POST-MATCH THREAD: Charlton Athletic v Ipswich Town: Wednesday 22nd April 2026: KO 19:45

NabySarr

Algarveaddick said:

Despite his part in the goal, I would have hooked TC fifteen minutes in, and I say that as a fan of his. He's great on his day, but awful when it isn't, and that wasn't. Every decision he made (including the shot that lead to the goal) was the wrong one. He got into great positions, then underhit or overhit the cross, or shot when he should have passed, or passed when he should have shot, or held onto the ball when he had sight of goal only to then shoot when a defender was in front of him. The one time he did pass when it was the right thing to do, he stuck it behind the player and a promising move came to nothing.

Their second goal was a microcosm of the whole season, a stupid, uneccessary foul (with overtones of a bad refereeing decision) followed by a piss poor penalty that Kaminsky should have thrown his cap on, somehow hitting the back of the net.

The referee was too easily fooled by their antics, and too lenient on their dirty play - right at the start when (I think) O'Shea flew at Fav and missed him, his boot was four inches off the ground, studs up, and all he got was a talking to, I thought then, "Oh, here we go". Three crocked players later...

Once again, we played well for twenty or thirty minutes-ish, either side of an hour of desperation. 

TC going off ruined our whole game. If we’d done it on 15 minutes we’d have lost by even more 

Kelman and TC were willing runners, they pressed well and ran the channels, turning the Ipswich defence around. When they both came off, the Ipswich defence played 15-20 yards higher up the pitch because we had no runners, and we had no answer to it. We went long and won the first contact plenty of times, usually that then drops into a dangerous area but because of the high Ipswich line we were usually still 30 yards away from goal. Neither TC or Kelman had particularly good games but just them being there, pressing from the front and running the channels, made us a better team 

This is a regular thing with TC, even when he’s not playing well individually, just having him there makes us a better team because of that threat he does have and how the opposition have to react to it. They double up on him, they can’t play as high a line and it gives us more space to work with 

msomerton

WSS said:

If we swapped the year around and had the beginning of the season run now we'd all feel very different despite all of the results being the same.

I'm nervous now, if not convinced it's all going to conspire against us over the next 10 days or so.

First half was encouraging last night but we simply don't have the quality or fitness to maintain long enough to keep teams out who are so much better than us.

I'm not sure it's 100% down to Jones, his decisions make sense and I get the pragmatism considering the skill level he's operating with. Which players are really playing below their level and does a system or approach really affect that?

That would be, because our current form would be too 6, so yes if we could reverse the season we would all be confident. But our limited team had a good patch when other teams did not know our style of play and had injury woes of their own. 

KingKinsella

DDOUBLEE said:

Gillesphey shouldn't be starting ahead of Gough, who for some reason, hasn't played a single minute since Boro. Baffling, it's so depressing.

Yeah I was wondering as well

Chunes

NabySarr said:

Algarveaddick said:

Despite his part in the goal, I would have hooked TC fifteen minutes in, and I say that as a fan of his. He's great on his day, but awful when it isn't, and that wasn't. Every decision he made (including the shot that lead to the goal) was the wrong one. He got into great positions, then underhit or overhit the cross, or shot when he should have passed, or passed when he should have shot, or held onto the ball when he had sight of goal only to then shoot when a defender was in front of him. The one time he did pass when it was the right thing to do, he stuck it behind the player and a promising move came to nothing.

Their second goal was a microcosm of the whole season, a stupid, uneccessary foul (with overtones of a bad refereeing decision) followed by a piss poor penalty that Kaminsky should have thrown his cap on, somehow hitting the back of the net.

The referee was too easily fooled by their antics, and too lenient on their dirty play - right at the start when (I think) O'Shea flew at Fav and missed him, his boot was four inches off the ground, studs up, and all he got was a talking to, I thought then, "Oh, here we go". Three crocked players later...

Once again, we played well for twenty or thirty minutes-ish, either side of an hour of desperation. 

