POST-MATCH THREAD: Wrexham v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 26th April 2025: KO 17:30

Lincsaddick said:

Athletico Charlton said:

wmcf123 said:

We need a new goalkeeper, whatever league we are in .  Mannion is calm and patrols his box quite well, but his shot stopping isn’t good enough .  Whatever division we are in , we will need to strengthen in every position , which will likely include having to replace 2/3 key players as well.  We have benefitted from having very few injuries this season but there’s nothing beyond the first 11.  We need better options in midfield and will need a couple of new forwards if TC, Leaburn and Aneke are all off .  

Some out of contract players this summer...

Goalkeeper
- Dillon Phillips (no intro needed)
- Nathan Baxter (local lad)

Defenders
- Ricardo Santos (off form this season but a giant)
- Paudi O'Connor (Mitchell's partner at Lincoln)
- Liam Bennett (prob too small for Jones).
- Euoghan O'Connell (was ok for us last time, done well at Wrexham).
- Semi Ajayi (ex Charlton youth, may know Jones.  6ft4)
- Amadou Mbengue (lots of energy, can play multiple positions).

Midfielders
- Sonny Carey
- Hector Kyprianou
- Mamadi Camara (winger)

Forwards
- Ricky Jade Jones


I would love George Wickens as keeper but he signed for 4 years at Lincoln last season so no chance.

Ajayi, yes, unless injury has slowed him down
Wickens, yes, bur as you say, under contract

A definite if we can possible get him, I don't know his contract status, is Malik Mothsille, Posh midfielder, he'll cost

Problem we have is that unless we go up, I reckon we'll lose the cream of our team .. Small, Jones Gilleshpey, Edwards, could all be in demand from Championship clubs.
As I have said before, Berry and Godden are getting no younger and will need careful management.
What we REALLY need and will be very hard to find, is a big 15/20 goal a season striker, and whoever he is, he'll be expensive

Small with leave but I think we keep hold of the rest. TC is another potential but if he did leave we’d get a big fee that could then be reinvested 

Braziliance said:

killerandflash said:

Braziliance said:

Callumcafc said:

Braziliance said:

Talk about missing the point. 

The two teams that have spent the most are up.
The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it. 

There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will. 

You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.

No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.

What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.

We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?

The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.

Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…

My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf. 

I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.

For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact. 

Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality. 

I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous. 

A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds. 

Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were. 

That was then, the current Wrexham sell out 12k every match and have commercial income (as per my post above) most Championship clubs can only dream of.

They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.

Exactly. That's my point.

It was extremely difficult to watch a club who were without being rude, nothing, non-league, only 5 years ago, to turning us over and securing promotion. All the talk was about them, we were just an extra, a non-entity billed as underdogs.

The half and half scarves, the build up of the game at the Valley, and then this.

Their average attendance was just 4k in 19/20.

So it's not really a case of "that was then". It's still very recent, they were a national league side in 2022/23. 

To see a club overtake us in such a short span of time, while also seeing what is meant to be our rivals secure a FA cup final, and the others make serious strides towards a championship play-off place, was genuinely vomit worthy. 

I'm at a point where I'm cheering on an oil club to stop a club that is so far ahead of us from lifting a trophy, and hoping our ex- Snake of a player, Scott Parkers team turns over our rivals just to not lose any more credit. 

There's a scenario that exists where we lose the play-offs, Palace win an FA cup, and Millwall will be in the play-offs. 

Dreadful.

Could be an age thing, but I never viewed Wrexham as being a non league club in the same way I never viewed Stockport or Notts County being one. Same way we don't view ourselves as being a league one club. They went through some shit years but this isn't a Dover or Welling we're talking about. 

I can't stand the Wrexham story, but it's mainly out of jealousy. It's what fans of lower league clubs dream of.

Braziliance said:

killerandflash said:

Braziliance said:

Callumcafc said:

Braziliance said:

Talk about missing the point. 

The two teams that have spent the most are up.
The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it. 

There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will. 

You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.

No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.

What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.

We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?

The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.

Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…

My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf. 

I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.

For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact. 

Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality. 

I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous. 

A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds. 

Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were. 

That was then, the current Wrexham sell out 12k every match and have commercial income (as per my post above) most Championship clubs can only dream of.

They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.

Exactly. That's my point.

It was extremely difficult to watch a club who were without being rude, nothing, non-league, only 5 years ago, to turning us over and securing promotion. All the talk was about them, we were just an extra, a non-entity billed as underdogs.

The half and half scarves, the build up of the game at the Valley, and then this.

Their average attendance was just 4k in 19/20.

So it's not really a case of "that was then". It's still very recent, they were a national league side in 2022/23. 

To see a club overtake us in such a short span of time, while also seeing what is meant to be our rivals secure a FA cup final, and the others make serious strides towards a championship play-off place, was genuinely vomit worthy. 

