POST-MATCH THREAD: Southampton v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 21st February 2026: KO 15:00

Sword65pf

The Prince-e-Paul said:

CaptainRobbo said:

EugenesAxe said:

PeaksAndValleys said:

Separately and maybe already said, but one of the best moments in the match yesterday was Sichenje flying out from defence to close down an attacker halfway in our half, absolutely crunched him when he tried to turn. Loved it

MOTM voting would suggest many people noticed it , was the moment Collins decided he'd had enough of him and he had to go.

Collins would have won that MOTM vote if he had scored 3 o.g.'s, given away a penalty and got sent off.

He looked both a total liability and a unit. He is raw, but he shows he's trying and has a desire to get stuck in. I love nothing more than a player who makes the challenge and gets it right most of the time. 

He might have the odd moment where his timing doesn't match his enthusiasm, but I like what I've seen. He can definitely become a fans favourite if he can work out how not to get sent off!

Don’t think he was particularly ‘Raw’, have you not seen some of our experienced players defending this season? 

CaptainRobbo

Briston_Addick said:

I don't know if it's been mentioned on the post-match thread and I've missed it but ...

We got a point wearing the charcoal kit!

If we can't celebrate that we might as well give up now.

Exactly, I did make a point of mentioning it before the game.
Thought we were doomed by wearing that kit.

Garrymanilow

AberystwythAddick said:

It needs to be backed up with a win tomorrow. Anything other than that is unacceptable 

Shit, somebody had better let the team know

DOUCHER

Ormiston_Addick said:

Anyone actually slagging off any of our forwards is an idiot, end of story.

With the way we are set up you could have Haaland up front and he still wouldn't score that many more than our current lot, we are designed to have men behind the ball, meaning our strikers are isolated and easy to mark.

Just to be clear - I’m not slagging anybody off I just don’t think Kelman or apter suit our style - Tanto doesn’t have the confidence and / or quality to do it in the champ and I’m not sure what knibbs is all about but he’s had over half a season to show us and hasn’t - we need players who can hit the ground running and contribute - in the system NJ plays 

DOUCHER

PeaksAndValleys said:

Mortimerwasgod said:

Personal opinion re Kelman and the breakaway. I think it was drilled into him to come on, work hard at closing down, retain the ball and waste time if you can. So I don't blame him at 1 on 1 having the first thought to protect what we have, as no doubt NJ would have bollocked him had he tried to go and failed. That's the mentality drilled in, this season at least. So no way do I write him off, actual strikers are like hens teeth these days and Godden is 34 now, so a successor is needed. 

Totally agree with this. Also think we were desperate for a bit of possession to calm things down at that point in the game, plus he was quite wide when he got the ball. You could almost see him think about driving and then reluctantly slow it down. Not at all sure it was the wrong thing to do

100% - I don’t blame him there at all - he doesn’t have the ‘skillset’ to do anything else there - that’s part of the problem with him though - he feeds off of scraps but is a goalsorer but cannot create his own chances and don’t think he has it in him to be a nuisance like a Bellamy or an Ian wright type - you need to offer something physical up top for us so he couldn’t be more the wrong type of striker for us - baffling signing as was apter 

MillwallFan

DOUCHER said:

MillwallFan said:

DOUCHER said:

Good solid performance after tuesday's flop - pompey have clearly had a great window coz they ruined us tuesday night and seems like they did similar to smallwall so i cannot see them getting dragged back down - problem now is wba are one of the teams we r relying on to finish above - this season we haven't shown up for most of the 6 pointers so glad its away as think that will do the team a favour. Teams who battle and fight are our enemy - we can stifle the ballers but when we come up against teams that match our work rate and fight we struggle. We can grind our way to safety but are far from comfortable yet. Stay up and get Lloyd Jones signed up in the summer and make him the highest paid player at the club and captain. Bring somebody in in recruitment asap who knows what a footballer looks like and get what we can for tanto, kelman, knibbs and apter and completely overhaul the midfield and attack for next year - not sure our current set up recognize anything other than a good defender, which, to be fair, they have excelled at.   