TC going off ruined our whole game. If we’d done it on 15 minutes we’d have lost by even more 

Kelman and TC were willing runners, they pressed well and ran the channels, turning the Ipswich defence around. When they both came off, the Ipswich defence played 15-20 yards higher up the pitch because we had no runners, and we had no answer to it. We went long and won the first contact plenty of times, usually that then drops into a dangerous area but because of the high Ipswich line we were usually still 30 yards away from goal. Neither TC or Kelman had particularly good games but just them being there, pressing from the front and running the channels, made us a better team 

This is a regular thing with TC, even when he’s not playing well individually, just having him there makes us a better team because of that threat he does have and how the opposition have to react to it. They double up on him, they can’t play as high a line and it gives us more space to work with 

Agree, and I thought TC was really poor yesterday. Clearly has no confidence at the moment. But we started the game looking like the aggressive NJ side from last season and as soon as he went off, we lost our press and our width and reverted back to being stagnant and passive. 

Algarveaddick

NabySarr said:

Algarveaddick said:

Despite his part in the goal, I would have hooked TC fifteen minutes in, and I say that as a fan of his. He's great on his day, but awful when it isn't, and that wasn't. Every decision he made (including the shot that lead to the goal) was the wrong one. He got into great positions, then underhit or overhit the cross, or shot when he should have passed, or passed when he should have shot, or held onto the ball when he had sight of goal only to then shoot when a defender was in front of him. The one time he did pass when it was the right thing to do, he stuck it behind the player and a promising move came to nothing.

Their second goal was a microcosm of the whole season, a stupid, uneccessary foul (with overtones of a bad refereeing decision) followed by a piss poor penalty that Kaminsky should have thrown his cap on, somehow hitting the back of the net.

The referee was too easily fooled by their antics, and too lenient on their dirty play - right at the start when (I think) O'Shea flew at Fav and missed him, his boot was four inches off the ground, studs up, and all he got was a talking to, I thought then, "Oh, here we go". Three crocked players later...

Once again, we played well for twenty or thirty minutes-ish, either side of an hour of desperation. 

TC going off ruined our whole game. If we’d done it on 15 minutes we’d have lost by even more 

Kelman and TC were willing runners, they pressed well and ran the channels, turning the Ipswich defence around. When they both came off, the Ipswich defence played 15-20 yards higher up the pitch because we had no runners, and we had no answer to it. We went long and won the first contact plenty of times, usually that then drops into a dangerous area but because of the high Ipswich line we were usually still 30 yards away from goal. Neither TC or Kelman had particularly good games but just them being there, pressing from the front and running the channels, made us a better team 

This is a regular thing with TC, even when he’s not playing well individually, just having him there makes us a better team because of that threat he does have and how the opposition have to react to it. They double up on him, they can’t play as high a line and it gives us more space to work with 

Well, I agree the change in tactics wasn't the right thing to do, but I didn't imagine the poor crosses or the bad decision making. He was also on the pitch for minutes 15 to 45 where we were not at the races. 

The Red Robin

Stig said:

Weegie Addick said:

Might be the last we see in a Charlton shirt of Godden, Bell (is he only on a one year contract or have I got that wrong?) and TC. Starting to think we are cursed.

I don’t get why Dykes is ahead of Leaburn in Jones’ pecking order? So much more to come from Leaburn who has a much better all round game. He’d have been a far better replacement for TC but wasn’t even on the bench. I’m assuming he was just surplus last night rather than also injured? 

Quite simply, because Dykes is better. Leaburn hasn't lived up to his promise at all this season. I genuinely feel sorry for the lad, but he's not been the same since injury. There's some sort of hangover there, I don't know if it's a physical thing or a mental thing, but unfortunately he just isn't as good as he used to be and is nowhere near as good as we'd hoped he would become.

We also don’t play to Leaburn’s strengths. He’s not a player you can lump it up to. You need to get him running onto the ball or across him, to feet. 

KingKinsella

mogodon said:

I can’t help but think Nathan Jones is out of his depth in the Championship 

That plus/including some poor recruitment -when we can't afford to spend on duds

KingKinsella

ct_addick said:

How are we here….its because of shit tactics and team selections….did Carey actually touch the ball when he came on ? He has gone off the boil…

Maybe his own

golfaddick

The Red Robin said:

.DubaiCAFC said:

Jones bringing Dykes on killed us last night - pace in behind caused them trouble, and helped us get up the pitch, bring Dykes, forced us to go long in to him, and the CB gobbled them up.. Not having another option with big of pace or x factor cost us I think. All of the subs was same for same..
Fuller or even Dixon, to give us something different is key!

