The Charlton team that beat Huddersfield at home and Wycombe away so convincingly would have gone to Wrexham today and got a result. But the team that showed up was a pale imitation. We were way off our best and Wrexham, like it or not, are a good side. They were far superior in all respects and thoroughly deserved both the win and the promotion. It was always possible to envisage defeat there, but I didn't see that abject Charlton display coming.
Still, automatic promotion was always a very outside chance after the poor first half of the season and we should be thankful that Nathan Jones and the lads have done fantastically well to get us into the playoffs. We now need to bounce back from today’s disappointment the way that we have so many times in the past four months, with a convincing win against Burton to get back on track as we go into the play-off games. We can still get that third promotion slot.
No point in digging out the many poor performances from our players today but we should note that Josh Edwards was probably the sole Charlton player who stood up to the test.
The part played by Sam Smith just goes to show what value you can get by spending decent money on a decent player. If we’d have had him to call on since January it might well have been us celebrating promotion tonight. And, finally, whilst I'm gutted that we fell short today, I was pleased for Dobbo that he gained the promotion. A really good pro for us, player and captain.
Let’s call a turd a turd, a that was a turd…. we arrived and played our supporting role to their promotion party. Been a while, but that was embarrassing. NJ pick the bones from that…..
let’s go with bad day at office…. If not we are FUCKED…
We were outdone by the better team in the day. I don’t buy all this about us bottling it or not turning up. The reason we gave ourselves a chance today was because we turned up for a high pressure game last week and rolled over a team at the took their game.
No Small, Berry or Aneke and a half fit jones clearly had a physical and psychological effect today. The way this team has played since Christmas has been immense and one game should not send us all into a frenzy.
We should be able to out a team out next week that will beat Burton and if we do and should Stockport draw against or beat Wycombe we will play Wycombe in the play offs. I’d rather them than Stockport.
The occasion means the result today hurts but let’s not into a frenzy of how bad things are. Things are still pretty good given where we were a few months ago.
I don’t get the hate for Wrexham either, they’ve done a great job of putting together a team to compete at the level they are at and you have to say Parky has done excellent job. The Hollywood boys do seem to let the club get on with it, hopefully we are now in that same boat. Be interesting to see what they do next year as the level to compete at the top end of the Championship is another big step up. Good luck to Dobbo too, he’s a great lad, just wish he was in our midfield today.
If we go up this season we will need at least 5 to 6 new senior players for the championship.
We’ll need waaay more than that. We’re seeing now that you need a squad for a 46 game season. If we have any hope of staying up (if we get to) we’re going to need double figures new/better players.
Charlton first 11 is a match for any team in the division. The back ups like Anderson and Watson are good for coming in later on in game but not good enough to start. Today, showed lack of depth of quality in the team. Wrexham had a strong January window and this has seen them through to promotion. Hoping that Jones, Berry and Small & rest of first 11 are fit for the play offs. Bit concerned about lack of plan B for striking options up front.
I don't get the Wrexham bashing by some fans. If the shoe was on the other foot, would we be complaining? Certainly fans from other clubs would! We were singing ' Where were you when you were shit' , and I was joining in, but look at our history, when crowds at The Valley were rock bottom, and we tried various initiatives to entice fans back, but the main driver is success. We've seen home crowds rise significantly this season on our incredible run from December, there's nothing like success that brings people into a ground. Is the the complaint that they spent money in the January transfer window to bring in players, especially Smith, who I thought was outstanding today, or is it envy that they are in a position to do this, and we are not? The atmosphere in the ground was amazing, both sets of fans were singing their hearts out, well for the first 20 mins! I must give credit to the Wrexham fans who threw the clowns chant back in our face. You probably can't out sing a Welsh side, what with their history of Choirs, but I particularly enjoyed Y Ama O Hed, an unofficial Welsh football anthem, the chorus translates as ' in spite of everyone and everything, we are still here' a sentiment that many Charlton fans would resonate with. They then did a version of Men of Harlech, of Zulu fame, but changed the words to turn it into a promotion song. I was in a pub, the Railway Inn, only 15 mins from the ground, and it was rammed with local Welsh people, just enjoying the ride, and yes, there are those that latch onto success, but our fans do the same. The whole Hollywood stuff does grate with me, but that might be envy or just distgust at the whole razzamataz of the situation, but again I say, what if the situation was reversed. So, in summing up, I don't begrudge Wrexhams promotion, on the day they were the better team, our squad at the moment, with the injuries and suspensions is thin, at best, but it is what it is, and we need that final push over the line in the playoffs. So put this result in the bin, congratulate Wrexham, and push forward for playoff victory!!
