Hate to say it, but we miss you know who. And what we’d give to have Aribo back right now.
Didn't see the match but it's obvious that we will miss him. What makes it worse is that he will only play for them in the League Cup, as on Tuesday against us.
Hate to say it, but we miss you know who. And what we’d give to have Aribo back right now.
Didn't see the match but it's obvious that we will miss him. What makes it worse is that he will only play for them in the League Cup, as on Tuesday against us.
It was good to be back at The Valley, even in a very surreal atmosphere. Lee Bowyer emerged just before kick off to a rapturous welcome, which he richly deserved after all the crap he’s had to put with over the last year. Sadly, that and our pre-match pub lunch at the Dog and Bell in Deptford, were to prove the highlights of the day.
In contrast to the two victories against Swindon and Crewe, we started the game well and created a couple of decent opportunities, one of which should certainly have been taken by Macauley Bonne. We simply cannot afford to miss those sort of gilt-edged chances. After a decent 25 minutes or so, we conceded what looked like a soft goal from a central position well outside the box. I’d like to see it again but Amos’ positioning looked suspect and he seemed to have shifted his weight onto the wrong foot. The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of us, Doncaster picked their game up and proceeded to dominate the rest of the first half, finding their men much better than us and moving the ball well.
The hope was that we’d regroup at half time and get ourselves back in the game. We changed shape to three at the back and pushed Pratters into midfield to try and add a bit of steel and wrestle back some control in that key area. A couple of minutes in, however, we found ourselves overloaded on the left side of our defence and young Charlie Barker unfortunately lashed a dangerous low cross into his own net. To their credit, Doncaster didn’t try to close the game out and, given our obvious vulnerability at the back, kept pushing men forward in search of a third, whilst their resolute defenders repelled our attacks without too much difficulty. The third goal came from a clever bit of play from a young Arsenal loanee that we had apparently lined up but couldn’t sign because of the embargo, although our defending against him looked pretty feeble.
Washington’s goal was no more than a consolation, whilst Gilbey’s fine shot against the bar from outside the area right at the death would have given the scoreline a flattering look if it had found the net. Doncaster were as impressive as we were disappointing and I think they’re in for a good season, although a number of Championship clubs are apparently sniffing around their captain and star midfielder, Ben Whiteman.
As for individual performances, I didn’t think that any of our players played particularly well and a number of them - including Bonne, Forster-Caskey, Morgan and Gilbey - were poor. Having only two fit senior defenders caught up with us today and the whole team delivered a disjointed and thoroughly unconvincing performance. Every area of the team - defence, midfield and attack - misfired and we had nothing approaching a cohesive structure. We have some alternative options in midfield and Pearce’s return will help us at the back, but unless we are able to beef up the squad, the season is going to be one hell of an uphill struggle. All we need is one or two injuries to defenders and we’ll be leaking goals week after week and plummeting down the table.
Although it was a weird environment inside the ground, everything was very well organised and the club, its staff and the stewards handled things very well, so they all deserve a lot of credit for that. It will clearly be more difficult with 30%/8,130 in the ground, even with all stands and areas open, but I fear that the deterioration in the infection rate means that we’re unlikely to see those sort of numbers in The Valley for a while.
We can only hope that some progress is made on the ownership front, failing which, it is going to be a long and very hard winter.
Just seen the 2 min action on the rolling reels thread.
Bonne seems to have the knack of just missing being on the end of a shot/cross. 2nd week in a row that he has failed to get a touch & he's ended up in the back of the net instead of the ball. Bad luck or just not on his toes enough...?? Wont comment any further as I got a roasting on the match thread for saying he is not good enough as the main striker. All I will say is that if someone offered me £750k for him I'd bite their hands off (as long as we had a decent replacement lined up of course).
Their first goal does look like it got a slight deflection as it seems to change direction before reaching Amos. Like others on here I'm wondering whether it's a good ploy to discard Phillips to the stiffs when he is still under contract. LB must be very confident he is off otherwise he may look a bit if a plum if Phillips is still here after the transfer window closes.
To the nitty gritty....
