Fleetwood is never an easy place to get a result and we may well have been overawed by the occasion. Still, a feather in our caps to nick a late draw and I for one am extremely grateful. Will raise a glass to the boys tonight. Tremendous stuff.
Second best for the majority of the first half and fortunate to be only a goal down.
Even second half with no side threatening the goal. To be honest when Rusty took Holmes off it was Game Over however the Doctor from the Congo made a difference with the 2nd goal, and we come away with a point.
Centre midfield is a disgrace and will get found out by better teams in this League if that's not rectified.
Transfer window is closed unfortunatley. 4 million in fees for Gudmundsson & Cousins. Lets hope that Ulvestad picks up. The midfield is currently mid table league one.
Glad Charlton scored a late equaliser. Especially as Uwe Rosler is an arse and it would have annoyed the hell out of him.
Can't comment on the game as I was watching Cherries fans treating Jack Wilshire as the new messiah instead this afternoon.
I get that its still very early on the season and I don't normally even look at the table until about now. However, this year I'm really not feeling like I have in other seasons when we have gone on to have a good crack at getting promoted. Despite some positives today, Novak and Magennis getting on the score sheet being one, I've seen and heard nothing yet to convince me that Slade is going to break his duck or even come close to it. Hope I'm wrong.
Though I know we can't win every game and, whilst giving full credit to Fleetwood, I can't honestly say that a 2-2 draw against them fills me with confidence we will be back playing Championship football next year.
Fleetwood is never an easy place to get a result and we may well have been overawed by the occasion. Still, a feather in our caps to nick a late draw and I for one am extremely grateful. Will raise a glass to the boys tonight. Tremendous stuff.
The result, whatever the spun context, is not good enough.
We have got four away points from three away matches so that is a one point bonus in my view, but that also assumes winning each home match, and we have drawn two of those so that is four points dropped.
Total is three points behind what we should be doing, and if we had planned and prepared properly from, say, the Dubai holiday event, we might not be those three points behind.
That equates to 23 points behind schedule at the end of the season which will get us 69 points. 69 points will not be enough for a play off place as demonstrated historically (there may be the odd exception but I haven't found it).
This means that to recover the situation, and even to build in a slight bit of cushioning we need to:
Beat Wimbledon at home next Saturday. Beat Scunthorpe away the following Tuesday. Beat Oxford away the following Saturday after that.
There you have it, three wins in a row and we will build in a one point cushion.
Following that we would have to beat Oldham and Rochdale at home to keep on track, and then our inevitable defeat to Millwall in the following game will not do us much damage in the promotion race.
So in fact we need five league wins in a row before we face Millwall in my view.
We have Crawley at home just prior to the Millwall away game, but that is the silly buggers trophy so it hardly counts, unless we sustain loads of injuries.
Fleetwood played the better football, managed to pass crisply along the ground to their own players but were not the best finishers. Charlton passed backwards and sideways to each other and gave the ball back to Fleetwood too many times, our central midfield was overrun. But they never gave up and fortuously scored two goals. Slade"s substitutions worked well as Botaka made a difference and Novak scored. We didn't deserve to win and by never gave up which gave a deservable draw.
An enjoyable day out at a nice little ground, but we were lucky to get a point today.
The start was unbelievably sloppy, even by some of our recent standards. We lost the ball in midfield, Fleetwood drove forward and Long fizzed in a low shot which might have taken a small deflection to beat Rudd. This was a running theme; Fleetwood players were constantly appearing in the gaps between the midfield and our defence, creating the kind of attacking threat completely beyond Crofts, Foley and Ulvestad's ken. A number of shots from just outside the area needed desperate, last-minute blocks, and another effort grazed the far post. Their second came in a similar fashion to the first, though credit should go to Ball for curling in a wonderful shot which gave Rudd no chance.