Their proper fans are fine.
The issue I have is predominantly with the 'football tourists' who are following the club just because of the documentary and/or Ryan Reynolds. I was surrounded by their 'fans' at The Valley this season who were absolutely clueless. No word of a lie, the American Wrexham 'fan' next to me was confused by the sight of a round ball and promptly Googled 'Why are soccer balls round?' on his phone. I've never seen the documentary, but I had assumed that footballs would be shown in it.
The rest of the Wrexham 'fans' around me at the game began cheering us until Wrexham scored, when they twigged that Wrexham weren't the team in red that day.
Cut to the game today and we have an American Wrexham 'fan' winding up every Charlton fan he saw as he though that today's match was some kind of playoff where the winners would get promoted to The Championship and the losers would be relegated to League Two.
Until recently, Wrexham was predominantly a Liverpool-supporting town. Many of their Liverpool fans never gave a shit about Wrexham until this season. While most of the Liverpool fans there, who actually liked Wrexham as their second team, hate the shitshow that Wrexham has become and want to see their hometown team's fail.
A lot of the proper Wrexham fans aren't happy with all of this nonsense either.
Did we use short studs instead of long studs? Some seemed to at least. I’ve never seen that many players slipping and falling over.
We weren’t as bad as some saying though, apart from the first twenty minutes. We had quite a few chances, but Wrexham threw bodies in the way and blocked all of them. Watson missed a very good chance to pull one back. But let’s face it, they were better than us today. Our first choice XI isn’t far off theirs, but a couple of injuries and we look much weaker.
The play offs are the play offs. With everyone available we’ll have a fighting chance, at very least.
Think I’m going to have a break from here until the first leg - two hours since the final whistle and I’ve had enough of the Golfie whining already
Is it just me ???
I feeling victimised again.
Why not go the whole hog & PM me & call me a c***. Thats what some do.
If we win 3-0, we haven’t scored enough. If we win 3-1, we haven’t kept a clean sheet. When we lose like we did today (which I am obviously disappointed about) then you’re on here with constant comments….
It’s exhausting - hopefully we can win at Wembley and you might find some enjoyment in football
Why is Nathan mentioning Ashley Maynard-Brewer in his list of players missing. He is about as irrelevant as they come. Moan all you like about the players missing Nathan but it was your insistence to have a slimline squad. But of course it's not the numbers that is the issue, it is the lack of strength in depth. We have way too many children in our squad imo. Anyway, that is just me sounding off due to disappointment. I always felt today was going to be a tough ask, even with a fully fit first 11. Their greater quality told and the 2 goals in quick succession did for us like we did for Wycombe last Monday.
The highlight of my day was my insurance bet pictured below (god knows why I didn't put at least a score on it).
Only other highlight was the Wrexham fans reaction when we sang 'WE GET TO GO HOME... YOU HAVE TO LIVE HERE... WE GET TO GO HOME!!' ne'er a truer word.
No Berry or Small... a shadow of our normal selves, shapeless and desparate.
Nice to speak to Vince at half-time who was seeing some of our angry/depressed faces and reminding us that we're in the play-offs.
