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

up_the_valley said:

After being so far ahead. We're going to lose the title to Birmingham aren't we? Is it the top 2 that go up?

The title isn’t the issue. Promotion is.

lordromford said:

up_the_valley said:

After being so far ahead. We're going to lose the title to Birmingham aren't we? Is it the top 2 that go up?

The title isn’t the issue. Promotion is.

TBF that was the second question in my post.

The international break killed the momentum we had. Four points needed from two now. Or one for the playoff, but it's hard to see us getting a result against Leicester or whoever if they get relegated if they lose.

panther10 said:

Trying there best not to go up attitude 

"their"...😉

Tbh, I’ve watched the women’s team on stream 3 or 4 times now and, in every case, the opposition look better (even when we’ve scrambled a win).

Were we in a false position that’s now unraveling itself?

The way this season is ending, it's gonna be the worst case of shitting the bed, since Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.

Really hard not to feel despondent after that. Palace deserved the win, and in several respects were comfortably better than us.

We can never build up any moves through the midfield. One of the defenders will get the ball at the back, play a long ball into the channel for a striker to chase, and hope that something comes off. It nearly did early in the first half from Thestrup's lob, but 99% of the time it won't work. The thing is, we kind of have to do it, because our midfielders aren't on the same level as other midfielders at our promotion rivals. Flannery is great at mopping up but she isn't someone who can dictate the play, and Bradley is just too lightweight - whatever good things she does, she then almost invariably gets knocked off the ball or finds another way to lose it. I'd love to have a player like Blanchard, their number 17, in our team: someone who can get into positions between the lines, hold on to the ball when she gets it and create something. Just look at their third goal, which is the kind of incisive football we're basically incapable of.

Another example of the issues we have is Mary McAteer. I know I'm being really harsh to single her out, because I thought she had one of her better games for us today (and I'm by no means blaming her for this defeat), but she is so small and physically weak compared to pretty much every other player that it almost makes the moments of skill she produces redundant. Fitzgerald has a similar issue, and when two of our key attacking players are as easy to win the ball off as they are, it means our attacking threat is minimal. Lockwood hasn't made any kind of discernible impact either, seeming to be very much in the same mould as Bradley. Obviously I don't know what happened behind the scenes in the January window, but it would beggar belief if we didn't try to bring in someone who can at least give us more physical presence in midfield and win the duels, especially after the positive impact that Atlanta Primus had when we brought her in last season.

It is worth remembering that we don't have the same budget as the other teams vying for promotion, and we can't call on the same WSL experience that Palace can, both in the players they had last season and the likes of Hayley Ladd, who they signed in January. It feels like we were punching above our weight to get ourselves into such a strong position, and to be falling away now is tough to watch. We're conceding a lot more, we've completely lost the aura of invincibility we had (we'll lose top spot if Birmingham beat Sunderland on Wednesday), and - as has been the case throughout the season - we don't have it in us to create the chances to make good the goals we concede.

We can still do it. But we're going to have to dig very, very deep to get something from Southampton and/or Birmingham.

Surely you can see this season is going exactly the same way the last 2 have? It’s down to the person in charge.

Why are you so keen to make excuses?

if the owners cared about the women’s team she would of been sacked a long time ago. Why do us Charlton fans settle for being mediocre? 

Posters were questioning my judgment last year and I was right. I want the women’s team to be successful, they have all the tools to do so. 

Not a great time of the season for it go to pear shaped. 

Needs to be some sort of internal inquiry at our recent drop off in form. 

Ipswich - second bottom, scraped a late draw.
Oxford - league below, scraped a win via a penalty.
Portsmouth - rock bottom, lost 2-0.
Sunderland - won but only had 4 shots.
Bristol City - lost
Palace - lost

One potential positive is that Southampton who we face in our next game, won't have anything to play for. So whatever the current issues are we need to get a win there, to make our lives easier on the last day. If us and Birmingham are both on 44 points and Palace are on 41 heading into the last game then us and Birmingham can play out a nice convenient little draw and all go home happy.