Peterborough United 2 Charlton Athletic 1
This team feels so hard to love, or even like a little at the moment. You just cannot make mistakes like that and get away with it. They are not learning and are not good enough.
For 60 minutes if we weren’t good enough, then they were at least battling on a quagmire of a pitch, and doing enough to defend our lead given to us by a generous penalty converted by Washington.
Yet there just isn’t that spark, that capability, that look that gives us sat at home courage to believe that this is a promotion winning team.
You can’t knock the effort, that pitch was treacle and they faced a barrage of long balls, but we should have seen that game out. When Gunter somehow headed over, it wasn’t a case of ‘oh we’ll get another chance in a minute,’ it was ‘oh we are going to rue that.’
And we did, about 20 seconds later. Oshilaja and Pearce watched each other as the ball bounced in between them from a long hoof, and then raced to beat the other to it but just flicked it on to their player to race away and score.
After that gradually we fell to pieces as Bowyer sprinklered the pitch with substitutes hoping for someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck, but we just went into our shell.
Still we were level and Schwartz and Aneke were on so one lives in hope. Then with the ball high up the pitch, at their end, and in the corner, we contrived to lose it and they raced away whilst we galloped back like a lame horse, and Szmodics got his second. It wasn’t an easy finish, but sluggish defending helped him hugely.
And that was that. No obvious signs of desire, ambition or ability to stick some sort of promotion rival flag in the mud heap of ground. Just silly fouls given away, running around in circles and a lack of any composure. I was actually willing the final whistle.
Hard to blame Bowyer for that. We are not good enough. A Jackson Pollock picture of a squad splattered together last minute, but without the same aesthetic or value.
📢: “It was a horrible game to watch in horrendous conditions with a pitch that wasn’t playable. It became a bit of a battle that I thought we had under full control, but we made basic mistakes which are easily avoided and you can’t legislate for that as a manager.” – Lee Bowyer
🖊: Addicks Third Division Diary.
📷: @K_AndrewsPhotos
Chicago Addick 
It was definitely a “difficult” scenario what with the muck and whatnot, but Charlton, other than being granted a penalty, could not make anything really happen. I liked the squad at Bristol, with the absence of Pearce and Pratley. To me, those two are past it, error prone, too many desperate fouls and I would rather see energetic and enthusiastic kids with something to prove filling those starting positions. As well, I really don’t care to see Watson return. Shinnie got tagged with an error on a slip, but he is just getting himself back into the swirl. Of course, Pearce was involved in allowing the first goal. Bring on a couple of new signings, have the return of our two injured centre backs and it is a much better squad. We are still in the mix to grab an automatic playoff position if a winning run could be engineered. There is nobody in this division who stands head and shoulders above anybody else.
Pearce should not play again. Great pro, but not good enough for this level anymore sadly. I thought overall Deji did well, the goal calamity aside.
Pratley is a free-kick waiting to happen, but he does have a presence in the team and works his socks off.
The difference in strikers, their guy had two one on ones and put them both away. I doubt very much that our strikers, apart from Schwartz perhaps, would have been so clinical!
It’s a shame that header fell to Gunter. Just summed up my overall disappointment with him since he’s been here.
I thought you didn’t change a winning side? But what do I know?
I think we all have to be a bit more patient (and yes, I am aware I used the word ‘crap’ about 4 times in another post). This is not where Bowyer/Gallen wanted us to be in terms of personnel but because of the debacle(s) behind the scenes they have done the best they can.
I think we are going to click and then watch us fly. My only reservation is the reliance on loan players (once again) who are not going to stay. Its no good them getting us up and us having to build yet another new squad for the championship – we should be doing that before we go up. Think about it – who would be left to start next year in the 2nd division???? And who would be good enough? But perhaps with the wage cap the only way we can build is to go up and then cling on for dear life. Honestly – I hate this division so when we leave it I don’t want to be back again.