reeves biggest critic has been me but today’s performance was excellent and he is now showing what robinson saw in him. Really very good and thoroughly deserves his place in the team. Joe aribo was immense as was hopefully our permanent captain, Pearce. Zyro is a proper centre forward who strikes the ball well ; I understand josh being pissed off but its all about the team and not about him. I think dijksteel would have and should have started as he tackles and robs the ball better than konsa but maybe he will get a chance on saturday. With Pompey winning that will be some game against them. I like Bowyers style....very understated , very unemotional, almost deadpan but really really focused. Well done team, management and fans today. Brilliant.
For anyone who was up at their place earlier this season, I thought the pattern of the game as exactly the same they dominated the first 15 minutes, missed a couple chances then we grew into the game whilst they ran out of ideas.
Apart from the obvious formation change, the main difference/improvement I’ve noticed is the way we work to get the ball back, tireless effort the players, Robbo seems like a distance nightmare now.
They were a big strong team and won a fair amount of second balls. They had a couple of decent players - I liked the 7. But they lacked composure in front of goal and were not brilliant defensively. I wouldn't mind playing them every week - they are decent but lack the quality we have. Ideally we will have them in the first play off round.
Hands up from me, I was firmly in the camp of the squad not being good enough, only thought a handful were actually good. Very pleased to be wrong though with players like Reeves and Ajose suddenly looking worthwhile to have around. I'm also suddenly not that impressed by the top3 and their points, had a little look back on our games and I've counted at least an extra 17 points we could and probably should have right now, oh well.
Didn't watch this time but I guess the stats and the score line say it all, on to the next one
Thing is with KR was inability to see act on his own faults. It just WASNT working and teams were finding us out way too easily. I liked him and when we played well, it was fantastic to watch but it seems his ego got the better of him and the players had a gutful of it. When your current boss has his presser and says that we can win the remaining 7, they must be oozing confidence! KR in his last 3-4 games was so down and negative about things including the takeover and THATS when it spills over onto the players. As Bowyer said his job is to sort the team out and make them perform, nothing else for a man in his role matters!
It feels good to be a Charlton fan again and i am looking forward to going to the Pompey game!
First game for me since PC Palmer game my son was very keen to go and we really enjoyed it, good to be back. Very much like the way Bowyer manages and conducts himself complete opposite to Robinson who I really couldn't stand from the moment he arrived. Results seem to be the opposite too. Thought Reeves and JFC were tireless in their running and Pearce was outstanding. That's a proper team with a proper manager.
I don't feel Bowyer has put any pressure on himself. He is solely focusing on the task in front of him and the only thing he can control and seems to be enjoying it.
Nothing really to add to the previous comments, other than Konsa was in because of his physical presence I'd imagine. Page I understand was rested, but with Da Silva fit the switch made sense anyway.
Ajose is working really well with Zyro, and his running today made an immense difference. We weren't the same side when he went off, albeit Mavdidi need minutes and at 3-0 worth giving Ajose a breather.
We could have had more, I think we would have had Fosu stayed fit.
Special mention to Reeves who showed today just how good he can be. Thought he and the impressively efficient Forster-Caskey were excellent. Pearce was massive.
Rotherham were a very decent side and probably shaded the first 20 minutes but we battled well and took our chances when they came. Having not been at the Valley for a while it was great to see a win but I came away feeling just a little underwhelmed as both the performance and atmosphere fell a bit short of what I had been (sub-consciously) expecting. I suspect that, however well we play, it won't quite hit the spot for me until Duchatelet is finally gone - for me, he casts a bit of a shadow over even the positive stuff going on at the Valley these days.
Well done to Lee Bowyer and I hope he gets the gig for at least the rest of the season. Ig he can take us up it would be a very, very tough call for anyone to make to replace him for next season.
Spent the build up to our third goal shouting 'Too early! Wrong option!' etc. The people around me were good enough not to mention it as we celebrated.
Spent the build up to our third goal shouting 'Too early! Wrong option!' etc. The people around me were good enough not to mention it as we celebrated.
Great win, but there is still a lot of work to do.
The POs are a lottery and the only team I’d want to avoid would be Wigan, don’t fancy them much.
The rest? Rotherham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe and the rest don’t bother me at all but as we know from Swindon under Parky anything can happen in the POs.
