POST-MATCH THREAD: Charlton Athletic v Bristol City: Saturday 10th October 2026: KO 12:30

Martinspringle

Gosh you lot moan. We played alright. So did Bristol.  If TC had managed to put that one in the net that somehow floated over, you’d all be saying we were definitely making the play-offs. Another day we win that. Another day it’s not a penalty. Another day Okonkwo gets sent off. Long season ahead. COYR

9goalswentpastperry

Athletico Charlton said:

Saw a group of 6-8 tourists with scarfs leave the ground afterwards and wondered what they thought if it. The crowd were flat and so were the players.  Such little skill and creativity in the squad.  Individually I like the players, they are grafters who give their all.  
But the midfield is so weak.  Skipp and Coventry are identical players with no forward play. Grant can not pass, will score a few but his vision and awareness are miles off.  
We have tried to evolve and it has not worked as we do not have the personnel to do so. I can see us going back to a back 5 which is probably sensible but risks weakening TCs attacking influence as it will remove wingers.
Need a win quickly, as whilst we have only lost 2 it's just far too many draws.

This is it for me. We don't have shirkers, Jones won't permit it. So whatever gets served up I can stomach it. I just can't be critical of these blokes, especially when I think of some of their predecessors a few short years ago when we were treading water in League One.

th0rryy

On the face of it, yes, it's an OK point in isolation against a team that should be there or thereabouts in the playoff picture at the end of the season. I'm pretty sure I saw several predictions across the interwebs for this game to end up 1-1 and thus did it end that way. Grant's goal was very well taken and, for my mind, it was a penalty - a tired TC miss at the end probably would have represented some points stolen rather than earned if it had gone in.

However, we're at home and we need to take games like this and turn a few more in to wins. I just don't think we have the quality to do so in either midfield or in creative/wide areas. Echoing the point from earlier in this thread, Coventry and Skipp isn't a combination that will create anywhere near enough. Skipp is better than say, Docherty, but having 2 CDMs is making us play this brand of hateball NJ loves so much. It really doesn't matter who plays in the 10, up front or on either wing when these two together are your engine room. They are too similar, attempt to occupy the same space and are not progressive enough. You need ONE of them, not both. However, NJ is not brave enough to play without both - he won't gamble on results when he knows he could lose his job if it goes wrong. So, he plays the percentage grindy football that means more draws and less losses. Another manager would at least attempt Carey/JR-C/Knibbs/Mwamba in that 8 role, but he's playing to inch us over the points line. It's horrific to watch, imho.

Defensively, Billy was a massive, massive difference-maker today. First time I have got to see him play in person and the lad was a colossus. However, the less said about Josh Edwards today, the better. Hirakawa beat him so many times and he looked completely off it. We can't risk him starting games, and I genuinely hope that NJ felt forced into playing him due to the fitness of the other players. Mesik gave us so much, and just more action and endeavor.

I dunno. We've got two huge away games now. Burnley found something against the insanity that is Watford today, so they'll see us as the opportunity in the week. Prepare for more parking the bus. Then at Watford, we have to at least try and contest the game, but it'll be a nailbiter decided by more inches and moments. I'm so concerned we get dragged into this dogfight again. We look like a promoted L1 team, still. I can only pray that we have some pennies put aside for January to try and fix the holes.

Until NJ gives up on Coventry and Skipp, every game will be a coin flip at best. The formation around that is irrelevant - it's that combo causing us to look so toothless.

altrinchamaddick

Roumors from Cawley/Mendez substack that Timothy Ouma hasn't returned back from International break, or returned back late. If that's the case I'd be surprised if we see him in a Charlton shirt again, as Jones will not accept such a break in club protocals.
He's had previous at Lech Poznan, put him in the reserves, sent him out on loan!
If it's true be gone in Jan.

Simonsen

Worked hard.

Neither team looked much cop.

We might've nicked it late on....great shot and save from Knibbs free kick.

Trying hard to be positive but it was pretty dull (as usual). 