We weren’t as bad as some saying, apart from the first twenty minutes. We had quite a few chances, but Wrexham threw bodies in the way and blocked all of them. Watson missed a very good chance to pull one back. But let’s face it, they were better than us today. Our first choice XI isn’t far off theirs, but a couple of injuries and we look much weaker. The play offs are the play offs. With everyone available we’ll have a fighting chance, at very least.
The continuing slipping over was ridiculous.
Wrexham were on the front foot from the off. They completely overrun our midfield. Following the 2 goals, Wrexham took their foot off the pedal. This may have come back to bite them, if Charlton were able to make the most of the territory. The lack of quality meant that didn't happen and they were able to coast through the game. I felt Wrexham could have upped the tempo if needed.
I’m honestly baffled by how many people don’t seem fussed about getting the second leg at home. Away from home lately (Wycombe aside), we’ve gone missing for spells and looked shaky. I wouldn’t fancy us taking a 0-0 or even a 1-0 lead to a place like Stockport. You just know they’ll fly at us from the first whistle, like Wrexham did today, and I don’t see us holding out for 90+ minutes.
Yeah, they’ll come at us whatever leg it is — but I’d much rather be heading back to The Valley to repair any deficit we have, and then go for the win in front of our own crowd.
I’m honestly baffled by how many people don’t seem fussed about getting the second leg at home. Away from home lately (Wycombe aside), we’ve gone missing for spells and looked shaky. I wouldn’t fancy us taking a 0-0 or even a 1-0 lead to a place like Stockport. You just know they’ll fly at us from the first whistle, like Wrexham did today, and I don’t see us holding out for 90+ minutes.
Yeah, they’ll come at us whatever leg it is — but I’d much rather be heading back to The Valley to repair any deficit we have, and then go for the win in front of our own crowd.
Agree entirely. Need to ensure we finish fourth by beating Burton.
The lamenting of Chucks and Leaburn being unavailable in the forthcoming Play-Offs as a last resort is understandable, but to think that an 18yr old Mbick is the answer is naive, and as for for Ahadme... You need an old, cynical player - much like Wrexham had peppered throughout their side - who has seen it all and will not wilt in the face of adversity. I give you CL's figure of fun: Danny Hylton. Say what you like - he's seen it all before.
I’m honestly baffled by how many people don’t seem fussed about getting the second leg at home. Away from home lately (Wycombe aside), we’ve gone missing for spells and looked shaky. I wouldn’t fancy us taking a 0-0 or even a 1-0 lead to a place like Stockport. You just know they’ll fly at us from the first whistle, like Wrexham did today, and I don’t see us holding out for 90+ minutes.
Yeah, they’ll come at us whatever leg it is — but I’d much rather be heading back to The Valley to repair any deficit we have, and then go for the win in front of our own crowd.
Agree entirely. Need to ensure we finish fourth by beating Burton.
That in itself wont ensure getting 4th. We will only end up 4th if we win & there is a winner on the Wycombe/ Stockport match.
Not a good day at the office, but some real over reactions on here.
It’s Stockport or Wycombe, I struggle to see Wycombe beating Stockport at the moment so I think it will be Wycombe, hopefully with the second leg at the Valley.
Nothing to fear playing Wycombe. Right now I wouldn’t want to play Stockport over two games.
I don’t think we’ll see Jones, Berry or Small next weekend, but that gives us two weeks of to get them fit and ready.
A thoroughly anaemic performance this evening in which, sadly, we were totally outplayed from start to finish. Wrexham got after us from the start, bullied us throughout and won the vast majority of the 50/50s. To be fair, they also played some very good stuff at times. They dominated midfield, with Rathbone repeatedly finding acres of space, whilst Smith’s movement and quality caused us problems throughout. They passed the ball very well in that first half and were largely content to sit on their two goal lead and stay in shape in the second period, knowing that we offered very little offensively.
