Shrewsbury Town 1 Charlton Athletic 0
The first defeat under Jacko to an injury time goal that should have never have stood.
It was one of those days. The weather sucked, it was a terrible game, and 1,000 Addicks had to cross hell and high water to get their due to train cancellations. We did not play well, but did not deserve to lose, but lose we did, and now we have to see how Jacko responds.
It has been a disappointing week after the ecstasy of last Saturday. It reminds us of what a dreadful division this is, yet also of our limitations.
We are missing three centre-backs, a right-back and our main striker and top scorer is suspended. Jacko didn’t seem too enamoured with Stockley sat in the comfortable Charlton TV studio. He did let his team-mates down and we need to see a response from him.
The current squad is unbalanced. We have midfielders who can’t even get a game, yet lack strikers and defenders underlining the cock up of our summer transfer dealings.
I thought Clare did well again today but we missed Purrington’s intelligence in getting into good advanced positions. Souare was poor and we were very lightweight especially up front. Davison has failed to take his chance, but in fairness service into the front two was meagre. It was either tentative or off point and every cross was down the throat of Shrewsbury’s first line of defence. We desperately needed more care and ideas from Lee and Gilbey today.
A frustrating afternoon, but we didn’t deserve to lose. the referee was poor and should be embarrassed when he sees back the challenge on Dobson on the edge of the box before the ball fell to Udoh to score in the 93rd minute.
Still today was miles better than the car crashes we witnessed under Adkins. I’m happy to wait for Thomas to make his decision, but cut the spin and name dropping, it does not do you any favours.
Thomas now heads home and Jacko has a chance to use two cup games to bring a fresh desire from the players, resting one or two along the way.
Jacko: “Yeah, it was probably a foul. He was giving those fouls all day long. He’s nudged Dobbo in the back, it’s an easy one to give. I thought he gave those types of fouls all day long, so for him to not give it at the end is a bit bizarre. We’ve still got to deal with the situation. You have to deal with balls into the box, especially at that late stage of the game where you have to have that killer mentality. We switched off for a second and it has cost us.”
Photo credit: Kyle Andrews
Chicago Addick 
It was a dire encounter, not even worth watching. Both sides showed next to nothing throughout and you just had to know some sort of erroneous slip-up by either side would decide the match. Yes, the referee probably should have called the foul on Dobson, but on the other hand he did not have much to do with Charlton playing such dreadful, unimaginative, unproductive football over the course of the match. Johnny Jackson has them working hard, but the talent quotient is still lacking. The club still needs three or four impactful, quality additions if they are serious about making a concerted run for a playoff spot.
Bob – dreadful game of football reminding us that this is Division 3. Jackson needs to be appointed on how he has got this bunch at least playing for the shirt, but come May only Adkins and a disastrous summer transfer window will be to blame for any shortcomings.
Agree with you CA but can’t understand why Jackson won’t play Elewere, hes a centre back and played really well, hardly put a foot wrong when Adkins had to use him and actually kept Pearce out of the side? Which I suppose wasn’t really difficult considering how many fouls and free kicks Pearce was giving away at the time. Then Lavelle is bought and comes straight into the side and Elewere is completely dropped from the team, when he hadn’t really put a foot wrong.
Now we have a problem with injuries, but Jackson seems reluctant to play him and really can’t see why Gunter, as a makeshift CB is ahead of Elewere, when he is liabilty playing there the same as he was, when he previously played as a makeshift CB under Bowyer. Lets face it Gunter, struggles as a right back, which is normal position.
I’d like to see more of Elewere. Not sure he is in the Gomez or Konsa class, but we’ll never know unless he is exposed. Hopefully he gets two games this week.
Would like to see us go for Tucker at Gills in Jan. Pearce isn’t going to be around long term and I think we should offload Innis at the end of the season. We also need someone to compete with Stockley, a Stockton type maybe.
There’s not much I can add to other comments – looking forward we need a goalscorer to sign in January and maybe a central defender to cover for the injury prone Inniss. While Pearce has been in good form he can’t go on forever and Famewo will potentially leave at the season’s end, playing three centre backs means we need five in the squad. Muddling along by drafting in left/right backs into the centre of defence is asking for trouble. Maybe one or two players could go out on loan to balance the books?
These last two matches have been a test of Jacko’s management skills and hopefully he’s learned something from them. We have done this before – play well against good teams and then screw up when the weaker teams are in front of us – these outfits know that a draw is a result, so they are set up to play defensive football. We need to be a bit more aggressive and streetwise in how we play against these teams – Gunter got mugged by Stockton against Morecambe and we fell to a sucker punch against Shrewsbury. The goal shouldn’t have stood but referees in League One let a lot of those sort of challenges go.
If Jacko does get the job then one more signing I’d like to make would be to get a father figure/mentor in for him to discuss tactics and strategy and have someone on hand to bounce a few ideas off. Maybe Curbs or Chris Powell, who’ve been there and done it and wouldn’t be a threat.