In between, we grabbed an equaliser. Holmes had a poor game - we can forgive him one every now and then - but his left-foot cross from the right was perfect for Magennis, who headed back across the keeper for his first Charlton goal. It was no less than he deserved for what has been a stellar start to his Charlton career, and it was in keeping with his all-round excellent performance. Being a target man is an unforgiving job, requiring both brawn and brain, and he has both in spades.
The second half was for the most part frustrating. Our plan at corners was to play it to the back post for Magennis to try and knock it back into the penalty area, which in theory is not a bad idea. What it does mean, though, is that if a cross is overhit it will go straight out of play, and this happened infuriatingly often. Magennis and Ajose still aren't quite on the same wavelength, and Ajose's consistently poor first touch will be what holds him back from playing higher than League One. Nor is his finishing quite clinical enough - the one chance he did get today he blazed high over the bar.
However, we did exert some pressure on the Fleetwood goal, and on 87 minutes we levelled things up again after a move involving all three substitutes. Botaka got past his man on the right, slipped in Foley in the penalty area and Novak was on the end of his low cross to bundle the ball in from a yard out. His season has been stop-start so far, but he did very well when he came on today and, like Magennis, will be delighted to be off the mark as an Addick. He nearly scored before that, chipping a clever effort from a narrow angle which the keeper only just pushed onto the roof of the net. Botaka, too, looked a real threat and is a handy option to throw on against tiring defences.
Ultimately, though, today was a warning. Fleetwood were superior in nearly every position, and will in all probability cause lots of teams problems this season. Our midfield won't. Ulvestad is cut from the same cloth as Crofts and surely can't have been Slade's number one target, while Crofts himself is painfully slow and not blessed with the passing ability to make up for it. The lack of creativity in the middle means that, no matter how much we try to play the ball out from the back, eventually we end up going long towards Magennis or giving it to Holmes in the hope that he can weave his magic. Both are excellent players, but others need to step up to the plate if we are to get anywhere near the promotion race.
Fleetwood played the better football, managed to pass crisply along the ground to their own players but were not the best finishers. Charlton passed backwards and sideways to each other and gave the ball back to Fleetwood too many times, our central midfield was overrun. But they never gave up and fortuously scored two goals. Slade"s substitutions worked well as Botaka made a difference and Novak scored. We didn't deserve to win and by never gave up which gave a deservable draw.
The midfield issue has been screaming at us all season and pre season so far. The Fleetwood commentary team mentioned the midfield as our weakness, and were not especially impressed by Fred. It is an area we have failed to address, and in releasing Holmes-Dennis, Cousins, Diarra, and JBG, and being unconvincing in replacing them. we have built in a huge problem for our season.
Botaka did very well when he came on, in contrast to his previous appearance. Looked a handful against a tiring defence. Felt we might have pushed on after equalising but we were knocked back by their second and a bit lucky to get the point although all three subs were involved in it, which has to be a credit for Slade.
Fewer than 3,000 home fans in the ground though - that is the measure of where we are. Non-league ground but friendly club. Meire didn't make it.
Fleetwood played the better football, managed to pass crisply along the ground to their own players but were not the best finishers. Charlton passed backwards and sideways to each other and gave the ball back to Fleetwood too many times, our central midfield was overrun. But they never gave up and fortuously scored two goals. Slade"s substitutions worked well as Botaka made a difference and Novak scored. We didn't deserve to win and by never gave up which gave a deservable draw.
The midfield issue has been screaming at us all season and pre season so far. The Fleetwood commentary team mentioned the midfield as our weakness, and were not especially impressed by Fred. It is an area we have failed to address, and in releasing Holmes-Dennis, Cousins, Diarra, and JBG, and being unconvincing in replacing them. we have built in a huge problem for our season.
