Only a few players came out of that with any credit but none did well.
I'll pick out Jake Foster-Caskey and Tony Watt as the worst wastes of space.
Can't remember last time "you're not fit to wear the shirt" was sung at the Valley". It saddens me but you can't argue against it.
Tarbuck booed off and rightly so but won't be sacked. He's willing to have O'Loughlin in his coaching set up and he is the flak catcher for Meire so he stays.
Where did you sit Henry? I assumed you'd be in your 'old' usual seats.
Henry's been known to venture. I've even spotted him in the north upper this season!
I'm out in Asia out at the moment. I don't know why I read all six pages. Scarcely, a positive comment to be found. There only needs to be a major bust up in the dressing room, if there hasn't already been one, and this lot will be down. Those who were grateful in August that League One was weak this year, so a return to the Championship was possible, will now be grateful that it gives us a decent change of staying up. What a shambles.
We were shit. Make no mistakes, we were absolutely dire. The first half seemed like a good hour or two alone, and its the first match I've ever left early. (88mins)
If I hadn't been boycotting over the abysmal ownership, I'd probably be boycotting over the dire football. I dont expect to see Barcelona at The Valley, but I expect to see a team that can make use of the pitch and pass to eachother effectively.
We had no width, it's frustrating to see Solly push up the field only to be confronted with their LM and LB without any possible outlet.
Our Midfield and Attack seemed completely seperate, but then again, I couldn't work out what formation we were attempting to play so that didn't help.
Even Bauer seemed to have a bit of an off day, and Aribo wasn't very impressive either. Watt was anonymous.
We were outclassed and outplayed in a midtable League One clash. There's not a great deal more to say. I'm stunned at just how far we've regressed under the Belgians.
On a more positive note, Dasilva and Solly looked solid, and Holmes did more than his fair share. I'd be pretty pissed off if I was Ricky and I was stuck in this circus to be entirely fair.
That was utterly appalling. I have watched every single home game, league and cups, for the last six years. We were pathetic today – a new low.
MK Dons could easily have been 3-0 up by half-time. They are comfortable on the ball, pass crisply, and sprint to receive. They send perfectly weighted passes up the channels – DaSilva is by-passed – and cross accurately. Our central defenders make a mess of a routine clearance; Rudd parries. 0-1. Again.
We all know that our players are technically incapable: for years, basic 15-yard passes go astray. The recipient stretches, back-tracking to collect. A half-hearted challenge: ball bobbles up and dribbles out of play. Meanwhile, our opponents – even MK Dons – play with a fluid strength. Two of our midfielders were brushed aside on the approach to their second goal. Which was scored with an accurate and powerful shot.
Did we worry their keeper in the entire second half? No. Not a flicker. Watt headed wide from seven yards; Magennis nodded over the bar. Nothing at all for the keeper to save in 45 minutes at the Covered End. Nothing.
Yet – we did show what it takes in the second half against Bradford, three weeks ago. We rushed and harried – not just Holmes, but the others upped their game – we had energy, quickness, spirit and guts. You do wonder what was the reason for this sudden glorious transformation. Years of dreary bumbling around was punctuated by a brief flash of fighting football – and now we are wilting like pansies again.
If we had played this season with the verve we showed against Bradford, we might be nibbling at the play-offs. Is it the players who don't understand? The coaches? The manager? Of course Duchatelet is an arse, yet if Jackson was an effective captain he would have inspired the team long ago, usurping weaklings like Fraeye and saving us from the drop last year.
Magennis is a mere shadow of the man before injury. Watt doesn't work; his abrasive history ought to frighten defenders, yet nothing happens. Our gaping midfield has been achingly vacant since Parker, Reid and Bowyer. And the strikers! Heaven help us. In 45 minutes at Welling, pre-season, my pal and I – we have each been watching Charlton since the 1960s – could see that Ajose and Novak would fail. One, lightweight; the other lumbering.
Do you remember the first game of the season just a few years ago, away at Bournemouth? A cross came over, outside the box; the ball was behind him, yet Kermorgant arched and volleyed for a fantastic goal. I have watched Novak hesitate, bumble and fluff: away at Millwall and yet again at Posh. Kermorgant was deemed “too old” by Duchatelet, “not worth it”. His trumpeted replacement was Polish Pete, who played eight minutes in the first team. Meanwhile, Kermorgant won promotion with Bournemouth, is heading up again with Reading, and hammered the winner against Leeds on Saturday.
