Charlton Athletic 1 Birmingham City 1
More points thrown away that now has us looking over our shoulder, when we should be nudging the play-off places.
On a positive note it was another good performance, and one that we can carry forward from others beginning at the turn of the year. Jack Butland kept Birmingham in the game but to score so late, which is rare for us in itself and to give it away was sickening especially since 3 points were vital on Saturday when I look at the next two away games.
It concerns me that the players naturally defer to defending a lead when they go in front instead of trying to get the ball further up the pitch. Powell’s formative coaching style reminds me of Curbs, but he needs to start taking a leaf out of his keeping the ball in the corner book.
Addick Bloggers at The Valley: Stickleback; Deepest Darkest; I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right; Blackheath Addick; Drinking During the Game
Powell-ometer: I don’t know, Chris is slated for bringing subs on late – your damned if you do, and damned if you don’tTo me he didn’t do much wrong apart from pick himself at left back and keep out the ball in from which they scored!
Elsewhere: The bottom 3 all won. Barnsley had won at Middlesbrough with Jason Scotland scoring the winner. Bristol City beat Forest 2-0 which would have pleased Sean O’Driscoll and the result of the day was from Peterborough, who beat Leicester 2-1. Cardiff’s point can then be seen as a great one as they are now 11 points clear after a goalless draw at Huddersfield. Wolves got a late point at home to Leeds, Ipswich lost at Blackburn and Wednesday and Derby drew. Watford and Palace shared the points on Friday night, Hull lost 1-0 to Brighton, Bolton left it late to beat Burnley in the Lancashire derby and Blackpool beat Millwall 2-1 thanks to a late goal from on-loan Nathan Delfouneso.
You reckon that was a good performance? Well you’re easily pleased. The game was dreadful and totally lacking in quality. Very little happened until the final five minutes of the game. You intimate that you let a poor goal in well so did we; two blokes totally unmarked at the far post. I could have scored from where Yann Kermogant was. The whole division is very average this season and that is probably being kind. Teams like Birmingham and Charlton are lower half teams and are where they belong in the league. I suspect they will finish up in similar positions come May. I wrote this season off well before Christmas and I’d suggest you do the same. Forget about the ply-offs because you’re not good enough as your record clearly suggests. Sorry to be blunt but these are the facts as I see them. Good luck for the rest of the campaign.
That’s very blunt Bazza but little to argue with. Our goal is consolidation and we lack any kind of consistency and don’t have enough quality to be up top challenging.
Interesting that you said the division is average and you’re not the first although I think generally we have struggled with the step up but then again a couple of years ago our teams were 2 divisions apart and I think our mutual squads emphasise that.
Going back to my post I guess I am just annoyed that we ‘threw away’ 4 points this season against your boys.
Best of luck for the rest of the season. What happened to Darren Ambrose by the way?
Darren Ambrose is a sicknote. Been injured for the longest time. Whilst I grant you that at St Andrews we were lucky to equalise and were pretty dire on the opening day, I don’t think you deserved any more than a draw on Saturday. The game was only worth 0-0 to be honest and the fact that a couple of very poorly defended goals were thrown in was a bonus for the assembled crowd. Read my take on the game for more detail:
http://www.joysandsorrows.co.uk/2013/02/view-from-the-south-charlton-athletic-vs-birmingham-city/