Sheffield Wednesday 1 Charlton Athletic 0
As gut wrenching as it was last night to concede with the last touch of the game, if we are honest we got what we deserved! Nothing.
Nothing summed up our night pretty succinctly other than Lyle Taylor’s incredible shot which hit the bar, we had to rely on Dillon Phillips to keep us level. Yet, for the sixth time this season we could not keep the ball out of our net in injury time.
Yes the referee had a shocker, but we just did not play well and appeared to be set up wrongly to get a positive result having to rely on sheer luck and not make our own positive contributions.
We are in the heat of a relegation battle as the teams below us are suddenly playing like Liverpool and must be bursting with confidence whereas others above us are straining to look over their shoulders.
We have to try to find some consistency, and the next three games are massive.
Addicks at Hillsborough:
Bow: “It’s not going to be hard to pick them up. They’re going to be disappointed tonight but they’ll be training tomorrow so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick them up.”
Elsewhere: That’s 3 wins in a row from Barnsley who won at Hull and 4 wins and a draw in Wigan’s last 7 as they thrashed Reading away 3-0. Leeds beat Middlesbrough at the Riverside. Stoke drew at in form Blackburn 0-0.
Photo: K_AndrewsPhotos
Chicago Addick 
I’m somewhat bemused that ESI and Matt Southall are not being more proactive in opening the coffers somewhat to perhaps bring in some solid replacement players, on loan or otherwise, for a few currently playing, who are not quite up to the task. I can’t believe the new owners would be prepared to have their Championship investment slide back down into League One. Southall was all guns firing a few weeks ago and now……..nothing being heard or seen.
Based on last nights poor performance, Bowyer will need to perform another miracle to stop our return to the Championship being a short lived one. We could have easily come away with a 4-0 thrashing.
It becomes more and more obvious that the recruitment in January window was ill judged we are overloaded with mediocre midfield players. Taylor and Bonne were starved of good service last night. Oztumer had a good game on Saturday but was very poor last night. After the build up given to McGeady when he joined he has sat on the subs bench for two games alongside Hemed who has proved totally ineffective. I have not seen enough of Smith to make a valid judgement but the fact that Bowyer didn’t use him in the last two games is worrying.
Phillips made two world class saves and continues to build his reputation To me he is as vital as Taylor if the club wants to progress next season whether in the Championship or as is becoming more likely Div1..Huddersfield have home advantage and an extra day to recover before Saturday’s game so I am not confident of the outcome. I would like to see major changes using a 4-3-3 line up with Taylor in a deep no.10 role behind Bonne and Green (as per Terry Sherringham) with Davison available from the bench. Midfield would be Lapslie Cullen and McGeady and the back four would be Matthews Lockyer Sarr (or Pearce) and Doughty. Having Taylor in a deeper position should allow him to support the mid field and hopefully give him more space to operate and if Bowyer changes to a mid field diamond Taylor could be at the tip.
I now hear that Lockyer is suspended for the next 2 games which is bad news as he has been our best defender this season. Let’s hope that Sarr and/or Pratley are fit otherwise we are down to the bear bones for Saturday. Maybe Toby Stevenson will get called up as he can play in central defence although he usually plays left back in theU23s.
You beat me to it. Lockyer to miss two games. We desperately need DP back.