I recall with great fondness our previous seasons in the third – in 1980, with Killer, Walshy and Martin Robinson: marauding, arrogant, strong and skilful. And more recently with Kermorgant and Wright-Philips: instinctive, clever, incisive. They had strong and capable players behind them.
Look at us now. Powder-puffs. We have won a mere four games from 24 under Robinson. One single win in the last 14 – in the third division. That is inexcusable. We are flirting with Morecambe, Barnet, and Accrington Stanley. Robinson should be sacked.
Poor PC Palmer was the victim of a deranged, vicious, hateful murderer. Keith Palmer would have wanted us – our players – to be tough, smart, beautiful and victorious.
Robinson is tactically inept, players out of position and formation that doesn't work.
And to the spotty little prick in a pink stone island jumper standing at the back of the north upper giving it billy big bollox trying to have an argument with a bloke in the next bloke, do fuck off. You were scared of the stewards at half time because you were smoking
we realy have sunk to an all time low someone in our lot wearing stone island and probably fake
On my Valley Express coach home tonight I was surprised when a couple of previously pro Duchatalet fans said nothing will change until there is a change of ownership. The worm is finally turning.
Aside from the usual few apologists, I struggle to see how anyone remains who thinks that Duchatalet has been, or will be, good for Charlton.
None of the 'basics' were there, in particular getting close to their attackers in dangerous positions. We gave MKD an unbelievable amount of space last night.
Our players look a mix of those that won't (Watt, Bauer, Magennis), those that can't - last night at least - (Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Aribo and Jackson) and those that, only just, can be forgiven (Rudd, DaSilva, Solly and Holmes).
Like everyone, I feel deeply sad about what has happened to my club, the 4th division will be just another step in this downward spiral. £30mill or £50mill, who's really going to buy this shit?!
I expected that a team I believed not to be playing for the manager, to put in a special effort for our fallen hero. What yesterday told us that it is more than the attitude of the players. It is a shame, that the so called football experts the owner relies on so much are clueless twats. Money is spent in windows but always badly. There were two big issues that needed fixing in the last one. The midfield and a lack of goals. Some attempt was made to address what was a criminal summer window in terms of the midfield, but in a team of 'missers' as I call players who don't score enough, we lost two of our three top scorers. I'm not saying it was wrong to sell both Lookman and Ajose, for different reasons, but when you take goals out of a side you have to put them back in. As we were a poor goalscoring side before, you have to put some more in.
You can sit in your bedroom watching You Tube videos in your underpants and analyse every little detail, but you do need to look at the obvious first. There is quite an easy way of doing it! Just look at the number of games a player has played and the number of goals he has scored. It was no accident that the first player Powell brought in was BWP - He understood this simple fact. Mind you, most people who understand the game do too!
I did say - along with many others - that the winter window would be no different from the last. There was the potential to use a small fraction of the Lookman money to actually strengthen the balance of the squad and push for promotion. Balance is a simple concept and not a complicated word, but I am beginning to wonder if there is a word for it in Belgium. We just have to hope that we survive this season by the skin of our teeth and we start next season with people who know what they are doing at the healm. The phrase oft quoted from our CEO has been Roland doesn't do failure. Well forgive me, but since he took over it is clear that failure is all he does and those of us that know that every day he owns us, we get sicker and sicker as a club have tried, in our small way, to do something about it. We protest because we are fighting for the club we love. A point will be reached, and we are very close to it, where the situation may not be recoverable.
Did not Meire ask us to judge them by about now, before the season started? They have done so badly, you don't even need to waste any mental energy judging. Why put a hamster on one side of a massive set of scales and an elephant on the other when it is so obvious which is the heavier! Their incompetence is as clear as the nose on your face, or as in the CEO's case, the very long nose on her face. In business, when you make the promises and claims she has and spectacularly fail, as sadly we knew they would, many do find the self respect to resign. It is unthinkable that she doesn't realise that she has failed and she is just the pawn of a senile, dishonest old fool with crazy ideas. You do need some intelligence to obtain a law degree surely.