Parky’s game plan worked to perfection. We were completely unable to play through midfield, TC had one of his worst games, we missed Small’s attacking thrusts on the right and Wrexham’s big defenders dealt easily with any long balls through the middle. As a result, we only created one chance of note, in addition to which, Wrexham defended very well, blocking shots on the few occasions that we got into potentially dangerous positions.
We were totally outplayed in midfield, with the Doc (especially) and Coventry largely invisible and Anderson looking overawed. With TC out of form and no Thierry Small, we relied on long punts forward to Godden and ended up with two youngsters up top, one who was coming back from a second ankle injury and the other an 18 year old who has never started a league game for us.
The injuries exposed our lack of squad depth, although I don’t think it’s fair to compare our position to Wrexham, given that their turnover was 250% bigger than ours in 2023/24, and will probably be nearly 400% bigger for the 24/25 accounting period, with about 50% of that income coming from the USA through commercial sponsorship deals with the likes of United Airlines and merchandising sales.
Our big players didn’t perform on the day, with the exception of Josh Edwards, who I thought was by far our best performer.
When all’s said and done, Nathan Jones, his staff and the players did superbly well to secure our play-off berth on Good Friday and to keep open the possibility of automatic promotion up to the penultimate game.
Let’s hope we can get our players fit for the play-offs. Whilst the manager won’t want to risk players carrying knocks like Lloyd Jones, a win against Burton will be important to give us a chance of finishing in the top 4 and securing a 2nd leg at home. Even if Wycombe and Stockport play out a draw, a win against Burton will help restore some confidence and momentum, plus I’d rather face Wycombe than Challinor’s tough and resolute Stockport team in the semi-final. With Burton’s League 1 position now secure given their vastly superior goal difference, hopefully they’ll approach next Saturday in a more relaxed frame of mind after a tremendous effort on their part to avoid the drop. They also have a game on Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll look a lot fresher against them than we looked today against superior and well-drilled promotion winning opponents.
A deflating experience but we’ll feel better in a day or two and hopefully there’ll be a decent crowd on Saturday to get behind the players and give them a lift heading into the play-offs. Whatever their shortcomings from time to time, one thing no one can criticise them for is a lack of effort.
Think today really highlighted how exposed we are without our first choice 11. just praying Small & Berry are fit for the playoffs. We go again lads, 3 huge games to come hopefully 🙏🏻
Not a good day at the office, but some real over reactions on here.
It’s Stockport or Wycombe, I struggle to see Wycombe beating Stockport at the moment so I think it will be Wycombe, hopefully with the second leg at the Valley.
Nothing to fear playing Wycombe. Right now I wouldn’t want to play Stockport over two games.
I don’t think we’ll see Jones, Berry or Small next weekend, but that gives us two weeks of to get them fit and ready.
A really disappointing day. Anderson getting a lot of flak but at least he was involved and never hid. Doc and Coventry were AWOL throughout. Thought their first goal was offside from our vantage point but haven’t seen it back. In any case it knocked any stuffing we had out of us.
What is the story with Small? Is it an injury or has he got a touch of Lyle Tayloritis? I sincerely hope not but there was a flatness to the whole squad today which just suggested something amiss. Maybe the injuries and knowing it was going to be a match too far. Was risky to play LJ - obvious early on he wasn’t 100%.
NJ will be very annoyed with himself for the circus comment I guess as they did use it against us.
I agree with earlier post re shameful and indeed negligent refereeing at the end with the imminent pitch invasion. He should have told Doc to kick the ball out by the tunnel and to get our players over there before he blew up. In any case sincerely hope none of them got injured in the pile on.
I was in a v bad mood at the end of that. Managed a bit of post match mitigation catching up with @rananegra and his lovely daughter and enjoying a surprisingly good curry.
Onto the play offs and let’s hope our walking-or-otherwise-wounded make miraculous recoveries.
