Yeovil Town 2 Charlton Athletic 2
How an earth? Absolutely cruising and in complete control at 2-0, we somehow contrived to throw it all out of the window!
They know how to piss you off don’t they? I was at the Atlanta Christmas Parade, happily cheering fat majorettes and high school bands whilst intermittently checking the action. Then in an instant I turned from Father Christmas to Mr Grinch. Damn you Charlton, damn you football, and damn you Twitter.
Today may not decide our season but it was a game we needed to win and to leave the West Country with just a point after throwing away a two-goal lead is distressing and my head is foggy now with thoughts asking if we are good enough to stay up with this group of players.
The trouble is our home form is so bad, that the players put pressure on themselves away from home, which is ridiculous. A point today if we’d performed better at home to Ipswich might have been accepted differently.
Where do we lay blame? A deflected own goal, a penalty. Was Cousins taken off to make us more watertight? Is that so unusual, was it over cautious again from Powell. Was Cousins injured? Hughes has come on and played that role so many times before and ended the game a hero.
Is Powell to blame? I am pretty sure those there were singing his name to the rafters after 73 minutes, then is it his fault we let in a deflection, give away a penalty and had the skipper sent off, all within 4 minutes?
One thing is for sure, we need to manage games better, the beginning, the end, a lead, or a chase. We are just not doing it, and teams, who last season feared us, now only smell fear.
Addick Blogger at Huish Park: Valley Talk; Ramblings of a Football Fan; Chris Powell’s Flat Cap.
Powell-ometer: Another sleepless night. Yes he bought the majority of players and picks the team and decides tactics, but not much he could do about those crazy 4 minutes.
Elsewhere: Burnley go back top after beating Barnsley 1-0, QPR are held goalless at home to Blackburn and Leicester lose again, 3-1 at Brighton. Derby are on a roll and thrashed Blackpool 5-1, Forest win at Sheffield Wednesday. Bournemouth won at Reading and Uwe Rosler watched Wigan lose at Millwall. A last minute winner gave Ipswich victory over Huddersfield and Leeds and Watford shared 6 goals at Elland Road. Bolton beat Doncaster 3-0 and Birmingham and Middlesbrough drew 2-2.
When did they fear us last season Chicago? It certainly wasn’t the first half of the season, but my memory plays tricks. Loved your bit about the Valley – some people do need reminding – but time moves on and we have a whole generation who only knew premiership football at the valley in the new stadium. Now that is something to fear if we truly have property developers lurking in the shadows. As for today, when I heard they had equalised I braced myself for the inevitable defeat – so I can convince myself it wasn’t so bad.
PS. I never look at the league tables until after Xmas, but I may make it Easter this time.
Pat – thank you for your comment on my Back to the Valley post. IF we get taken over and IF there is a stadium move in our future, then that will be a very emotional debate. I hope we, the fans, especially those that played a part, however small, in our move back to The Valley get an opportunity to debate it. The AVC is crucial.
Re my comment about being feared. Only once I think were we well beaten last season, and away from home we had some excellent results – against a lot of the top teams. Despite times of struggle I don’t think we were ever a walkover. Now, at least at the present, I sense teams smell weakness.
Cousins was taken off because he picked up a knock and it was sensible not to make the injury worse.