If Robinson is a football coach then I'm Johann Cruyff. How does he have a job in professional football as a coach? Started with a 4-2-3-1, switched to a 4-4-2 Diamond, then back to 4-2-3-1. WTF. The players must be totally confused, especially the younger ones. Looking at tonight's shambles, most of them are mugging him off anyway.
Left five minutes from the end and could hear "You're not fit to wear the shirt" as clear as anything in Charlton Village! The whole ground must have been singing it at the end.
I was asking this myself tonight. How in Hades is he a football manager? Even as a manager of anything. Even as a manager of people. What a joke this club have become.
Only a few players came out of that with any credit but none did well.
I'll pick out Jake Foster-Caskey and Tony Watt as the worst wastes of space.
Can't remember last time "you're not fit to wear the shirt" was sung at the Valley". It saddens me but you can't argue against it.
Tarbuck booed off and rightly so but won't be sacked. He's willing to have O'Loughlin in his coaching set up and he is the flak catcher for Meire so he stays.
Where did you sit Henry? I assumed you'd be in your 'old' usual seats.
North upper as my brother has his ST there. I'll be back in " my seat" five minutes after they've gone.
This truly was an embarrassment. Only DaSilva, Holmes and Solly come out with any credit. As for Watt, the man is stealing a living; lazy, petulant and blatantly doesn't give a flying. Think that's my lot for this season and if the unthinkable happens it will be my last for the foreseeable future. Until this cancer within our club is cut out there can be no future - only untold seasons in the 4th Division playing in front of gates of around 4,000.
the players don't give a fuck for the shirt, blame robinson, roland whoever, but those players out there tonight all need a good fucking kicking, apart from holmes who you can tell this is probably the biggest move of his career and his age unlikely to go anywhere else but he cant do it all, then off the pitch you have the parkes clan - getting brave behind keyboards, i personally think its disgraceful and chris needs to administer a muzzle to his wife i hope they with a lot of the other shit floating round the club go at the end of the season.
Despite getting home earlier than I have done for many years, I decided not to post last night as could not find the words to describe how appalling that was. In the cold (well, warm) light of day I still can't. I hoped the players would put in a performance to honour PC Palmer as they clearly don't want to for Robinson but that was an insult to his memory. Can't blame the players entirely as we all know where the real problem lies.
Don't wish to play the drama queen but have fought two battles against cancer in my life. This I feel is the third, RD and his clueless CEO are the new cancer in my life and invading not my body but the club I have loved for 47 years. I fear this is the one battle I will not win, this cancer cannot be cut out, it has to choose to leave our club. Perhaps when there are no fans left they may do, but I really hope they will go now, while there are still good people around who love the club as much as I and other fans do.
Waited till the cold light of morning before posting. It doesn't feel any better than last night. I wish I'd just donated a tenner to the remembrance fund and spent an hour and a half at home watching a pile of my dog's steaming poo. It would have been more rewarding.
As an occasional visitor this season, there was something different about last night. Not just the usual poor performance and resigned atmosphere from the few remaining diehards. This was a special occasion. Remembering one of our own and the chance to put to rest lingering fears of relegation. What did we get? A piss poor crowd given the circumstances (albeit those of us who were there did our fallen brother proud) and the most inept, spineless performance I have ever witnessed by a Charlton team.
I have taken the view (and still hold it) that we have enough points already to survive given the ineptitude and sheer number of the teams below us. But make no mistake, that is all that's stopping our free fall. "You're not fit to wear the shirt" rang loud and clear and it was thoroughly deserved. It pained me to see the last of the good guys in Jacko and Solly reduced to broken faded relics of their former selves. Age and injury know no sympathy. But to have them now tarred by the poisonous brush that threatens the very heart and soul of our club is heartbreaking. I took a long wistful look before I left last night. I won't be back in a hurry and that's not the parting memory that I wanted.
After a 60 mile drive home last night fuming all the way and a 5.00 am start this morning the same word keeps coming to mind - Betrayal.