The match was a re-run of many played last season. We have plenty of the ball but don't take our chances - they score first & that's game over. I would like to see how many times we have come back from a goal down.....especially when losing at half time. Even to draw would be nice. Cant think of any last season where we've come out for the 2nd half all guns blazing & have turned it around. If I'm not at the game I will usually watch Soccer Saturday & week after week I hear of teams coming from behind to win. Just today Plymouth came back from being 2 behind......TWICE. Gillingham came from 1-0 down to beat Wigan & Peterborough scored 2 goals in added on time to beat Fleetwood. That's 3 teams just in our League today that managed it. Us....no way.
I'll leave it there for now. I will just bank this one as being just too much for everyone with what has gone on this week - for fans, players & management. I will say that I do think we have the nucleus of a decent side & IF we are allowed to strengthen before the transfer window closes then we should be ok for a top 10 finish. I didn't think we'd make the play-offs in 18/19 so anything is possible I suppose......but just dreading if the window closes & we haven't managed to add much to what we have already.
Just seen the 2 min action on the rolling reels thread.
Bonne seems to have the knack of just missing being on the end of a shot/cross. 2nd week in a row that he has failed to get a touch & he's ended up in the back of the net instead of the ball. Bad luck or just not on his toes enough...?? Wont comment any further as I got a roasting on the match thread for saying he is not good enough as the main striker. All I will say is that if someone offered me £750k for him I'd bite their hands off (as long as we had a decent replacement lined up of course).
I’m Bonne’s biggest critic and think he’s pony but to be fair to him in the Sky highlights he (number 9)was involved with two good moments in the build up to the chance where Gilbey (number 11) ended up in the back of the net .
Just seen the 2 min action on the rolling reels thread.
Bonne seems to have the knack of just missing being on the end of a shot/cross. 2nd week in a row that he has failed to get a touch & he's ended up in the back of the net instead of the ball. Bad luck or just not on his toes enough...?? Wont comment any further as I got a roasting on the match thread for saying he is not good enough as the main striker. All I will say is that if someone offered me £750k for him I'd bite their hands off (as long as we had a decent replacement lined up of course).
And that bit in bold is the problem of course. We're definitely not going to get a decent replacement on the wages we can offer while we're under embargo, and I have my doubts about it once we're back at standard League One salary cap levels.
Prately's 'mistake' for the first goal seemed to be an interception to cutout a through ball, rather than a misplaced pass. They are 2 very different things.
He misplaced a pass before the interception.
Pratley was my POTS last year and still one of my favourite players but that attempted pass was criminal, the only saving grace was he knew it and put his hand up.
I was coaching 8 year olds Saturday morning exact same thing, if passing accross the back don't miss a player out.
We were just dreadful yesterday, but we did miss 2 or 3 absolute sitters - just one of those going in and the game could have been very different.
The team is all over the place though, weakness glaringly obvious and it just showed. Plus too many players having an off day - not sure I can remember a poorer game from Doughty and didn't help that Purrington decided not to show up as well.
Until we can recruit at least, I'd play a 352 with Barker, Oshilaja and Pratley in a back three, Lapslie and Doughty in the wing back roles, JFC, Gilbey and Levitt in the middle and Washington and Bonne up top. Your bench then includes players who can change it up if needed, Chucks, Williams, Oztumer, Morgan. We just don't have a player who can play right back effectively, and I don't think Pratley at centre half in a 2 works very well.
We need a takeover though - shame the court didn't recognise the financial implications of losing every week.
Last year we had Sarr,Lockyer and pearce vying for central defensive places,with Oshi a good back up.Now Oshi is the main man,no disrespect but he needs a talker alongside him.We badly miss playing the ball out,Sarr and Pearce could do this,now we are hitting to many long balls,with no one up front capable of hold up play.I felt for Barker,he has played more than he should have done and not let us down,but I fear the own goal will worry him,(I am sure his mates will lift him but he is 17 and it will play on his mind)Pratley is a work horse but he is 35, and will be vital in the months ahead,he needs to be managed.If this embargo is not lifted soon,I will state the bleedin obvious,we are in big trouble.Very easy to have a go at the midfield players,but how many times was the ball played out of defence quickly to their feet,Purrington had problems with no Pearce to cover him,we have no right back ( I would have stuck with Lapslie),Shame about Chucks,wish him well,he was just starting to show what he could do.Surely soon we must have a change of fortune on and off the pitch,because this whole situation is really getting me and no doubt many others down.
