Nobody could accuse Cheltenham of playing out from the back.
They signalled their intent at K.O. with a nigh on vertical ball and thereafter kept the ball airborne for as long as possible. Their goalie took the free kicks (up to the half way line) and fair play to him - he delivered perfect range and height - pretty much most of the game. They created several chances within the game. They reminded me of a poor man's John Beck's Cambridge United. Our (superior but unconvincing) players struggled to cope and that's what worries me. Despite the poor performance we are better than Cheltenham Town, but will we be there at the end of the season? I doubt it .
Being better than Cheltenham Town isn't much of a yardstick.
We lost to them at home the last 2 seasons and drew away so 3 points is a big improvement no matter how they came
If I didnt see it with my own eyes then judging by this forum, Id have thought we lost!
Cheltenham dug in and had a game plan and have been on an okay run of form though yes, still in bottom 3. They were physical, well organised and made life very difficult. They beat an Oxford team in form for starters.
We had chances to get in front. Not many clear cut chances but we did have them. I thought Tedic done well and should have scored.
It cant always be clear and concise when winning. We had to dig and keep going and we got the win. I'm still not sure why MA gets so much hate. We finally have a team that will keep going until the end and will grind out results when needed. Havent seen a Charlton team like that in a long time.
we have scored 30 goals in 18 games so far this season.
Out of those 30 goals 2 players have scored 20 of them - Alfie May & CBT.
So? Pretty sure you always used to moan we didn't have a top striker to score all our goals and now we do. Worry about our lack of clean sheets rather than who is banging them in.
Cheltenham would have been over the moon with a draw - that's how they set up. We dominated the game and if we hadn't won (albeit with a dubious penalty at the end) it would have been an injustice.
It takes two teams wanting to play football to make a decent game - it was a shit game because of their almost successful tactics.
Problems in defence? Yes of course, although both full-backs were decent and another CB in January to play alongside Jones is a must.
We really need to get better at crossing and corners. That ball for their first was an absolute peach and a lesson for how effective a good cross can be if it is attacked properly.
We seem to get so many corners and they always end up being a pointless ball into the box that is either too close to the keeper or a decent ball that our players simply don't attack. Crowd's don't like them, but with the players we have, we may as well start playing them short more consistently as we can at least create more of a threat from that.
Typical Charlton performance really... We batrer Carlisle and barely get anything from it, we look crap against Cheltenham and get all three points.
It happens in a season, no team will dominate every game they win.
Just need to find more consistency in this squad to move forward, which I don't think will happen - Wont give up hope, and start thinking where we'll finish so I can have bragging rights come April.
A hard, cold watch but 3 points nonetheless. We should of won by a better margin and been more dominate but thats football. You never know what you are going to get unless you are a top top team. At least we are no longer losing on a regular basis, Apples, to me has steadied the boat and hopefully we can push on after Christmas. I'm always optimistic after a win no matter how we got it.
We really need to get better at crossing and corners. That ball for their first was an absolute peach and a lesson for how effective a good cross can be if it is attacked properly.
We seem to get so many corners and they always end up being a pointless ball into the box that is either too close to the keeper or a decent ball that our players simply don't attack. Crowd's don't like them, but with the players we have, we may as well start playing them short more consistently as we can at least create more of a threat from that.
We are very poor in regards corners. Not just attacking them but defending them too.
I love my Charlton but boy was that a difficult to enjoy performance, even with a win!
Never seen the West and North looking so empty. The sparse crowd, zero atmosphere and turgid performance for much of the game gave the impression of a club that is rapidly on slide to obscurity.
But we eeked out 3 points and we limp on.
I keep hoping ‘we’re gonna go on a run’ soon, but the continued unimpressive performances have me wondering if it’s going to happen. There’s nothing there at the moment that suggests we are going to outperform half a dozen sides currently ahead of us in the table.
Tedic is the worst player I have seen in a Charlton shirt for many years. He would give Ralph Milne a run for his money. He cant head ( doesn’t fancy the physical bit) , cant shoot , has no pace , gives away needless fouls, falls over repeatedly and claims a foul whilst everyone else plays on while he lies on the ground moaning - oh and he missed a sitter from 5 yds out.
He was actually looking alright until the miss. Whether that knocked his confidence I don't know but was woeful from then on. Concerning if he's leading the line for any amount of time.