It's maddening. In listening to the commentary you can tell we're weak in midfield, and that we lack coherent ideas as to how to build through the middle of the team. As you say, it's been an issue since early in pre-season. Kevin Foley is not a central midfielder by trade, and to my knowledge he has not played there before in his professional career. Crofts seems to be going backward, and he just doesn't have the range of passing required in a two man central midfield. JJ seems to fade in and out of games, and though he scores important goals, he is also injury prone. All three are 32+.
Ulvestad, brought in at literally the last minute, could turn out to be a player, but that's asking a lot of someone who hasn't played much in the last two years to be everywhere in a two man central midfield. If teams scout us properly, they'll see that all it takes to overrun us is a three man central midfield, as it sounds like was the case today.
Lastly, is Pearce really better than Bauer? The reviews of him seem to be roughly the same for a while now: couple of good last ditch tackles/interceptions, slow, made a couple mistakes, poor on the ball. Add to this the fact that Fox isn't the best on the ball (though he's certainly improved), and our obvious problems in central midfield, and it's no wonder that our two forms of attack are give it to the wingers and hope they can beat 2-3 players or to knock it long. Playing that way will make things very, very difficult for Ajose, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's dropped next weekend.
The problem is, I don't really see how we change things. Maybe putting Tex in holding midfield with Ulvestad alongside him, and dropping Crofts. Tex is very good on the ball for a center back at this level, but again you're shoehorning players in.
Midfield appear to be asleep at the start and end of the first half for both Fleetwood goals. Possibly poor positioning by Rudd for the first.
Great leap by Magennis for Charlton's first from an accurate cross by Holmes and a good poachers goal for Novak for the second from a short cross in from Foley from good short ball from Botaka. The players enjoyed the equaliser in what looked like a nice bright sunny day for football at Fleetwood.
Pleasant sunny afternoon compact little stadium glad we didn't have to play this on a cold Tuesday night in winter. Plenty of Addicks in their Sports bar before the match, loosening their tonsils for KO, where the teams were read out, Lookman for Foley and Ulverstad for JJ.
We played in mauve and they wore the Arsenal kit as you would expect at Highbury. The away end was reasonably populated with the more affluent Addicks @Fanny Fanackapan and @Airman Brown to name but a few in the dearer seats to our right.
No sooner had we settled into the game and we were 0-1 down after 3 or 4 minutes, Rudd bowled the ball out to Fox who slipped it inside to Holmes who was dispossessed, they broke and shot which deflected into the corner of the net. Fleetwood worked hard closing down swiftly and were not short on skill either. We struggled to gain a hold in midfield with a 4 3 3 formation. We did however manage to get back in the game from a Holmes cross which Magennis climbed to meet at the far post despatch with aplomb. Could we get to half time for a much needed team talk, alas no, their best player Ball curled a lovely shot just under the bar after a throw in got to him from near our corner flag 1-2 right on the stroke of half time.
Second half no changes for us but Eggart Johnson, remember him, came on for the Cod army. We huffed and puffed but they defended stoutly and were no slouches on the break. The referee was shocking (see my mark of 1 for him and comments in the players marks thread) and they were time wasting running the clock down for the big scalp of the mighty Charlton Athletic who ten years ago were in the prem whilst the oppo were in the North West Counties league! Ajose was getting no joy and was rightly subbed for Novak who gave Magennis much needed support and their CBs someone else to worry about.
Time was running out as we upped the tempo with Holmes crossing for Magennis at the far post but he just couldn't squeeze the ball in from an acute angle. Holmes was then replaced by Botaka for my first look at him and Foley replaced Ulverstad. Botaka looked up for it and immediately did some good dribbles leaving defenders in his wake and it was he who played a nice ball to Foley before crossing low and hard for Novak to earn a deserved point very late in the game.
Botaka did very well when he came on, in contrast to his previous appearance. Looked a handful against a tiring defence. Felt we might have pushed on after equalising but we were knocked back by their second and a bit lucky to get the point although all three subs were involved in it, which has to be a credit for Slade.
