POST-MATCH THREAD: Charlton Athletic v Stoke City: Wednesday 11th February 2026: KO 19:45

The power of having a LWB at LWB and Amari'i Bell existing. I said after the QPR game that I felt Jones should have brought TC on instead of Godden when Kelman came off and you could immediately see the effect it had with TC being free to run at players without worrying about his defensive duties and being able to run in behind off Dykes winning the ball in the air. We gave Stoke an absolutely miserable time, restricted them solely to playing wide and forced them to play with the ball in the air. We're better at that than them and it was no surprise eventually we bullied them into a defeat. We could have had more, we created some real clear cut chances but you only need to take one when you defend as well as we did and that little injection of pace at the end against a battered Stoke defence was too much for them. Sorba Thomas was a threat again but other than a couple of dangerous balls across that his teammates couldn't get near we were comfortable and it never really felt like we could lose, it was just a question of if we'd get that goal. I thought Docherty was superb off the ball as well, his return has mitigated some of the risks with Coady coming in as Coady takes up the right positions but Doc does the running off him to ensure he's not passed around and we're so much more solid as a result. A great 3 points

Uboat said:

Imagine living with Nathan Jones. I bet he can’t even win a game of Connect 4 without losing his shit. 

No not connect 4 - would always have to be a 5 at the back surely?

mayoboy said:

This is the starting team that played against Portsmouth a few weeks back

Kaminski, Gillesphey, Jones, Ramsay, Coventry, Hermandez, Bree, Anderson, Carey, Campbell, Olaofe

And this is the team that will probably play against Portsmouth on the 17th

Kaminski, Bell, Jones, Ramsay, Chambers, Docherty, Coady, Clarke, Carey, Godden, Dykes

Somehow in the middle of the season we have completely changed the team, regained confidence and momentum and playing some nice attacking football.

Keep Bell fit and playing Campbell, Dykes, Kelman and Godden up front and we should be OK.

I remember when it was called off I said to my brother that's not the worst thing in the world that could happen to us (of course bad circumstances I know) but for the team we had injuries and getting them back would give us a better chance.I really hope we go at them after tonight.