Bowyer was a genius for taking Barker off pretty much straight after that own goal incident - Leaving him on may have stopped it at 2-0 but bet it would have played on the youngster's mind and he'd have gone on to make further mistakes ruining him like we saw with Pigott
First goal did us. Good shot but Amos was most certainly not on his toes. Should have saved it IMO. Phillips is a better keeper. Gilbey looked good, Morgan far less so. We might have been better with Oz. Doughty had a massive off game, probably due to their defensive abilities, so credit for that.
I might be in the minority but didn’t think we were awful yesterday. There was plenty of effort and overall the standard of the match as a whole was quite good for league one. We simply missed too many chances and paid the price by them scoring against the run of play. The second was unfortunate as Barker had to try and get something on it. People digging out Amos but did he really have a chance with the goals? I thought we were a bit loose at the back, individually ok but not really working as a unit. The main gripe from me was Bonne. He has to be more clinical but hey ho....... as LB says “we go again “
If he was on his toes he could have taken the quick step to his left before diving. It was definitely saveable. I am confident Phillips would have been more likely to save it.
Perhaps it is just my enthusiasm/optimism waning but the result did not come as a great shock. At least Thomas being there means he now knows what it is to be a Charlton fan.
Hate to say it, but we miss you know who. And what we’d give to have Aribo back right now.
Didn't see the match but it's obvious that we will miss him. What makes it worse is that he will only play for them in the League Cup, as on Tuesday against us.
We miss Taylor and Sarr, who gave the team presence and the ability to produce the unexpected. We looked a bit anaemic yesterday.
And Pearce to organise the back line, Cullen to pull the strings in midfield - and Matthews to go marauding up the line and put over one of his crosses.
Most disappointing thing for me was the effect the first goal had on us. Until then I thought we were good and creating chances. After the goal we looked terrible for the rest of the first half. Mentally I don't think the team handled it well.
The style of 4-3-3 that we are playing means we will see a lot more long balls, if a high percentage of those balls are inaccurate then we are going to be poor.
Most disappointing thing for me was the effect the first goal had on us. Until then I thought we were good and creating chances. After the goal we looked terrible for the rest of the first half. Mentally I don't think the team handled it well.
The style of 4-3-3 that we are playing means we will see a lot more long balls, if a high percentage of those balls are inaccurate then we are going to be poor.
Completely agree with this. Only one team in it until they got their first (us), only one team in it afterwards (them).
It was complete pony ! Our first 11 is better than that, nothing to do with anything, other than a bad day at the office. Bowyer paid to sort it out. So let’s hope he does.....
Comments
We're
Too
Light
(Meant to be somewhat lighthearted)
Complacent. Knows he wont be sacked. Knows there aren't managers queuing up for his job.
What's good for the goose....
Didn't see the match but it's obvious that we will miss him. What makes it worse is that he will only play for them in the League Cup, as on Tuesday against us.
Definitely our biggest loss of the Bowyer era.
In contrast to the two victories against Swindon and Crewe, we started the game well and created a couple of decent opportunities, one of which should certainly have been taken by Macauley Bonne. We simply cannot afford to miss those sort of gilt-edged chances. After a decent 25 minutes or so, we conceded what looked like a soft goal from a central position well outside the box. I’d like to see it again but Amos’ positioning looked suspect and he seemed to have shifted his weight onto the wrong foot. The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of us, Doncaster picked their game up and proceeded to dominate the rest of the first half, finding their men much better than us and moving the ball well.
The hope was that we’d regroup at half time and get ourselves back in the game. We changed shape to three at the back and pushed Pratters into midfield to try and add a bit of steel and wrestle back some control in that key area. A couple of minutes in, however, we found ourselves overloaded on the left side of our defence and young Charlie Barker unfortunately lashed a dangerous low cross into his own net. To their credit, Doncaster didn’t try to close the game out and, given our obvious vulnerability at the back, kept pushing men forward in search of a third, whilst their resolute defenders repelled our attacks without too much difficulty. The third goal came from a clever bit of play from a young Arsenal loanee that we had apparently lined up but couldn’t sign because of the embargo, although our defending against him looked pretty feeble.