That we as a club have been betrayed by a Belgian owner who has no understanding of English football has been obvious for the last three years
That the thirteen players who went onto the pitch wearing Charlton strip last night did not perform as a team has been a betrayal that we have seen more frequently over the last three years than at any time in my long support of the club
That a manager should betray his team by such a shocking attempt at playschool tactics was a new betrayal (as someone who has not attended home games this season)
That the players, manager and owner could betray the support of the fans for a fellow supporter who showed bravery in the face of terror was the ultimate disgrace.
Roland, your fifty million pieces of silver has been spent on betrayal. KM and KR - do what Pilate did - wash your hands and walk away now, because you have become the lowest of the low. Roland write off your folly investment and walk away - you have brought a once proud institution into disrepute that you do not have the talent or money to correct.
was in the west upper last night and saw the state of the facilities round the club,
1.) watched staff pour 4 pints to one group who then stated that the beer was off, so they were refunded and sent to the vista lounge if they wanted a pint. 2.) the toilets few were out of order and the light went off 10 seconds after you went in. 3.) Giving pies to people that were cold and run out of forks.
really was a circus, and it transpires throughout the club.
was in the west upper last night and saw the state of the facilities round the club,
1.) watched staff pour 4 pints to one group who then stated that the beer was off, so they were refunded and sent to the vista lounge if they wanted a pint. 2.) the toilets few were out of order and the light went off 10 seconds after you went in. 3.) Giving pies to people that were cold and run out of forks.
really was a circus, and it transpires throughout the club.
Yes, these little details seem insignificant, but they all point to the same incompetence. We were promised the food would get better. Look at the mascots - we had Floyd and Harvey and replaced them with a robin costume you can buy in poundland and a knight who would scare most small children! All small details, but what it shows is that they can't get anything right - even the little things. What chance have we got of a decent side if we can't even serve beer that isn't flat or food that isn't cold (I haven't bought any beer this season), but 50% of the pints I bought last season were flat or nearly flat.
When we get a new owner - I have a suggestion. Let that stupid Robin and knight enter the pitch, then to a fanfare, have Floyd and Harvey rush on and kick them out! It would be so symbolic!
was in the west upper last night and saw the state of the facilities round the club,
1.) watched staff pour 4 pints to one group who then stated that the beer was off, so they were refunded and sent to the vista lounge if they wanted a pint. 2.) the toilets few were out of order and the light went off 10 seconds after you went in. 3.) Giving pies to people that were cold and run out of forks.
really was a circus, and it transpires throughout the club.
Yes, these little details seem insignificant, but they all point to the same incompetence. We were promised the food would get better. Look at the mascots - we had Floyd and Harvey and replaced them with a robin costume you can buy in poundland and a knight who would scare most small children! All small details, but what it shows is that they can't get anything right - even the little things. What chance have we got of a decent side if we can't even serve beer that isn't flat or food that isn't cold (I haven't bought any beer this season), but 50% of the pints I bought last season were flat or nearly flat.
When we get a new owner - I have a suggestion. Let that stupid Robin and knight enter the pitch, then to a fanfare, have Floyd and Harvey rush on and kick them out! It would be so symbolic!
Not as symbolic as having the empty costumes burn atop a bonfire in the west stand car park...
JFC is a disgrace of a footballer. he absolutely hid throughout the game and offered 0. Id make sure he was one of the first players gone in the summer if it was down to me
On my Valley Express coach home tonight I was surprised when a couple of previously pro Duchatalet fans said nothing will change until there is a change of ownership. The worm is finally turning.
Aside from the usual few apologists, I struggle to see how anyone remains who thinks that Duchatalet has been, or will be, good for Charlton.
There's very few left. The 'siddarn' crowd behind us have faded (along with the team) over the last year, and last night even our nearby nutter who rants about RD 'saving' the club and 'it was worse with the Gliksteins' was noticeably silent when the anti chants started
If injured then why the hell werent Ahearne-Grant or Hanlan rested from the U23 match against Hull and put on the bench last night in case we needed a Striker to score a goal - Or is the U23 League more important?
The absence of the owner from the game last night when a fan who died in the line of duty was remembered, says everything to need to know about the man. His contempt for the club and everything it stands for is boundless.
