POST-MATCH THREAD: Charlton Athletic v Sheffield United: Saturday 17th January 2026: KO 15:00

TheHerminator said:

Garrymanilow said:

We’ve gone from ‘I’ll take 21st any way possible’ at the start of the season to whining about winning very quickly, well done everyone. We’ve gained ground on Oxford, West Brom and Blackburn today while beating a team who I don’t think we expected to get 6 points off this season all without a functional LWB and missing some key players. I’ll definitely take it. It’s a good day

It’s mad isn’t it. 

Also people seem to have forgotten how well we played at the start of the season and assume we can never regain any of that form.

a football season is ups and downs. More downs than ups recently but we won’t play that poorly again this year I’ll bet 

It would be hard to play that badly again, but not impossible. We got some good results early in the season but only one where we really played well, against Blackburn. Our other wins were based on a tough defence, which once it got hit by injuries, exposed the midfield and forwards as inadequate.
Our best bet for survival is that Bell/ Edwards are back in the side soon and the rest of our semi-crocked defenders manage a semblance of fitness. Either that or we bring a fit player in. If we are relying on the  midfield of Berry, Doc, JRC, Anderson ( never again) Knibbs and Carey then we are done for.

When we are deep into injury time with only one or two phases of play left, the 9 men get a chance to launch a long throw deep into our box. It’s a leveller,  anything can happen with these long throws, makes no difference if you have 9 or 11. 

I now remember why I don’t read
post match threads often anymore. We are not Brazil, not pretty to watch but 4 point against Coventry and Sheffield United!!!!!!!!

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

Only Charlton fans can complain about how we won, when we're in a relegation battle.

Out of interest, were you there @superclive98 ?

I was. In fact, because of the shit trains, I haven't even made it home to Broadstairs yet.

Then (not being personal), I honestly can’t believe anyone present who sat through that hasn’t got serious concerns at the direction our play and confidence is going in, or highlight the fans as being negative as a key takeaway. 

Given the circumstance, I thought the fans were great. If Jones or anyone thinks a crowd of football fans isn’t going to voice some frustration when they are playing so badly and negatively during a bad run, then they are in cloud cuckoo land. I’d rather highlight that despite what was on offer, the fans continued to sing Nathan Jones red and white army throughout. 

At the end of the game, the team felt embarrassed to celebrate and there were no fist pumps. The manager scarpered quickly. Our goal keeper was man of the match in a game we played against 9 men for more than half of it. The away team got a standing ovation from their fans. 

It was awful. Everyone is hugely thankful for the three points, particularly given other results, but we’ll see in the next few games whether the double sending off was just the bit of fortune we’ve been needing, or a very temporary papering over the cracks. 

I thought it was fairly clear from the team sheet that we saving personnel for the game Tuesday which on paper was more winnable - not saying if that is right or wrong but with the defensive line up, holding back Coventry, tanto, doc, even ibs not on the bench - I think NJ had already written this one off and was hoping for a 0-0 

them going down to 9 exposed the lack of proper preparation for Sheff U today.

killerandflash said:

llama_child_21cws said:

killerandflash said:

llama_child_21cws said:

Diebythesword said:

Worst performance this season, even worse than Southampton. Bizarre united threw it away completely, I’d be livid if I was a blade. You could see Clarke being exasperated by the lack of running etc when we had the ball. 

How can it worse than Southampton when we kept a clean sheet?

 Because we played over 45 minutes against NINE men?

But we kept a clean sheet in the first half against a side that looked really good in attack with Bamford. Lots of positives to take imo

A half when we had ZERO shots. At home.

Yes Kaminski played well, but when your keeper is your best player,  that's hardly something to celebrate. 

Not just zero shots, zero touches even in their penalty area. Has that ever happened before?

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

Only Charlton fans can complain about how we won, when we're in a relegation battle.

Out of interest, were you there @superclive98 ?

I was. In fact, because of the shit trains, I haven't even made it home to Broadstairs yet.

Then (not being personal), I honestly can’t believe anyone present who sat through that hasn’t got serious concerns at the direction our play and confidence is going in, or highlight the fans as being negative as a key takeaway. 

Given the circumstance, I thought the fans were great. If Jones or anyone thinks a crowd of football fans isn’t going to voice some frustration when they are playing so badly and negatively during a bad run, then they are in cloud cuckoo land. I’d rather highlight that despite what was on offer, the fans continued to sing Nathan Jones red and white army throughout. 

At the end of the game, the team felt embarrassed to celebrate and there were no fist pumps. The manager scarpered quickly. Our goal keeper was man of the match in a game we played against 9 men for more than half of it. The away team got a standing ovation from their fans. 

It was awful. Everyone is hugely thankful for the three points, particularly given other results, but we’ll see in the next few games whether the double sending off was just the bit of fortune we’ve been needing, or a very temporary papering over the cracks. 

Very good post. I wasn't there but it seems to sum up what 99% of posters have said on here this evening. 

jimmymelrose said:

llama_child_21cws said:

IR94 said:

Dazzler21 said:

Chris Powell comes to mind. Sometimes you have to win ugly. 

With jones every win is ugly

Jones didnt even stay and clap the fans today. He is upset with the negativity, it looks like! 

Jones doesn’t understand that football is supposed to be entertainment for people. He seems to think that when we go to a match we are, like him, going to work. I admire his work ethic but hate his football. As far as he’s concerned he should earn his pay, keep us up, and shut up.