Washington’s goal was no more than a consolation, whilst Gilbey’s fine shot against the bar from outside the area right at the death would have given the scoreline a flattering look if it had found the net. Doncaster were as impressive as we were disappointing and I think they’re in for a good season, although a number of Championship clubs are apparently sniffing around their captain and star midfielder, Ben Whiteman.
As for individual performances, I didn’t think that any of our players played particularly well and a number of them - including Bonne, Forster-Caskey, Morgan and Gilbey - were poor. Having only two fit senior defenders caught up with us today and the whole team delivered a disjointed and thoroughly unconvincing performance. Every area of the team - defence, midfield and attack - misfired and we had nothing approaching a cohesive structure. We have some alternative options in midfield and Pearce’s return will help us at the back, but unless we are able to beef up the squad, the season is going to be one hell of an uphill struggle. All we need is one or two injuries to defenders and we’ll be leaking goals week after week and plummeting down the table.
Although it was a weird environment inside the ground, everything was very well organised and the club, its staff and the stewards handled things very well, so they all deserve a lot of credit for that. It will clearly be more difficult with 30%/8,130 in the ground, even with all stands and areas open, but I fear that the deterioration in the infection rate means that we’re unlikely to see those sort of numbers in The Valley for a while.
We can only hope that some progress is made on the ownership front, failing which, it is going to be a long and very hard winter.
Bonne seems to have the knack of just missing being on the end of a shot/cross. 2nd week in a row that he has failed to get a touch & he's ended up in the back of the net instead of the ball. Bad luck or just not on his toes enough...?? Wont comment any further as I got a roasting on the match thread for saying he is not good enough as the main striker. All I will say is that if someone offered me £750k for him I'd bite their hands off (as long as we had a decent replacement lined up of course).
Their first goal does look like it got a slight deflection as it seems to change direction before reaching Amos. Like others on here I'm wondering whether it's a good ploy to discard Phillips to the stiffs when he is still under contract. LB must be very confident he is off otherwise he may look a bit if a plum if Phillips is still here after the transfer window closes.
To the nitty gritty....
The match was a re-run of many played last season. We have plenty of the ball but don't take our chances - they score first & that's game over. I would like to see how many times we have come back from a goal down.....especially when losing at half time. Even to draw would be nice. Cant think of any last season where we've come out for the 2nd half all guns blazing & have turned it around. If I'm not at the game I will usually watch Soccer Saturday & week after week I hear of teams coming from behind to win. Just today Plymouth came back from being 2 behind......TWICE. Gillingham came from 1-0 down to beat Wigan & Peterborough scored 2 goals in added on time to beat Fleetwood. That's 3 teams just in our League today that managed it. Us....no way.
I'll leave it there for now. I will just bank this one as being just too much for everyone with what has gone on this week - for fans, players & management. I will say that I do think we have the nucleus of a decent side & IF we are allowed to strengthen before the transfer window closes then we should be ok for a top 10 finish. I didn't think we'd make the play-offs in 18/19 so anything is possible I suppose......but just dreading if the window closes & we haven't managed to add much to what we have already.
The next 4 weeks are critical.
My nap away, came in ( beat the bookies is my receipt) and I'm gutted.
I was coaching 8 year olds Saturday morning exact same thing, if passing accross the back don't miss a player out.
The team is all over the place though, weakness glaringly obvious and it just showed. Plus too many players having an off day - not sure I can remember a poorer game from Doughty and didn't help that Purrington decided not to show up as well.
Until we can recruit at least, I'd play a 352 with Barker, Oshilaja and Pratley in a back three, Lapslie and Doughty in the wing back roles, JFC, Gilbey and Levitt in the middle and Washington and Bonne up top. Your bench then includes players who can change it up if needed, Chucks, Williams, Oztumer, Morgan. We just don't have a player who can play right back effectively, and I don't think Pratley at centre half in a 2 works very well.
We need a takeover though - shame the court didn't recognise the financial implications of losing every week.
People digging out Amos but did he really have a chance with the goals? I thought we were a bit loose at the back, individually ok but not really working as a unit. The main gripe from me was Bonne. He has to be more clinical
but hey ho....... as LB says “we go again “
Surprised also how little of the ball Washington got
Only one team in it until they got their first (us), only one team in it afterwards (them).