The Parky started the season strongly, then lost form and momentum, limping into the playoffs
If we win most of our remaining games to get into the playoffs in good form, Millwall last season seem a much better comparison
Not as good as the sheer brilliance of the Plymouth game but a well worked team effort. We edged the first half with Zyro's great finish and more or less dominated the second half. Amos slowed the game right down, which irritated me but is probably a good tactic when you are ahead. Hope Fossu recovers quickly. Interesting to hear that Lee Boyer thought Kaikai had a good game whereas I thought he was average. Final note on a weekend when matches were called off, the pitch looked in good shape. Well done the ground staff.
Who saw the potential in Bowyer and brought him to the club? Robbo for me made lots of good calls outside of picking and setting up the team.
I thought Bowyer said he wrote to the club and KR gave him an opportunity rather than seeking him out. He was taken on part time two days a week to work with the midfielders.
Great win, but there is still a lot of work to do.
The POs are a lottery and the only team I’d want to avoid would be Wigan, don’t fancy them much.
The rest? Rotherham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe and the rest don’t bother me at all but as we know from Swindon under Parky anything can happen in the POs.
The Parky started the season strongly, then lost form and momentum, limping into the playoffs
If we win most of our remaining games to get into the playoffs in good form, Millwall last season seem a much better comparison
Not quite - last 11 games we were W6 L3 D3 - that’s decent form and we beat Leeds 1-0 at home too.
Just a few points to add to the already brilliant posts:
Mavididi should have come on for Fosu - Kaikai is pants & still did nothing even though the rest of the team is buzzing. . Once Fosu went off we lost our forward momentum - Da Silva can't go past players & Mavididi would have injected some more directness.
So want Ajose to get a goal - worked hard but nothing fell for him.
I've seen us score 9 goals in 3 games - I think I must have seen that amount from xmas until slobby left. So much more direct & a lot harder to beat. As their manager said, we were better in both boxes & that is all that matters.
onwards & upwards. We will not win all 7 games, but if we can pick up another 11 or 12 points then I'm sure the play-offs beckon.
You are forgetting, Mavididi has been out for 8 weeks injured. There is no way he would have lasted the game if he had come on when Fosu was injured.
Lord Bowyer Tactial Genius ... LBTG for short (souds like some kind of movement).
Two weeks ago we'd have crumbled in the face of a physical (and, at times, dirty) side and lost it, even if we'd scored first. Today we overcame the Northern Cloggers and the frankly shocking officials and served notice to the rest of the play-off chasers that we're not pushovers any more.
Everyone played their part (although yet again I was disappointed with Kaikai) and Aribo's second goal was a thing of beauty, a counter-attacking move that was the polar opposite of Robinson's style of slowly-slowly tippy-tappy crap.
In three games under Lord Bowyer the oppo (which, don't forget, included two in-form play-off rivals) our defence has only allowed 5 shots on target, two of which I guess were in conceding today's goal (the initial, saved, shot and the goal itself). This tells me that our defensive unit is denying the oppo clear shots at goal, any shits they are having are from distance and/or rushed. I heard part of @LouisMend's interview with the boss in Radio London and Lord Bowyer said that his faithful manservant Jackson had been working hard with the defence over the last couple of weeks - that is obviously paying off big-time as we don't look like conceding.
Other comments:
The front two of Ajose and Zyro were great and once again I felt sorry for Nicky that he didn't get a goal for himself.
I haven't been much of a fan of Reeves this season but he's growing on me, had another stormer today.
MoM ... Aribo. The pup's plums.
This is a strange situation to be in for a Charlton fan: optimistic and with good reason to be.
A solid win today against a decent team. The big difference now is that we look dangerous, we actually pack a real offensive threat, and the formation change has made a massive difference as we can now go direct as well as playing the intricate football, giving defenders real problems. Drop deep, our skilful players have lots of space, push up and Ajose and our speedsters can break.
The first goal for example, Ajose makes a nice run towards a great pass by JFC(?). If the player had been up there by himself, whether Ajose, Zyro or Magennis the slight miscue by the defender would have been collected easily by another defender and been a non event. Instead because we have TWO attackers up there, it falls for Zyro (great shot)
The third goal is all about Aribo, but Ajose again plays a part attracting defenders to create space and putting the ball first time into Ajose's path instead of dawdling on it.