I am starting to become annoyed with Jones now, and the way he set's us up. We have no plan B, and we just lump the call forward, and that is down to the way we are being set-up!

Agreed. This is the single biggest decision that killed us last night. I still don’t understand replacing the pace and threat of TC - that had stopped Ipswich committing so many forwards, and where our goal came from - with a lump upfront. Even Carey or Knibbs would have been better. 

I said on the match thread at HT, even before we knew TC wasnt coming out for the 2nd half,  that I'd bring on Godden for TC and if necessary move Kelman out wide. At least then you have 2 mobile players who can run at defences and hopefully the ball would still he played on the floor/ to their feet rather than 10ft in the air.

Properdartford

Will we ever score 2 goals in a game ever again!!!

KingKinsella

ct_addick said:

Just saw Blackburn result FFS…every other team pulling it out of the hat except you know who….

Credit to a good manager

KingKinsella

NomadicAddick said:

12 LOL's I got when I said on the Preston post match thread that we would go down...well. 

What an absolute nightmare scenario Nathan Jones and the team have got us all into. Buck stops with the manager, shit game management pretty much all season and absolutely terrorist football for most of it. 

One spot above the relegation zone, the similar shit shows of Pompey, Blackburn and West Brom all now safe and on the beach. 

Oxford with the best fixture in the Championship this season, Sheffield Wednesday at home whereas we play a play off chasing team and then go away to Swansea who have the leagues top scorer leading the line with 22 goals so far this season. Oxford head to Millwall who may or may not be in a position where they rest most of their XI ahead of the play offs. 

This club will be the death of me.

Me first please, don't jump the queue

The Red Robin

golfaddick said:

The Red Robin said:

.DubaiCAFC said:

Jones bringing Dykes on killed us last night - pace in behind caused them trouble, and helped us get up the pitch, bring Dykes, forced us to go long in to him, and the CB gobbled them up.. Not having another option with big of pace or x factor cost us I think. All of the subs was same for same..
Fuller or even Dixon, to give us something different is key!

I am starting to become annoyed with Jones now, and the way he set's us up. We have no plan B, and we just lump the call forward, and that is down to the way we are being set-up!

Agreed. This is the single biggest decision that killed us last night. I still don’t understand replacing the pace and threat of TC - that had stopped Ipswich committing so many forwards, and where our goal came from - with a lump upfront. Even Carey or Knibbs would have been better. 

I said on the match thread at HT, even before we knew TC wasnt coming out for the 2nd half,  that I'd bring on Godden for TC and if necessary move Kelman out wide. At least then you have 2 mobile players who can run at defences and hopefully the ball would still he played on the floor/ to their feet rather than 10ft in the air.

Yep - it would have meant we didn’t change our entire style of play, which was working well. 

KingKinsella

IR94 said:

Even if we do stay up, from where we were after the Boro game, this is a disgrace and Jones needs to go

Best to go at the end of the  season so the new manager can recruit. I hope the board have list of candidates already, surely even Americans can recognise a shapeless disorganised, largely talentless team?

soapboxsam

Nug said:

Cannot fault the effort last night but the gulf in quality is huge between us and 80% of the teams in this league. The last few months has shown us we will need some significant investment to even get close to mid table next season if we manage to squeak in and stay here.

I do worry Jones only has one way to play and it’s dreadful to watch, however as someone pointed out elsewhere, Wrexham play the same way with just much better players, I’d take that, but this is a tough watch with very little success.

Wrexham just like Ipswich last night, were never in top gear against Oxford but I liked the way they would use their wide players but also hit their talented strikers in Smith and Windass with good  long passes from the back. Mix and match by Parky which is the way to play. 
Our plan B last night was to revert to long balls to Dykes and once TC was crocked and no Fullah for a direct replacement we were snookered. 

Did we all think after 10 games and 15 points we were dreadful to watch ? We haven't evolved as a side and it can't just be about defending as we can't rely on teams not taking their chances like Middlesbrough. 
At the Business end of the season(last 10) we have been the weakest team along with Sheff wed over the duration of games which is tough to take especially with poor mistakes by individuals.
Despite our limited budget we had enough not to be looking over our shoulder with two games to go.

eastterrace6168

KingKinsella said:

IR94 said:

Even if we do stay up, from where we were after the Boro game, this is a disgrace and Jones needs to go

Best to go at the end of the  season so the new manager can recruit. I hope the board have list of candidates already, surely even Americans can recognise a shapeless disorganised, largely talentless team?

