One up front

Yesterday’s game for Paddy sounded a bit of a bore, the legendary Addick deserved better, but a friendly is just that and in the greater scheme of things the 90 minutes were just another piece of Chris Powell’s pre-season jigsaw as he takes them into this important final week before we go to Bournemouth.

Even though I purchased a ticket, the wrist slitting amongst some of Addicks last night was a timely reminder why a gave up pre-season friendlies a couple of decades ago.

In saying that the crowd was very disappointing, and there could be a number of reasons for that but 132 from Inverness was a wonderful effort and I saw that one group that travelled down from the Highlands actually upgraded their tickets to the corporate area once they heard it was to benefit an old pro. Very honourable indeed.

As my Mother reminded me not all Addicks were witness to Paddy’s fine trickery, a lot of which was played out in front of a sparse East Terrace in the 80’s. Still, it’s a few quid for Colin and there will be some other events during the season. On the other hand it’s quite disgusting to think that Rio Ferdinand will earn over £2m from his testimonial, he has even sold the TV rights. I guess he needs the money.

Typical of course that the Addicks lose their only home friendly but just as Terry Butcher won’t now be expecting a tilt at the SPL title, Powell shouldn’t be laying awake worrying about relegation.

He has more immediate concerns and his post match comments were a little demoralising “It’s no secret we need to improve the [striking] area and I am hoping I will be allowed to do that.” Powell not for the first time deliberately choosing his words which may or may not have Tony Jimenez and Michael Slater chewing over them this morning with their cornflakes.

Without any public comment from either, supporters, many thousands who’ve stumped up money for season tickets, are clueless to the club’s blueprint for this season. Instead the owners have tended to rely on Powell to allay the fears of the club’s fans. Yesterday, it sounded as if he has had enough of that.

With Kermorgant his only senior striker, Powell has little option but to play 4-5-1, but a lack of funds have meant he still hasn’t addressed the need for a nippy playmaker, essential to optimise this system for us. I would think he would also like another wide player, but I’m pretty sure he is long way down his original draft of summer transfer targets.

It’s incredulous that we have got ourselves into this position with less than a week to go before the opening game of the season. The release of Haynes, BWP and Wagstaff on the face of it smells of insanity and the only truly ‘new’ player signed is a centre-back.

If a striker or strikers are signed this week, undoubtedly they will be free agents and way behind on pre-season fitness. Perhaps any money available should be spent on cotton wall to wrap Yann Kermorgant in.

Piggott’s entry late on yesterday appeared to give the side more balance, but I don’t expect him to start for Powell anytime soon.

Piggott got another chance today in the 2-1 defeat to Steve Brown’s Ebbsfleet, although he began on the bench with Simon Church starting as well as another trialist Adam McGurk, who was at Tranmere Rovers before being released. It was a pretty strong side that played in the 1st half yet were 0-2 at the break. Improvement by all accounts only came when the side was mostly made up of academy players in the 2nd half. Richard Wood scored our goal.