I'm at a point where I'm cheering on an oil club to stop a club that is so far ahead of us from lifting a trophy, and hoping our ex- Snake of a player, Scott Parkers team turns over our rivals just to not lose any more credit. 

There's a scenario that exists where we lose the play-offs, Palace win an FA cup, and Millwall will be in the play-offs. 

Dreadful.

Wrexham have been in the football league from 1921 to 2008 so hardly a nothing club. They've had battles with dubious owners trying to acquire the ground and close down the football club. They've worked long and hard and have had some setbacks on the way but are now riding the crest of a wave with good backers and football management.

Good luck to them. Would we turn down an opportunity like that? Seems to me that you think teams are not allowed to have some glory days.

Let's put Saturday into a bit more perspective. Yes, it was disappointing - as much because of the w*nkathon that was Sky's coverage and all but offering to tug off Ryan Reynolds live on air - but ...

A lot of us have referenced the Crawley match at home and what a low point that was, not just in terms of this season but in many a long year. After that game, our 17th of the season, we were in 13th place with only one win in six; four points off the relegation places, 17 (SEVENTEEN) points behind then-leaders Wycombe, 15 (FIFTEEN) behind Wrexham and eight points behind the play-offs:



Also note that Orient were in a worse position than us at that time.

Following the Crawley débacle we had a hard-fought 0-0 draw at Lincoln then an uninspiring goalless fixture at home to Mansfield before the season got a shot in the arm with the Northampton destroyation just before Christmas.

This is the table for matches played post-Crawley (h):



The top seven in this table are the current top seven in the full-season table (but not necessarily in the right order).

You can see how much Wycombe have fallen behind the pack and how well us and the Os have turned our seasons around to storm into the play-offs. That we have been able to not just get into the play-offs but to have had a sniff of automatic promotion is nothing short of a miracle. Orient's recovery has been pretty spectacular too. But then it's no being in a place in the Grand National after Becher's Brook on the first circuit, it's at the end of the second lap that counts!

blackpool72 said:

Garrymanilow said:

If this is the reaction to losing away at the second best team in the league after already securing our place in the Playoffs I really dread to think what it's going to be like on here if we don't go up. 

Plenty of fans see promotion as a success. 

Not getting promotion as a failure. 

I'm in that way of thinking myself tbh 

Me too. Nothing other than promotion is another failure in my eyes.

TheHerminator said:

golfaddick said:

TheHerminator said:

golfaddick said:

Bailey said:

PragueAddick said:

@Bailey

As I pointed out, Mullin and Palmer joined Wrexham in the National League. The more surprising thing is not that they didnt' make the starting XI yesterday, but that they still both played significant roles in getting the team to the brink of the Championship. Two more that have played significant roles are Elliott Lee and Eoghan O'Connell, both deemed by most fans to be not good enough for us when we were crap (I was one re Lee, but I thought O'Connell was unlucky with that injury and the chaos around him). And of course the current manager started with them in the NL  too. Wrexham therefore are not Birmingham. There is a fabric to that club which has been built up over the last four seasons in a quiet, professional way. The Hollywood stuff has been kept quite separate. It brings in the money which is handed over to the football pros. I agree with you that with so many very senior players on their books their summer window will be challenging. 

I don't know how best to answer your last sentence. What you will find is that, happy as I was, I was not one of those saying "no reason why we can't go and do something similar at Wrexham". Aneke's (unjust) red card was a major reason why I was cautious, because I knew we had no replacement who can bring what he brings. I like how Mbick is shaping up, but that was way too big an ask for an 18 year old yesterday. In the Jan window we all hoped Miles would come good and kick on. But hope alone doesn't get you promotion, you always need a plan B, and up front we don't have one now. 

My criticism Prague, especially of Golfies posts are that as soon as we lose, it's blamed on not buying strikers in the January window. You posted a few weeks back that you agreed with Golfie about our lack of goalscoring, until I pointed out that in the second half of the season we'd scored more than Wycombe and Wrexham. If there is a criticism of how we progressed through the season, it's probably that we took time to gel the side together and struggled to find goals in that time. To state that we should have paid millions in January to improve our goal scoring when we have scored more than both Wrexham and Wycombe doesn't make any sense, and to state that we lost yesterday because we didn't sign another forward in January is worse. That being the position that you and Golfie take, please tell me, who should we have scored more than ? 

Over 45 games we have scored less goals than any of the top 6 teams. In fact, there are only 2 teams in the top half of the table who have scored less goals than us.

And although it has been pointed out to me that GD does not usually matter when it comes to promotion or the play offs, we snatched 3rd on the final day in 2019 due to GD and this season we might have missed out on promotoon due to it as at 5.30 pm yesterday our GD was worse than Wrexham, Wycombe & Stockport. 

