Nick Pope and Charlton

I'm just SO glad we won yesterday, if we had drawn or even lost which was looking a possibility at the end, I think this thread would have gone into melt down. There is no doubt that this was a goalkeeping error and no it shouldn't happen at this level but I think NP is still fairly low on confidence. I still don't think HE himself believes he "belongs" in the first team, he looks so nervous to me. The shot he "spilled" would be fired into him time and time again (I hope!!) at the training ground and I'm sure he gathers it most of the time, but when he has time to see the shot coming he "looks" like he is going to spill it. Even the one he saved at his near post in the second half, he looked relieved!! and not confident as a run of the mill save which it was. The comment about criticizing other players missing in front of goal or miss placing passes I'm afraid goes with the territory of being a goalkeeper! Hero one minute and villain the next!!...............................................and believe me, I know from experience!!
All we can do is give him our full support while he is in the team and hope he gets these mistakes out of his game. No doubt he is a talent but he needs to believe it himself, not just reading it on here (perish the thought!!!)

Anyway as other posts said, yesterday was a FANTASTIC result, I just wished the referee had shown "some common" at the end with "our Guy", great emotion from the manager!!!

COYR....................

From the match thread, I really do wonder if people know what the word scapegoat means on this forum? I get it when everyone has a poor game and someone blames Harriott/Fox or something then it's ridiculous but in this case it literally is on Pope to make a routine catch or parry out wide. Most League One/Two keepers are good shot stoppers as that is pretty much the main attribute of any keeper, it's the rest that decides whether you can step up and it is concerning about Pope as things like this costs us more points than we gain from his height.

so Pope made a mistake and It was 1-1 and some are condemning him

Gudmundsson is one on one with their goalie and fuffs his shot when he should have scored so denying us 2-0, few condemn him

all players make mistakes and Pope wasn't the only player making a mistake when Hull scored some of our defenders were like statues as Hayden stood in the same place to have 2 shots in as many minutes, the second resulting in the goal.

hudson-son-son said:

It is clearly different for a goalkeeper though, all players miss chances but not all goalkeepers should leave the doubt that he could fluff a shot at an important stage of a game.

Literally every goalkeeper ever since the dawn of time and forever more will leave the doubt they can fluff a shot at an important stage of a game. Every single one. Because they all do. Cech, Courtois, Hart, Casillas, Neuer they've all got a blunder in them. Cech made two in one game the other day. Courtois got sent off for some mad challenge against Swansea. It's just different for Pope because some people have decided long ago he's not good enough so his mistakes are worth five times any other players', even other goalkeepers. Poor lad.

LargeAddick said:

One mistake. Yes it could have cost us but so could have JBG's miss when one on one and yet no comment on that. Goalkeepers are an easy target. Pope's handling was very good yesterday and his all round performance was good but one mistake and he's a poor keeper. Everyone on the pitch yesterday made a mistake yesterday, it happens, even to the best of them. If Pope was a disaster we wouldn't be sitting third with 8 points from 12.

But that is the lot of a keeper, from Gary Sprake through the years to Pope now. I thought Pope had an 8 for the game as a whole but the spill was monumental and not an isolated incident. Fortunately where his mistakes have led to goals we have not lost the game. How he comes back v Peterborough is going to be testimony to how he has matured. After the Derby error last year he was a nervous wreck, hopefully he will be stronger and more aware after this. I was pleased to see players talking him up after the goal yesterday

Up until the mistake I was going to say that Henderson may not walk back into the Starting Line-Up.

What I will say though is that Pope after getting a knee in the face (when they scored) did well to bravely come out and collect the next ball into the box.

I know we'd have won without the mistake but just remember, without Pope going down for treatment (twice) there never would have been eight minutes of injury time

LuckyReds said:

What actually happened? I got the impression he got the ball and then hurt himself, and that's when the goal was conceded. He was down and getting treatment for a bit afterwards.

I've been his biggest critic but I'm fairly confident with him in goal now and don't really feel the need to be too harsh on him after yesterday.

Hernandez kicked the ball into the net and his knee hit Pope under the chin with the follow up

How old Is he serious question not a piss take

I part watched the Everton/City game and both goalies spilled the ball at least once from low hard shots, who were the goalies - Howard and Hart

lancashire lad said:

I part watched the Everton/City game and both goalies spilled the ball at least once from low hard shots, who were the goalies - Howard and Hart

This is why i wonder at times if some people every watch other games.

