nowadays we should count our limited blessings for a point ANYwhere .. Posh on Tuesday will tell us a lot about us, them and the relative strengths in this division/league
Thought the ref was poor, giving them nothing free kicks and seemed more than happy to book our players. One incident from yesterday, we played a ball through the middle, the lino puts his flag up and their centre-back catches the ball. The ref blows his whistle for the free kick for offside side and not for handball.
Thats because the first of the two incidents was the offside one - correct decision!!
Firstly.............I don't get all this "useless - can't beat Accrington Stanley" rubbish. They are in our league. Doesn't matter how big (Sunderland) or how small (Accrington) we have to play them. They are equal to us. no more, no less. get over it......
Now onto the game.............
Having being delayed by all the 50 mph restrictions, delays & sodding cars breaking down in live lanes on the M6, and then belting down the M65 at 85-90 mph so as to only miss the first 5 mins of the game, all I can say is I hope LB & the players pay any speeding ticket I may get as they did sod all else for the 85 mins we did see.
In all 3 league games we have taken the lead ( 2 within the first 15 mins). In all 3 we have then been pegged back with only one going on to sore another goal. Our problems are not at the back but up front. Taylor is a physical presence & once again gave their back line a torrid time, but a striker.........nah. Grant is quick & scored a decent goal, but should have squared it to Taylor in the 2nd half & needs to learn to shoot with his left foot if he's going to play on that side of a front 2.LB rates him a striker rather than a winger........nah, not for me. We have 2 other strikers sitting on the bench...........yet LB refuses to bring them on. All the time we have those 4 being part of the squad we are going to fail to win matches. End of.
As for the formation. Looks good on paper & I like Sarr as part of a back 3, but although Pearce is not quick he will be better than our Arsenal loanee. Solly can't play wing back. He cant cross & every time he gets down the wing he stops & passes it back or inside.........total waste of time. He even passed when he was set up to shoot from a corner. Training my arse ! Pratley was the best player out there but Aribo is wasted in that formation. Isn't getting forward enough & we are left with Lapslie being the playmaker. He did put it in Grant a couple of times but a lot to ask a youngster playing his first season to be the pivotal chance maker.
Not much else to say. A draw was probably a fair result unless we battered them in the first 5 mins as the 85 we did see we hardly had another shot on target.
The first 3 games is our season in a nutshell. will be mediocre mid table - not enough goals to win games but will always be in games.
PS. just to show you how bad Golfie Jnr thought it was - he refused to clap the players at the end. He was not at all impressed & had the right hump all the way home.
Thought the ref was poor, giving them nothing free kicks and seemed more than happy to book our players. One incident from yesterday, we played a ball through the middle, the lino puts his flag up and their centre-back catches the ball. The ref blows his whistle for the free kick for offside side and not for handball.
Wasnt that the right call though?
i.e. Lino raises his flag to indicate offside you never see the referee over ruling in that regard, only way we could have been given a free kick for handball was if the flag had been raised and then lowered again after the Linesman realised he'd made a mistake
What about playing to the whistle?
We are being pedantic here though. It was offside and their free kick. We really don't need to worry whether their defender should have played on or not.
The ref wasn't great but it's not the reason we didn't win.
Having being delayed by all the 50 mph restrictions, delays & sodding cars breaking down in live lanes on the M6, and then belting down the M65 at 85-90 mph so as to only miss the first 5 mins of the game, all I can say is I hope LB & the players pay any speeding ticket I may get as they did sod all else for the 85 mins we did see.