Mmm🤔...Don't forget they voted in Trump...🙄

The Prince-e-Paul

thickandthin63 said:

Has anyone ever read a book,or seen a film,then half way through,"I think I have been here before"
Our last Championship season,Away to Brentford,1-0 up give a goal away,and then concede a late penalty,Last day of the season,we are losing at Leeds,Barnsley in bottom 3,we are 4th from bottom,Barnsley away to high flying Brentford,last minute winner,puts us down.For Barnsley and Brentford,read Oxford Millwall.
We just cannot stop these stupid totally avoidable errors,there was no reason to give that penalty away,and Kaminsky should have stopped it.I thought we played as well as could be expected against a very good side,cant fault tactics.
Shout out for Doc,took a lot of stick this year,but when your in the shit,you want this man in your team.Watched Hull v Leicester,Hull look very open,we can certainly beat them on saturday.

This. I thought he had an excellent game. He ran around like a youngsters with fire in his belly. 
His tracking back and fighting for the ball on the turnover was something his team mates should and can take inspiration from. Talk about leader on the pitch. What he läcka in talent (no offence Doc) he.mote than makes up in heart and desire. If ever there is a man you want in your ranks, its Doc. There were times this season i've thought he should be shipped at the season end, but I've changed my mind lately.  If he has talented players around him (he doesn't have enough at this level), then he is more than capable of running the ship. 

I genuinely believe that this bunch care, it's just there is a gulf between League One where we've sat for 7 seasons, and the Championship, which is almost a Premier League Two, such is the money being spent. 

Out owners have had their promotion, and have seen what it takes to compete at this level. They now need to decide if the have the stomach for the financial commitment, that guarantees absolutely nothing, or under invest and accept the inevitable.

My concern is that they owners may be thinking it is a lot cheaper to under invest, or even cut a run, as opposed to being a competitor on equal financial footing with Championship clubs. The reality is that we need to over invest to bridge the cavernous gap. So £50-100m (never going to happen) is probably something close to what is needed to compete to stay up next time around. 

This morning I'm feeling concerned but with a thought that we will survive. 21st spot is what most people gladly accepted back in August, but this feels a little too close for comfort. 

soapy_jones

It says something of my character that I stick with this total bag of heartache.

Not in a good way of course, in a delusional, denialist(?) and repetitive way!

Awful management of a group of let's face it League One players. 

See you Saturday.

KingKinsella

Rossman92 said:

I cannot get Mannion’s Howlers, Gillesphey’s Briandead arm pull, or Kaminski’s pathetic excuse of a penalty save out of my mind. If any of those things don’t happen, we probably have at least 1 more point. And that’s all we need

Fine margins, too many stupid personal mistakes 

you forgot Hernandez handball at Wrexham - to me a lot of the gas came out of the bottle then

conleylad

Im 78 now  will i  seea   charlton player scorea  hatrick again. O  for a  Johnny Summers , is  Clive still fit enough ?

KingKinsella

dmccart32 said:

Yeah we can all point to Pompey and Blackburn away, but on the flip side what about our 96th penalty at Oxford. These things tend to even themselves out.

i think it’s more the lack of quality we have in the squad. We’ve got a L1 loanee  who whilst thought he did ok tonight, he’s up against players worth £20m! Not his fault, just not good enough overall.

I don't believe in this theory that things even themselves out- just look at at Sheff Weds- they should have had a penalty against us and one last night too. Hopefully they will get 2 against Oxford and your saying will come true

MrBurns

NomadicAddick said:

12 LOL's I got when I said on the Preston post match thread that we would go down...well. 

What an absolute nightmare scenario Nathan Jones and the team have got us all into. Buck stops with the manager, shit game management pretty much all season and absolutely terrorist football for most of it. 

One spot above the relegation zone, the similar shit shows of Pompey, Blackburn and West Brom all now safe and on the beach. 