I was slightly disappointed Ajose was taken off so early, as he seemed quite fresh still I would have loved him to score the goal his work deserved. Mavididi is a skilful player, but less direct and seemed to be in 3rd gear. Not convinced Konsa at RB is better than Djiksteel either.
Much prefer Dijksteel at right back than Konsa, the role just doesn’t suit him, and as much as Ezri is class, I think Anfernee is not far behind him in terms of ability at all.
Having two up front makes such a difference and again at times today Bowyer used the tactic of them sitting between the centre backs and full backs for us to quickly push forward as soon as we win it back. It causes so many problems in this division because most teams won’t have a midfield that is good enough to totally dominate the game, so because managers are so obsessed with that, they often play 5 in midfield and try to dictate when you just don’t need it. You need to be offensive and go for the win.
Football is a simple game made complicated by those who should know better. - Bowyer is not over complicating things and is getting the best out of our very talented group. He is the man for the job.
I had a look at the Plymouth forum and we are the team they seem to fear the most! Understandable I suppose after last week. Some of them were even suggesting our result today was a good one as it means they can catch Rotherham seemingly having given up on finishing above us.
A positive start to the day from my perspective as @Len\'s_little_girl was home for the Easter Break and able to accompany me to the match.
Rotherham started the match like a train and hit the bar in the first minute or two. Their number 23 was quite pacy and as a team they looked distinctly useful. Things looked even bleaker for us when Fosu-Henry had to leave the field because of injury around the 15 minute mark and was replaced by Kaikai. A few minutes later we then appeared to have been awarded a penalty for handball by our old boy Richard Wood but the lino disputed it and the referee agreed.
However the team dug in and started competing and winning some ball themselves and Zyro finished beautifully to give us the lead around the half hour mark. The referee was so shocked we scored that he immediately went off injured and was replaced by the fourth official!
The remainder of the half was an even, tight, tense affair with neither side giving anything away and we went in at halftime with our noses in front.
The second half started like the first with Rotherham pressing and trying to catch us cold but we weathered it and gave Rotherham problems of our own culminating in Joe Aribo 'better than Semedo' nodding in a J F-C free kick which, to give credit where due, had been won by Reeves who I felt genuinely contributed today. I've criticised him previously so only right to highlight that point today. Rotherham came back at us but 10 minutes or so later Ajose broke away from our own area and exchanged passes with Aribo. Aribo drove on and finished splendidly from just inside the Rotherham area to make it 3-0. We could have had a fourth too but the Rotherham keeper made a smart save to turn the ball for a corner.
Rotherham refused to lie down despite the 3 goal deficit and Wood scored for them with about 15 of the 90 left. Being a seasoned Charlton fan I felt a bit jittery despite the 2 goal cushion but in hindsight we held out without too much difficulty and indeed Mavididi came close to adding a 4th late on.
A good team performance and unfair to single out individuals although two goal Aribo certainly deserves a mention.
We are now 6th with a game in hand. It's in our own hands as to whether we stay there or better.
Comments
Apart from the obvious formation change, the main difference/improvement I’ve noticed is the way we work to get the ball back, tireless effort the players, Robbo seems like a distance nightmare now.
Didn't watch this time but I guess the stats and the score line say it all, on to the next one
I liked him and when we played well, it was fantastic to watch but it seems his ego got the better of him and the players had a gutful of it. When your current boss has his presser and says that we can win the remaining 7, they must be oozing confidence! KR in his last 3-4 games was so down and negative about things including the takeover and THATS when it spills over onto the players. As Bowyer said his job is to sort the team out and make them perform, nothing else for a man in his role matters!
It feels good to be a Charlton fan again and i am looking forward to going to the Pompey game!
Ajose is working really well with Zyro, and his running today made an immense difference. We weren't the same side when he went off, albeit Mavdidi need minutes and at 3-0 worth giving Ajose a breather.
We could have had more, I think we would have had Fosu stayed fit.
Special mention to Reeves who showed today just how good he can be. Thought he and the impressively efficient Forster-Caskey were excellent. Pearce was massive.
If he had still been manager it would not have happened because it was all down to having two up front (plus great finish etc).
Well done to Lee Bowyer and I hope he gets the gig for at least the rest of the season. Ig he can take us up it would be a very, very tough call for anyone to make to replace him for next season.
