Charlton Athletic 1 Peterborough United 2
Another defeat, less abject than some of the others but the pattern of failure continues.
L L D D D D L L L D L
What happens if we lose at Burton on Saturday?
Back to today. It was an abysmal 1st half display, but mostly because laid out bare was how far superior Peterborough were to us. Appleton changed the formation, fair enough, but it didn’t work and Peterborough thoroughly deserved their HT lead, and we were lucky it was only one.
I did like that Appleton changed it at the break. One of the most appealing things about him when he first came in was that he would regularly make early and mass substitutions, although he had more to pick from then, but in recent weeks he has looked hopeless, and hapless on the touchline.
Kanu and Watson (L) were a considerable upgrade on the two Campbell’s, with Tyreece’s confidence absolutely shot. He should not be playing.
Watson was busy and Kanu was chasing lost causes supporting Alfie, who on his return was in the right place at the right time to score the equaliser.
It was a spirited 2nd half, but we were always second best and for once the visitors didn’t wait until the dying embers of the game to get their winner.
CBT was missing due to a suspicious late injury and Appleton admitted after that the club had turned down a bid from Derby. Dobbo was unusually substituted. I am pretty sure they will both not be Charlton players by the end of the window.
As for the new signings Fiorini came on too late to judge, and I suspect that is how he will be introduced for a while. Backinson was busy but more effective further up the pitch in the 2nd half and Coventry showed some intelligence and nice touches in his cameo.
We are now on the same points as Wycombe, Port Vale, Cambridge and Shrewsbury. Below that is the relegation shark tank.
MoM: Daniel Kanu. He has got stronger and stronger in recent run outs.
Appleton of my eye: Credit for trying something else and the HT subs, but he said he hasn’t thought about a relegation battle, so win a game of football then Michael and we might join you.
Elsewhere: Reading fans got their home game against Port Vale abandoned after demonstrating against owner Dai Yongge. Bolton’s home game with Cheltenham was abandoned due to a medical emergency in the crowd. My thoughts are with the Bolton fan and his family.
Well CA for once I have to totally disagree with your MoM. Kanu is more like a very large headless chicken that doesn’t know the basics of getting goalside of your marker.
Backinson stood out for me.
I thought he put a shift in yesterday in fairness. We looked better with him on the pitch, much more of a threat. I know he isn’t the finished article, by a long shot, but the second half was a vast improvement on the abject first. You do wonder though when we might ever pick up three points again…… for me Appleton is finished.
Sorry absolute rubbish Keith, I don’t know what game you were watching yesterday! CA is spot on, it was Appleton’s ridculous decision to play just May up front against three tall defenders, we could all see it! Maybe you missed May himself having a big argument after about 15mins with Appleton about having no support up front with him, he was really getting annoyed, with Appleton shouting back at him to just get up there and cause problems, May was really getting annoyed and frustrated!
Plus I don’t know if you remember Kanu when he came into the first team he was just beginning to form a decent partnership with May, then Appleton comes in and completely drops him. He has only bought him back due to Leaburn getting injured and playing May up front alone with the useless midfielders such as Fraser, meant to be assisiting him, which didn’t work out. Plus after a couple of games May got injured and he has had to play up front by himself and similar to May struggled not surprisingly. Then he played really well at Port Vale as a lone striker, scored a goal and even Appleton said he had one of his best games, yet the next game against Peterbrough he is dropped for May to play the lone striker again! What a change when he came on with Watson and you had two up front, it was like a different team, so give the lad a chance please, as if the two are given a decent run playing together, they could become a real force, as it’s no good just playing Kanu here and there, no forwards can form a partnership doing that!
My initial point was Backinson over the 76 minutes on the pitch was the most competent player.
On the subject of Kanu can you tell me how many head ons he managed. He needs to win a ball before he worries about find hard working Alfie. No wonder he’s frustrated
Absolute rubbish..harsh.
Appleton should have been sacked before the window opened. The SMT obviously thought by giving him the window, he would turn our results around. Virtually two weeks in and things are no better.
How much longer can the SMT wait? Even if we avoid relegation, Appleton is doomed. He won’t be our manager at the start of next season.
Another year wasted……..
Our performance was dire in the first half and I sure many of us were expecting better with the news of incoming players.
The second half and first 10 minutes we blitzed their goal but it just didn’t happen…apart from Alfie poaching a goal.As the game progressed Peterborough grew from strength to strength and once again we let in a late goal.
I was impressed with Connor Coventry despite his lack of game time, great distribution and has the skills to damage teams.Louie Watson benched again…Why ??????. When he came on second half he made a positive influence.
I understand he must be baffled loke me and others why he was not in the starting X1 after a great game last week .
I’m still worried !!!!
Why can we only play in one half, not even a full half.
What is worrying me the fact Dobbo could go, he and May seems to be only out field players that put 100% in and play with pride for Charlton.