Oxford with the best fixture in the Championship this season, Sheffield Wednesday at home whereas we play a play off chasing team and then go away to Swansea who have the leagues top scorer leading the line with 22 goals so far this season. Oxford head to Millwall who may or may not be in a position where they rest most of their XI ahead of the play offs. 

This club will be the death of me.

Wish I could like this twice. Absolutely spot on. A lot of people were quick with the laughs and dismissing anyone who called this weeks ago, but now most are finally smelling the coffee. It wasn’t negativity, it was people watching what was happening in front of them with poor performances, no cutting edge, and baffling decisions from the manager time and time again.

The truth is plenty of fans have been saying for months they wouldn’t want to be in the trenches with some of us and shouting down anyone who raised concerns. Now look where we are one place above the drop, relying on others, with momentum completely against us.

You don’t end up in this position by bad luck alone. The football has been dire for large parts of the season, game management has cost us points, and the manager has to carry the responsibility for that. People can call it moaning all they like, but those warning signs were there long before now.

KingKinsella

cabbles said:

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

oohaahmortimer said:

Doc, rightfully, MOTM in the lounge

He was immense tonight. Fevrier too put in a great shift.

Docherty led by example tonight and it’s frustrating that he can’t turn in that sort of performance on the ball more often.  He was breaking up play but then starting moves in the first half when he won the ball, and followed up well for the goal albeit got a fortunate deflection.  If that was what we got from him every week then you can make a case for him playing a part next season.  

Fevrier was also up for it and tried hard. I felt he was let down by the lack of movement when he got the ball.  There were a number of times he looked up and had no choice but to run at two defenders.

We got a great and fortunate start, and from my perspective we did try and I felt the team were working hard against a very, very talented Ipswich team.  The riches they have in terms of players that can move the ball is something we can only dream of.

Bit worried for Saturday given the loss of Campbell, Bell and I’m sure Godden had we not used up all our subs.  I don’t necessarily think TC is up to it at this level, but if he doesn’t play, then we really do lack any sort of pace up top.

In the context of the last 7 games we’ve really let ourselves down, but tonight had a bit of spirit and fight, we were up against a very good side.  If we can show that sort of effort in the next 2, I do believe we have a point in us.  Anything less than 100% fight and we’re relying on Sheff Weds or Millwall.  

Hopefully we’ve done enough come 2.30 Sat afternoon, but it’s still on a knife edge and we’ve got to get behind them on Saturday.  I’ve no doubt the crowd will be up for it, we might just need a little more to help the team 

Re -movement
every time Ipswich had the ball they had 3-4 players moving into spaces mainly forward to receive.
Unlike our statues

Blucher

Feeling very flat this morning with the realisation that we're probably going to have to rely upon Millwall against Oxford on the final day. The last 4 home games have followed precisely the same pattern - conceding soft goals and then throwing a string of high balls into the opposition penalty area to absolutely no avail. It's becoming a little depressing and perhaps helps to explain the disappointingly low home turnout last night. People are getting fatigued watching this stuff and it's not going to help season ticket sales.

The three injuries are potentially very serious for us. Given that Bell almost invariably gets injured when he plays wing back, I'm a little baffled as to why Jones started him there. His injury leaves the left side of our defence, with Gillesphey and Chambers, very exposed. Up front, the loss of TC and Godden leaves us light, with none of the other options - Dykes, Kelman and Leaburn - in form.

After garnering 7 points in 8 days last month against Birmingham, Boro and Oxford, we were all confident that there would be no late season collapse in the manner of 1971-72, where we took 2 points from the last 9 games and were relegated on the final day. Having now taken only 3 points from the last 7 games, we could well end up very close to that and may well be reliant upon Millwall taking points off Oxford on the last day of the season. Given their superior goal difference, Ipswich only need 5 points from the last 3 games, so we'd better hope that they drop points at West Brom and Southampton, so that Millwall are still in the hunt on Saturday week and don't rest players like Azeez for the play-offs.

killerandflash

Losing to Ipswich is no disgrace. They have a massive budget, and a squad full of quality. Indeed I'd argue that they've slightly underperformed this season, considering their resources and stability.

