Charlton women news - (2025-26 fixtures are on page 106)

EpsomAddick said:

Charlton 'Bare Minimum' Athletic strike again.

I assume Karen Hills made all those changes primarily because of Wednesday's exertions and because we didn't want to risk injuries to key players (though Jodie Hutton played the full 90 minutes), but if part of her thinking was to give fringe players a chance, none of them really took it. Amalie Thestrup showed why she has lost her place, Emma Bissell held the ball up well but has clearly adopted the Sonny Carey 'Shoot On Sight Even When Better Options Are Open' philosophy, Mary McAteer worked hard without posing much of a threat, and Katie Lockwood looked good in moments while never really taking the game by the scruff of the neck as she might have done. Slightly more positive were Anna Pedersen, who made a couple of saves in the first half and generally did what she had to do competently, Mia Ross, who kept things ticking over at the base of the midfield, and Lizzie Waldie, who did a solid enough job at left-back.

We only had one real chance on the first half, when Thestrup squared it for Bissell to fire a first-time shot over the bar. We asserted more control in the second half as Oxford tired, but it still took the introduction of Lucy Fitzgerald, Gillian Kenney and Karin Muya for us to really ramp up the pressure. Fitzgerald had a huge chance when clean through, but rather than shooting she tried to go round their keeper Wookey (yes, that really is her name), who dived at her feet and held on to the ball. The penalty came with about 15 minutes to go: Muya somehow managed to miss from about a yard out, and then an Oxford defender handled the rebound on the line and was sent off. With regular penalty taker Katie Bradley still on the bench, Fitzgerald stepped up to score into the bottom right corner. We kept Oxford at arms length after that without seriously threatening any more goals, and 1-0 it finished.

As with so many of our games this season, it wasn't pretty but it got the job done. Karen's gamble paid off as we gave some players a rest and got through without picking up any injuries. And we're in the FA Cup quarter-final, which this club doesn't manage very often.

COYA!

I would have thought that promotion is pretty much sown up so we should have prioritised the Cup, not the other way round. I think we need to lose 4 league games for the 3rd place team to catch us.....and having not lost at all in the League this season I would have thought that would be pretty hard going.

lordromford said:

AS1987 said:

Really not sure what we were thinking with the number of changes made. We are not a goal-scoring team and could have been in trouble had we gone behind.

Oxford United also have a stronger home advantage than most teams due to the 3G pitch.

If you change almost your entire team, you’re always going to be running the risk of a shock result. The 3G pitch added to this.
Hills took that risk. She gave some second choice players some game time, rested most of her first choice players (with those who did play only being on the pitch for 30 mins max), and got the result. All of these factors are positive. 

At the end of the day, the risk paid off. 

The League is priority. Apologies to the Cup lovers, but once we have secured Automatic Promotion then we can play our best players in the cup

JustFloydRoad said:

lordromford said:

AS1987 said:

Really not sure what we were thinking with the number of changes made. We are not a goal-scoring team and could have been in trouble had we gone behind.

Oxford United also have a stronger home advantage than most teams due to the 3G pitch.

If you change almost your entire team, you’re always going to be running the risk of a shock result. The 3G pitch added to this.
Hills took that risk. She gave some second choice players some game time, rested most of her first choice players (with those who did play only being on the pitch for 30 mins max), and got the result. All of these factors are positive. 

At the end of the day, the risk paid off. 

The League is priority. Apologies to the Cup lovers, but once we have secured Automatic Promotion then we can play our best players in the cup

I think that ignores the high likelihood of facing a WSL team next round. Getting through to the QF's is an incredibly helpful tool to see how we measure up to teams we are liekly to be facing next season. It would have been stupid to throw that chance away when we have a good buffer in the league

Garrymanilow said:

I think from a squad management perspective keeping the key players fresher for games that are decided on the finest imaginable margins is the sensible choice.

The International call ups could get in the way of this.

Garrymanilow said:

You would think that but I really don't think promotion is definite with this team. When you live on margins as fine as they do it's really not outside the realms of likelihood that they could stop winning games. They did it in Autumn last season - won their first 4, failed to win in October and November across 5 games getting 2 points from 15 and then went unbeaten for the rest of the season. They ended up 6 points off the top and that horrible 5 game wobble was the primary reason. Birmingham have been pretty consistent all season and Palace are starting to look very ominous, I still think the team will go up but if you told me that they would lose their next 4 games I wouldn't exactly challenge that as impossible. I think from a squad management perspective keeping the key players fresher for games that are decided on the finest imaginable margins is the sensible choice.

Agree with some of this: keeping key players fresh (like N'Dow, Whitehouse, Lobato and Flannery, none of whom played any part yesterday) is sensible, and I certainly think it's too early to say we have promotion sewn up.

In Autumn 2024, our terrible run coincided with the loss of Ellie Brazil to injury after she had played such a big part in our excellent start. We've already shown this season that we can overcome long-term defensive injuries to Skeels and Mason, and this really isn't a one-woman team in any sense, so I think even if we do pick up an injury now we have enough to handle it - though I wouldn't be averse to wrapping up Newsham and Hutton in cotton wool.

What we don't know is how we'll respond to losing a league game. The glass-half-full view is that after the one game we've lost this season (5-1 to West Ham in the League Cup, which came after that terrible 0-0 draw at home to Ipswich), we reacted by going to Newcastle and Sunderland and winning 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. The glass-half-empty view is that we're so unused to losing that it might completely throw us, damage the mentality we've cultivated and lead to our form falling off a cliff. Never say never, but I think it would take something going seriously wrong (more than just injuries, some kind of falling out in the squad after a defeat, or something else behind the scenes) for that to happen. Hills seems to be in the Curbishley mould - we all know the quote - so I reckon if we do lose a game, she'd be able to minimise any psychological impact on the team.

And even if we slip up, there would still need to be at least two teams who hit form to knock us out of the top two. Palace are definitely looking ominous, though they did lose to Southampton a few weeks back and still have to play us. I'm not sure you can say Birmingham have been consistent, as their four defeats have been spread throughout the season, along with a couple of underwhelming draws against teams lower down the league. Their game in hand is at Newcastle on Wednesday 18 March, which will be very tough.

For now, the players not on international duty just need to rest. This break has come at a good time.

kinveachyaddick said:

Surely we want a glamour tie at home in the next round?

We're at home to Liverpool in the quarter-final

I think that's a good draw - it's a chance to see how we measure up to a lower-ranking WSL side

So the Men has the Valley (on Friday) and Portsmouth is now postponed. Liverpool on Sunday then.

Would be a perfect pick for the Channel 4 game 

1 Mar: 2-week international break. England play Ukraine in Antalya, Turkey, on 3 March.
8 Mar: 2-week international break. England play Iceland at Nottingham Forest (12.30 ko) on 7 March.
15 Mar: Sunderland, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £7 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website.
22 Mar: Bristol City, away, 2pm. At Ashton Gate. £13 adult, £11 over-65, £11 under-22, £8.50 under-19, £6.50 under-12. Tickets from here.
29 Mar: Crystal Palace, away, 2pm. At Selhurst Park. £15 adult, £5 under-16. Tickets from here. Block B in the main stand is the away section.

No news as yet as to when the Portsmouth game will be fitted in. 

Saturday 7 March internationals:12.30pm England v Iceland at Nottingham Forest FC
4.30pm, Wales v Montenegro at Llanelli (Parc Y Scarlets)
5pm, Scotland v Luxembourg at Hampden Park
7pm, Northern Ireland v Turkey at Glenavon FC