Comments
PWR
The Charlton team that beat Huddersfield at home and Wycombe away so convincingly would have gone to Wrexham today and got a result. But the team that showed up was a pale imitation. We were way off our best and Wrexham, like it or not, are a good side. They were far superior in all respects and thoroughly deserved both the win and the promotion. It was always possible to envisage defeat there, but I didn't see that abject Charlton display coming.
Still, automatic promotion was always a very outside chance after the poor first half of the season and we should be thankful that Nathan Jones and the lads have done fantastically well to get us into the playoffs. We now need to bounce back from today’s disappointment the way that we have so many times in the past four months, with a convincing win against Burton to get back on track as we go into the play-off games. We can still get that third promotion slot.
No point in digging out the many poor performances from our players today but we should note that Josh Edwards was probably the sole Charlton player who stood up to the test.
The part played by Sam Smith just goes to show what value you can get by spending decent money on a decent player. If we’d have had him to call on since January it might well have been us celebrating promotion tonight. And, finally, whilst I'm gutted that we fell short today, I was pleased for Dobbo that he gained the promotion. A really good pro for us, player and captain.
let’s go with bad day at office…. If not we are FUCKED…
No Small, Berry or Aneke and a half fit jones clearly had a physical and psychological effect today. The way this team has played since Christmas has been immense and one game should not send us all into a frenzy.
We should be able to out a team out next week that will beat Burton and if we do and should Stockport draw against or beat Wycombe we will play Wycombe in the play offs. I’d rather them than Stockport.
The issue I have is predominantly with the 'football tourists' who are following the club just because of the documentary and/or Ryan Reynolds. I was surrounded by their 'fans' at The Valley this season who were absolutely clueless. No word of a lie, the American Wrexham 'fan' next to me was confused by the sight of a round ball and promptly Googled 'Why are soccer balls round?' on his phone. I've never seen the documentary, but I had assumed that footballs would be shown in it.
The rest of the Wrexham 'fans' around me at the game began cheering us until Wrexham scored, when they twigged that Wrexham weren't the team in red that day.
Cut to the game today and we have an American Wrexham 'fan' winding up every Charlton fan he saw as he though that today's match was some kind of playoff where the winners would get promoted to The Championship and the losers would be relegated to League Two.
Until recently, Wrexham was predominantly a Liverpool-supporting town. Many of their Liverpool fans never gave a shit about Wrexham until this season. While most of the Liverpool fans there, who actually liked Wrexham as their second team, hate the shitshow that Wrexham has become and want to see their hometown team's fail.
A lot of the proper Wrexham fans aren't happy with all of this nonsense either.
Our first choice XI isn’t far off theirs, but a couple of injuries and we look much weaker.
It’s exhausting - hopefully we can win at Wembley and you might find some enjoyment in football
He is about as irrelevant as they come.
Moan all you like about the players missing Nathan but it was your insistence to have a slimline squad.
But of course it's not the numbers that is the issue, it is the lack of strength in depth.
We have way too many children in our squad imo.
Anyway, that is just me sounding off due to disappointment.
I always felt today was going to be a tough ask, even with a fully fit first 11.
Their greater quality told and the 2 goals in quick succession did for us like we did for Wycombe last Monday.
Only other highlight was the Wrexham fans reaction when we sang 'WE GET TO GO HOME... YOU HAVE TO LIVE HERE... WE GET TO GO HOME!!' ne'er a truer word.
No Berry or Small... a shadow of our normal selves, shapeless and desparate.
Nice to speak to Vince at half-time who was seeing some of our angry/depressed faces and reminding us that we're in the play-offs.
I’m honestly baffled by how many people don’t seem fussed about getting the second leg at home. Away from home lately (Wycombe aside), we’ve gone missing for spells and looked shaky. I wouldn’t fancy us taking a 0-0 or even a 1-0 lead to a place like Stockport. You just know they’ll fly at us from the first whistle, like Wrexham did today, and I don’t see us holding out for 90+ minutes.
