An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
Watching Plymouths goal, saw our defenders backing off and allowing him the space to move towards our box and ultimately score. This seems a familiar trait and not just with us.
Why do defenders do that, back off, rather than go to the marauding forward, fear of a mistimed challenge or what?
Dobson being nutmegged put them all in trouble. Lavelle's best bet was to do what he did - force the 20-yard shot. It went in.
Thanks but doesn't really answer the question. Allowing the player to come on to the box and giving the forward a better opportunity to score, why not tackle when further out?
Because all the time you are between the forward and your own goal you have a chance to knick/block/intercept the ball, albeit a small one. If you try a tackle and miss (like Dobson did) then he's away and you can't tackle him without risking a card.
Definitely. If a defender commits himself, he has got to win the ball. Otherwise he's left for dead, like Dobson last night.
Backing off slowly and not committing yourself is intended to slow the pace of the attacker with the ball, thereby to gain support and allow your other defenders to recover their positioning. Buying time basically.
Brilliant performance - what a difference a manager makes - looking very promising - the composure and movement is so much better from everybody - the new fellas all look great, Morgan looks transformed and Clare has gone up several gears - a really good player - looking forward to Saturday. If you weren't down there last night, get there Saturday - this team and manager are well worth watching
just settling in to complete the statbank but before I do a huge slice of humble pie to Jayden and congrats too him as he will soon be playing like Carl Leaburn, which is a complement. Those who remember Carl he was the man in the middle who received the ball, held it. played it off and scored a few goals.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
The goals have come in a flood, let's hope the drought stays well away Good win even against ten for much of the game, Plymouth are probably one of the better L1 teams Garner has got them playing for him, I can't see any new arrivals before the 'window' shuts once again
Great morale boost for players and fans, bring on the Cambs chapppies before two tricky away trips
10 quid bet for the upbeats that we do sign someone before the window shuts?
It might be worth inserting an ‘eyes on the prize’ post here. A glorious win like yesterday is still only worth the three points of a scrappy 1-0 (goal difference notwithstanding). So my target of winning every home game and drawing every away game has slipped, and we are one point short at the moment. That makes Cambridge a must win, and even following that with a draw at Wycombe still leaves us one point short of the target. Even winning against Cambridge and Wycombe only provides us with a one point cushion.
Of course we shouldn’t be overconfident or cocky but Wycombe haven’t had a good start to the season. Seem very beatable at the moment so good time to play them surely?
Football was great, result was great but do you know what pleased me most? The response to their goal.
I know they only had ten men but Charlton teams of years gone by would have crumbled and conceded at least one more for a nervy end, some Charlton teams would even have drawn 3-3.
There was no panic, from kick off we played the exact same way and dominated the game again immediately.
It may seem silly but genuinely that is what pleased me most, it shows that not only has the football improved but there has been a huge mentality shift.
I got the typical Charlton nerves myself after that went in for 3-1 but as soon as we kicked off, the players were passing it around crisply for about 30-45 seconds. Not really threatening to slice them open as such but showing them that we weren't going into panic mode and the game was still under our control. It not only settled the whole side but quite possibly a nervy crowd too. I was impressed with how quickly the players collectively put the goal to the back of their minds and went straight back to the style of play that had been working for the 70 minutes previous.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
I think I've just found the bugger who hacked my account.
You can still see how we could be vulnerable to a defensive or attacking crisis if we don't address now. I don't want to rain on the parade but it is quite possible as it currently stands. Yesterday showed we look resilient enough in midfield.
True but surely that's true of every single team in the division with the squad cap in place. Wednesday look like having good strength in depth right now but a few badly timed injuries or suspensions and those bench players are first and only choice and suddenly it's not so rosy.
I totally get the point you are making but regardless of our owner and/or manager I don't think we'll see a truly, properly balanced squad in this league and not through any real fault of our own. Compromises and high hopes will have to be made.
Sheff Wed had a few players injured out of the team that played us.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
- We will have to wait and see over the next two weeks whether another striker comes in, I firmly believe they are working on one
- Kirk fully deserved the goal for the positions he repeatedly gets himself into, his interplay in some of our passing moves is top drawer, he's not your typical winger but he fits Garner perfectly
- Clayden is more than adequate back-up to Sessegnon, both of whom have looked impressive and solid on that side
- Mandela Egbo is set to return from injury to compete with Clare for the right back spot, who else do you want us to sign there? Five full backs is too many for two positions
- Payne was robbed of the ball while Dobson was then too enthusiastic in trying to win it back and got nutmegged. One combined lapse in concentration shouldn't outweigh all of the very good things both players have contributed so far this season
- McGrandles has had three cameos (totalling only 80 minutes) after coming back from a serious injury. Last night he was combative and a threat going forward, almost scored from a move he started. I expect he's only going to get better with more minutes.