Only been to a handful of games this season as don't want to give Douchbag a penny more than I have to (in fact nearly missed as many home games this season as I have in the last 18 years) but felt I had to go last night to pay my respects to a brave man.
Evening started off well. Good pie and chips from the chippie in Charlton Church Lane - does any chip shop make such consistently tasty chips as this place? - and a very respectful minutes silence for PC Palmer.
After that, what can I say that hasn't already been said a hundred times over. With respect to those who know far more about tactics than me, I thought we lined up in a clear diamond formation with 2 up front. Whatever it was, it didn't work as the midfield constantly got over-run and bypassed.
As the game wore on, I despaired at our lack of passion or energy - indeed apart from a brief spell after MK scored their second goal, we hardly got out of first gear. Can't decide whether the players are confused by Jimmy Tarbuck's tactics, completely dis-interested (either because most know they won't be here next year or as fed up with off-field events like us) or just completely inept. Fear it could be all three.
Watching Mk stroll the second half, passing through us at will, and looking like a top team was painful. On this form, we must be certs for relegation. (How on earth are the bookmakers still giving 40-1 on us going down?)
Finally, how can anyone be seriously considering renewing their season ticket? Seriously how? Under the current ownership and management this club is dying and the next few years will surely see us fall out of the League and/or possibly go bankrupt. We need a final push to get the cancer that is killing this club out of it and what better way than only selling a handful of season tickets.
Despite getting home earlier than I have done for many years, I decided not to post last night as could not find the words to describe how appalling that was. In the cold (well, warm) light of day I still can't. I hoped the players would put in a performance to honour PC Palmer as they clearly don't want to for Robinson but that was an insult to his memory. Can't blame the players entirely as we all know where the real problem lies.
Don't wish to play the drama queen but have fought two battles against cancer in my life. This I feel is the third, RD and his clueless CEO are the new cancer in my life and invading not my body but the club I have loved for 47 years. I fear this is the one battle I will not win, this cancer cannot be cut out, it has to choose to leave our club. Perhaps when there are no fans left they may do, but I really hope they will go now, while there are still good people around who love the club as much as I and other fans do.
Roland and Kat, for God's sake GO!
certainly not playing the drama queen in my eyes @HantsAddick and I can't even begin to imagine what you must've gone through once, let alone twice, and I truly hope you're on the road to recovery.
This is probably the most damning yet apt verdict on this regime for me yet. When you have cancer victims equating their suffering with the ownership of a football club you know it is time to go
Comments
If I hadn't been boycotting over the abysmal ownership, I'd probably be boycotting over the dire football. I dont expect to see Barcelona at The Valley, but I expect to see a team that can make use of the pitch and pass to eachother effectively.
We had no width, it's frustrating to see Solly push up the field only to be confronted with their LM and LB without any possible outlet.
Our Midfield and Attack seemed completely seperate, but then again, I couldn't work out what formation we were attempting to play so that didn't help.
Even Bauer seemed to have a bit of an off day, and Aribo wasn't very impressive either. Watt was anonymous.
We were outclassed and outplayed in a midtable League One clash. There's not a great deal more to say. I'm stunned at just how far we've regressed under the Belgians.
On a more positive note, Dasilva and Solly looked solid, and Holmes did more than his fair share. I'd be pretty pissed off if I was Ricky and I was stuck in this circus to be entirely fair.
MK Dons could easily have been 3-0 up by half-time. They are comfortable on the ball, pass crisply, and sprint to receive. They send perfectly weighted passes up the channels – DaSilva is by-passed – and cross accurately. Our central defenders make a mess of a routine clearance; Rudd parries. 0-1. Again.
We all know that our players are technically incapable: for years, basic 15-yard passes go astray. The recipient stretches, back-tracking to collect. A half-hearted challenge: ball bobbles up and dribbles out of play. Meanwhile, our opponents – even MK Dons – play with a fluid strength. Two of our midfielders were brushed aside on the approach to their second goal. Which was scored with an accurate and powerful shot.
Did we worry their keeper in the entire second half? No. Not a flicker. Watt headed wide from seven yards; Magennis nodded over the bar. Nothing at all for the keeper to save in 45 minutes at the Covered End. Nothing.
