A few very unhappy punters today at the end of the game. A good few left well before the final whistle.
I may be looking through rose tinted contact lenses, but I thought, like last Saturday, we weren't too bad (though heads dropped after the second goal went in) and on another day could quite have easily walked away with the points. We where looking particularly dangerous for the ten minute period prior to both the goals - which were both scored within 30 seconds of us having good chances
Player ratings?
Carson 7 - not at fault for the goals, commanded his box well
Young 7 - fairly solid, though he was turned inside out for their second. Looked good going forward and put in a couple of crunching midfield tackles
Fortune 6 - Not awe inspiring and needs to take charge more often at the back, but he did well agains Angel. Has he still got a broken toe
El Kak 6 - Stopped a lot down the middle, but his distribution was poor. Seemed to want to put every clearance for Baby to run on to.
Hermann 7 - He won most of his tackles and looked dangerous going forward. Had VERY little support in front of him for the whole game. Got caught on the wrong side of their first goal scorer (I think he may have thought he was offside). Apart from that he had him in his pocket.
Holland 5 - Chasing shadows for most of the game
Hughes 7 - But only for his first half performance. He was really up for it and got some abuse for being an ex bluenose. Faded in the second half, probably because he got a knock on his achilles.
Faye 6 - His worst game for us so far, but I'm still glad we signed him. Gave the ball away too much today. I still think he looks a better Centre Half than in front of the back four.
Romm 8 - Our best player by far. I just wish he was given more of the ball. Did 2 or 3 mazy runs and caused Villa no end of problems. Looked just as good when he came inside as when he was on the touchline.
Benty 6 - Had two or three good chances and last year he would have buried them. BIG fluff towards the end. Huffed and puffed a lot without causing too many problems. Good in the air.
JFH 6 - He's there to do a job and didn't today. I don't expect too much from him except scoring. If he's not doing that then I don't see the point of having him in the team. One good chance well blocked.
SUBS
Bent 6 - I must admit I'm not a fan of his but he came on, worked hard and caused some problems
Ambrose 5 - Continued in the same vein as his poor performance against Pompey
FANS
Quiet, subdued, desperately looking for something on the pitch to get us going. Disappointed to hear a fair amount of abuse directed both at Dowie and some of the players. At least the team worked hard in what was a pretty hot afternoon and could have got lucky today. I'd much rather see Charlton fans supporting the team in times like these - some of the ranting can be so counter productive and achieves very little except to let of a bit of steam.
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Comments
Brownie commented on how quiet the Villa support was, especially considering their position in the league and the 35,000 that were there. I could hear a little garbled noise through the computer speakers, which they commented was the handful of Charlton there. Otherwise, it did seem eerily quiet. I almost choked when the commentator said to Brownie, "if Charlton were 1-0 up and fourth in the league, there'd be all kinds of noise and excitement at the Valley!" Perhaps he was trying to butter us up!
I admit that were a few purple patches when the passing was crisp and the play effective. The rest of it was poor, to say a player worked hard is pointless if that player is slow and lacks ability as was Matt Holland who seemed to be 2 yards off the pace although I did see him make one tackle, the second goal was scored after he was robbed of the ball in midfiled. HH was far too slow to contain Agbonlahor, the Elk and Fortune don't make an effectinve central defence and Hasselbank and Benty just don't combine effectively, Hasselbank is now too slow and Benty runs around a lot but wasn't given the passes he needs to score -remember those lovely through balls that Murphy used to put through to him?
As for Dowie, Reid & Robson, OK they have injury problems but anyone who follows the Premiership knows that Villa have a fast in form effective right winger and all we have on the left is HH - who was there to help him - no one. Good idea to give Romm a free role but he must be told to explore the flanks and cut back crosses from the the line for Benty to attack - M.Bent tried it near the end and it almost worked. As for the midfield why let Walton go to Ipswich without a recall clause in the agreement - all this is poor management not bad luck due to injuries.
As for the Addicted at Villa Park I have read Wyn Grant's criticism of our younger fans at the match but at least they made a noise and tried to support the club the rest of you were pathetic as you couldn't even join in singing Valley Floyd Road as we kicked off.
Arsenal next Saturday - you're having a larf!
Someone has got to tell Romm that he is a winger , time and time again today Young got the ball and looked to play a ball into the acres of space on the right wing and Dennis was no-where to be seen yet when he was there he was doing some damage.
Ambrose clearly aint a winger and I don't want to hear the claims about him having an injury as he has done precious little since joining us.
It's also about time someone mentioned Darren Bent and how bad he is playing , alright the service to him aint the best but when something does come to him he really doesn't make the most of it .
As addicted said yesterday was probably Faye's worst game for us but in my books he was still our best player.
Still early days yet but I must admit I am starting to worry.
By getting into needless aggro with stewards and trying to strike up a (thankfully unsuccessful) chorus of "you're just a town full of Pakis"?
Our team didn't look like they cared yesterday. It was as if nothing had changed since the sticky end of the Curbishley era. I know we've got injuries, I know we're up against it, but there was no spirit at all.
and yeah, I'm youngish, and sing, but not with people who can't even get the words right to the songs
Though i can't help but think a few of them are from bitter palace trying to stir things up.
Away Sat 19th Aug Bolton 2 - 0 Lost 22899
Home Tue 22nd Aug Sheffield Utd 2 - 0 Won 35287
Home Sat 26th Aug Everton 0 - 2 Lost 35540
Away Sat 9th Sep Man Utd 1 - 0 Lost 75453
Home Sun 17th Sep Fulham 0 - 0 Draw 36131
Away Sat 23rd Sep Liverpool 3 - 0 Lost 44330
All they know is that Curbishley was here for a long time, so its an easy story for them.
They are looking for us to fail.