I'd suggest that there's a slight similarity between last night and Arsenal's lose at City. In both cases the biggest issue isn't the performance in the defeat which was an improvement, it's the performances in the previous games. For all the jokes about Arsenal choking, are we any different? Six games after Boro, none of them against top six sides, and we failed to win any of them. 3 home games before last night that we lost by a single goal. 

The draw at Wednesday was such a limp performance, if we had started like we did last night on Saturday, I don't think their defence would have coped. For 30 minutes, we looked like a decent football team.

Injuries badly affected us last night, but NJ really needs to look against at his Plan B, and his bench selection. For the last 25 minutes, we endlessly just lumped it into the box from the half way line, but those balls are so easy for decent defenders to clear. We never changed it up, passing it wide to find a better angle to cross the ball in, which might have dragged defenders out.

Carey was busy when he came on, but was having to play deep or out wide, so well away from the goal. Knibbs is a presence in the box, but do we need Dykes, Knibbs and Lloyd Jones all as targets in the box?

peterreeves

Just found this on Oxford fans site... They're thinking the same stuff we are.... Funny old game but it would be so Charlton to win on Saturday and stop all the heartache we're feeling!

'If Charlton get their point then it's going to be a deflated damp squib of a game. If they don't, we'll choke under the pressure again like we have with the last few "must wins" and probably totally screw it up.

Still - not over until it's over...please, when will it be over?!'

EastbourneAddick

I thought we played ok against a very good Ipswich team. Bar Gillespie's calamitous error and Kaminski mucking up the Penalty save we probably would have come away with that precious point.
Think TC didn't come back out coz he was injured by Furlong and as a precaution Jones didn't play him  second half as wants him firing for Hull on Saturday when realistically we have more of a chance to get that point.
Just need something to go right on Saturday and hope the Football Gods can smile upon us.

EugenesAxe

EastbourneAddick said:

I thought we played ok against a very good Ipswich team. Bar Gillespie's calamitous error and Kaminski mucking up the Penalty save we probably would have come away with that precious point.
Think TC didn't come back out coz he was injured by Furlong and as a precaution Jones didn't play him  second half as wants him firing for Hull on Saturday when realistically we have more of a chance to get that point.
Just need something to go right on Saturday and hope the Football Gods can smile upon us.

Was it furlong that injured Godden too?

chaudhari211

I was at the match. We started full of energy and that fighting spirit that we showed in our previous encounter when we thrashed them 3-0 at Portman Road. 

That momentum was short lived when our players started to go down soon after awkward tackles from the opposition. 

They obviously targeted our key players who looked sharp and agile and who were an obvious threat in front of the away end goal. 

Dykes had had enough of it and gave Mcateer a piece of their own medicine under provocation and got booked in the process.
 

We had some diabolical decisions go against us by the referee and the Lino on the left of the covered end. 

One of their obvious targets was TC who eventually was substituted. Godden was targeted shortly after he came on and was hobbling on one leg. We were in effect down to 10 men in the latter stages of the match. 

Dykes was ineffective as was Kelman. 

Lloyd Jones gave everything as usual. 

Fevrier started off brightly but fizzled out as the game went on as did several other players. 

Kaminski in goal does not ooze confidence for me. I much rather prefer Mannion any day. 

As has been said in the previous posts, Gillesphey badly let us down. I cannot agree more. 

We just cannot hold the ball and kept losing possession. 

We went back to the old days when we kicked the ball anywhere , usually in the air and hoped that one of our players got to it first. Well it didn’t last night. 

Ipswich played as a team and they found their players seamlessly which contributed to their flowing football. 

We couldn’t keep the ball and kept losing possession after getting into key areas and making unnecessary fouls when building momentum. Nonsensical. 

We just love creating undue stress , pressure and anxiety and uncertainty. We just don’t need any help from anyone to do so. 

We love keep visiting the same situations as before. 

It is disgraceful that we keep relying on the poor performances of other teams in the relegation zone to stay afloat. 

Let us keep giving our team positive vibes and help them get over the line. 

Only two games left. 

Come on you reds. 

We can , and we will stay up. 

DamoNorthStand

Pelling1993 said:

Apologies for my language on the match thread last night. I’ve fully lost the plot and can’t handle this anymore 😂

No worries - I was probably at the point at the Millwall game..... I have gone through the grief cycle now and have reached grim acceptance. You will get there