Doucher, on the subject of recruitment, I heard recently that you paid similar for Kelman what we paid for Coburn?… roughly 3 to 3.5 million up front, climbing to 5 million with add ons? 

He’s not as bad as coburn - more potential as well 

Coburn, who has spent half the season injured, 3 goals in 14 appearances (half of which were substitute appearances, coming on with half hour or less to play). 

Kelman, 4 goals in 24 appearances (I’m not sure how many were substitute appearances).  

Coburn a year younger. Does a lot of stuff off the ball, plenty of hold up play, brings others in to play, and happy to track back and defend as well. Kelman doesn’t bring much else to the game either from what I’ve read on here? 

To be honest , neither have set the championship alight with goals. But if you get the majority of your recruitment right then you can afford the odd dud. Still, 5 million is a lot to weigh out for clubs of our size. You never know though, they might come good yet. 

elbiglad

DOUCHER said:

Ormiston_Addick said:

Anyone actually slagging off any of our forwards is an idiot, end of story.

With the way we are set up you could have Haaland up front and he still wouldn't score that many more than our current lot, we are designed to have men behind the ball, meaning our strikers are isolated and easy to mark.

Just to be clear - I’m not slagging anybody off I just don’t think Kelman or apter suit our style - Tanto doesn’t have the confidence and / or quality to do it in the champ and I’m not sure what knibbs is all about but he’s had over half a season to show us and hasn’t - we need players who can hit the ground running and contribute - in the system NJ plays 

Kelman and Apter both have talent and certain qualities, but it does seem that they might not be great fits for our style unfortunately. Still holding out hope for both, more so Kelman than Apter. I don't think Tanto will be back with us and not too bothered about that, either.

The only thing I'd disagree with is that I think that's quite harsh on Knibbs. His opportunities have been limited to:

• 509 total minutes across 23 Championship games (removing his three apps in cup comps). He's scored three goals in that time.
• He's had five starts and only started two games in a row once.
• He has only played more than 45 minutes twice. 
• His average game time is 10.6 minutes.

I liked what I saw from him and think he will be, as the old saying goes, 'like a new signing' next year. Good athlete, presses well, a knack of scoring goals. No pre-season and Carey's form meant he struggled to get in the team initially and now a really bad injury has curtailed his season. Hopefully he gets a good pre-season under his belt and kicks on next year.

Southbank

PeaksAndValleys said:

cabbles said:

DOUCHER said:

Good solid performance after tuesday's flop - pompey have clearly had a great window coz they ruined us tuesday night and seems like they did similar to smallwall so i cannot see them getting dragged back down - problem now is wba are one of the teams we r relying on to finish above - this season we haven't shown up for most of the 6 pointers so glad its away as think that will do the team a favour. Teams who battle and fight are our enemy - we can stifle the ballers but when we come up against teams that match our work rate and fight we struggle. We can grind our way to safety but are far from comfortable yet. Stay up and get Lloyd Jones signed up in the summer and make him the highest paid player at the club and captain. Bring somebody in in recruitment asap who knows what a footballer looks like and get what we can for tanto, kelman, knibbs and apter and completely overhaul the midfield and attack for next year - not sure our current set up recognize anything other than a good defender, which, to be fair, they have excelled at.   

Personally I think Kelman is worth pursuing.  His season has been flat but he picked up that hamstring injury just after scoring his first goal, showed a bit of promise on his return by finding that bit of skill to unlock Oxford, got 2 up at Blackburn then got lost in the shuffle again when it all went a bit wobbly in the new year.  I know he looked flat after coming on y’day and his goal return isn’t great, but that’s a team issue in as much his.  33 goals all season is woeful and it’s why we’re going to be huffing and puffing to hopefully staying up.