Alwaysneil

I thought both teams had decent spells where they looked good but there was a lot of unforced errors both sides

NabySarr

th0rryy said:

On the face of it, yes, it's an OK point in isolation against a team that should be there or thereabouts in the playoff picture at the end of the season. I'm pretty sure I saw several predictions across the interwebs for this game to end up 1-1 and thus did it end that way. Grant's goal was very well taken and, for my mind, it was a penalty - a tired TC miss at the end probably would have represented some points stolen rather than earned if it had gone in.

However, we're at home and we need to take games like this and turn a few more in to wins. I just don't think we have the quality to do so in either midfield or in creative/wide areas. Echoing the point from earlier in this thread, Coventry and Skipp isn't a combination that will create anywhere near enough. Skipp is better than say, Docherty, but having 2 CDMs is making us play this brand of hateball NJ loves so much. It really doesn't matter who plays in the 10, up front or on either wing when these two together are your engine room. They are too similar, attempt to occupy the same space and are not progressive enough. You need ONE of them, not both. However, NJ is not brave enough to play without both - he won't gamble on results when he knows he could lose his job if it goes wrong. So, he plays the percentage grindy football that means more draws and less losses. Another manager would at least attempt Carey/JR-C/Knibbs/Mwamba in that 8 role, but he's playing to inch us over the points line. It's horrific to watch, imho.

Defensively, Billy was a massive, massive difference-maker today. First time I have got to see him play in person and the lad was a colossus. However, the less said about Josh Edwards today, the better. Hirakawa beat him so many times and he looked completely off it. We can't risk him starting games, and I genuinely hope that NJ felt forced into playing him due to the fitness of the other players. Mesik gave us so much, and just more action and endeavor.

I dunno. We've got two huge away games now. Burnley found something against the insanity that is Watford today, so they'll see us as the opportunity in the week. Prepare for more parking the bus. Then at Watford, we have to at least try and contest the game, but it'll be a nailbiter decided by more inches and moments. I'm so concerned we get dragged into this dogfight again. We look like a promoted L1 team, still. I can only pray that we have some pennies put aside for January to try and fix the holes.

Until NJ gives up on Coventry and Skipp, every game will be a coin flip at best. The formation around that is irrelevant - it's that combo causing us to look so toothless.

The problem is that these are our other options. I think playing any of them back there would make us a worse team than playing Skipp-Coventry, yes we’d be better on the ball but off the ball much worse so we’d probably lose more games. Mwamba looks great but starting in that role at West Brom he struggled. Knibbs and Carey are not number 8s, and Costello just isn’t mobile enough to play there for us. I don’t think putting any of them in there improves things 

Chalobah transforms this team, but until he’s fit again we will have to make do with Skipp and Coventry because unfortunately we don’t have anything better. Jones clearly wanted to transform our midfield this summer and the owners haven’t delivered for him, Chalobah on a free and Skipp and Ouma on loan just isn’t anywhere near what we needed this summer 

Southbank

Athletico Charlton said:

Saw a group of 6-8 tourists with scarfs leave the ground afterwards and wondered what they thought if it. The crowd were flat and so were the players.  Such little skill and creativity in the squad.  Individually I like the players, they are grafters who give their all.  
But the midfield is so weak.  Skipp and Coventry are identical players with no forward play. Grant can not pass, will score a few but his vision and awareness are miles off.  
We have tried to evolve and it has not worked as we do not have the personnel to do so. I can see us going back to a back 5 which is probably sensible but risks weakening TCs attacking influence as it will remove wingers.
Need a win quickly, as whilst we have only lost 2 it's just far too many draws.

We will struggle going to a back 5 as we only have one wingback, Mesik. Nobody else can play the hybrid attack/ defence role. We are short of a 10 if we play with a back 4 and short of a right wingback if we play with a back 5.
Basically rhe same as last season
 Our recruitment did not fix it. We now have a surfeit of players who have failed at 10. Carey since Xmas, Knibbs and Costello, and some right wingers who don't seem to fit and who can't play at wingback, Apter, Alli and Nkeng.
We know we were after a 10 and a 7 in the summer. We did not get the ones we wanted and now we are paying the price..