Fewer than 3,000 home fans in the ground though - that is the measure of where we are. Non-league ground but friendly club. Meire didn't make it.
Small ground and crowd but financially Fleetwood aren't minnows thanks to their rich benefactor /owner
Generally so-so. Fleetwood got in our faces from the off and made it very hard to play. At times, they looked much better but produced little end product, apart from the two goals, of course.
Botaka did very well when he came on, in contrast to his previous appearance. Looked a handful against a tiring defence. Felt we might have pushed on after equalising but we were knocked back by their second and a bit lucky to get the point although all three subs were involved in it, which has to be a credit for Slade.
Fewer than 3,000 home fans in the ground though - that is the measure of where we are. Non-league ground but friendly club. Meire didn't make it.
Presumably Sue Parkes deputised admirably as Charlton royalty seeing as how there were no others.
In the preview i thought we would lose 2-1 so was surprised when we got the late goal. Nothing against Pearce or young Konsa, who have done Ok, but i still feel that Bauer and Lennon would make a stronger pairing at CB. Haven't seen an away match this season but 2 goals conceded at Bury and Fleetwood plus the one at Walsall shows we have some work to do. Ulvestad will need some games to get match sharp. 5 matches in a year won't do it. 2 wins, 3 draws 1 defeat is Ok, but we need to step up to be in the top 6. we just don't seem to boss games.
Went in the fleetwood clubhouse afterwards, met their chairmen Andy Billey, he bought us all a beer, top fella and had a great chat with some of their fans. Top club
I thought we were very poor for most of the match. I'd have taken a point before the game started and we were lucky to get one today.
We started slow and were second to everything. Fleetwood were clearly trying much more than us.
Our equaliser was undeserved and we didn't really kick on at all after it. We almost conceded straight away after Fox let their lad get the wrong side of him to easily.
The game continued with very little changing and eventually Fleetwood took a deserved lead.
Things only really changed once Botaka came on right towards the end of the game. He looked a real threat and eventually beat his man to set up Novak.
Went in the fleetwood clubhouse afterwards, met their chairmen Andy Billey, he bought us all a beer, top fella and had a great chat with some of their fans. Top club
Met him before the match. Top bloke. One of these people who would speak about football for two days straight.
Comments
Still, a feather in our caps to nick a late draw and I for one am extremely grateful.
Will raise a glass to the boys tonight.
Tremendous stuff.
Glad Charlton scored a late equaliser. Especially as Uwe Rosler is an arse and it would have annoyed the hell out of him.
I get that its still very early on the season and I don't normally even look at the table until about now. However, this year I'm really not feeling like I have in other seasons when we have gone on to have a good crack at getting promoted. Despite some positives today, Novak and Magennis getting on the score sheet being one, I've seen and heard nothing yet to convince me that Slade is going to break his duck or even come close to it. Hope I'm wrong.
Though I know we can't win every game and, whilst giving full credit to Fleetwood, I can't honestly say that a 2-2 draw against them fills me with confidence we will be back playing Championship football next year.
We have got four away points from three away matches so that is a one point bonus in my view, but that also assumes winning each home match, and we have drawn two of those so that is four points dropped.
Total is three points behind what we should be doing, and if we had planned and prepared properly from, say, the Dubai holiday event, we might not be those three points behind.
That equates to 23 points behind schedule at the end of the season which will get us 69 points. 69 points will not be enough for a play off place as demonstrated historically (there may be the odd exception but I haven't found it).
This means that to recover the situation, and even to build in a slight bit of cushioning we need to:
Beat Wimbledon at home next Saturday.
Beat Scunthorpe away the following Tuesday.
Beat Oxford away the following Saturday after that.
There you have it, three wins in a row and we will build in a one point cushion.
Following that we would have to beat Oldham and Rochdale at home to keep on track, and then our inevitable defeat to Millwall in the following game will not do us much damage in the promotion race.
So in fact we need five league wins in a row before we face Millwall in my view.