I’m sure it was you last year or some other seasoned traveller but do yourself a favour and get the “Waze” navigation app on your phone , it’s a must and it’s free. You’ll need to have a charger in your car and a simple stand or something to hold the phone in , (I bought mine online for £7 ish) It will give you a much much better chance of getting to these games on time. It works routes out “live” and will give you a much better estimate of time of arrival than your bog standard sat navs on cars and it does the thinking for you , none of this oh M1 M6 or whatever is the best route , it is if there are no other cars on the road , accidents or roadworks , this app works out which way to go taking in to account “live” traffic conditions . Of course if an accident happens close in front of you the app can’t perform miracles but I swear by it . Give it a go and I bet it brings a smile to your face , well maybe not !! If you don’t try it then you’ll be berating the traffic again and again when there is help out there . It’s not perfect but it can only help .
You can now say you were using it and it fucked you up in the first place !
I do & it did. my sat nav tells me about incidents ahead & asks if I want to re-route. Last time I let it re-route me (when I was travelling to Oxford to see a client) it took me off the M25 & around all the towns & villages during school pick-up time. Made me later than if I stayed where I was.
Were you using Waze or the one in your car ? Cos I know the one in my car has re route etc but it is shit and will always estimate arrival that is well wrong . Waze is sooooo much better than your car sat navs . Try it I bet it’s better than whatever you used yesterday .
Had never heard of Waze. Used the standard Garmin 'live' built-in Sat-Nav (which I always found to be really reliable) in my last car.
However, shall give Waze a try when I'm next home. Cheers.
Having being delayed by all the 50 mph restrictions, delays & sodding cars breaking down in live lanes on the M6, and then belting down the M65 at 85-90 mph so as to only miss the first 5 mins of the game, all I can say is I hope LB & the players pay any speeding ticket I may get as they did sod all else for the 85 mins we did see.
I’m sure it was you last year or some other seasoned traveller but do yourself a favour and get the “Waze” navigation app on your phone , it’s a must and it’s free. You’ll need to have a charger in your car and a simple stand or something to hold the phone in , (I bought mine online for £7 ish) It will give you a much much better chance of getting to these games on time. It works routes out “live” and will give you a much better estimate of time of arrival than your bog standard sat navs on cars and it does the thinking for you , none of this oh M1 M6 or whatever is the best route , it is if there are no other cars on the road , accidents or roadworks , this app works out which way to go taking in to account “live” traffic conditions . Of course if an accident happens close in front of you the app can’t perform miracles but I swear by it . Give it a go and I bet it brings a smile to your face , well maybe not !! If you don’t try it then you’ll be berating the traffic again and again when there is help out there . It’s not perfect but it can only help .
You can now say you were using it and it fucked you up in the first place !
I do & it did. my sat nav tells me about incidents ahead & asks if I want to re-route. Last time I let it re-route me (when I was travelling to Oxford to see a client) it took me off the M25 & around all the towns & villages during school pick-up time. Made me later than if I stayed where I was.
Were you using Waze or the one in your car ? Cos I know the one in my car has re route etc but it is shit and will always estimate arrival that is well wrong . Waze is sooooo much better than your car sat navs . Try it I bet it’s better than whatever you used yesterday .
Had never heard of Waze. Used the standard Garmin 'live' built-in Sat-Nav (which I always found to be really reliable) in my last car.
However, shall give Waze a try when I'm next home. Cheers.
I’m sure I read somewhere on here that we’d sold circa 900 for this? Some social media who disclose away attendances are suggesting we sold only 678!!
Attendance given out at the ground was the figure mentioned.
perhaps the club gave out misleading info prior to the game.....not the first time they would lie about attendance figures.
I said 800-900 as the ticket office told me this just after they had made it all ticket and so I had to buy a ticket rather than just walk up as I was planning to do. At the game heard one of their high viz fella's telling a cop saying it was to stop Charlton undesirables. I obviously explained to him that our owner does not attend our games.
Interesting quote at the end from Joe Aribo: “You can’t go wrong with the performances we’re putting in, we’re working together. I just want to see what’s going to happen for the rest of the season.”
Which IMO means, if it goes well and we are promoted, he'll stay and sign a new contract.
But if we muddle our way through the season, then he's off.