IlfordAddick

ken_shabby said:

First half I thought we were lucky to be kevrl after a continuous drip drip if silly errors and lapses in concentration. Second half we gradually took control, finished stronger and possibly deserved the win (our finishing was the difference).

So only a point at home but a big improvement at the end.

?

ct_addick

For the life of me I can’t see how Leicester paid £20 million for Skipp ! 

Addick Addict

ct_addick said:

For the life of me I can’t see how Leicester paid £20 million for Skipp ! 

That includes a "premium tax" of £19m for coming from a BIG SIX club. One that would have walked the European Super League.

golfaddick

Southbank said:

Athletico Charlton said:

Saw a group of 6-8 tourists with scarfs leave the ground afterwards and wondered what they thought if it. The crowd were flat and so were the players.  Such little skill and creativity in the squad.  Individually I like the players, they are grafters who give their all.  
But the midfield is so weak.  Skipp and Coventry are identical players with no forward play. Grant can not pass, will score a few but his vision and awareness are miles off.  
We have tried to evolve and it has not worked as we do not have the personnel to do so. I can see us going back to a back 5 which is probably sensible but risks weakening TCs attacking influence as it will remove wingers.
Need a win quickly, as whilst we have only lost 2 it's just far too many draws.

We will struggle going to a back 5 as we only have one wingback, Mesik. Nobody else can play the hybrid attack/ defence role. We are short of a 10 if we play with a back 4 and short of a right wingback if we play with a back 5.
Basically rhe same as last season
 Our recruitment did not fix it. We now have a surfeit of players who have failed at 10. Carey since Xmas, Knibbs and Costello, and some right wingers who don't seem to fit and who can't play at wingback, Apter, Alli and Nkeng.
We know we were after a 10 and a 7 in the summer. We did not get the ones we wanted and now we are paying the price..

But apart from that the summer transfer window was a success.....😂😂😂

DOUCHER

golfaddick said:

sam3110 said:

Jones calls subs gamechangers, but I think today they changed the game for the worse. I also think starting Edwards was a mistake.

A solid first 15 minutes but we were pretty pants after that. 

I think Mcnamara ending the game at right wing was a weird choice, and TC was clearly spent, but Alli mustn't be up to much in training if he can only get on for 3 mins at the end. 

Knibbs and Kelman did nothing to keep up the pressure that we built up leading up to the big TC chance, and it felt like the game was always going to peter out after that. 

A point gained but yet again were ultimately undone by an individual mistake by us rather than a glorious piece of play by the opponent 

This.

We spent all summer planning to play wingers & although we didnt manage to sign JRS we did bring in Alli and Nkeng...............but we end up in the last 20 mins relying on our rightback to attack & put crosses in. 

We need to stick to our pre-season thinking & play with 2 wingers. And play with a natural striker (Kelman or Godden) - Mbick is NOT the answer.

100% this - we may lack quality, we may lack the money to buy in the midfield class we need but why on earth did we put mcanamara on the right wing when we are trying to win a home match ? Get Alli on and we probably would have broken them - yes, we may have conceded but christ, you have to go for it - the right side of our attack was non existent second half - that is purely on the manager  

Weegie Addick

My Wimbledon mate is baffled as to why we’re not using Nkeng as a wildcard for last 15 mins or so. (Appreciate he didn’t even make subs’ bench today)

Stig

Disappointing performance, disappointing result. It ain't the end of the world, but we need to start picking up more points. We're good defensively but there's some stuff we really should be doing better:

• Passing. Too many balls given away needlessly. We string too or three passes together and just when it starts to look like we're getting somewhere, someone mis-hits it and we're on the back foot again.
• Creating chances. We can do it, but for most of the game we tend not to.  Start well, end well, spend the vast majority of the match creating very little.
• Taking the chances that we do create. Like the other stuff so far, we can do it, we just don't do it often enough. Grant took his goal well but other than that we just didn't get enough shots on target.
• Using dead ball opportunities. Case in point was the free kick that Knibbs took near the end. I know Mr Tickle got a paw to it, but did anyone feel that we'd score from there? We don't have the creativity to make the most of such opportunities. 