Yeah, they’ll come at us whatever leg it is — but I’d much rather be heading back to The Valley to repair any deficit we have, and then go for the win in front of our own crowd.
You need an old, cynical player - much like Wrexham had peppered throughout their side - who has seen it all and will not wilt in the face of adversity.
I give you CL's figure of fun: Danny Hylton.
Say what you like - he's seen it all before.
Still the potential of an amazing end to the season, and there doesn’t seem to be any huge injury concerns with our first team.
A thoroughly anaemic performance this evening in which, sadly, we were totally outplayed from start to finish. Wrexham got after us from the start, bullied us throughout and won the vast majority of the 50/50s. To be fair, they also played some very good stuff at times. They dominated midfield, with Rathbone repeatedly finding acres of space, whilst Smith’s movement and quality caused us problems throughout. They passed the ball very well in that first half and were largely content to sit on their two goal lead and stay in shape in the second period, knowing that we offered very little offensively.
Parky’s game plan worked to perfection. We were completely unable to play through midfield, TC had one of his worst games, we missed Small’s attacking thrusts on the right and Wrexham’s big defenders dealt easily with any long balls through the middle. As a result, we only created one chance of note, in addition to which, Wrexham defended very well, blocking shots on the few occasions that we got into potentially dangerous positions.
We were totally outplayed in midfield, with the Doc (especially) and Coventry largely invisible and Anderson looking overawed. With TC out of form and no Thierry Small, we relied on long punts forward to Godden and ended up with two youngsters up top, one who was coming back from a second ankle injury and the other an 18 year old who has never started a league game for us.
The injuries exposed our lack of squad depth, although I don’t think it’s fair to compare our position to Wrexham, given that their turnover was 250% bigger than ours in 2023/24, and will probably be nearly 400% bigger for the 24/25 accounting period, with about 50% of that income coming from the USA through commercial sponsorship deals with the likes of United Airlines and merchandising sales.
Our big players didn’t perform on the day, with the exception of Josh Edwards, who I thought was by far our best performer.
When all’s said and done, Nathan Jones, his staff and the players did superbly well to secure our play-off berth on Good Friday and to keep open the possibility of automatic promotion up to the penultimate game.
Let’s hope we can get our players fit for the play-offs. Whilst the manager won’t want to risk players carrying knocks like Lloyd Jones, a win against Burton will be important to give us a chance of finishing in the top 4 and securing a 2nd leg at home. Even if Wycombe and Stockport play out a draw, a win against Burton will help restore some confidence and momentum, plus I’d rather face Wycombe than Challinor’s tough and resolute Stockport team in the semi-final. With Burton’s League 1 position now secure given their vastly superior goal difference, hopefully they’ll approach next Saturday in a more relaxed frame of mind after a tremendous effort on their part to avoid the drop. They also have a game on Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll look a lot fresher against them than we looked today against superior and well-drilled promotion winning opponents.
A deflating experience but we’ll feel better in a day or two and hopefully there’ll be a decent crowd on Saturday to get behind the players and give them a lift heading into the play-offs. Whatever their shortcomings from time to time, one thing no one can criticise them for is a lack of effort.
What is the story with Small? Is it an injury or has he got a touch of Lyle Tayloritis? I sincerely hope not but there was a flatness to the whole squad today which just suggested something amiss. Maybe the injuries and knowing it was going to be a match too far. Was risky to play LJ - obvious early on he wasn’t 100%.
NJ will be very annoyed with himself for the circus comment I guess as they did use it against us.
I agree with earlier post re shameful and indeed negligent refereeing at the end with the imminent pitch invasion. He should have told Doc to kick the ball out by the tunnel and to get our players over there before he blew up. In any case sincerely hope none of them got injured in the pile on.
I was in a v bad mood at the end of that.
Managed a bit of post match mitigation catching up with @rananegra and his lovely daughter and enjoying a surprisingly good curry.
Onto the play offs and let’s hope our walking-or-otherwise-wounded make miraculous recoveries.