Wigan Athletic 2 Charlton Athletic 1
A much better performance than Tuesday but the same result at Wigan this afternoon.
With no Aneke, Washington, Stockley, or Scott Fraser we were always going top be up against it. The assumption was that Famewo missed out due to loan numbers. Jacko kept to his 3-5-2 but there were more centre-backs on the bench than in the team. I’m all for having a philosophy, but you also need the players.
We can question recruitment again on this front, or any sense of long-term planning which doesn’t seem to be Sandgaard’s forte….
For the first twenty minutes we were excellent but unable to keep up the consistency of pass and move when in possession and the quick press when out.
Elliott Lee on his return scored a great team worked goal and we were very unlucky not to add a second when Gilbey hit the post, but after getting away with a good penalty shout on Purrington, we then needlessly gave away one, and from 12 yards they were back in it.
I thought we weathered the storm pretty well afterwards though and went in at half-time in a good place. In fact another referee may have given us a penalty when Inniss had his shirt pulled off his back at a corner.
The 2nd half was pretty flat from both sides, but we were unable to impose ourselves in midfield, were powderpuff upfront and our defence always has an error in them.
So it came to pass as MacGillivray should have come for a corner, yet stopped midway and they scored. Another set piece conceded.
Frustratingly with still 15 minutes left plus added time there was no cutting edge, creativity or much of anything to be honest to get us back into the game.
I thought Inniss and Dobson were our best players and 17-year Daniel Kanu got on for his debut. I’m not actually sure he touched the ball, but did get booked. It was one of those days.
Jacko: “We’ve come here and more than matched them for good parts of the game, but we’re coming away with nothing again, so it’s disappointing.”
Chicago Addick 
CA Just not good enough yet another loss against a team that has not won for 6 games, Charlton are always the fall guys who lose against a team that is in a bad run!
This team are only slightly better than last year and we were mostly dreadful last season, we may have been only one point off the play offs, but apart from the top few, most teams were really poor and we would have really struggled to beat anyone if we had made it into the top six!
It will be interesting to see who Jackson gets rid of as none of the loanees are worth trying to get back for next season and quite a few of the current first team players need to be shifted out pronto as soon as the season has ended.
Why is Gilbey still in the team he does absolutely nothing, his defending is abysmal and his end product is non exisitant, get rid of. Pearce too slow, it is now getting embarrassing how many times he has to rugby tackle players who ghost past him. Watson just go your just collecting your money for doing nothing. Matthews, Gunter, Souare and Henderson just not up to it.
So that leaves us with MacGillivray, Dobson, Clare, Morgan, Fraser, Jasyiemi, Stockley, Washington, Lavelle, Blackett Taylor and Elerwere, who for some reason Jackson won’t give any game time to, considering our porous defence. Plus two part time players Aneke and Inniss who can’t play a full season between them!
So we need about another 9 to10 players if we are to challenge for anything next season.
PS Though I bet in the last few weeks, some of these players who think they are on the way out, will put a real shift in for the last few games to try and earn an extended contract, which knowing Charlton, they will probably give them, but then will revert back to their old self for the next season, once they have signed on the dotted line.
The recruitment in January was not good enough as it was obvious that we were going to be short of strikers. It transpires that Stockley’s injuries are significantly worse than disclosed. Displaced discs pressing on a nerve are surely not difficult to identify. Washington seems to regularly pick up minor injuries that means he misses games. Burstow is very promising but physically immature and should only be used as an impact substitute in the last 20-30 minutes of games. It comes as no surprise that Aneke is unable to cope with two games a week, Leko is a pale shadow of the player that he was before his injury two seasons ago. Davison is the only player who seems to avoid regular injury problems but he is out on loan. I have seen Kanu several times and in my opinion is not ready for senior football as he is not physically mature and his technical game outside the penalty area has not developed enough.
I was amazed that John was on the subs bench as he looks like a promising U18 who needs time to once again physically mature. Chris Powell was a good manager but did not handle the development of young players well e.g Grant and Pigott.