I very much doubt that Joe Aribo will sign a contract under this ownership, following the withdrawal of a recent offer and its represention with a 50% reduction. Nothing short of insulting.
If we are still suffering under Duchatelet by the end of the year, I have little doubt that Aribo, Bauer and (subject to fitness) Fosu will be touted around in the January window at heavily discounted prices.
I very much doubt that Joe Aribo will sign a contract under this ownership, following the withdrawal of a recent offer and its represention with a 50% reduction. Nothing short of insulting.
I reckon players like Aribo are counting on a change of ownership sooner rather than later. They are under contract at the moment, and can't do anything about it.
But otherwise they are settled, like the setup, team mates etc ..... and would sign an improved contract, especially if promoted or felt the club was on the up.
We spend weeks berating the lack of resources available to the squad and the truncated pre-season preparation and then we expect results.
Out of the starting eleven only 5 or 6 at best could, before this season, be classified as regular first team starters.
None of Phillips, Sarr, Bielik, Lapslie or Grant are yet regular starters. Page is at best borderline. Aribo spent 3/4 of last season playing cameo roles. Marshall and Ajose have almost become personna non grata and there just to make up the numbers. From the bench what game changing impact do you really expect Djiksteel, Maloney, Morgan, & Hackett Fairchild to make at this stage of their career.
These guys are learning on the job.
Just because people CAN play in a position does not mean players can readily function as a team within a few weeks. Too many are involved because there is no one else who is yet in a position to compete for their job.
Without Pearce and Forster Caskey the spine of the team has become further compromised.
It has consequences.
Should we have an expectation a club of our former history and standing should do better? Absolutely but other than the fact we actually managed to fill 18 shirts in fulfilling this fixture and we have a competent football management any expectation at this point beyond adequate is totally unrealistic.
Bowyers approach is exactly right. It is what it is. People either sink or they swim. He is determined people do not start feeling sorry for themselves but get on with the job. At present they will be consistently inconsistent even within a 90 minute game. They do not have game management skills to do otherwise. Thus it was an adequate performance in line with the resources available.
Hopefully Bowyer will forge them into a unit capable of delivering beyond the sums of their parts but this is against a background where any comparison between a performing professional football organisation and the current club infrastructure is at best limited.
We need to be very wary of attacking those who are involved at present, be that the players or coaching staff. They are working in very challenging circumstances. They need our support.
Executive performance to this point indicates we will likely be reliant on the speedy, full and permanent recovery of a number of players. It displays once again an accountancy mentally while rigorously ignoring the reality of the industry in which the business is operating.
For the avoidance of doubt that is a tough, unforgiving, physically and mentally demanding extremely competitive environment stretching over a minimum of 46 games requiring physical strength, stamina, pace and fitness over a protracted period.
Once again the executive based on the resources they provide management simply refuse to accept the significant risk each of these glaringly obvious challenges present to our progress
The squad despite Bowyers understandable protestations is not yet fit for purpose. Can the players develop and grow? Of course and hopefully they will. In the meantime with the current staff available trying to push them to "run before they can walk" does present the challenge of the wheels coming off.
That would not be a pretty sight.
For the next few weeks inconsistent, functional and adequate is going to have to do. I do not see any prospect of sustained improvement until mid September at the earliest. In the words of one of our esteemed former managers we are going to need "to be very patient.". This is going to be a bumpy ride for a while yet.
I suggest people just keep taking the tablets and keep the emergency "sick bag" close to hand, in case of need.
We spend weeks berating the lack of resources available to the squad and the truncated pre-season preparation and then we expect results.
We need to be very wary of attacking those who are involved at present, be that the players or coaching staff. They are working in very challenging circumstances. They need our support.
As Grapevine has said, we need to temper our expectations with the present reality of the situation.
