of the way of that powder puff shot that won the game for pompey was shameful
P45 required2 -
There are some proper weirdos on hereBilly_Mix said:
Looks lower on fucks givenLaddick01 said:Carey’s refusal to play a forward pass today was also really worrying. At least twice he had the chance to release TC into an acre of space and failed to make the pass.
Looks low on confidence.
hasn’t tried a leg the last few games
and shitting his pants to get out of the way of that powder puff shot that won the game for pompey was shameful
P45 required15 -
With our draw and Norwich's defeat, perfect results today for Oxford and Portsmouth.
Too easy to rattle off the deficiencies, and we do need signings, but looking at some positives in our favour -
- Kelman continues his good run
- Blackburn are poor, as are Oxford and Portsmouth
- Only 9 away games left, no other team has as many as our 12 at home
- No travelling until Leicester at the end of the month - maximum time at the training ground
- We were 4 points off the bottom 3, that's now 5 points, and Norwich's goal difference now 2 worse
- Norwich who most, including me, assumed would click into gear and breeze out out of the bottom 3, aren't
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If he can't score and rarely makes an assist - Is he really a Winger?The Red Robin said:
Yeh, because TC is a WINGERDazzler21 said:FWIW Gilly was fine alongside Edwards because Edwards defending and reading of the game was so much better than TC's but even then he'd still make mistakes.0 -
Start of the season we had Bristol City, Sheff U and Ipswich where we grew into a game and were better 2nd half. We had a little bit of a rally against Pompey, but I can’t think of a single other away game since those early ones we’ve put a decent performance in 2nd half. Too many like Wrexham, Norwich and today have seen us well short 2nd half9
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For 30 minutes that was utter bilge. A game that would have been an embarassment in League 2. Yet we found ourselves 2-0 up. The first coming from probably the only decent bit of attacking play we strung together in the entire game.
Make no mistake, a decent side would have gone for the jugular at that point and smashed an utterly demoralised Blackburn out of sight......what do we do? for the second time in 3 games we absolutely switch off after scoring and concede.
Burke then completes he requisite 2.5 games before limping off. From that moment on we were a shambes defensively. Gillesphy should be nowhere near the back 3, let alone part of a make shift setup. Absolute madness to bring him on and shift Bell to accomodate the move. Why was Gough good enough for a start at Norwich yet not considered the right change today? I like a lot of what Nathan Jones does, but at times his substitutions baffle me.
What on earth was said at half time? I can't believe it was along the lines of 'drop to the edge of our box, invite pressure at every opportunity and comedically surrender possession every time you attempt a forward pass' I actually laughed out loud at the passage of play where Gillepshy played the ball back to them 3 times in about 30 seconds.
The second half showing was nothing short of pathetic. Brainless, aimless and utterly devoid of anything resembling a game plan. At no point was I confident we would hold on. The 2 Blackburn goals were alarmingly similar.....no pressure on a cross, late running midfielder not tracked and given all the time in the world to finish.
Jones, Bell, Coventry, Kelman and Leaburn are the only ones who put in any level of performance.
We need the left hand side sorted quickly and as I said on the match thread we cannot carry Reece Burke any longer, we need someone who is gojng to be available for more than 2/3 games every 10 weeks.
Other issues for me - Carey has gone backwards and seems to believe his own hype. He needs to get back to what he was doing earlier in the season and quickly, if we loose Lloyd Jones we are fucked, still a chronic lack of athleticism in midfield, no one has nailed down the 'number 10' role and despite scoring more than one goal for the first time since 21st October we carried little threat and I was never convinced we had enough about us to see it out.
Really hope our business is done quickly and we are getting improvements in and not gap fillers...7 -
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Quite right.WSS said:
Not sure watching the Charlton first team is the pull for this game.Fortune 82nd Minute said:
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.ForeverAddickted said:
Play a similar side to the one that lost at Cambridge!! - Give as many of the first teamers a rest.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
The pull is watching Chelsea's reserves.5 -
A must not lose that we didn't lose - as others have said, there are no easy games and away from home, if you are expecting to win you are likely going to be disappointed and some on here need to take a look at themselves - again. They gave their all as always - my only complaint is the 10 man thing - totally unnecessary. We will be okay.9
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Yes I do too.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.
If we can get in two or three players that are an improvement on what we have I reckon we'll scrape through on our home form.
Plus I'm hoping like in Chris Powell's first Championship season, the safe teams slacken off in the last ten games, we don't and we pull away from danger.6 -
Ha that's what I was saying - we didn't have one did we? Must have missed it if sokillerandflash said:
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.PeaksAndValleys said:Also, what a shame Kaminski's calf injury has cleared up - needed the team talk bad in that second half0 -
Maybe if the manager actually played him we might actually find out.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?3 -
A lot of players are showing a lack of form or confidence, Gillie' was fine up until the disappearance of the left wing back in the shape of Bell and or Edwards, Carey has gone pretty much the same way. What doesn't help is that with the lack of a left wing back, Tyreece has been sacrificed to play in that position, and when he was playing up top with Kelman, Carey was getting space, he's now making wrong decisions and snatching at things, it needs sorting.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 shot2 -
I don't think NJ helps himself, with his squad selections.
Effectively we have 3 players who all want to be number 10, and NJ has all 3 in the squad. Plus others like Fullah and Apter on the bench who can also play that role.
As a result Anderson, after 4 games when he featured, once more is out in the cold. You can argue that he isn't technically good enough for the Championship, but the thing he does offer is energy, which we DESPERATELY needed in that second half. Coventry was dead on his feet, having played nearly every minute over the holiday period.
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Agreed and our game plan is meant to be that we stay in the game until the last quarter then our fitness / set pieces edge us or at least we’re robust enough to take a drawAFKABartram said:Start of the season we had Bristol City, Sheff U and Ipswich where we grew into a game and were better 2nd half. We had a little bit of a rally against Pompey, but I can’t think of a single other away game since those early ones we’ve put a decent performance in 2nd half. Too many like Wrexham, Norwich and today have seen us well short 2nd half
I do think the players were understandably shattered today after a punishing week and it’s so frustrating we didn’t have Blackburn earlier in the run as I’m sure we could have won that, I’m going to cling to the hope of the Coventry performance that with a bit of a rest, we can get some results
but that’s certainly 80/20 hope vs belief1 -
Campbell is being played out of position but he has to do a lot better for both goals, especially the second. That said, I think Bell should stop the cross for the first goal. Also thought Bell was partly to blame for both Pompey goals too but he seems immune to criticism sometimes.
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