Shame that we had to work the Goalkeeper in quick succession too in the First Half - Those were neat saves he made from Tedic, and then Tennai Watson
No doubt the argument would be we should have done it more, but I'd prefer a disappointed Goalkeeper than a well worked one - Could have changed the complexion of the game had we scored any of those @ 1-1, or were we still losing at that point, I cant remember.
Would have done wonders for Tedic had he scored that tap in, he looked up for it when he came on, but his confidence unsurprisingly just disappeared after that miss... It happens, no Striker will score every chance.
Surprises me that people think Appleton's comments are for the fans
When Leaburn went down, all the players jogged over to the dugout for a quick teamtalk. May ran down the touchline towards the tunnel to where Tedic was warming up and gave him a high 5 motivational 'come on' knowing he was about to be subbed on and also likely knowing he's been complete shite, fans up against him but guessing he's a decent enough lad when training together
Fast forward half an hour to Tedic spooning one over from 5 yards after the May cross, as Tedic stands head in hands May runs back past him and gives him another motivational 'come on, forget about it' type message.
Won't be new knowledge to anyone, but May just seems a top bloke and the perfect character alongside being a top player
I feel totally conflicted about that game. Good to win from behind and good to create so many chances but I'm not sure we looked like we'd ever score from open play. I know we created the chances but the final finish wasn't there and if it wasn't for 2 rubbish pieces of defending for the pens I'm not sure we win that. That said, you need to win even when it's unconvincing so I'm satisfied on the whole
Controversial, but I think Tedic actually looked half decent?
Forced a very decent save out of their keeper, put himself in dangerous areas, was showing more desire than Leaburn in the aerial battles.
I don't think it was a good showing by any stretch, but there was some decent plays. What I can't get my head around, of course, is how he ended up at Man City.
On that note as well in regards to Leaburn, he's had a fair bit of criticism lately, but he looked well up to it last night before his injury.
Enjoyed the first half, but the second was a very difficult watch. Seemed a lack of urgency when we really should have been pressing for a win, lucky to be gifted a penalty near the end. Very impressed with Edun, really wanted Tedic to do well but he looked slow and unable to win a header. Don't quite get the hype over Leaburn, but with him out as well, we definitely need another decent striker in January. We seem to very nearly be a decent side, but are just lacking something. Hope Appleton can sort it, but not overly impressed by his post match comments. Yes we dug out a win, but only via a dubious penalty and we were at home to Cheltenham.
Poor game but we got the win from 2 definite penalties which seemed to be the only decisions we got all night from the ref and AC stand Lino.
Agree with a lot of the above comments as Cheltenham came to spoil the game and they were helped by the crap ref who let a number of their players wrestle ours onto the floor without giving us any free kicks.
Thought our 2 full backs had decent games and gave us attacking options & starting to look a lot fitter.
Well done to Alfie for scoring the two pens (the keeper was close to saving both having seen the highlights) and for the effort that he puts in all game.
Our midfield weren’t on their game tonight but kept trying.
Tedic will get a run of games now so let’s hope he comes good.
If we don’t make the playoff it’ll be because of our back 5
Hector is a joke of a player and I’m rapidly losing faith in the keeper
thank fuck for Alfie
how does McGrandles keep Watson out of the side - laughable
What did Maynard-Brewer do wrong tonight?
Should’ve come for their goal. Yes it was a good cross, but he’s hit it from 40 yards away and the fella who scored was inside our 6 yard box….granted the CB’s did absolutely nothing to help him but a ball that travels that far has to be read better by the keeper
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one!
It was simply a brilliant cross. No way could Maynard-Brewer have come for that. And interestingly neither Curbs or Brown in the studio offered the slightest bit of criticism towards Maynard-Brewer for the goal.
Tedic is the worst player I have seen in a Charlton shirt for many years. He would give Ralph Milne a run for his money. He cant head ( doesn’t fancy the physical bit) , cant shoot , has no pace , gives away needless fouls, falls over repeatedly and claims a foul whilst everyone else plays on while he lies on the ground moaning - oh and he missed a sitter from 5 yds out.
And did a great turn and shot producing a great save from the keeper.