I am happy to eat humble pie when it is approproare, but if you really think that going into the play offs with Mbick (5  league appearance - 0 goals) and Kanu (58 league appearances - 7 goals) is the recipe for success then thats your choice.

It was obvious to anyone in January that we needed to strengthen in attacking areas - both up front & out wide. The club (according to NJ) were happy to run with less players & to rely on the youth if needs be. Well needs be and the youth (imo) are not up to it. 

I'm not saying we should have bought Sam Smith but I'm sure there were less expensive & more experienced strikers out there in the summer / january than what we brought on yesterday. 

And if you say we had 6 strikers already are you counting Hylton (who we only signed initially as an emergency) and the unfit Aneke who cant play more than 30 mins and certainly cant start a game. 

There is a poem titled...." for want of a nail" and I fear our season will end accordingly with the words..." for the want of a striker". 

1. You’re not happy to eat humble pie. You cry and leave the forum saying people are bullying you.

2. You pitch your posts as ‘I told you’ type affairs when all you do is moan in hindsight.

3. you’re a parody of yourself at this point and so boring it hurts.

What I take the greatest pleasure from is that you care so much about me that you troll hunt my posts after every match. I'm  touched.....I really am 😊.

It’s difficult to miss you. The sheer volume of dross you pump out makes it easy to find 

Sorry, but I think Golfie has been spot on for quite some time. We know that yet again when the  summer window closed we had gaps in the squad. In the January window we decided to trim the size of squad and didn’t use ii as an opportunity to bring in more quality. The two clubs with the deepest pockets have secured automatic promotion. 

 Jones has done really well to get us to the position we are in now with the investment provided. We just have to hope we can go into the play offs with a reasonably fit squad.

Garrymanilow said:

If this is the reaction to losing away at the second best team in the league after already securing our place in the Playoffs I really dread to think what it's going to be like on here if we don't go up. 

STAY AWAY... Thats my advice... RUN AND DONT LOOK BACK!!

blackpool72 said:

Garrymanilow said:

If this is the reaction to losing away at the second best team in the league after already securing our place in the Playoffs I really dread to think what it's going to be like on here if we don't go up. 

Plenty of fans see promotion as a success. 

Not getting promotion as a failure. 

I'm in that way of thinking myself tbh 

Same. Top 6 to me isn't an achievement, it's the bare minimum. 

Garrymanilow said:

blackpool72 said:

Garrymanilow said:

If this is the reaction to losing away at the second best team in the league after already securing our place in the Playoffs I really dread to think what it's going to be like on here if we don't go up. 

Plenty of fans see promotion as a success. 

Not getting promotion as a failure. 

I'm in that way of thinking myself tbh 

Oh I agree, but the reactions we've had after the Wrexham loss, all recriminations about transfer windows and point scoring from different posters for a match that didn't end our hopes of going up and at best would have put us still needing favours from other teams to get automatics, makes me worry about just how ready some posters are to deliver some mothership tantrums on here. Failure to win the Playoffs would mean the season was a failure, but we could also point to some excellent progress compared to the previous one and most of our players are still under contract for once. If we managed to carry our form since December into next season from the start we'd be on for over 100 points. It wouldn't make this season good but it would potentially set us up nicely for the next one. Based on the reaction to not beating Wrexham though I doubt much of that will filter through which is a shame

Progress has definitely been made but considering last season was our lowest position for 98 years it's a low bar.
The play offs are as always a bit of a lottery although I'm pretty confident we will do well.
My main concern if we don't go up is that expect 4 or 5 of our better players to leave and that will mean another rebuild. 
Anyway hopefully we go up , keep our better players and we can save any moaning until next season. 

oohaahmortimer said:

I repeat boringly for the thousandth time
Footballing wise we are in by far the worst period in our history 
at the same time our local rivals are having the best times in their history a triple shitshow all hitting the fan at once 
if you're not (football wise) fuming at all times then you're living in cloud cuckoo land 
third tier fuck off , shameful times 

Palace get to watch Eze, we’re forced to watch Karoy Anderson

oohaahmortimer said:

I repeat boringly for the thousandth time
Footballing wise we are in by far the worst period in our history 
at the same time our local rivals are having the best times in their history a triple shitshow all hitting the fan at once 
if you're not (football wise) fuming at all times then you're living in cloud cuckoo land 
third tier fuck off , shameful times 

I’m exhausted just imagining that.

This is what pissed me off - just watch the first ten seconds. 

How the hell has the lino not flagged for off-side. The corner from that resulted in the first goal.

I think (I'd had a beer) that this was the second time this had happened in as many minutes.

Not that it would have changed the result but if that isn't blatant cheating from the lino, I'm not sure what is.

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13356558/wrexham-promoted-to-championship-wrexham-3-0-charlton-athletic