- O'Connell is already playing like the best centre half at the club after a shaky couple of starts at the beginning. He simply doesn't give the ball away.
- Striker and centre half are the two places in the squad where we're in need of more cover due to Chuks and Inniss, as said above I'm sure we're working on filling both gaps in the next two weeks
- Can we keep the ownership stuff to the relevant threads and the post match chat to this one? I'm not happy about the last couple of days either but let's not take over the entire forum with it please?
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
The goals have come in a flood, let's hope the drought stays well away Good win even against ten for much of the game, Plymouth are probably one of the better L1 teams Garner has got them playing for him, I can't see any new arrivals before the 'window' shuts once again
Great morale boost for players and fans, bring on the Cambs chapppies before two tricky away trips
10 quid bet for the upbeats that we do sign someone before the window shuts?
you're on .. player, not admin, security man, turnstile operator, chef, KP or drummer for Sandy
Morgan finally unleashing his gerard potential rak saki sterling of the league leaburn looks like he could be absolutely class Clare at right back was class!
Kirk put a shift in. Hopefully goal will give confidence
A wonderful evening's entertainment and an excellent team performance, with every man Jack. I thought it was a level above anything a Charlton side have produced for some time and each and every one of the 15 players who took to the field knew exactly what their job was - testament to the fine work which is clearly being done at Sparrow's Lane.
It was also a bit of a tactical masterclass from Ben Garner. We kept our two wingers high up the pitch to pin back Plymouth's wing backs and both Charles Clayden and Sean Clare regularly charged forward in support during the first half, with our midfielders filling in any gaps behind. When Plymouth's wing backs did try to venture forward, we ruthlessly exploited the space between them and the centre-backs (much as many teams did to us last season). In the second half, with Plymouth down to 10 men, Clayden almost played like a left winger, with Kirky working highly effectively in tandem. We kept the ball, made the pitch big and were patient in waiting for openings, rather than trying to force the issue. Much tougher tests lie ahead but there is an intelligence, discipline and tactical fluidity about this team that we haven't seen for a long time and it augurs well for our prospects this season. It is also - at the risk of understatement - very much easier on the eye.
As to the game itself, we started exceptionally well, with good movement and passing, allied to effective pressing against an erratic Plymouth defence. Jes Rak-Sakyi was electric and I think we are going to have some fun this season watching him and Blackett-Taylor terrorising League 1 defences. After a traumatic first 25 minutes or so, Plymouth got back into the game but the red card and penalty to make it 2-0 more or less killed the game as a contest and Clare's screamer just before half time removed any vestige of doubt. We upped the tempo after Plymouth pulled a goal back and, by the end of the evening, they had been well and truly marmalised.
I was hoping for a 6th goal, as I can't remember us doing that in a league game at The Valley since the 1970s, when I think we managed it 3 times - I saw the 6-0 and 6-1 wins against Swansea and Notts County in August 1972 and it would have been a neat way to mark the 50th anniversary of those 6-goal salvos (50 years !). I hope we've saved a couple of goals for Cambridge on Saturday. After that, the next two league games are away at Wycombe and Bolton - leading teams at this level - but this side need fear no one.
The only negative feature of the evening (apart from the news earlier about Olly's dismissal) was the very small home crowd. I see that the total attendance was announced at 12,392, including 1,160 away supporters. That equates to 11,232 Charlton supporters, which is a total fiction - I doubt that there were more than 7,000 home supporters in the ground at most. In other words, the club have reneged on the undertaking given towards the end of last season that the figures announced would reflect the actual number of spectators in the ground. I suppose one explanation is that Thomas Sandgaard is attempting to gloss over the impact of a pricing policy for League 1 football which is doomed to fail in the teeth of UK-wide inflation of over 10% - with worse to come in the coming months.
There's got to be a re-think surely on matchday prices?
As mentioned earlier in the thread, it would be typical Charlton to finally get it right on the field and sustain that form only to be cluster fucked by stupid decisions off of it.
Watching Plymouths goal, saw our defenders backing off and allowing him the space to move towards our box and ultimately score. This seems a familiar trait and not just with us.
Why do defenders do that, back off, rather than go to the marauding forward, fear of a mistimed challenge or what?
Dobson being nutmegged put them all in trouble. Lavelle's best bet was to do what he did - force the 20-yard shot. It went in.
