Charlton Athletic 1 Southend United 1
Very disappointed with that. It’s still bugging me now. At least my hangover has gone. 70 minutes against 10-men, we’d waste time in the same situation, and we couldn’t find the second goal. Lots of huffing, puffing and effort but ultimately not good enough again. No pressure Lyle..
So that’s just 2 points from 9 and a different mood is enveloping us now to that of a few weeks ago as Luton look unstoppable and Barnsley are putting a very nice run together.
An unfortunate goal to succeed with a couple of deflections, but Chris Powell wouldn’t have been happy with youngster Yearwood’s tackle. Straight red for the 18-year old in the 27th minute.
Bowyer tried Mark Marshall up front, and it didn’t work. Bow accepted that but was critical of both Marshall and Tarique Fosu, who is showing at the moment why he could never break through at Reading. If we can find last season’s Tarique we have a chance.
Igor’s not ready, Hackett-Fairchild is not good enough, yet, but Josh Parker picked up some half decent reviews for his 2nd half cameo as Bow went for it.
After Reeves scored we had a fairly long spell of pressure and corners when we had to score again. We didn’t and as it was Southend who looked more likely at the end. Disappointed. There. I’ll say it again.
Addicks at The Valley: I could be wrong, I could be right;
Bow: “Tried it. Didn’t work (on Marshall up top). I had to try something. At the end of the day we’ve lost 30 goals from our two strikers in the last two games.”
Elsewhere: Luton are simply unplayable at the moment, and you have to wonder if a bad run will actually come. They beat Wycombe 3-0 at home. Barnsley won well at Gillingham 4-1. Doncaster came from behind to beat Peterborough 3-1, Oxford equalised late at home to Sunderland and Plymouth held Portsmouth.
Chicago Addick 
I thought team selection was poor. I saw Vetokele playing for U23s 10-12 days ago and it was obvious that he was weeks away from being fit enough for league football. Playing Marshall as co-striker was not logical. Hackett-Fairchild was dropped somewhat unfairly after playing last week as a lone striker a task that the previous week had proved beyond Grant. I would have started HF with Parker up front. Fosu has looked well below form in the U23s and did not deserve to start. Overall the team was too lightweight but options are limited.Although Reeves scored he gave away the ball which led to Southend’s goal and gave an ill judged pass to Williams who was immediately clattered.
We tried and tried and tried and perhaps just tried too hard. We also seemed to play a slightly different formation with wide players pinging over crosses but no one getting on the end of them. Their goal was unfortunate but we gave the ball away too easily to create the opportunity in the first place and the red card was deserved – studs up and a tad late and reckless. Poor old Jonny he seems to cop a lot of those sort of tackles but he wants to drive forward with the ball and so those challenges will come. Next week Taylor is back and hopefully refreshed and Vetokele will be a bit fitter.