I agree with you re: Tanto and Apter.  Apter is all in all a bemusing signing and Tanto just isn’t going to make the step up.  Undecided on Knibbs purely on the lack of game time.  Perhaps that tells its own story, but as good as Docherty is and was y’day off the ball, he’s very poor on it, so I think Knibbs may get another chance 

We absolutely need to overhaul the midfield and attack if we do stay up, particularly the midfield 3 if we’re playing the same formation.  Need much more power, pace and skill in there.  Getting very far ahead of myself talking about next season, by I shudder to think how hard it will be unless we bring in some real quality, if we’re still in this division 

For me Tanto is the only one I'd say really is a bit of a write-off, and that's because of his age. Thought he was OK in parts but not ready for the step up yet and at 26 for £1.5m you'd say it doesn't look great.

Apter has bags of potential and is young, if he can be brought back into the fold when we are set up to play more openly I think he could be excellent. Knibbs has shown what he can bring in flashes, without injuries and Carey's form I think he could have had a decent season, similar to Carey's.

I really don't agree with the write off of our forwards, Kelman in particular. If he was missing chances then fine, but it just seems so clear that he isn't the problem. We aren't set up to feed him and again you have to think that will change as the team grows, particularly with a much needed overhaul of the midfield. Everyone thought Godden would be the answer when he came back but he's faced the same issues. Kelman has the quality and age profile to come very good. 

I think you are dreaming if you think any of them would be the answer in our second Championship season when they weren't in our first. We have seen the quality that exists in this division and that is what we need to do well in this division . Of course, we could choose another season of struggle with the mediocre squad ( in parts) that we have. But that would mean the owners have no ambition.

NomadicAddick

Major said:

NomadicAddick said:

If you watched that game in complete isolation and somebody told you it was a team that were 8th in league1 and a team that were 5th in the championship - and were told it was a 5th round FA Cup tie I doubt you would be surprised... 

What on earth have you been smoking?

It's a good question. I live in the Caribbean and have been on a bit of a health kick this year and taken a break from the booze. Yesterday afternoon/night I had at least 8 glasses of Rum. The Bajan measures are more than generous, in fact sometimes I genuinely have to ask the barman to add a bit more mixer (in my case, coconut water - don't knock it till you've tried it and good on the calories), anyway, I barely actually remember writing that analogy. Surprised some have actually made sense of it.

I was simultaneously chatting to a Millwall mate from mine via whatsapp at the time and I think he got me a little riled up and I was feeling a bit negative, hence the glum 'analogy'. 

Despite being in the Caribbean, promise it was just the drink talking not any of the green stuff. Maybe a little local number would have actually made me sound a bit more profound, at least more than the, quite frankly, nonsense that I posted.

clive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6vB_8PTt94

DOUCHER

MillwallFan said:

DOUCHER said:

MillwallFan said:

DOUCHER said:

Good solid performance after tuesday's flop - pompey have clearly had a great window coz they ruined us tuesday night and seems like they did similar to smallwall so i cannot see them getting dragged back down - problem now is wba are one of the teams we r relying on to finish above - this season we haven't shown up for most of the 6 pointers so glad its away as think that will do the team a favour. Teams who battle and fight are our enemy - we can stifle the ballers but when we come up against teams that match our work rate and fight we struggle. We can grind our way to safety but are far from comfortable yet. Stay up and get Lloyd Jones signed up in the summer and make him the highest paid player at the club and captain. Bring somebody in in recruitment asap who knows what a footballer looks like and get what we can for tanto, kelman, knibbs and apter and completely overhaul the midfield and attack for next year - not sure our current set up recognize anything other than a good defender, which, to be fair, they have excelled at.   

Doucher, on the subject of recruitment, I heard recently that you paid similar for Kelman what we paid for Coburn?… roughly 3 to 3.5 million up front, climbing to 5 million with add ons? 

He’s not as bad as coburn - more potential as well 

Coburn, who has spent half the season injured, 3 goals in 14 appearances (half of which were substitute appearances, coming on with half hour or less to play). 