Both Jenkinson and cresswell had mares yesterday for the hammers ?

Both of them at fault for a number of goals, does that mean they are championship standard now ?

hudson-son-son said:

From the match thread, I really do wonder if people know what the word scapegoat means on this forum? I get it when everyone has a poor game and someone blames Harriott/Fox or something then it's ridiculous but in this case it literally is on Pope to make a routine catch or parry out wide. Most League One/Two keepers are good shot stoppers as that is pretty much the main attribute of any keeper, it's the rest that decides whether you can step up and it is concerning about Pope as things like this costs us more points than we gain from his height.

Can't accept your logic. It's as much to expect a forward to make routine strike on target or pass a ball to a team mate rather than an opponent. The only difference between mistakes of strikers and goalkeepers is that strikers' mistakes don't lose games and forwards don't get "scapegoated" for a game lost through missed chances, it's just accepted as bad luck. Pope would have been scapegoated it seems by you for one unlucky moment where he didn't pull off a perfect move.

Pope was unlucky, it was a powerful volley a few feet off the ground and hardly a routine collect. He was within an inch of retrieving it and only because Fernandez followed up so close to Pope that he got the chance.

Think your'e underestimating Pope's other qualities, he makes more than routine stops and his game saving saves will outnumber any bloopers I predict.

You would need hands made of Velcro, golden syrup and Bostick to hold on to Hayden's daisy cutter.

Got to push them away from danger but be fair on Popey, not many keepers would have held that.

Dean Kiely is the best keeper I've seen for Charlton in about nearly 30 years of watching Charlton, I wonder how good he was at Nicks age (23), and if he'd have signed for Charlton at 23 rather than 29, whether things would have worked out differently, and whether he would have had a lot more criticism, or have even made it at Charlton.

When we first signed Deano, I could not believe it,

Because we'd spent a huge amount of money on a keeper , nearly a million pound, a huge sum of money for Charlton,on a keeper I'd never heard of , from a unfancied team (Bury I think).

I questioned Curbs decision ( Charltons greatest manager in my time supporting Charlton even though he did get things wrong) thinking he'd lost the plot , and was wasting the clubs money.


I've know I've digressed a lot to make a point, but I remember watching Nick as a floppy haired teenage at a preseason match , thinking who the heck have we got here, this fella looks more like Justin Bieber, than a goalkeeper!


So I've followed Nicks career with interest, he's had 9 , yes 9 loan spells, which could break a lads mind, but yet he keeps coming back for more.

Yes he makes errors, errors that the coaching team must work on, and must eradicate, but each season I've seen improvement.


I know Nicks a young man, and not a kid any more, but in football terms he's a baby, he's only made 20 plus appearances or more in the last 2 seasons, albeit at a much lower level, so for for him to make 10 - 20 appearances in a Charlton shirt this season would be a great achievement.


Let's encourage him and let him know we want him to do well, you never know , he might surprise us all, we speak our minds about what we see as football fans, but we don't always get it right, Deano is testament to that for me.

David De GEa, was rubbish for the first 2 seasons at Man United, he's not good enough, he's an accident waiting to happen, the United fans were saying.


Now they'd be understanding, but pretty gutted if he does leave, you never know what's Round the corner in football.

They say never meet your heroes, well I got to meet Deano at a fans Q and A, whilst he was playing for us,and the thing that came across from him, was how ice cool he was ( I'm Sure he's a lovely bloke) he was almost terminator like, he took his job very seriously, and you weren't surprised he was good at it, and had got to where he was in the game, I'm desperate for Nick to do well, my sons also think he came through our academy!

Over the 4 games I've seen Nick has stepped up to the plate, as has the whole team, his coach will work on cutting out errors in his game, namely shot spilling, but I love his confidence on catch crosses , he's miles ahead already for me of Thuram!

Mendonca In Asdas said:

Dean Kiely is the best keeper I've seen for Charlton in about nearly 30 years of watching Charlton

Really, I agree that he's a great shot stopper but we did call him Dracula as he hates crosses... In this respect Pope is already superior... Hmm?