I think we have struck lucky with Dean Holden. He's got something about him.
But ....
If he carries on playing Kirk after today I'm going to start doubting him. Kirk was absolutely woeful - no other words for it. We've got to get Kirk out of the door somehow.
I have a feeling in my water that we'll have a striker in by Monday or Tuesday to solve that Kirk prpblem...
Some ridiculous overreactions in the first half…. Pre season against a Top half championship quality team. Good fight to get 2 back, find the positives
I don’t think that’s fair. First half both Ness and Hector were dreadful. It’s not an overreaction to call that out.
Ness was a disaster on the left. Was swapped second half but I suspect Thomas will get the nod there next week and we may need to look at a left sided CB to add to the squad.
I think we have struck lucky with Dean Holden. He's got something about him.
But ....
If he carries on playing Kirk after today I'm going to start doubting him. Kirk was absolutely woeful - no other words for it. We've got to get Kirk out of the door somehow.
If Leaburn had been fit, he would of course played instead of Kirk.
Absolutely. But young Campbell would have least have tried. And he showed far more in his 20 minutes on the pitch than Kirk did in a much longer time.
You cannot carry on playing Kirk. He's had so many chances to show he is a good player and never takes them. It's time to finally say enough.
Good second half, in which the subs made the difference, good work out, and looking forward to Orient next week
Even though the gaps behind CBT were painfully exposed and exploited, there were nevertheless several players giving a good account of themselves. The subs were hungry and brought new energy.
Definitely a good work out against a higher standard opponent, highlighting the weaknesses in our set up. Yet some positives too especially that we kept at it to the final whistle.
There'll be new players coming in and a couple departing, but Holden will know he has plenty to sort out before next Saturday.
I said on this thread prior to KO, that the obvious negative in the starting line up was the gaps behind CBT could be horribly exposed and they were from the KO. If you play wing backs that push too far forwards you will always be exposed by a team capable of doing so. It can only work against very limited opposition who haven't the ability to take advantage.
At home, against the lower end teams in our league we may get away with it.
However, as general rule I would default to a 433 when Edun is unavailable (presuming we don't get another LWB in this window)
One bonus is that the subs, without exception, had decent games. Even ol' McGrandles had an impact, but Payne, Campbell, Anderson, Thomas, Kanu all helped lift the side.
Some ridiculous overreactions in the first half…. Pre season against a Top half championship quality team. Good fight to get 2 back, find the positives
I don’t think that’s fair. First half both Ness and Hector were dreadful. It’s not an overreaction to call that out.
We’ve looked excellent all pre-season and a team who is clearly better than we are comes in and gives us the run around. I’m sure Hec will know he needs to do better, Ness shouldn’t be first choice. But all the doom and gloom is always just a bit over the top for me when we’ve had a lot of positives to speak of the last couple weeks
Wringing positives from a worryingly familier story is fine. Being unable to shake off years of deep set disapointment is fine.
If Charlton was all about everything going to plan, I could be preturbed over that 1st half, but it is preseason and Aberdeen are good strong opposition.
2-3, I'll take that for now. Orient a different matter.
Thanks for your pessimism and optimism in equal measure. Up the Addicks!
Damage limitation by the sound of the first half, only saw the last 15mins - To get it back to 2-3 though shows they've hopefully listened to Holden in the dressing room again.
Hopefully its exposed some issues for the team to work on ahead of next Saturday - Holden will certainly learn a lot more, compared with another routine victory.
Let the season commence.
Agree. It is a bit concerning that we’ve played two decent sides this year (three if you include Orient) & failed to beat any of them though.
There’s still a lot of work for Dean & Andy Scott etc to do if they want us to be top end of L1 / Championship standard.
Damage limitation by the sound of the first half, only saw the last 15mins - To get it back to 2-3 though shows they've hopefully listened to Holden in the dressing room again.
Hopefully its exposed some issues for the team to work on ahead of next Saturday - Holden will certainly learn a lot more, compared with another routine victory.
Let the season commence.
Agree. It is a bit concerning that we’ve played two decent sides this year (three if you include Orient) & failed to beat any of them though.
There’s still a lot of work for Dean & Andy Scott etc to do if they want us to be top end of L1 / Championship standard.
Orient was a tough one as it was a weird fitness game.
Gillingham is probably the concerning one of the lot
We beat them 3-1 (Yay!!) - But Harris wasn't wrong when he said that they should have scored a good few in the first half, better finishing and we would have lost that... Aberdeen seemed to prove that theory today.
Playing devils advocate... Its great we're creating chances.
Some ridiculous overreactions in the first half…. Pre season against a Top half championship quality team. Good fight to get 2 back, find the positives
I don’t think that’s fair. First half both Ness and Hector were dreadful. It’s not an overreaction to call that out.
We’ve looked excellent all pre-season and a team who is clearly better than we are comes in and gives us the run around. I’m sure Hec will know he needs to do better, Ness shouldn’t be first choice. But all the doom and gloom is always just a bit over the top for me when we’ve had a lot of positives to speak of the last couple weeks
Has it really been an excellent pre season though?
We haven’t beaten anyone who is L1 standard or above. We put away welling, dartford, Wealdstone etc but surely that is to be expected.
Damage limitation by the sound of the first half, only saw the last 15mins - To get it back to 2-3 though shows they've hopefully listened to Holden in the dressing room again.
Hopefully its exposed some issues for the team to work on ahead of next Saturday - Holden will certainly learn a lot more, compared with another routine victory.
