Charlton Athletic 0 Bolton Wanderers 2
Bolton have long had the mark on us, and yesterday was no different as they won at somewhat of a canter at The Valley.
I remember my son’s first ever game was against Bolton, in the Premiership years, and they beat us that day with a couple of knock-out punches.
Their two goals yesterday were knock-out punches. We started the game quite well, but a great finish added to some poor marking and a second goal which was unmercifully smacked home, with this time the finger being pointed at the referee was plenty enough to beat us.
We now are twice as close to the relegation places than the play-off ones, and after an unbeaten run that is two defeats in a week with the same old issues rearing their ugly head.
We are woeful at set-pieces in both boxes, defensively porous, have a squad full of players, other than one or two, that can’t perform consistently (or play 90 minutes), and lacking leaders, we are generally just a push over.
Bolton are a good side, who have built a team and not turned it over constantly, but they didn’t have to play great to beat us yesterday and although we had some attacking moments, nothing came off and we never looked like scoring.
I hate the phrase we are where we are, but bluntly we are, and Michael Appleton has to prove that he is able to break the cycle.
MoM: AMB once again.
Appleton of my eye: His post match got me a little riled if I am honest. He appeared happy that we won the XG competition, pointed the finger at the referee, was happy with our fruitless 2nd half display and is under the impression that January’s transfer window will be our saviour. We need solutions not excuses.
Elsewhere: Looking over our shoulder, Reading dropped to the bottom after losing at home to Pompey, and they were 2-0 up, Tuesday’s opponents Wigan beat Shrewsbury 2-0, Cheltenham won at Port Vale 2-1 and Cambridge beat Carlisle 1-0. Managerless Bristol Rovers beat Northampton 2-1.
Regardless of whether we play well or badly there are a few teams that we will always lose to i.e. Nottingham Forest, Millwall and Bolton, these are nemesis teams. It seems that playing against these teams we are cursed. The thing is that the teams we recently lost too, we have to play them again. Don’t think Lincoln is one of those teams, so hoping for a better result next time. This season is a particularly tough season in this league with the likes of Portsmouth, Blackpool, Oxford doing well so far, and even Wigan (who I think will recover significantly this season from its points reduction of last season -probably in the top half of the table).
Oh boy !!
Totally dominated by Bolton who displayed determination,skills and craft that we need to aspire to.
We were second to all balls and why do we still pump high balls to Alfie when he’s up against taller and stronger defenders ?
I detected that L Watson was very frustrated sitting on the bench and his influence was missed for the majority of the game.
We really need to be at our best against Wigan and Pompey, but I fear the worst.
Thanks for the depressingly spot on summary CA.
Oh well, that was OK-ish whilst it lasted….back now to our humdrum eternal league 1 existence.
And there you have it. The difference. That is what a team looks like that will be pressing for at least the play offs. And the Valley crowd knew it – that silence was reality hitting.
It was. An eerily realization.