Football is a results business. We just been promoted to Championship, how are we meant to play tika taka 6 months in? Need to focus on staying up. Look at Millwall 10 years or so in the Championship building a base for a promotion push that they are doing now. Expecting too much too soon imo

Big shout out to Kaminski who made two unbelievable saves before Sheff United capitulated with the two red cards! Less said about the performance but we got the job done against a very good Sheffield United team, who even with 9 men, looked decent and defended well against our tepid attacks. 

Manic_mania said:

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

AFKABartram said:

superclive98 said:

Only Charlton fans can complain about how we won, when we're in a relegation battle.

Out of interest, were you there @superclive98 ?

I was. In fact, because of the shit trains, I haven't even made it home to Broadstairs yet.

Then (not being personal), I honestly can’t believe anyone present who sat through that hasn’t got serious concerns at the direction our play and confidence is going in, or highlight the fans as being negative as a key takeaway. 

Given the circumstance, I thought the fans were great. If Jones or anyone thinks a crowd of football fans isn’t going to voice some frustration when they are playing so badly and negatively during a bad run, then they are in cloud cuckoo land. I’d rather highlight that despite what was on offer, the fans continued to sing Nathan Jones red and white army throughout. 

At the end of the game, the team felt embarrassed to celebrate and there were no fist pumps. The manager scarpered quickly. Our goal keeper was man of the match in a game we played against 9 men for more than half of it. The away team got a standing ovation from their fans. 

It was awful. Everyone is hugely thankful for the three points, particularly given other results, but we’ll see in the next few games whether the double sending off was just the bit of fortune we’ve been needing, or a very temporary papering over the cracks. 

I thought it was fairly clear from the team sheet that we saving personnel for the game Tuesday which on paper was more winnable - not saying if that is right or wrong but with the defensive line up, holding back Coventry, tanto, doc, even ibs not on the bench - I think NJ had already written this one off and was hoping for a 0-0 

them going down to 9 exposed the lack of proper preparation for Sheff U today.

I don’t think it was clear as Jones had never adopted a weekend / midweek squad utilising strategy, even over a congested Xmas period. Derby are also above Sheff U in the league so it was hardly a Arsenal / Wolves conundrum 

Jones is out to lunch if he’s unhappy with the fans, but we also know his skin is paper thin sometimes and he uses that sense of indignation to fuel himself. I wouldn’t read too much into it.

We’ve been in a bit of a hole recently so I can’t blame him too much for reverting to type and focussing on the basics and being compact and hard to break down first. Debatable how well that was working today, though, until the sending offs.

My worry is we are going too far in that direction though. Early season we continued to look like the Charlton we saw post Northampton away last season. Increasingly we are starting to look like early 2024/25 Charlton and the football is becoming turgid. In terms of tactics, approach, shape, and individual form, we do seem to have lost our way and things have started to become a bit muddled. This has been partly characterized by a fair amount of chopping and changing of the team (not all of which has been enforced) which I think has also unsettled us a bit too. Our intense press has been a bit absent and, without it, teams are finding it pretty easy to defend against us. I can’t believe all our problems are solely down to the left back issue, although it does remain a huge problem.

Jones has huge credit and I would retain him even if we go down, but I think he and the team need a bit of a reset of mindset and approach.

Chunes said:

Posting without reading. I felt like tonight was probably a night to stay off of CL because of the inevitably obvious car crash between the optimists and the realists. But oh well, let's not pretend this site isn't an addictive dopamine hook that can be avoided. 

I thought we were so incredibly lucky to not be 4 - 0 down early on the first half. Kaminski singlehandedly kept us in it. It took two sendings off for us to scrape the win.

It's so weird that we won, and yet it's the first day of the season that I thought to myself... We really could go down. I hadn't thought it was a possibility before today. I genuinely thought we had enough. But now, I'm really not sure. 

And that last point is what NJ did not address in his interview.

Croydon said:

superclive98 said:

DamoNorthStand said:

superclive98 said:

RonnieMoore said:

First half Sheff Utd started as expected front foot , full of confidence the good thing was we stayed in the game .. i do question NJ team selection in midfield and that caused us issues the whole game .. Anderson ?? the only reason we were in the game at HT was Kaminski… two or three excellent saves and was clear MOM … then the sending offs and the changes …. Don’t think NJ done enough at ht we should have stretched the play but didn’t .. good goal

from Carey after knock down from Dykes .. but then we got it wrong , don’t get me wrong Sheff Utd never looked like scoring second half but we didn’t go for the kill .. we did not keep procession well enough especially at the back , the crowd did not help and when played the ball forward Sheff Utd coped well which is what they wanted .. Campbell had no one marking him at all and he had so much space and time yet again failed to deliver a killer cross he was poor .. why oh why Apter not playing .. .. we huffed and puffed but it got a little nervous cause it was a massive result .. at the end of the day it was massive 3 points against a team who were in top form .. does not matter how you get it , performance it’s about winning and we did .. we seen it thousands of times that sending offs effects the other team more … but today I think NJ got it badly wrong both in starting line up and at ht with the subs and his game management through the second half

Massive clown.

If anyone other than the OP had written that, you wouldn’t have said that. There have been countless other posters saying similar on this thread.

Ronnie says some bizarre stuff sometimes but that’s a blend and mix of opinions from every other post on here. Don’t see the problem with it 

Believe me, I would.
How he can berate TC after that performance is beyond me. He terrorised them and changed the game.

He's OTT on TC but so are you. He terrorised them with his first touch when he went past his man and won a corner, but then he spent the next 30 mins putting in awful crosses and wasting good field position. He did then have a great run at the death to wind the clock down. 

TC is our only attacking outlet, as is always obvious when he is not in the side, as today. He is not perfect but without him we have nothing, sadly.