DOUCHER

RonnieMoore said:

Excellent point we stated very well playing a new 442 formation and scored a well taken goal through Grant .. but think City then changed their system which made it more difficult for us and they come into the game .. a pen ?? not sure seem to make slot of it and that goal gave them bit of confidence.. second half we changed systems went to 5 at the back then changed again to 3421 very even tactic game .. big chance Campbell has to do better should score , then 92 mins Knibbs free kick just going in top corner , until the keeper finger nails tipped it over so close … all in all fair point and deserved point … if you look how far we come again lost 1-2 last year and today there was nothing between us and an established championship side .. 

MOM Billy , but Skipp and Coventry outstanding in mid 

not having that - skipp is a bang average footballer - the single most glaringly obvious position in our team that needs a major upgrade  

DOUCHER

stjohnshill said:

Was told earlier Chalobah is back in roughly in 3 weeks 

thank christ for that 

queensland_addick

DOUCHER said:

RonnieMoore said:

Excellent point we stated very well playing a new 442 formation and scored a well taken goal through Grant .. but think City then changed their system which made it more difficult for us and they come into the game .. a pen ?? not sure seem to make slot of it and that goal gave them bit of confidence.. second half we changed systems went to 5 at the back then changed again to 3421 very even tactic game .. big chance Campbell has to do better should score , then 92 mins Knibbs free kick just going in top corner , until the keeper finger nails tipped it over so close … all in all fair point and deserved point … if you look how far we come again lost 1-2 last year and today there was nothing between us and an established championship side .. 

MOM Billy , but Skipp and Coventry outstanding in mid 

not having that - skipp is a bang average footballer - the single most glaringly obvious position in our team that needs a major upgrade  

There's a certain unemployed Scottish player out there who could do everything that Skipp is currently doing, and more, more combative, more positive and occasionally he even had a crack at goal.

There has to be more to Skipp, eg the delicious through ball for Campbell's disallowed goal a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I thought perhaps that there were no options for the forward pass, but when Ramsay came on, he was instantly threading good balls forward.

Maybe Skipp is under instructions to just keep the ball ticking over, sideways, backwards etc, but that isn't what we need!

So boring, I don't think I've ever been so unexcited watching Charlton play. 

Maybe I was spoilt growing up in the era of Hales, Flanagan, Powell etc, when we'd regularly score 3,4,5, sometimes even 6.

stoneroses19

Will have to see it again, but Mesic yellow at the end was a joke. Bristol player was all over him and thought Mesic did well to stay calm, especially as the same player had took him out a few minutes before in front of home dugout. Same player just before FT then did a high boot that resulted in free kick to us. Another 5
minutes and think he would have got a red card, Bristol player had completely lost his head. 

Callumcafc

stjohnshill said:

Was told earlier Chalobah is back in roughly in 3 weeks 

That’s the best news of the weekend

blackpool72

Nightmare journey to Charlton with no trains going to London Bridge from Orpington. 
Same again getting home. 
As for the match itself despite a decent start and an early goal it's obvious we are short of quality in midfield. 
Until we rectify this i expect every game will be a struggle. 
Highlight of the day was the bloke who hit the meerkat with a perfect delivery. 
Sign him up.

cafcforever

blackpool72 said:

Nightmare journey to Charlton with no trains going to London Bridge from Orpington. 
Same again getting home. 
As for the match itself despite a decent start and an early goal it's obvious we are short of quality in midfield. 
Until we rectify this i expect every game will be a struggle. 
Highlight of the day was the bloke who hit the meerkat with a perfect delivery. 
Sign him up.

Had the same train problems and gave up at Victoria when the best I could achieve was missing the first 20 minutes.  Sounds like I had a lucky escape based on most of this post match thread. 😀

AFKABartram

Pretty much where we were last season after 9 games:

25/26 - points 12. 6 points above relegation 
26/27 - points 13, 6 points above relegation 

Billericaydickie

I now understand why both Stoke City and Southampton decided to dispense with Nathan Jones.

