After a slightly nervy start and a period after half time we looked pretty good. Gunter, Famewo, and Prately were fantastic at the back. Shinnie and Jake are forming a partnership. But my main point is how much is this upturn in performance due to the team and how much is due to the Sandgaard effect. The players, especially those that have been there for a few years will be aware of the constraints that the club has been under. Bows, Johnny and Gallen have been under a tremendous amount of pressure to try to cover for all the dodgy owners we have had. Now the shackles are off, and the relief that entails, has reinvigorated the management and the players. The counter arguement is that players are professional, some, especially all the new signings wont know much about our recent history, they just want to get paid for playing football to the best of their ability, so is it just down to good management, or has the relief of stable ownership made this game changing difference to performances over the last 6 games?
1 goal for Johnny 2 nil 3 points 4 centre halves out 5 wins in a row 6 clean sheets in a row 7 scorers of the last ... 8 goals in winning run 9 League games played 10 places above the other CAFC (that’s lame) 11 League goals scored 12 points above relegation
Sensational sit up and take notice result. Yet still clearly a work in progress, I hope Famewo is not too serious an injury. Portsmouth was a very tough test today, but by a little bit we were the better team. Most of all it was a game that reminded me that Lee Bowyer, and Jacko know what they are doing. One example is the work rate of the otherwise unrewarded Washington. I also strongly disagree that Bogle had anything but a good game...he was a pain in the arse for Portsmouth all the time, they even brought on that sub at half time specifically to try to deal with his threat.
Completely agree on Bogle. All he was missing was a goal. The attitude on the match thread was bizzare. In fact, 50/50 penalty shout. I thought he was much better than Washington, who also did OK. Gunter absolute magic and best game for Johnny for a while
I thought Bogle did fine. He should have had a penalty and won his fair share. My only criticism today would be that when he has the ball he is a bit hit or miss with his decisions, but early days. He does keep opposing defenders occupied.
As with much of the team (JFC as another example with some wayward passes) going to take some time to get on the same wavelength. Shinnie appears to have adapted faster and I have no idea why Luton would allow him to leave to us on loan. I just can't fathom our luck with injuries.
I would say that JFC putting in some wayward passes isn't a bad thing. Not when he puts in some really dangerous ones too, like the ball for our first that totally opened Pompey up.
Don't think any team in the top 4 divisions has conceded less goals than us (5). Maybe some may have played more games?
Aston Villa | Middlesbrough | Watford | Swansea have all conceded just five goals
Villa though have only played seven games; the other three have all played one game more
Also, Aston Villa and Charlton have not conceded exactly one goal in any league game, both having conceded 2 and 3 in their only two non-cleansheet games.
You’d expect us to be up there this season, whether up there means top 10 or so, play offs or automatic remains to be seen, but i’d argue we’re more likely to make play offs than not. Before Sandgaard came in we were looking at a dreary league one season mid table! Positives are, we seem to know how to win and look apt at grinding out results and we have Gilbey (who i think was our best player before injured), Maddison, Pearce and Deji to come back. League one is a poor quality league and i personally don’t care how we play as long as we get out of this division. How many times have we played alright but had little cutting edge and lost 1-0 or 2-0. We seem to have the nouse to do well this year day i say.... Negatives, wtf is going on with our injuries? Bad luck? I’m gonna give the benefit of the doubt to our staff and say bad luck, but its getting a joke now.
Well that result took me by surprise and even during the game I thought there was no chance we’d hang on , what with the scum losing 0-3 as well I have to admit to getting a gentle rise in my pants .
The only thing that can stop us is injuries and it rinsed us last year so I’m not gonna give it the big one just yet .
Sensational sit up and take notice result. Yet still clearly a work in progress, I hope Famewo is not too serious an injury. Portsmouth was a very tough test today, but by a little bit we were the better team. Most of all it was a game that reminded me that Lee Bowyer, and Jacko know what they are doing. One example is the work rate of the otherwise unrewarded Washington. I also strongly disagree that Bogle had anything but a good game...he was a pain in the arse for Portsmouth all the time, they even brought on that sub at half time specifically to try to deal with his threat.
Completely agree on Bogle. All he was missing was a goal. The attitude on the match thread was bizzare. In fact, 50/50 penalty shout. I thought he was much better than Washington, who also did OK. Gunter absolute magic and best game for Johnny for a while
I thought Bogle did fine. He should have had a penalty and won his fair share. My only criticism today would be that when he has the ball he is a bit hit or miss with his decisions, but early days. He does keep opposing defenders occupied.
As with much of the team (JFC as another example with some wayward passes) going to take some time to get on the same wavelength. Shinnie appears to have adapted faster and I have no idea why Luton would allow him to leave to us on loan. I just can't fathom our luck with injuries.
I would say that JFC putting in some wayward passes isn't a bad thing. Not when he puts in some really dangerous ones too, like the ball for our first that totally opened Pompey up.
I was not intending to single our JFC, was just an example as to how the team need time to gel. Bogle also did a great hold up job and nearly won a penalty single handedly.
I am impressed with how JFC has improved in recent games as many had written him off.
Overall, great news for us as it suggests more to come!!!
Great result. All of us hoped for it, but I don't think many expected it.