A misplaced pass by Payne, then Dobson diving in and missing. Maybe the centre backs could have done more, but ultimately it wasn't down to them.
I really rate Dobson but that is an area he has to focus on. Not just diving in and missing but when he doesn't miss he has to win the ball. I'm being picky but he is such a good player that you can be.
Watching Plymouths goal, saw our defenders backing off and allowing him the space to move towards our box and ultimately score. This seems a familiar trait and not just with us.
Why do defenders do that, back off, rather than go to the marauding forward, fear of a mistimed challenge or what?
Dobson being nutmegged put them all in trouble. Lavelle's best bet was to do what he did - force the 20-yard shot. It went in.
A misplaced pass by Payne, then Dobson diving in and missing. Maybe the centre backs could have done more, but ultimately it wasn't down to them.
I really rate Dobson but that is an area he has to focus on. Not just diving in and missing but when he doesn't miss he has to win the ball. I'm being picky but he is such a good player that you can be.
Tbf 9/10 he does dive in he wins the ball. No different than pass success rate. In fact wasn’t he the highest tackler in the league last season by some distance?
Wasn't sure it was a red card at first but what is the defender doing with his arm up if not trying to stop the ball going in?
Wilson the defender already knew it was an unguarded net behind him. Look at the keeper on his knees towards the far post.
Watch the match footage in slow motion and you'll first see Wilson glance behind him at the unmarked Kirk, then raise his arm in an attempt to block the cross which was too high for him - before twisting around and raising his arm a 2nd time to block Kirk's goalbound shot with his hand, to prevent a certain goal.
Deliberate handball. The "preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity" meant the referee had no option but to show the red card.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
I think I've just found the bugger who hacked my account.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
Give the negative a rest mate. We played well endof. Been following the club since 1986 and this was one off the best and complete team performances I have ever soon. Why all the negative after a 5-1? Was you at the same game as everyone else? I am still buzzing and can't wait until Saturday. I haven't felt like that for ages. Hate these moaners even after a win like that? Either join the "ride" or get of the bus and go support Millwall or something.
Watching Plymouths goal, saw our defenders backing off and allowing him the space to move towards our box and ultimately score. This seems a familiar trait and not just with us.
Why do defenders do that, back off, rather than go to the marauding forward, fear of a mistimed challenge or what?
Dobson being nutmegged put them all in trouble. Lavelle's best bet was to do what he did - force the 20-yard shot. It went in.
A misplaced pass by Payne, then Dobson diving in and missing. Maybe the centre backs could have done more, but ultimately it wasn't down to them.
I really rate Dobson but that is an area he has to focus on. Not just diving in and missing but when he doesn't miss he has to win the ball. I'm being picky but he is such a good player that you can be.
Tbf 9/10 he does dive in he wins the ball. No different than pass success rate. In fact wasn’t he the highest tackler in the league last season by some distance?
Yes because he makes lots of tackles. I am being picky but it is something I have noticed a few times.
An OK side, harshly reduced to 10 men, was put to the sword and we witnessed a goal of the season contender, all good fun at the time. But the silver lining of last night's outcome comes with its own big, dark cloud: Goals came from across the team - Skintgaard will use that as justification for no backup for Stockers - Miles Leaburn is great to watch but he's 18 FFS and has 5 appearances total i.e. not shoulders onto which the burden of being lone striker at least until January should sensibly be put Kirk's name appears in the stats as goal scorer and assist provider but his goal deflected in off a defender and nobody saw a goal coming from that pass to Clare, that worldy was all Sean's own work. Last night was Kirk's best showing but that is the feintest of feint praise, there are to date no other performances worthy of the name Charles Clayden might be 21 but he has just 5 league appearances to date, is that realistically sufficient backup to Sessegnon as our only other leftback of any kind? Sean Clare was excellent last night but he's all we've got at right back. Jack Payne was a headless chicken and gave away the goal. McGrandles has been awful so far. O'Connell is the slowest CH I've seen play for Charlton. Fraser can't last 90 minutes. Chuks and Inniss are made of glass.
We're an injury and a suspension away from not having an adequate squad. Saturday's decline against Wednesday is a way more likely template than last night's one off.
The owner's illegally sacking valuable staff to penny pinch a few thousand in favour of stoopid free drink promos - he ain't gonna be coming up with the fees or salaries for adequate cover for the blatantly thin patches in this squad. It hangs on wishes and lots of luck...
I think I've just found the bugger who hacked my account.
Comments
Otherwise he's left for dead, like Dobson last night.