Kelman, 4 goals in 24 appearances (I’m not sure how many were substitute appearances).  

Coburn a year younger. Does a lot of stuff off the ball, plenty of hold up play, brings others in to play, and happy to track back and defend as well. Kelman doesn’t bring much else to the game either from what I’ve read on here? 

To be honest , neither have set the championship alight with goals. But if you get the majority of your recruitment right then you can afford the odd dud. Still, 5 million is a lot to weigh out for clubs of our size. You never know though, they might come good yet. 

wasting your words on me - try and convince your own fans - i've heard enough from them and seen enough myself  to see coburn is a shockingly bad striker - kelman will have some re sell value its just whether we take a loss now or continue persevering - coburn will end up in league 2 at best 

PeaksAndValleys

Southbank said:

PeaksAndValleys said:

cabbles said:

DOUCHER said:

Good solid performance after tuesday's flop - pompey have clearly had a great window coz they ruined us tuesday night and seems like they did similar to smallwall so i cannot see them getting dragged back down - problem now is wba are one of the teams we r relying on to finish above - this season we haven't shown up for most of the 6 pointers so glad its away as think that will do the team a favour. Teams who battle and fight are our enemy - we can stifle the ballers but when we come up against teams that match our work rate and fight we struggle. We can grind our way to safety but are far from comfortable yet. Stay up and get Lloyd Jones signed up in the summer and make him the highest paid player at the club and captain. Bring somebody in in recruitment asap who knows what a footballer looks like and get what we can for tanto, kelman, knibbs and apter and completely overhaul the midfield and attack for next year - not sure our current set up recognize anything other than a good defender, which, to be fair, they have excelled at.   

Personally I think Kelman is worth pursuing.  His season has been flat but he picked up that hamstring injury just after scoring his first goal, showed a bit of promise on his return by finding that bit of skill to unlock Oxford, got 2 up at Blackburn then got lost in the shuffle again when it all went a bit wobbly in the new year.  I know he looked flat after coming on y’day and his goal return isn’t great, but that’s a team issue in as much his.  33 goals all season is woeful and it’s why we’re going to be huffing and puffing to hopefully staying up.

I agree with you re: Tanto and Apter.  Apter is all in all a bemusing signing and Tanto just isn’t going to make the step up.  Undecided on Knibbs purely on the lack of game time.  Perhaps that tells its own story, but as good as Docherty is and was y’day off the ball, he’s very poor on it, so I think Knibbs may get another chance 

We absolutely need to overhaul the midfield and attack if we do stay up, particularly the midfield 3 if we’re playing the same formation.  Need much more power, pace and skill in there.  Getting very far ahead of myself talking about next season, by I shudder to think how hard it will be unless we bring in some real quality, if we’re still in this division 

For me Tanto is the only one I'd say really is a bit of a write-off, and that's because of his age. Thought he was OK in parts but not ready for the step up yet and at 26 for £1.5m you'd say it doesn't look great.

Apter has bags of potential and is young, if he can be brought back into the fold when we are set up to play more openly I think he could be excellent. Knibbs has shown what he can bring in flashes, without injuries and Carey's form I think he could have had a decent season, similar to Carey's.

I really don't agree with the write off of our forwards, Kelman in particular. If he was missing chances then fine, but it just seems so clear that he isn't the problem. We aren't set up to feed him and again you have to think that will change as the team grows, particularly with a much needed overhaul of the midfield. Everyone thought Godden would be the answer when he came back but he's faced the same issues. Kelman has the quality and age profile to come very good. 

I think you are dreaming if you think any of them would be the answer in our second Championship season when they weren't in our first. We have seen the quality that exists in this division and that is what we need to do well in this division . Of course, we could choose another season of struggle with the mediocre squad ( in parts) that we have. But that would mean the owners have no ambition.