Amos worried me a little today. Positives were that he does look better and better every week at coming to collect crosses, (which is a really big positive) and he did keep another clean sheet (which is a huge positive) However, he had a couple of moments there where, in all honesty, he should've been punished. It was only good fortune, Portsmouth's finishing or their decision making that stopped them scoring. I've enjoyed Amos so far this season, but I hope he's got a couple of rickets out of his system today, thankfully at no cost.
Scratches head in disbelief.
Yes, he made a mistake early on coming for a ball he was never going to get and it could have cost us a goal.
After that, he has put on a first class display of goalkeeping. He has caught just about every cross that Portsmouth put into the penalty area - something they were doing a lot. Given the windy conditions, it was a superb display in collecting crosses and taking the pressure off the defence.
And I'm struggling to think, apart from his early error, what else did he do wrong?
Six games without conceding a goal. Keepers we need to worry about really don't do that.
Well, maybe you should watch the game again? Mix up with Maatsen first half: Amos error Closed down by Curtis when faffing about with the ball: Amos error. Mix up in second half, claimed ball on the floor, but dropped it. Luckily no Portsmouth player could take advantage. Maybe a shared error. Portsmouth could/should have scored at least twice there.
A goalkeeper only needs one error to lose his team the game. Amos made at least two rickets there, maybe more, (I don’t know because replays were playing over a lot of the action .)
To be clear, I like him. He’s looked good this season and a lot of his game today was very good, particularly in the air (all of which I did say in my post) but you can’t afford to make three errors a game and expect to get away with it. Amos got away with it today.
Thanks but I really don't need to watch it again as I know I have witnessed a first rate display of goalkeeping today in horrible conditions.
Even from the "faff" you mention he cleared the ball to the half way line with no real danger of his clearance being closed down.
Anyway, one of the things I like about Charlton Life is reading other posters views of the game even when they don't accord with mine. It would be boring if we all always agreed!
Last one was the last game of the regular 2018/19 season. Before that was the away performance at Northampton the season before. I think we did it twice in a row when Andy Hunt collected back to back hat tricks in 99/00.
Our second goal today was the first time in a long time that we've played our way out of the usual 'winning late on' panic, and how. I want a video of the whole move
Boom, there's the graph again. 112-65. Cracking game.
Ha ha, it's just so weird, isn't it. Just what is this 'Expected Goals' lark? Surely if it was before the match the expected goals of a man who has not scored for 32 months would be 0.0; after the game, the expected goals of a man who has actually scored is 1.0 - 0.7 makes no sense whatsoever. And Portsmouth get 0.65 - does that mean Jonny Williams was rated as more likely to score than the whole Portsmouth team?
Boom, there's the graph again. 112-65. Cracking game.
Ha ha, it's just so weird, isn't it. Just what is this 'Expected Goals' lark? Surely if it was before the match the expected goals of a man who has not scored for 32 months would be 0.0; after the game, the expected goals of a man who has actually scored is 1.0 - 0.7 makes no sense whatsoever. And Portsmouth get 0.65 - does that mean Jonny Williams was rated as more likely to score than the whole Portsmouth team?
It tallies the likelihood of each shot to result in a goal. Williams was shooting from 3 yards out with no keeper so there was a nearly 0.8 probability of his chance ending up as a goal. The reason it wasn't higher? Not sure. But 0.8 is pretty much as high as Expected Goals will give for a chance
Comments
But my main point is how much is this upturn in performance due to the team and how much is due to the Sandgaard effect. The players, especially those that have been there for a few years will be aware of the constraints that the club has been under. Bows, Johnny and Gallen have been under a tremendous amount of pressure to try to cover for all the dodgy owners we have had. Now the shackles are off, and the relief that entails, has reinvigorated the management and the players.
The counter arguement is that players are professional, some, especially all the new signings wont know much about our recent history, they just want to get paid for playing football to the best of their ability, so is it just down to good management, or has the relief of stable ownership made this game changing difference to performances over the last 6 games?
Villa though have only played seven games; the other three have all played one game more
People give far to much disrespect to some of our legacy players, and some of our new signings.
Amos
Williams
JFC
Pratley
Purrington
Pearce
Oshilaja
Bogle
Washington
Smyth
And more would be 1st choice at 9/10 league one clubs.
We will be ten points clear by the end of March.
of the month for October, surely a given for Lee
yes or no?
Positives are, we seem to know how to win and look apt at grinding out results and we have Gilbey (who i think was our best player before injured), Maddison, Pearce and Deji to come back. League one is a poor quality league and i personally don’t care how we play as long as we get out of this division. How many times have we played alright but had little cutting edge and lost 1-0 or 2-0. We seem to have the nouse to do well this year day i say....
Negatives, wtf is going on with our injuries? Bad luck? I’m gonna give the benefit of the doubt to our staff and say bad luck, but its getting a joke now.
The only thing that can stop us is injuries and it rinsed us last year so I’m not gonna give it the big one just yet .
I am impressed with how JFC has improved in recent games as many had written him off.
Overall, great news for us as it suggests more to come!!!
Even from the "faff" you mention he cleared the ball to the half way line with no real danger of his clearance being closed down.
Anyway, one of the things I like about Charlton Life is reading other posters views of the game even when they don't accord with mine. It would be boring if we all always agreed!
4-0 wins (for us) don't come round that often.
We have a Championship quality squad and a Championship quality manager in a League One that’s not exactly flush with quality.