Backing off slowly and not committing yourself is intended to slow the pace of the attacker with the ball, thereby to gain support and allow your other defenders to recover their positioning. Buying time basically.
10 quid bet for the upbeats that we do sign someone before the window shuts?
- Kirk fully deserved the goal for the positions he repeatedly gets himself into, his interplay in some of our passing moves is top drawer, he's not your typical winger but he fits Garner perfectly
- Clayden is more than adequate back-up to Sessegnon, both of whom have looked impressive and solid on that side
- Mandela Egbo is set to return from injury to compete with Clare for the right back spot, who else do you want us to sign there? Five full backs is too many for two positions
- Payne was robbed of the ball while Dobson was then too enthusiastic in trying to win it back and got nutmegged. One combined lapse in concentration shouldn't outweigh all of the very good things both players have contributed so far this season
- McGrandles has had three cameos (totalling only 80 minutes) after coming back from a serious injury. Last night he was combative and a threat going forward, almost scored from a move he started. I expect he's only going to get better with more minutes.
- O'Connell is already playing like the best centre half at the club after a shaky couple of starts at the beginning. He simply doesn't give the ball away.
- Striker and centre half are the two places in the squad where we're in need of more cover due to Chuks and Inniss, as said above I'm sure we're working on filling both gaps in the next two weeks
- Can we keep the ownership stuff to the relevant threads and the post match chat to this one? I'm not happy about the last couple of days either but let's not take over the entire forum with it please?
rak saki sterling of the league
leaburn looks like he could be absolutely class
Clare at right back was class!
It was also a bit of a tactical masterclass from Ben Garner. We kept our two wingers high up the pitch to pin back Plymouth's wing backs and both Charles Clayden and Sean Clare regularly charged forward in support during the first half, with our midfielders filling in any gaps behind. When Plymouth's wing backs did try to venture forward, we ruthlessly exploited the space between them and the centre-backs (much as many teams did to us last season). In the second half, with Plymouth down to 10 men, Clayden almost played like a left winger, with Kirky working highly effectively in tandem. We kept the ball, made the pitch big and were patient in waiting for openings, rather than trying to force the issue. Much tougher tests lie ahead but there is an intelligence, discipline and tactical fluidity about this team that we haven't seen for a long time and it augurs well for our prospects this season. It is also - at the risk of understatement - very much easier on the eye.
As to the game itself, we started exceptionally well, with good movement and passing, allied to effective pressing against an erratic Plymouth defence. Jes Rak-Sakyi was electric and I think we are going to have some fun this season watching him and Blackett-Taylor terrorising League 1 defences. After a traumatic first 25 minutes or so, Plymouth got back into the game but the red card and penalty to make it 2-0 more or less killed the game as a contest and Clare's screamer just before half time removed any vestige of doubt. We upped the tempo after Plymouth pulled a goal back and, by the end of the evening, they had been well and truly marmalised.
I was hoping for a 6th goal, as I can't remember us doing that in a league game at The Valley since the 1970s, when I think we managed it 3 times - I saw the 6-0 and 6-1 wins against Swansea and Notts County in August 1972 and it would have been a neat way to mark the 50th anniversary of those 6-goal salvos (50 years !). I hope we've saved a couple of goals for Cambridge on Saturday. After that, the next two league games are away at Wycombe and Bolton - leading teams at this level - but this side need fear no one.
The only negative feature of the evening (apart from the news earlier about Olly's dismissal) was the very small home crowd. I see that the total attendance was announced at 12,392, including 1,160 away supporters. That equates to 11,232 Charlton supporters, which is a total fiction - I doubt that there were more than 7,000 home supporters in the ground at most. In other words, the club have reneged on the undertaking given towards the end of last season that the figures announced would reflect the actual number of spectators in the ground. I suppose one explanation is that Thomas Sandgaard is attempting to gloss over the impact of a pricing policy for League 1 football which is doomed to fail in the teeth of UK-wide inflation of over 10% - with worse to come in the coming months.
Time for a rethink.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, it would be typical Charlton to finally get it right on the field and sustain that form only to be cluster fucked by stupid decisions off of it.
Give it another 5 years of failed promotion attempts and it could be right.
Least thats what Wayne Hennessey would say
Watch the match footage in slow motion and you'll first see Wilson glance behind him at the unmarked Kirk, then raise his arm in an attempt to block the cross which was too high for him - before twisting around and raising his arm a 2nd time to block Kirk's goalbound shot with his hand, to prevent a certain goal.
Deliberate handball. The "preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity" meant the referee had no option but to show the red card.
First thing he doesnt do is blame any of the performance on the red card.