Yet – we did show what it takes in the second half against Bradford, three weeks ago. We rushed and harried – not just Holmes, but the others upped their game – we had energy, quickness, spirit and guts. You do wonder what was the reason for this sudden glorious transformation. Years of dreary bumbling around was punctuated by a brief flash of fighting football – and now we are wilting like pansies again.
If we had played this season with the verve we showed against Bradford, we might be nibbling at the play-offs. Is it the players who don't understand? The coaches? The manager? Of course Duchatelet is an arse, yet if Jackson was an effective captain he would have inspired the team long ago, usurping weaklings like Fraeye and saving us from the drop last year.
Magennis is a mere shadow of the man before injury. Watt doesn't work; his abrasive history ought to frighten defenders, yet nothing happens. Our gaping midfield has been achingly vacant since Parker, Reid and Bowyer. And the strikers! Heaven help us. In 45 minutes at Welling, pre-season, my pal and I – we have each been watching Charlton since the 1960s – could see that Ajose and Novak would fail. One, lightweight; the other lumbering.
Do you remember the first game of the season just a few years ago, away at Bournemouth? A cross came over, outside the box; the ball was behind him, yet Kermorgant arched and volleyed for a fantastic goal. I have watched Novak hesitate, bumble and fluff: away at Millwall and yet again at Posh. Kermorgant was deemed “too old” by Duchatelet, “not worth it”. His trumpeted replacement was Polish Pete, who played eight minutes in the first team. Meanwhile, Kermorgant won promotion with Bournemouth, is heading up again with Reading, and hammered the winner against Leeds on Saturday.
I recall with great fondness our previous seasons in the third – in 1980, with Killer, Walshy and Martin Robinson: marauding, arrogant, strong and skilful. And more recently with Kermorgant and Wright-Philips: instinctive, clever, incisive. They had strong and capable players behind them.
Look at us now. Powder-puffs. We have won a mere four games from 24 under Robinson. One single win in the last 14 – in the third division. That is inexcusable. We are flirting with Morecambe, Barnet, and Accrington Stanley. Robinson should be sacked.
Poor PC Palmer was the victim of a deranged, vicious, hateful murderer. Keith Palmer would have wanted us – our players – to be tough, smart, beautiful and victorious.
We failed again.
Our players look a mix of those that won't (Watt, Bauer, Magennis), those that can't - last night at least - (Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Aribo and Jackson) and those that, only just, can be forgiven (Rudd, DaSilva, Solly and Holmes).
Like everyone, I feel deeply sad about what has happened to my club, the 4th division will be just another step in this downward spiral. £30mill or £50mill, who's really going to buy this shit?!
You can sit in your bedroom watching You Tube videos in your underpants and analyse every little detail, but you do need to look at the obvious first. There is quite an easy way of doing it! Just look at the number of games a player has played and the number of goals he has scored. It was no accident that the first player Powell brought in was BWP - He understood this simple fact. Mind you, most people who understand the game do too!
I did say - along with many others - that the winter window would be no different from the last. There was the potential to use a small fraction of the Lookman money to actually strengthen the balance of the squad and push for promotion. Balance is a simple concept and not a complicated word, but I am beginning to wonder if there is a word for it in Belgium. We just have to hope that we survive this season by the skin of our teeth and we start next season with people who know what they are doing at the healm. The phrase oft quoted from our CEO has been Roland doesn't do failure. Well forgive me, but since he took over it is clear that failure is all he does and those of us that know that every day he owns us, we get sicker and sicker as a club have tried, in our small way, to do something about it. We protest because we are fighting for the club we love. A point will be reached, and we are very close to it, where the situation may not be recoverable.
Did not Meire ask us to judge them by about now, before the season started? They have done so badly, you don't even need to waste any mental energy judging. Why put a hamster on one side of a massive set of scales and an elephant on the other when it is so obvious which is the heavier! Their incompetence is as clear as the nose on your face, or as in the CEO's case, the very long nose on her face. In business, when you make the promises and claims she has and spectacularly fail, as sadly we knew they would, many do find the self respect to resign. It is unthinkable that she doesn't realise that she has failed and she is just the pawn of a senile, dishonest old fool with crazy ideas. You do need some intelligence to obtain a law degree surely.
Solly was far from decent!