If we win most of our remaining games to get into the playoffs in good form, Millwall last season seem a much better comparison
To a man we were immense today. Just want Ajose to knock one in. Get one and he won't stop!
Although we did get trolleyed 4-0 by the Scum.
Entirely the right decision by Bowyer.
That second goal took athleticism, skill and a very big pair of balls.
Two weeks ago we'd have crumbled in the face of a physical (and, at times, dirty) side and lost it, even if we'd scored first. Today we overcame the Northern Cloggers and the frankly shocking officials and served notice to the rest of the play-off chasers that we're not pushovers any more.
Everyone played their part (although yet again I was disappointed with Kaikai) and Aribo's second goal was a thing of beauty, a counter-attacking move that was the polar opposite of Robinson's style of slowly-slowly tippy-tappy crap.
In three games under Lord Bowyer the oppo (which, don't forget, included two in-form play-off rivals) our defence has only allowed 5 shots on target, two of which I guess were in conceding today's goal (the initial, saved, shot and the goal itself). This tells me that our defensive unit is denying the oppo clear shots at goal, any shits they are having are from distance and/or rushed. I heard part of @LouisMend's interview with the boss in Radio London and Lord Bowyer said that his faithful manservant Jackson had been working hard with the defence over the last couple of weeks - that is obviously paying off big-time as we don't look like conceding.
Other comments:
The front two of Ajose and Zyro were great and once again I felt sorry for Nicky that he didn't get a goal for himself.
I haven't been much of a fan of Reeves this season but he's growing on me, had another stormer today.
MoM ... Aribo. The pup's plums.
This is a strange situation to be in for a Charlton fan: optimistic and with good reason to be.
Play-offs here we come!
Much prefer Dijksteel at right back than Konsa, the role just doesn’t suit him, and as much as Ezri is class, I think Anfernee is not far behind him in terms of ability at all.
Having two up front makes such a difference and again at times today Bowyer used the tactic of them sitting between the centre backs and full backs for us to quickly push forward as soon as we win it back. It causes so many problems in this division because most teams won’t have a midfield that is good enough to totally dominate the game, so because managers are so obsessed with that, they often play 5 in midfield and try to dictate when you just don’t need it. You need to be offensive and go for the win.
Football is a simple game made complicated by those who should know better. - Bowyer is not over complicating things and is getting the best out of our very talented group. He is the man for the job.
A positive start to the day from my perspective as @Len\'s_little_girl was home for the Easter Break and able to accompany me to the match.
Rotherham started the match like a train and hit the bar in the first minute or two. Their number 23 was quite pacy and as a team they looked distinctly useful. Things looked even bleaker for us when Fosu-Henry had to leave the field because of injury around the 15 minute mark and was replaced by Kaikai. A few minutes later we then appeared to have been awarded a penalty for handball by our old boy Richard Wood but the lino disputed it and the referee agreed.
However the team dug in and started competing and winning some ball themselves and Zyro finished beautifully to give us the lead around the half hour mark. The referee was so shocked we scored that he immediately went off injured and was replaced by the fourth official!
The remainder of the half was an even, tight, tense affair with neither side giving anything away and we went in at halftime with our noses in front.
The second half started like the first with Rotherham pressing and trying to catch us cold but we weathered it and gave Rotherham problems of our own culminating in Joe Aribo 'better than Semedo' nodding in a J F-C free kick which, to give credit where due, had been won by Reeves who I felt genuinely contributed today. I've criticised him previously so only right to highlight that point today. Rotherham came back at us but 10 minutes or so later Ajose broke away from our own area and exchanged passes with Aribo. Aribo drove on and finished splendidly from just inside the Rotherham area to make it 3-0. We could have had a fourth too but the Rotherham keeper made a smart save to turn the ball for a corner.
Rotherham refused to lie down despite the 3 goal deficit and Wood scored for them with about 15 of the 90 left. Being a seasoned Charlton fan I felt a bit jittery despite the 2 goal cushion but in hindsight we held out without too much difficulty and indeed Mavididi came close to adding a 4th late on.
A good team performance and unfair to single out individuals although two goal Aribo certainly deserves a mention.
We are now 6th with a game in hand. It's in our own hands as to whether we stay there or better.
COYR