This preview monkey wasn’t around on Saturday to watch the feast of football for a fiver – luckily it seems.
Chris Powell followed up defeat against Hartlepool with one at home against Exeter, and in the space of two games a defence which look shored up has suddenly become as porous as Swiss cheese. By all accounts, an experimental 4-3-3 formation looked flimsy and simply didn’t work. It seems a red line can be drawn through that in Powell’s ‘How to be a Manager – For Beginners’ handbook.
Traditionally, a Charlton appearance on the telebox means only one thing, yet for some reason here at Preview Headquarters, we’re quietly confident against the team managed by the only black manager in the country…
With loan signings looking to come in after this fixture, it would seem Powell’s options are limited. Despite the much maligned Simon Francis being out of the team against the Grecians, his hopeful return against Notts County will add some much needed width and delivery from the right hand side. Bessone looks doubtful on the left so hopefully Matt Fry can turn around some recent disappointing performances. Speed merchants D&D will continue in the centre looking to stop Lee Hughes hitting them and running off to score.
McOxo looks tired and ineffective in the centre of midfield and if this was a home game I’d expect Racon to come back in, whether that transpires we will have to wait and see. I wouldn’t be shocked if Alan moved out to the right where he put in a couple of decent performances five games ago. Semedo and Jackson seem locked down in their respective positions.
Pawel Abbot has reignited his passion and work ethic and forced himself into the boss’ plans and seems to work well with Bradley Wright Phillips so don’t be surprised to see
@NE39 drop to the bench ready to pounce later in the game.
With results going our way midweek, it would be nice to get a result to catch and then put on some pressure to those playing on Saturday. We’ll nick this. 2-1.
Come on you reds.
Comments
Hopefully start looking back up the league rather than down
It's a pub side we're playing against and we should be looking to roll these teams over
Hopefully the return of , non youth product simon francis , one of the few players with the gonads to continually try something inventive in the attacking final third rather than a crab play it safe pass will help give us a bit of ooomph
Powell has had more than long enough to know what our team is about and if we don't win then questions have to be asked ......
Clown shoes
In all honesty I think its gonna be a tighter affair than others and can see a low scoring draw
For some reason with Sir Chris Powell at the helm I'm not too stressed if things go wrong
The time to start worrying if things don't look great will be in just over a years time when we'll have seen how much hot air the new owners have/havent brought with them and if SCP is really up to the job
No need to panic just yet , rome wasn't built in a day .............
Elliott
Francis (Solly if injured) Dailly, Doc, Fry
Eccles, Semedo, Racon, Reid
Abbott, BWP
Side will be re-shuffled with Fry at CH to counter the manslaughterer.
Super Joe and Racon return and a few others shift positions.
Boring 0 - 0 until the last 10 mins when the winner will go to.......
What did I say "loanees" - tut tut it must be the SCP effect.
Lee Hughes had an absolute shocker at the Valley, whatever people think of him, he is proven at this level and I can't see him letting us off the hook twice in a season. Lets be brutally honest, we should have lost by 2-3 in the home gome.
2-0 defeat. 3 defeats on the bounce. Nailed on atleast one goal will come from a setplay.
Eccy Hump is the issue for me, he don't fit in yet to justify the loan needs to play. For me its a straight fight between him and Wright-Phillips, which Bradley is winning at the moment. Shifting him elsewhere just disjoints the team, and doesn't play to his strengths which i feel is stretching a back four and getting them facing their own goal. He hasn't got enough of a defensive nature to play in a wide position away from home.
Or at home. When Fry was out of positon for Exeter's first goal and they were gven all those acres of space ,where was Eccleston, who should have been covering? Standing on the half-way line, waiting for someone to turn defence into attack and release him to run with the ball.
Fair enough. He's a striker. That's what he knows how to do. But don't play him wide - home or away.
It has to be between him and Anyinsah to partner BWP up-front.
Not sure which Charlton TV side will turn up - the Orient one or the Swindon one. I'm going for the former and a 2-1 win to us.
Personal friend ehhh
My team -
Elliott
Francis-dailly-fry-jacko
Waggy-semedo-racon-Reid
Aniyinsah-Bwp
The issue there is that in the last few games he played Francis has been effective in getting in a number of dangerous crosses and causes problems down the wing.
Elliott,
Francis, Dailly, Doc, Reid,
Semedo,
Racon, JJ,
Ecclestone, BWP, Anyinsah.
This team would either win by 3 or lose by 3!!!! I doubt Powell will go for it but I think this plays as many of our best players as possible which is what we have to do to give us an edge.
True, he had his best game for us against Peterborough but was it a one off and Jenkinson doesn't seem shy at getting forward. It was just a thought - if he comes back and carries on like his last game then thats one thing but if not, could be a possible solution to a problem that i think we all agree on - lack of pace at centre half. Could be argued that he mops up a lot behind Dailly and Doherty and possibly may have covered for a couple of goals on sat. Just trying to look at how we may maximise what we have if we only have the opportunity to bring 2 loans in and it seems Jenkinson is a good un.
Reid at left back?!
Seriously though, that formation is no different to Saturday's.
---Francis Dailly Fry Jackson----
McCormack Semedo Racon Reid
-----------Abbott BWP------------
Subs: Worner, Doherty, Fortune, Jenkinson (starts if Francis is still not ready), Wagstaff, Eccleston, Anyinsah
Get the ball to Reid and Francis on the overlap to plant crosses onto Abbott's head with BWP looking for any loose balls. We can go 4-5-1 if we're hanging on to a lead at the end or a traditional 4-3-3 if we're chasing the game.