Charlton Athletic 0 Huddersfield Town 0
“Often when something is new people suspect it, but I will just focus on my qualities.”
Life after Chris Powell didn’t look much different. José Riga selected a side not unlike one Powell would have picked, there was lots of commitment and effort and we still can’t score for toffee.
Riga did begin with Sordell up front, who sounded lively but missed a couple of golden opportunities to give us the three points we desperately needed. Thankfully Hamer was chosen over Thuram and Riga also picked AA and Reza to start. Mind you if Powell had taken off the Iranian for Pritchard with half an hour left the Powell haters would have gone epileptic!
The general feeling is that it was better but I can’t help but feel it was an opportunity lost against an average Huddersfield side. I’ve no idea if José has heard much about The Den, but I think Saturday might be quite an initiation.
Afterwards in the press room the gathered hacks, most of whom probably had to Google directions to The Valley, grilled Riga, who skipped around the questions quite nicely but did announce that he doesn’t have a contract and knew nothing of the job until Monday!
Smart in a suit, not as smart as his predecessor, obviously, the Belgian relied on the help of Alex Dyer and Damian Matthews. This must be a very weird time for them.
Riga now has more time with the players this week before we cross South London on Saturday. Perhaps Riga never hearing of them will be a good thing. To coin a Roly-ism, we’ll wait and see.
Finally to hear The Valley rise as one to salute Chris Powell in the 3rd minute makes me proud to be one of you. Come on you Addicks.
Addick Bloggers at The Valley:
Have you done any work over the past two days? Never seen so may blogs posts from a Bermuda based Addick allegedly working in the world of insurance!
PS I agree with just about everything you’ve written.
How are you Steve. Ha, that is quite perceptive and yes it is playing havoc with my day job!
Tuesday was one of those days. I was bored. Guesthouse about full but nothing going on for me to get involved in. Was half-expecting something to happen re CP following the well-documented cryptic tweets and sure enough, after an afternoon nap, it all happened and the rest of the day flew past as I was glued to Charlton Life, Twitter and various other sport related websites.
Still gutted about Sunday’s performance and CP’s ignominious departure. I was so looking forward to him leading the team out at Wembley. Still, things change and not always in the way we like.
As for me, all good here. Bloody hot, very dry, which is good for business (hopefully the water supply on the island doesn’t run out) and the staff are busy even if I’m not (quite a few in for breakfast as I am writing this).
Won’t get to another game this season and probably not until the end of next as I’l be in England in July.
Style of play was noticeably different, although lack of a goal or two was oh so familiar. Hamer and the centre half’s were obviously told to pass from the back with full backs doing similar and trying to get forward wherever possible. Our weakness is in the middle of our team far too pedestrian with a lack of guile and creativity. Signs look promising but games are running out, this Saturday I firmly believe will be pivotal to what division we are playing in next season.