Lincoln City 3 Charlton Athletic 1
That wasn’t even a half, it was about a 1/5th of game, the rest was a proper disappointment.
Luckily I was on a flight from Ft Lauderdale to Newark, so didn’t have to suffer it.
I feel sorry for the 600 that went up there, because that was a little bit of a jolt to those that were getting a bit over their ski’s.
We have won games, and scored goals, but Appleton has not got the side playing consistently not solved our defensive frailties despite an unbeaten run.
The early goal bundled in by Alfie May sounded just reward for a very good start. Before that we had caused problems, but Lincoln soon worked out how to suffocate our attacking threats, and deserved their equaliser.
The 2nd half was one of those many halves that we have witnessed this season and we were woeful by all accounts.
Even Appleton’s magic trick of throwing a load of subs on did not work.
We were going to lose sometime, but as always it is how you bounce back.
MoM: The keeper kept it respectable. AMB.
Appleton of my eye: He picked the team most of us would have wanted to see start, and Lincoln were not at full strength, yet his old club comfortably beat us. Lots to work on, and he would have learnt a fair bit about his players tonight.
Elsewhere: Blackpool move into the top 6 with a win over Cheltenham, who actually scored twice. Pompey were held at Cambridge and Wigan had the win of the night beating Oxford 2-0. Peterborough and Bolton both had excellent wins on the road at Port Vale and Wycombe respectively.
I can’t pick a single player who had a good game apart from AMB once the they snuffled out our wingers it was game over, there was no leadership on the pitch just blank looks after every goal went in…..one to forget !
It’s all my fault. I dared to express a tiny bit of confidence in the team after Reading.
I should have known better.
Was at game . Agree with you…… but Hector is a massive concern. Constantly loosing his man . Gets caught in no mans land , Always caught in possession as slow on ball or poor first touch…… Suggest he is the problem .
Credit to you Ray for making the journey. Agree with you on Hector – he is a critical individual error waiting to happen.
Normal service has been resumed then. No plan, no passion, no idea’s, no cut and thrust, no quality, no points . Still not sure about Appleton’s ability to see where changes need to be made during the 90 minutes.
This ‘blip’ in form will hopefully give the players a wake-up call.
Going 1-0 up maybe affected the players and we must not assume an easy win thereafter.
Credit to Lincoln who affectively stopped up playing and as a result won.
Bolton on Saturday will be a real ndication of where we are….fingers crossed.
Appleton and Karen have a training session at the Valley for the fans today, It will be more if a warm-down after last night.
Let’s hope Saturday we can get back on track.
I always read your very insightful posts and find myself agreeing with probably 95% or more of what you write. Today is a rare exception in that I don’t agree this was the team most wanted to see start. We will never win football matches, especially away from home, when we play one holding midfielder, one attacking midfielder and 4 forwards. Two wingers simply does not work as for long periods they have no involvement and against the better teams we are always exposed.
AMB kept the scoreline to 3 and was the only player to perform well. Left back had a poor game; right back is technically good and gives us much going forward but is young and needs to learn a lot defensively.
Defenders are made to look worse than they are by a non existent midfield which was totally overrun and leaves them having to try and mark both forwards and untracked midfielders.
Play 3 up top – May, Leaburn or Chuks, plus CBT switching around and playing both wings
And 3 in midfield – Dobbo, Camara and Watson – whereby the team will be more balanced, more solid and May (by far our greatest goalscoring threat) can then play more advanced instead of dropping deep to assist the midfield.
If I were an opposition manager I would just set up my team to sit back, low block, and hit Charlton on the break……and invariably it works. But not against a three man midfield and one winger.
Really good points Mike. Our past 3-4 managers have often been shown to be naive tactically and frankly put out disorganised formations especially on the road and last nights team was no different.
My comments related to certain players replacing other players, but you are right it did not give us the basis to grind out a result.
Hi CA Happy new year to you, I tried to respond to your post on the site but it would not go through, despite several attempts. I am only a manager at a low level but here is my take on Monday’s match: best regards Mike No one could fault the effort against Oxford. All the starting XI gave 100% for the shirt and presumably the manager too (though CBT was a few times lazy to get back on side or help his full back out). None of the starting line up had a bad game. Both full backs played very well, Hector was good, and as usual Dobson was our MoM. At half time we were optimistic. But second half there was only going to be one winner. Our wingers increasingly on the periphery and Kano, despite working hard, was isolated in attack. As the game wore on, unsurprisingly some of our players were totally worn out chasing after the ball most of the game. Substitutes were certainly needed but those that came on just made us even weaker. What’s the solution? Most of our players are good enough at this level and most would get into many of the other League one teams. The problem surely is the system and tactics! Every week we are overrun in midfield – yes we have made so many basic errors in defence, but if you never control midfield you will more often than not lose football matches, Playing two wingers can work for City, Arsenal or Liverpool because those teams dominate midfield, even having defenders stepping into the middle to add to the numbers. Keroy worked hard but is not yet at the level, and Chen, who scored a nice goal and should definitely have headed a second, is not a midfield solution either. Why is there such a need to play 4-3-3? Alfie May has been wasted wide right trying to play this way. I don’t think CBT touched the ball second half, as the game passed him by with our midfield unable to cope. By all means play with two wingers if you have 3 George Dobsons in midfield to win possession and thwart the opposition and drive us forward. Until that time can we please have an extra body in midfield – a hard working, tough tackling box to box midfielder. And put Alfie up top with another striker next to him. Oxford played 5 across midfield and hence controlled the match.
Happy New Year Mike and thanks for the comment.
It was amazes me that managers and coaches instill a formation on a squad and refuse to budge from it even if they don’t have the players to play it. This was the case with Adkins, JJ, Garner, Holden and now Appleton.
Hopefully a blip rather than a return to last year’s form.
When your goal keeper is MoTM you know you are struggling.
Nobody really had a shocker as in they need to be dropped although a few had a match to forget. Lloyd Jones has been in excellent form recently but tried to intercept a cross for their first and missed it. TC and Scott Fraser had the chance to show why they should be regular starters and did their cause no good. Miles Leaburn was too easy to isolate, Terrell Thomas struggled at left back – but we know he’s filling in until Tayo Edun returns etc.
Lincoln to be fair played well – they pressed intelligently and won a lot of second ball by just having players in motion and following up. We were just a bit over-run in midfield and plan A – get the ball to CBT didn’t work. On what looked to be a narrower pitch than the Valley he was just a bit too closely marked and ineffective and once he and TC were taken out the game we lacked a forward game.
Hopefully Michael Appleton now knows a little bit more about the strengths and weaknesses of his squad – I think we’ll see the return of Louie Watson and Tedic to the starting XI at the expense of other players.
Still one defeat does not ruin a season provided we bounce back.