We have Crawley at home just prior to the Millwall away game, but that is the silly buggers trophy so it hardly counts, unless we sustain loads of injuries.
How many did we have up there?
Charlton passed backwards and sideways to each other and gave the ball back to Fleetwood too many times, our central midfield was overrun. But they never gave up and fortuously scored two goals.
Slade"s substitutions worked well as Botaka made a difference and Novak scored.
We didn't deserve to win and by never gave up which gave a deservable draw.
The start was unbelievably sloppy, even by some of our recent standards. We lost the ball in midfield, Fleetwood drove forward and Long fizzed in a low shot which might have taken a small deflection to beat Rudd. This was a running theme; Fleetwood players were constantly appearing in the gaps between the midfield and our defence, creating the kind of attacking threat completely beyond Crofts, Foley and Ulvestad's ken. A number of shots from just outside the area needed desperate, last-minute blocks, and another effort grazed the far post. Their second came in a similar fashion to the first, though credit should go to Ball for curling in a wonderful shot which gave Rudd no chance.
In between, we grabbed an equaliser. Holmes had a poor game - we can forgive him one every now and then - but his left-foot cross from the right was perfect for Magennis, who headed back across the keeper for his first Charlton goal. It was no less than he deserved for what has been a stellar start to his Charlton career, and it was in keeping with his all-round excellent performance. Being a target man is an unforgiving job, requiring both brawn and brain, and he has both in spades.
The second half was for the most part frustrating. Our plan at corners was to play it to the back post for Magennis to try and knock it back into the penalty area, which in theory is not a bad idea. What it does mean, though, is that if a cross is overhit it will go straight out of play, and this happened infuriatingly often. Magennis and Ajose still aren't quite on the same wavelength, and Ajose's consistently poor first touch will be what holds him back from playing higher than League One. Nor is his finishing quite clinical enough - the one chance he did get today he blazed high over the bar.
However, we did exert some pressure on the Fleetwood goal, and on 87 minutes we levelled things up again after a move involving all three substitutes. Botaka got past his man on the right, slipped in Foley in the penalty area and Novak was on the end of his low cross to bundle the ball in from a yard out. His season has been stop-start so far, but he did very well when he came on today and, like Magennis, will be delighted to be off the mark as an Addick. He nearly scored before that, chipping a clever effort from a narrow angle which the keeper only just pushed onto the roof of the net. Botaka, too, looked a real threat and is a handy option to throw on against tiring defences.
Ultimately, though, today was a warning. Fleetwood were superior in nearly every position, and will in all probability cause lots of teams problems this season. Our midfield won't. Ulvestad is cut from the same cloth as Crofts and surely can't have been Slade's number one target, while Crofts himself is painfully slow and not blessed with the passing ability to make up for it. The lack of creativity in the middle means that, no matter how much we try to play the ball out from the back, eventually we end up going long towards Magennis or giving it to Holmes in the hope that he can weave his magic. Both are excellent players, but others need to step up to the plate if we are to get anywhere near the promotion race.
The Fleetwood commentary team mentioned the midfield as our weakness, and were not especially impressed by Fred.
It is an area we have failed to address, and in releasing Holmes-Dennis, Cousins, Diarra, and JBG, and being unconvincing in replacing them. we have built in a huge problem for our season.
Fewer than 3,000 home fans in the ground though - that is the measure of where we are. Non-league ground but friendly club. Meire didn't make it.
Can't blame her really. Who wants to get up early on a Saturday? Oxford might be ok for her. Bless.
RD/RD's puppet OUT.
Ulvestad, brought in at literally the last minute, could turn out to be a player, but that's asking a lot of someone who hasn't played much in the last two years to be everywhere in a two man central midfield. If teams scout us properly, they'll see that all it takes to overrun us is a three man central midfield, as it sounds like was the case today.