We MUST win at Burton next week.
We were so bad first half and could have been 3 down at half time.
Thank good Appleton made changes at half time and for the first 15 minutes we looked aggressive,engaged and attacked Peterborough.
Poacher Alfie got his goal being alert and cashing in.
Louie Watson must have scratched his head wondering why he was dropped to the bench after a great performance last Saturday.
He made an instant impact and linked up play really well.
I like Conner Coventry and he showed how good he is even though lacking match fitness.
I’m hoping we don’t have to be dragged into a relegation battle.
I really don’t understand why people continually call for the head of the manager. How many managers have we had in the past few years? Have any of those changes redirected our overall trajectory?
Constantly changing the manager is part of the problem, not the solution. Indeed the view expressed in this weeks fans meeting was that too many managerial changes were partly to blame for the issues we have in the squad.
I truly believe that Appleton is not as good as Holden but, we are where we are. Repeating the same process is not going to resolve our long term issues.
When Appleton came in, suddenly players that had been out were available again and for a while it looked like we had made the right choice. As those injury prone players have returned to their natural habitat (the treatment room), results have once again slipped and the folly of the previous managerial change becomes apparent.
Appleton is however, an experienced man and is very capable (in my opinion) of creating a galvanised coherent squad. We will need a bit of a clear out, especially of injury prone players or those brought in that don’t quite fit the way we play. We will also need a stricter policy of only bringing in players with a decent injury history and a better medical, physio setup.
We will I think lose at least one of, Dobson and CBT and perhaps both. It would be better for us to do that now rather than wait.
I read into Appleton’s comment about the relegation fight, that he is confident that the team will pull up. I didn’t read into that the comment that he is not aware of our predicament. I guess that how you read that is dependent in your confidence in him.
They have not Christopher, I completely agree. Sacking another manager is an embarrassment. How many managers have we had in the last decade?
Yet, this is the ultimate result of years of poor mismanagement. Pay the bills on time and select a coach or manager that can improve and inspire players that are worthy of this club. Ain’t hard is it. I mean there are more than 20 blokes in the school yard to pick from!
I don’t want to see him lose his job. I have nothing against him, but he is another poor selection. I mean most of us knew that from the start. Does he inspire you as a fan? Okay, he is not Mr Personality but we were sold on his ability on the grass? Where has he improved any aspect of our play, style and tactical abilities? Are any players better under Appleton than they were under Holden?
Okay he’s only had 4 and a bit months. Most companies give a 3 month probation period to new employees. Mostly you can spot pretty early if people are not up to the task. Sadly he is not.
The next two games are huge, then February is littered with really tough games. Leyton Orient are the only team above us in the table that we have beaten this season. That was the first game of the season under Holden.
The last time we had three managers in one season we were relegated.
Who would want to manage a team that never gives any time to a manager and continually makes changes when a poor run comes along?
Is it not time to get back to the Charlton we had in the 90’s when doing the right thing was more important for the long term than any short term gain? Any organisation worth being associate with espouses a set of standards, how Charlton treated people was always a big part of that Charlton.
I absolutely appreciate that people are angry and upset about results, I too can see mistakes in team section and formations. I do hope however, that we can see past them and give Appleton the chance I believe he now deserves.
I am fully aware that there are other opinions but, they simply do not make any sense to me. If you want the output to be different, then you need to change the inputs, simply carrying on making the same mistakes isn’t logical.
🙂
Christopher Locke.
You’re absolutely correct to say we’ve had too many managerial changes. Unfortunately that’s because we keep getting saddled with low quality managers.
Until we get a decent manager in, our predicament will remain.
The big issue is what decent manager would join us.
What’s ol’ Curbs up to these days 🙂
He’s on holiday again !!!
Totally agree Daggs, have said this before, until we bring in a manager how has a decent track record we are going to continue along the same road. As people keep saying it starts at the top, well accordingly we now have some owners who are willing to put some money in to try and get some good players in and also not selling our own decent players just to make a quick buck and if they have to for certain reasons, not selling for peanuts, as we have been doing previously. Well the next line down is the manager, all the managers since our Belgium friend took over have been cheap options, who had all mostly been out of work for quite a while and had never actually achieved anything previously, or been out of the game so long they had no idea how thing had altered and moved on!
It’s all well buying some good new players, but if you have managers who keep using their same tactics, formations etc each week, poor use of subsitutions and have no idea how to change things when things take a turn for the worse, it doesn’t matter what players you bring in!
So until any owner actually, pays out for and gets in a manager who has a reasonable record done it before and knows how to handle a squad of various differing players and gets the best out of them, plus knows how to turn things around when things go bad and also engages with the fans and doesn’t keep giving bull…. excuses after every poor performance, we will never move forward to any extent.
Unfortuantely as per CA and many others agree, hope I’m wrong, but it appears Appleton is just another one who doesn’t match up to the criteria required!