Let the season commence.
Agree. It is a bit concerning that we’ve played two decent sides this year (three if you include Orient) & failed to beat any of them though.
There’s still a lot of work for Dean & Andy Scott etc to do if they want us to be top end of L1 / Championship standard.
They were pre-season friendlies, we’ve not really played any side in true match circumstances. What we’ve done is played half matches to try out players and give them some game time. We beat Millwall in the first half, second half they beat us. We lost to Aberdeen first half. Second half we beat them. What Holden has to do is determine which players he wants to play when the season actually starts for real.
Taylor is coming off an injury and not had a pre season so I imagine he's a fair bit from match sharpness. Would imagine he'll either play for the U21's and/or might get some minutes against Newport before starting in the league.
Edun was at least training with Blackburn even if he didn't play in any of their first teams pre season games, so is probably closer.
We can over analyse friendly games a bit too much. In the first half we got found out with some pace and quality movement but are many League One clubs going to have that? Second half switching Ness made a big difference as he was the weak point, not digging him out it is just what it is, and Hector was a bit poor too. We won the second half 2-0 and whilst they could have got one or two more, so could we. I was pleased for Kanu, I think he needed a goal.
I think we have struck lucky with Dean Holden. He's got something about him.
But ....
If he carries on playing Kirk after today I'm going to start doubting him. Kirk was absolutely woeful - no other words for it. We've got to get Kirk out of the door somehow.
If Leaburn had been fit, he would of course played instead of Kirk.
Absolutely. But young Campbell would have least have tried. And he showed far more in his 20 minutes on the pitch than Kirk did in a much longer time.
You cannot carry on playing Kirk. He's had so many chances to show he is a good player and never takes them. It's time to finally say enough.
I totally agree, especially regarding Campbell.
Despite a decent enough showing against Millwall in midweek, we all know that Kirk is the square peg in the round hole. Since Leaburn's injury, we also all know we're lacking the big strong mobile hold up player that the 3-5-2 formation demands.
I think we have struck lucky with Dean Holden. He's got something about him.
But ....
If he carries on playing Kirk after today I'm going to start doubting him. Kirk was absolutely woeful - no other words for it. We've got to get Kirk out of the door somehow.
If Leaburn had been fit, he would of course played instead of Kirk.
Absolutely. But young Campbell would have least have tried. And he showed far more in his 20 minutes on the pitch than Kirk did in a much longer time.
You cannot carry on playing Kirk. He's had so many chances to show he is a good player and never takes them. It's time to finally say enough.
I totally agree, especially regarding Campbell.
Despite a decent enough showing against Millwall in midweek, we all know that Kirk is the square peg in the round hole. Since Leaburn's injury, we also all know we're lacking the big strong mobile hold up player that the 3-5-2 formation demands.
Kirk ain't that player, just a stop gap.
Stop gap is rhyming slang for what Kirk is . I’m amazed anyone still has any faith in him
Some ridiculous overreactions in the first half…. Pre season against a Top half championship quality team. Good fight to get 2 back, find the positives
I don’t think that’s fair. First half both Ness and Hector were dreadful. It’s not an overreaction to call that out.
We’ve looked excellent all pre-season and a team who is clearly better than we are comes in and gives us the run around. I’m sure Hec will know he needs to do better, Ness shouldn’t be first choice. But all the doom and gloom is always just a bit over the top for me when we’ve had a lot of positives to speak of the last couple weeks
Some good news doesn’t gloss over what was atrocious defending first half. It not doom and gloom it’s reality. Reproduce that in league one and we’ll not be neat top six. Admittedly we have Edun, Taylor and probably another RWB coming in but that’s for the future. Those who played today first 45 in defence were poor.
Comments
You cannot carry on playing Kirk. He's had so many chances to show he is a good player and never takes them. It's time to finally say enough.
The old fashioned way.
However, as general rule I would default to a 433 when Edun is unavailable (presuming we don't get another LWB in this window)
Being unable to shake off years of deep set disapointment is fine.
If Charlton was all about everything going to plan, I could be preturbed over that 1st half, but it is preseason and Aberdeen are good strong opposition.
2-3, I'll take that for now. Orient a different matter.
Thanks for your pessimism and optimism in equal measure.
Up the Addicks!
There’s still a lot of work for Dean & Andy Scott etc to do if they want us to be top end of L1 / Championship standard.
Gillingham is probably the concerning one of the lot
We beat them 3-1 (Yay!!) - But Harris wasn't wrong when he said that they should have scored a good few in the first half, better finishing and we would have lost that... Aberdeen seemed to prove that theory today.
Playing devils advocate... Its great we're creating chances.
This new squad still has a lot to prove.
They were pre-season friendlies, we’ve not really played any side in true match circumstances. What we’ve done is played half matches to try out players and give them some game time. We beat Millwall in the first half, second half they beat us. We lost to Aberdeen first half. Second half we beat them. What Holden has to do is determine which players he wants to play when the season actually starts for real.
Edun was at least training with Blackburn even if he didn't play in any of their first teams pre season games, so is probably closer.
& start the season with a good win
Happy enough with the result though.
Despite a decent enough showing against Millwall in midweek, we all know that Kirk is the square peg in the round hole.
Since Leaburn's injury, we also all know we're lacking the big strong mobile hold up player that the 3-5-2 formation demands.
Kirk ain't that player, just a stop gap.
Surprised they've kept hold of Duk. Thought he'd get a championship move this summer.
Firat half display is worrying.