Don't wish to play the drama queen but have fought two battles against cancer in my life. This I feel is the third, RD and his clueless CEO are the new cancer in my life and invading not my body but the club I have loved for 47 years. I fear this is the one battle I will not win, this cancer cannot be cut out, it has to choose to leave our club. Perhaps when there are no fans left they may do, but I really hope they will go now, while there are still good people around who love the club as much as I and other fans do.
Roland and Kat, for God's sake GO!
As an occasional visitor this season, there was something different about last night. Not just the usual poor performance and resigned atmosphere from the few remaining diehards. This was a special occasion. Remembering one of our own and the chance to put to rest lingering fears of relegation. What did we get? A piss poor crowd given the circumstances (albeit those of us who were there did our fallen brother proud) and the most inept, spineless performance I have ever witnessed by a Charlton team.
I have taken the view (and still hold it) that we have enough points already to survive given the ineptitude and sheer number of the teams below us. But make no mistake, that is all that's stopping our free fall. "You're not fit to wear the shirt" rang loud and clear and it was thoroughly deserved. It pained me to see the last of the good guys in Jacko and Solly reduced to broken faded relics of their former selves. Age and injury know no sympathy. But to have them now tarred by the poisonous brush that threatens the very heart and soul of our club is heartbreaking. I took a long wistful look before I left last night. I won't be back in a hurry and that's not the parting memory that I wanted.
That we as a club have been betrayed by a Belgian owner who has no understanding of English football has been obvious for the last three years
That the thirteen players who went onto the pitch wearing Charlton strip last night did not perform as a team has been a betrayal that we have seen more frequently over the last three years than at any time in my long support of the club
That a manager should betray his team by such a shocking attempt at playschool tactics was a new betrayal (as someone who has not attended home games this season)
That the players, manager and owner could betray the support of the fans for a fellow supporter who showed bravery in the face of terror was the ultimate disgrace.
Roland, your fifty million pieces of silver has been spent on betrayal. KM and KR - do what Pilate did - wash your hands and walk away now, because you have become the lowest of the low. Roland write off your folly investment and walk away - you have brought a once proud institution into disrepute that you do not have the talent or money to correct.
1.) watched staff pour 4 pints to one group who then stated that the beer was off, so they were refunded and sent to the vista lounge if they wanted a pint.
2.) the toilets few were out of order and the light went off 10 seconds after you went in.
3.) Giving pies to people that were cold and run out of forks.
really was a circus, and it transpires throughout the club.
When we get a new owner - I have a suggestion. Let that stupid Robin and knight enter the pitch, then to a fanfare, have Floyd and Harvey rush on and kick them out! It would be so symbolic!
If injured then why the hell werent Ahearne-Grant or Hanlan rested from the U23 match against Hull and put on the bench last night in case we needed a Striker to score a goal - Or is the U23 League more important?
Evening started off well. Good pie and chips from the chippie in Charlton Church Lane - does any chip shop make such consistently tasty chips as this place? - and a very respectful minutes silence for PC Palmer.
After that, what can I say that hasn't already been said a hundred times over. With respect to those who know far more about tactics than me, I thought we lined up in a clear diamond formation with 2 up front. Whatever it was, it didn't work as the midfield constantly got over-run and bypassed.
As the game wore on, I despaired at our lack of passion or energy - indeed apart from a brief spell after MK scored their second goal, we hardly got out of first gear. Can't decide whether the players are confused by Jimmy Tarbuck's tactics, completely dis-interested (either because most know they won't be here next year or as fed up with off-field events like us) or just completely inept. Fear it could be all three.
Watching Mk stroll the second half, passing through us at will, and looking like a top team was painful. On this form, we must be certs for relegation. (How on earth are the bookmakers still giving 40-1 on us going down?)
Finally, how can anyone be seriously considering renewing their season ticket? Seriously how? Under the current ownership and management this club is dying and the next few years will surely see us fall out of the League and/or possibly go bankrupt. We need a final push to get the cancer that is killing this club out of it and what better way than only selling a handful of season tickets.
This is probably the most damning yet apt verdict on this regime for me yet. When you have cancer victims equating their suffering with the ownership of a football club you know it is time to go