And those doing their best in difficult circumstances deserve our suppport.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
Fully understand where you are coming from Andy and after spending most of the past 40 off seasons in your company I'm starting to feel the same. It has got to the point now that having a drink and a bit of banter with you and the chaps is all I am now going for. The actual football thanks to Roland is 3rd division shite and this will not change until he sells the club. If he is still here next season then I will definitely not be attending home or away. My son is already boycotting and my grandkids who live with me will probably not become Charlton fans if this prick continues to own us. It really has gone beyond a joke now and all we can do is hope he fucks off soon. In the meantime.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
Great post - hang on, as the old scroat will soon be gone. Of that I'm convinced.
Nice to meet you red, are you going bradford next month
You too mate, I hope to be doing Bradford but there's a family birthday celebration around that weekend so I can't be 100% certain at the moment. I've done it for the last two seasons but it's dry in the ground so we've had our pre-match beer in the City Gent pub.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
This is proper depressing but should be shown to the little knobheads on social media that say stuff like like ‘if you don’t want to come to the valley and support the players then you won’t be missed’. It really is more than just 90 minutes of watching football.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
Great post - hang on, as the old scroat will soon be gone. Of that I'm convinced.
It should be spelt scrote, as in scrotum ......whatever that might mean.
Got up at 5am, one cab and four trains later, arrive in Accrington. Go to pub (best part of the day) Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat. Good chips at half time. Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning. Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water. Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF". Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer. So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well. And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever. So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club. But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
Brings a lump to my throat that. A wretched pool of bile which i would just love a chance to hurl at that yellow toothed old Belgian coffin dodger.
Cor don't we like a moan on here. We've near enough got our midfield missing, no cover in defence and up front and we expect miracles.
No miracles expected,just want an owner who cares & will supply the tools to do the job...the rest will then fall into place,but right now we have every right to be moaning at the situation we are in,granted we can't do much about it ourselves (or can we)...but this is our forum & if people want to moan & let off steam...so be it,as somebody keeps saying it is what it is...for now...!!!
(Ps as it goes it would be seen as miracle if this takeover does ever take place)
That's the owner though north. The manager has got his 3 best midfielders out, lapsie and kag thrown on at the deep end. Down to the bare bones and we've still given Sunderland a run for their money. Don't get me wrong if we don't get players back the current team will wear down.
Comments
This works for me
The ref wasn't great but it's not the reason we didn't win.
We've near enough got our midfield missing, no cover in defence and up front and we expect miracles.
At the game heard one of their high viz fella's telling a cop saying it was to stop Charlton undesirables. I obviously explained to him that our owner does not attend our games.
“You can’t go wrong with the performances we’re putting in, we’re working together.
I just want to see what’s going to happen for the rest of the season.”
Which IMO means, if it goes well and we are promoted, he'll stay and sign a new contract.
But if we muddle our way through the season, then he's off.
If we are still suffering under Duchatelet by the end of the year, I have little doubt that Aribo, Bauer and (subject to fitness) Fosu will be touted around in the January window at heavily discounted prices.
They are under contract at the moment, and can't do anything about it.
But otherwise they are settled, like the setup, team mates etc ..... and would sign an improved contract, especially if promoted or felt the club was on the up.
We spend weeks berating the lack of resources available to the squad and the truncated pre-season preparation and then we expect results.
Out of the starting eleven only 5 or 6 at best could, before this season, be classified as regular first team starters.
None of Phillips, Sarr, Bielik, Lapslie or Grant are yet regular starters. Page is at best borderline. Aribo spent 3/4 of last season playing cameo roles. Marshall and Ajose have almost become personna non grata and there just to make up the numbers. From the bench what game changing impact do you really expect Djiksteel, Maloney, Morgan, & Hackett Fairchild to make at this stage of their career.
These guys are learning on the job.
Just because people CAN play in a position does not mean players can readily function as a team within a few weeks. Too many are involved because there is no one else who is yet in a position to compete for their job.
Without Pearce and Forster Caskey the spine of the team has become further compromised.