I'm not saying he is our Harry Kane and if I do the player marks, I'm giving him a 5 but surely if you analyse him in that detail, you consider the positive
I agree with you. Another inconvenient truth is that he came on and within about three minutes put in two better direct shots on goal than Miles had done the whole of the match. The miss in the second half was bad, but it was also the miss of a player who has had hardly any game time recently, and the game time he has had has been out on the wing. When he first played, he came on and put himself about a bit too. We were a mess then, and that part of his game has disappeared.
It's ridiculous to call him a "bad player". He's a Serbian U21 international as well as a Man City player. Serbian players do tend to be inconsistent (the whole national team regularly breaks their citizens' hearts, a good mate of mine being one of them) and may not be generally well suited to the English game..or English managers. Well now Appleton has a management challenge on his hands for the next few weeks, doesn't he.
As for the rest I am still completely baffled by Appleton's decision to play at Carlisle with hardly any subs, and then put the same XI out on Tuesday. In the event I thought Fraser was OK, and it was McG who was off the pace, but either way not starting Louie Watson was baffling. All that said, I understood his post-match comments perfectly well, and more to the point, so did Curbs and Brownie.
Last season we would've lost that game. Yes, it wasn't pretty, in fact it was dire most of the time, however we got 3pts. As others have said, sometimes you have to win ugly, that's what we did last night. Some of the comments on here, if I hadn't seen the match or result I would've thought we'd lost! I have to comment on @golfaddick thoughts, for the last few seasons you've been banging on about not having a 20 goal striker, now we have and your moaning that there's not enough goals coming from elsewhere, are you ever happy? If May continues to bang them in, backed up by CBT's contributions, then if the likes of Fraser, Mcgrandles can nick 1 or 2 with input from TC as well (and all 3 have scored this season) I don't see what the problem is. If however you were to start highlighting the need for a better defensive set up, I would agree. MA is working with Dean Holdens players, if he can shore up his defensive options in January then we have a chance of the play offs. There are still 28 games to go, a total of 84 points available, let's not give up just yet, every season there are 1 or 2 teams that, after January put a decent run together and come from nowhere to challenge at the top, perhaps we can this season?
A win is a win but blimey that was tough to watch. All 4 defenders are lower league 1 level. Can’t see these owners spending enough to make any significant improvements in January unless one of Dobson, CBT or Leaburn are sold. Dobson is the most likely in Jan I think.
The worst part for me is what a ‘beige’ club we have become over the years. Atmosphere was awful and apart from one or two, players seem to have no feeling for the club and I think the fans sense that. Thank God for Alfie May.
If we don’t make the playoff it’ll be because of our back 5
Hector is a joke of a player and I’m rapidly losing faith in the keeper
thank fuck for Alfie
how does McGrandles keep Watson out of the side - laughable
What did Maynard-Brewer do wrong tonight?
Should’ve come for their goal. Yes it was a good cross, but he’s hit it from 40 yards away and the fella who scored was inside our 6 yard box….granted the CB’s did absolutely nothing to help him but a ball that travels that far has to be read better by the keeper
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one!
It was simply a brilliant cross. No way could Maynard-Brewer have come for that. And interestingly neither Curbs or Brown in the studio offered the slightest bit of criticism towards Maynard-Brewer for the goal.
Yep. As I just said on the Hector thread, it was pretty much undefendable - we have an abused an insane fanbase who instantly need multiple people to blame for anything that goes against us. Sometimes a guy simply hits the best cross he'll ever hit in his career, it happens.
Reckon "best" was a bad choice if word, but also think some are maybe taking MA's comment a little bit out of context. He might've meant that, relatively speaking and given all the factors of the game, eg it being a freezing cold Tuesday night k/o and Cheltenham being a very physical side trying to get out the bottom 3, it was a hard fought win, coming back from 1 down
Comments
We lost to them at home the last 2 seasons and drew away so 3 points is a big improvement no matter how they came
Cheltenham dug in and had a game plan and have been on an okay run of form though yes, still in bottom 3. They were physical, well organised and made life very difficult. They beat an Oxford team in form for starters.
We had chances to get in front. Not many clear cut chances but we did have them. I thought Tedic done well and should have scored.
It cant always be clear and concise when winning. We had to dig and keep going and we got the win. I'm still not sure why MA gets so much hate. We finally have a team that will keep going until the end and will grind out results when needed. Havent seen a Charlton team like that in a long time.
Take it easy, we got 3 points.
It looked like he gave the card to a spectator!