His dealings in the transfer market are atrocious, and the style of football he plays is also atrocious.

Yesterday Bristol City was exactly the type of game that we needed to win. 

Yet he starts with Mbick and Miles Leaburn . Despite playing nine matches this season Miles has not scored one single goal. Yet Nathan decides to play Miles alongside Mbick, who also is yet to score! So surprise, surprise still no goals from our front two attackers.

When Lyndon Dykes played alongside Miles we had a chance of scoring, but Nathan decided to dispense with Lyndon’s services and play Mbick instead?

I appreciate that Mbiick is an emerging talent, but I have watched every minute that Mbick has played, and I cannot remember anything that he has done that has impressed me. He looks out of his depth playing in the Championship.

I honestly never thought I would say this but Nathan Jones now needs to go. He has taken Charlton as far as he can, and things are rapidly going downhill. Unless something changes fast I fear that  relegation is approaching.

blackpool72

cafcforever said:

blackpool72 said:

Nightmare journey to Charlton with no trains going to London Bridge from Orpington. 
Same again getting home. 
As for the match itself despite a decent start and an early goal it's obvious we are short of quality in midfield. 
Until we rectify this i expect every game will be a struggle. 
Highlight of the day was the bloke who hit the meerkat with a perfect delivery. 
Sign him up.

Had the same train problems and gave up at Victoria when the best I could achieve was missing the first 20 minutes.  Sounds like I had a lucky escape based on most of this post match thread. 😀

At one point I was at Victoria,  was going to get a tube to Cannon street but the tube line to Cannon street was also closed.
Hopefully next Saturday will be back to normal as I'm planing on getting to London Bridge then tube to Euston for Watford 

crookester

We defended well, Edwards aside and had a few good attacking moments in what was a very tight game. Koumetio's return made a huge difference, even if his passing was rusty. The penalty looked soft but nobody really complained, so I suppose it must have been correct.

Skipp and Coventry together are so one-paced and I doubt we win many (any?) games with that combination.

Mbick didn't really work out, his touch and power were promising on the odd occasion but not nearly enough to persist with in that role.

Still find our "pass it around the defence and midfield then lump it forward and handover possession" approach very frustrating. I really hope this isn't what they are instructed to do in training lol.

An okay point but only if we take something from Burnley in midweek.

crookester

Also, Grant's touch and finish were sublime. If he could actually stay involved all game, he'd be a real asset.

9goalswentpastperry

After our next three games we'll have played all the current bottom 7 in our first 12 games.  I worry our return from those games won't be enough to keep us away from a dogfight.

Hartleypete

Two very dull teams yesterday. Good to see a few coming back, Skip and Coventry together just doesn’t work and Mbick is not really ready yet.
Think Arthur was lucky not to see red yesterday but he is such a big improvement from what we had.

LargeAddick

Billericaydickie said:

I now understand why both Stoke City and Southampton decided to dispense with Nathan Jones.

His dealings in the transfer market are atrocious, and the style of football he plays is also atrocious.

Yesterday Bristol City was exactly the type of game that we needed to win. 

Yet he starts with Mbick and Miles Leaburn . Despite playing nine matches this season Miles has not scored one single goal. Yet Nathan decides to play Miles alongside Mbick, who also is yet to score! So surprise, surprise still no goals from our front two attackers.

When Lyndon Dykes played alongside Miles we had a chance of scoring, but Nathan decided to dispense with Lyndon’s services and play Mbick instead?

I appreciate that Mbiick is an emerging talent, but I have watched every minute that Mbick has played, and I cannot remember anything that he has done that has impressed me. He looks out of his depth playing in the Championship.

I honestly never thought I would say this but Nathan Jones now needs to go. He has taken Charlton as far as he can, and things are rapidly going downhill. Unless something changes fast I fear that  relegation is approaching.

I don’t agree with you about NJ but I do about Mbick. I’ve not seen anything to justify what all the fuss is about. I said before the season started he needed a season long loan somewhere.