It has consequences.
Should we have an expectation a club of our former history and standing should do better? Absolutely but other than the fact we actually managed to fill 18 shirts in fulfilling this fixture and we have a competent football management any expectation at this point beyond adequate is totally unrealistic.
Bowyers approach is exactly right. It is what it is. People either sink or they swim. He is determined people do not start feeling sorry for themselves but get on with the job. At present they will be consistently inconsistent even within a 90 minute game. They do not have game management skills to do otherwise. Thus it was an adequate performance in line with the resources available.
Hopefully Bowyer will forge them into a unit capable of delivering beyond the sums of their parts but this is against a background where any comparison between a performing professional football organisation and the current club infrastructure is at best limited.
We need to be very wary of attacking those who are involved at present, be that the players or coaching staff. They are working in very challenging circumstances. They need our support.
Executive performance to this point indicates we will likely be reliant on the speedy, full and permanent recovery of a number of players. It displays once again an accountancy mentally while rigorously ignoring the reality of the industry in which the business is operating.
For the avoidance of doubt that is a tough, unforgiving, physically and mentally demanding extremely competitive environment stretching over a minimum of 46 games requiring physical strength, stamina, pace and fitness over a protracted period.
Once again the executive based on the resources they provide management simply refuse to accept the significant risk each of these glaringly obvious challenges present to our progress
The squad despite Bowyers understandable protestations is not yet fit for purpose. Can the players develop and grow? Of course and hopefully they will. In the meantime with the current staff available trying to push them to "run before they can walk" does present the challenge of the wheels coming off.
That would not be a pretty sight.
For the next few weeks inconsistent, functional and adequate is going to have to do. I do not see any prospect of sustained improvement until mid September at the earliest. In the words of one of our esteemed former managers we are going to need "to be very patient.". This is going to be a bumpy ride for a while yet.
I suggest people just keep taking the tablets and keep the emergency "sick bag" close to hand, in case of need.
I'm going to make a nice cup of tea - and settle down to read Grapevine's post.
And those doing their best in difficult circumstances deserve our suppport.
Go to pub (best part of the day)
Watched a lifeless draw contested by two Non-League teams, refereed by a total twat.
Good chips at half time.
Four trains and one cab later, arrive back home at 12.30am, Sunday morning.
Find the grandchildren had been in the garage playing about, and hadn't turned the hose off. Garage under water.
Nineteen and a half hours and £150 later I wonder "WTF".
Decide I'd rather hang myself than watch this great club slowly die of a pernicious cancer.
So, after 49 years, 11 months and 2 weeks, and over 2000 games, that is finally it. I've boycotted homes games for over 2 years now, but now that includes away as well.
And the real tragedy. Three grandsons and a son who live in Eltham who could not give a fuck about CAFC and so are lost as supporters for ever.
So thanks Roland, and Richard, and all their delusional apologists for utterly ruining what was once a quite unique football club.
But more importantly, thanks to all those people over the years, including the ten old gits with whom I travelled up to Accrington with on Saturday, more in expectation than hope, who are the real heroes and true friends. Our club does not deserve you.
It has got to the point now that having a drink and a bit of banter with you and the chaps is all I am now going for.
The actual football thanks to Roland is 3rd division shite and this will not change until he sells the club.
If he is still here next season then I will definitely not be attending home or away.
My son is already boycotting and my grandkids who live with me will probably not become Charlton fans if this prick continues to own us.
It really has gone beyond a joke now and all we can do is hope he fucks off soon.
In the meantime.
Just sell the club and FUCK OFF
FUCK OFF ROLAND!
(Ps as it goes it would be seen as miracle if this takeover does ever take place)
The manager has got his 3 best midfielders out, lapsie and kag thrown on at the deep end.
Down to the bare bones and we've still given Sunderland a run for their money.
Don't get me wrong if we don't get players back the current team will wear down.