We seem to get so many corners and they always end up being a pointless ball into the box that is either too close to the keeper or a decent ball that our players simply don't attack. Crowd's don't like them, but with the players we have, we may as well start playing them short more consistently as we can at least create more of a threat from that.
It happens in a season, no team will dominate every game they win.
Just need to find more consistency in this squad to move forward, which I don't think will happen - Wont give up hope, and start thinking where we'll finish so I can have bragging rights come April.
At least we are no longer losing on a regular basis, Apples, to me has steadied the boat and hopefully we can push on after Christmas. I'm always optimistic after a win no matter how we got it.
No doubt the argument would be we should have done it more, but I'd prefer a disappointed Goalkeeper than a well worked one - Could have changed the complexion of the game had we scored any of those @ 1-1, or were we still losing at that point, I cant remember.
Would have done wonders for Tedic had he scored that tap in, he looked up for it when he came on, but his confidence unsurprisingly just disappeared after that miss... It happens, no Striker will score every chance.
Surprises me that people think Appleton's comments are for the fans
What teams do (even Cray did it with success) is try to make the game bitty and disrupt our flow. We need to find a way to counter that.
When Leaburn went down, all the players jogged over to the dugout for a quick teamtalk. May ran down the touchline towards the tunnel to where Tedic was warming up and gave him a high 5 motivational 'come on' knowing he was about to be subbed on and also likely knowing he's been complete shite, fans up against him but guessing he's a decent enough lad when training together
Fast forward half an hour to Tedic spooning one over from 5 yards after the May cross, as Tedic stands head in hands May runs back past him and gives him another motivational 'come on, forget about it' type message.
Won't be new knowledge to anyone, but May just seems a top bloke and the perfect character alongside being a top player
Forced a very decent save out of their keeper, put himself in dangerous areas, was showing more desire than Leaburn in the aerial battles.
I don't think it was a good showing by any stretch, but there was some decent plays. What I can't get my head around, of course, is how he ended up at Man City.
On that note as well in regards to Leaburn, he's had a fair bit of criticism lately, but he looked well up to it last night before his injury.
BUT stop playing Alfie out wide - it’s weird - he is better playing down the middle in the hole
Play like we did 2nd half, Gills on Saturday is gonna be a dodgy watch…..
Agree with a lot of the above comments as Cheltenham came to spoil the game and they were helped by the crap ref who let a number of their players wrestle ours onto the floor without giving us any free kicks.
Thought our 2 full backs had decent games and gave us attacking options & starting to look a lot fitter.
Well done to Alfie for scoring the two pens (the keeper was close to saving both having seen the highlights) and for the effort that he puts in all game.
Our midfield weren’t on their game tonight but kept trying.
It was simply a brilliant cross. No way could Maynard-Brewer have come for that. And interestingly neither Curbs or Brown in the studio offered the slightest bit of criticism towards Maynard-Brewer for the goal.
It's ridiculous to call him a "bad player". He's a Serbian U21 international as well as a Man City player. Serbian players do tend to be inconsistent (the whole national team regularly breaks their citizens' hearts, a good mate of mine being one of them) and may not be generally well suited to the English game..or English managers. Well now Appleton has a management challenge on his hands for the next few weeks, doesn't he.
As for the rest I am still completely baffled by Appleton's decision to play at Carlisle with hardly any subs, and then put the same XI out on Tuesday. In the event I thought Fraser was OK, and it was McG who was off the pace, but either way not starting Louie Watson was baffling. All that said, I understood his post-match comments perfectly well, and more to the point, so did Curbs and Brownie.
I have to comment on @golfaddick thoughts, for the last few seasons you've been banging on about not having a 20 goal striker, now we have and your moaning that there's not enough goals coming from elsewhere, are you ever happy? If May continues to bang them in, backed up by CBT's contributions, then if the likes of Fraser, Mcgrandles can nick 1 or 2 with input from TC as well (and all 3 have scored this season) I don't see what the problem is. If however you were to start highlighting the need for a better defensive set up, I would agree.
MA is working with Dean Holdens players, if he can shore up his defensive options in January then we have a chance of the play offs. There are still 28 games to go, a total of 84 points available, let's not give up just yet, every season there are 1 or 2 teams that, after January put a decent run together and come from nowhere to challenge at the top, perhaps we can this season?
https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/13018586/barnsley-1-0-wycombe-wanderers-league-one-highlights