I mean that's obviously a perfectly fair opinion, I just don't agree, for all the reasons in my last post. If we have a major upgrade in midfield so that we create chances on the deck, I think Kelman can score a hatful at this level. If we play with wingers or with less need for defensive responsibility at the WB position, Apter has already shown he can affect games at this level. The others are more questionable, as I said. 

DOUCHER

PeaksAndValleys said:

Southbank said:

PeaksAndValleys said:

cabbles said:

DOUCHER said:

Good solid performance after tuesday's flop - pompey have clearly had a great window coz they ruined us tuesday night and seems like they did similar to smallwall so i cannot see them getting dragged back down - problem now is wba are one of the teams we r relying on to finish above - this season we haven't shown up for most of the 6 pointers so glad its away as think that will do the team a favour. Teams who battle and fight are our enemy - we can stifle the ballers but when we come up against teams that match our work rate and fight we struggle. We can grind our way to safety but are far from comfortable yet. Stay up and get Lloyd Jones signed up in the summer and make him the highest paid player at the club and captain. Bring somebody in in recruitment asap who knows what a footballer looks like and get what we can for tanto, kelman, knibbs and apter and completely overhaul the midfield and attack for next year - not sure our current set up recognize anything other than a good defender, which, to be fair, they have excelled at.   

Personally I think Kelman is worth pursuing.  His season has been flat but he picked up that hamstring injury just after scoring his first goal, showed a bit of promise on his return by finding that bit of skill to unlock Oxford, got 2 up at Blackburn then got lost in the shuffle again when it all went a bit wobbly in the new year.  I know he looked flat after coming on y’day and his goal return isn’t great, but that’s a team issue in as much his.  33 goals all season is woeful and it’s why we’re going to be huffing and puffing to hopefully staying up.

I agree with you re: Tanto and Apter.  Apter is all in all a bemusing signing and Tanto just isn’t going to make the step up.  Undecided on Knibbs purely on the lack of game time.  Perhaps that tells its own story, but as good as Docherty is and was y’day off the ball, he’s very poor on it, so I think Knibbs may get another chance 

We absolutely need to overhaul the midfield and attack if we do stay up, particularly the midfield 3 if we’re playing the same formation.  Need much more power, pace and skill in there.  Getting very far ahead of myself talking about next season, by I shudder to think how hard it will be unless we bring in some real quality, if we’re still in this division 

For me Tanto is the only one I'd say really is a bit of a write-off, and that's because of his age. Thought he was OK in parts but not ready for the step up yet and at 26 for £1.5m you'd say it doesn't look great.

Apter has bags of potential and is young, if he can be brought back into the fold when we are set up to play more openly I think he could be excellent. Knibbs has shown what he can bring in flashes, without injuries and Carey's form I think he could have had a decent season, similar to Carey's.

I really don't agree with the write off of our forwards, Kelman in particular. If he was missing chances then fine, but it just seems so clear that he isn't the problem. We aren't set up to feed him and again you have to think that will change as the team grows, particularly with a much needed overhaul of the midfield. Everyone thought Godden would be the answer when he came back but he's faced the same issues. Kelman has the quality and age profile to come very good. 

I think you are dreaming if you think any of them would be the answer in our second Championship season when they weren't in our first. We have seen the quality that exists in this division and that is what we need to do well in this division . Of course, we could choose another season of struggle with the mediocre squad ( in parts) that we have. But that would mean the owners have no ambition.

I mean that's obviously a perfectly fair opinion, I just don't agree, for all the reasons in my last post. If we have a major upgrade in midfield so that we create chances on the deck, I think Kelman can score a hatful at this level. If we play with wingers or with less need for defensive responsibility at the WB position, Apter has already shown he can affect games at this level. The others are more questionable, as I said. 

i don't think NJ will change his style of play but look to sign better players to perform in that style - i think in the january window he 'doubled down' on that and abandoned all attempts at a more expansive passing game - needs must - if we can be a very effective, hard working team, that will do me., certainly for the next few years.