Lastly, is Pearce really better than Bauer? The reviews of him seem to be roughly the same for a while now: couple of good last ditch tackles/interceptions, slow, made a couple mistakes, poor on the ball. Add to this the fact that Fox isn't the best on the ball (though he's certainly improved), and our obvious problems in central midfield, and it's no wonder that our two forms of attack are give it to the wingers and hope they can beat 2-3 players or to knock it long. Playing that way will make things very, very difficult for Ajose, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's dropped next weekend.
The problem is, I don't really see how we change things. Maybe putting Tex in holding midfield with Ulvestad alongside him, and dropping Crofts. Tex is very good on the ball for a center back at this level, but again you're shoehorning players in.
Football was poor. It appears the big hitters have started to put form together in league 1.
Honest assessment. Midfield is very poor and we lack depth in offensive positions.
Goal highlights.
Midfield appear to be asleep at the start and end of the first half for both Fleetwood goals. Possibly poor positioning by Rudd for the first.
Great leap by Magennis for Charlton's first from an accurate cross by Holmes and a good poachers goal for Novak for the second from a short cross in from Foley from good short ball from Botaka. The players enjoyed the equaliser in what looked like a nice bright sunny day for football at Fleetwood.
Pleasant sunny afternoon compact little stadium glad we didn't have to play this on a cold Tuesday night in winter. Plenty of Addicks in their Sports bar before the match, loosening their tonsils for KO, where the teams were read out, Lookman for Foley and Ulverstad for JJ.
We played in mauve and they wore the Arsenal kit as you would expect at Highbury. The away end was reasonably populated with the more affluent Addicks @Fanny Fanackapan and @Airman Brown to name but a few in the dearer seats to our right.
No sooner had we settled into the game and we were 0-1 down after 3 or 4 minutes, Rudd bowled the ball out to Fox who slipped it inside to Holmes who was dispossessed, they broke and shot which deflected into the corner of the net. Fleetwood worked hard closing down swiftly and were not short on skill either. We struggled to gain a hold in midfield with a 4 3 3 formation. We did however manage to get back in the game from a Holmes cross which Magennis climbed to meet at the far post despatch with aplomb. Could we get to half time for a much needed team talk, alas no, their best player Ball curled a lovely shot just under the bar after a throw in got to him from near our corner flag 1-2 right on the stroke of half time.
Second half no changes for us but Eggart Johnson, remember him, came on for the Cod army. We huffed and puffed but they defended stoutly and were no slouches on the break. The referee was shocking (see my mark of 1 for him and comments in the players marks thread) and they were time wasting running the clock down for the big scalp of the mighty Charlton Athletic who ten years ago were in the prem whilst the oppo were in the North West Counties league! Ajose was getting no joy and was rightly subbed for Novak who gave Magennis much needed support and their CBs someone else to worry about.
Time was running out as we upped the tempo with Holmes crossing for Magennis at the far post but he just couldn't squeeze the ball in from an acute angle. Holmes was then replaced by Botaka for my first look at him and Foley replaced Ulverstad. Botaka looked up for it and immediately did some good dribbles leaving defenders in his wake and it was he who played a nice ball to Foley before crossing low and hard for Novak to earn a deserved point very late in the game.
Ulvestad will need some games to get match sharp. 5 matches in a year won't do it.
2 wins, 3 draws 1 defeat is Ok, but we need to step up to be in the top 6.
we just don't seem to boss games.
Still, I'm sure she had a productive afternoon at Toni & Guy.
Belgians Out.
We started slow and were second to everything. Fleetwood were clearly trying much more than us.
Our equaliser was undeserved and we didn't really kick on at all after it. We almost conceded straight away after Fox let their lad get the wrong side of him to easily.
The game continued with very little changing and eventually Fleetwood took a deserved lead.
Things only really changed once Botaka came on right towards the end of the game. He looked a real threat and eventually beat his man to set up Novak.
All round a poor performance but a good point.