Reading 2 Charlton Athletic 0
We were well beaten today and Nathan Jones has given himself quite the challenge.
The table stares back at us all tonight with horror in its eyes.
This team is rubbish, the recruitment has been rubbish, it won’t take Nathan Jones long to learn that, but it’s whether he’s got enough time to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.
Once again we revolved a manager out of the door during the transfer window leaving the new one with someone else’s ideas.
Andy Scott has a lot to answer for. He who said the losing mentality will stop, and we should play in a 3-5-2 but didn’t recruit for it. Sold our best attacking outlet and didn’t replace him, and has possibly sold one of only two players that you’d want to be in a relegation battle with.
Not one player signed in this last window looks any better than what we already had. That is some doing because the summer was a D- as well.
The owners had to get involved to secure Jones, and Scott needs neutralizing to allow the new manager, Hart and Fleming the best chances to try and turn this around.
We absolutely cannot keep a clean sheet. Defending was again woeful. Two set pieces again today and we were lucky to be 0-0 at the break. We have lost all attacking threat and have now scored just once (an own goal) in three games. Alfie has scored once in two months.
There are plenty of games left, but we have the look of relegation in our eyes, but those fantastic fans at Reading today and those of us not there have to do our bit and trust that Nathan Jones can do his utmost best to get us out of this terrible mess.
Worried, from Sarasota.
MoM: Isted. He kept us in it to the break.
Elsewhere: Port Vale grabbed an injury time equalizer at home to promotion chasing Stevenage. They were winning as were Fleetwood who lost 2-1 to Lincoln. Cheltenham won at Cambridge. Carlisle were beaten by table toppers Pompey. Exeter, Burton and Wycombe who were all below us a few weeks ago each continued their turnaround by beating Wigan, Bristol Rovers and Peterborough respectively. Great result for Wycombe that.
Can’t see where a win or 6 are gonna come from, this team is devoid of everything and don’t seem to know how to defend or score, very grim.
You keep saying there’s plenty of games left as if something miraculously will change. I don’t believe in miracles, so, that one’s out for me?
Have we ever had new manager bounce, I can’t think of any time?
I think Jacko, but agree. Powelly had a terrible introduction.
Lee Bowyer had a good managerial bounce – taking us into the play-offs which looked unlikely under Karl Robinson. We then got dumped out by Shrewsbury.
I typed this on Wyn’s ‘Addicks third div diary’
I can’t be arsed to jiggle it.
The Messiah played the same formation that hasn’t worked for weeks. Picked some of the worst players as did Appleton.
When it was clear by half-time the wing backs weren’t functioning along with Ladapo, he makes one defensive change. Then waits for us to go a goal down before making any further subs.
We need to change to a 4.4.2 system or even 4.5.1 and stop giving away soft goals.
Relegation looms, without significant change. Even then it’s going to be a struggle.
Hello Daggs, Kanu was stripped and ready to come on before the first Reading goal.
You may be correct, I don’t know. Either way my point stands. Kanu should have come on at half-time for Ladapo and the two wing-backs should have been removed with a new formation for the second half. Jones’ said after the match “he had learnt a lot” he better had. Because his starting team shouted ‘Appleton’
We have fifteen games to get 20/23 points. Right now I can’t see it happening.
The people in charge of player recruitment at our club need to be lined up against a wall and shot (metaphorically speaking).
You know what CA, beginning to think and feel that relegation might be what it takes to rid our club of these serial failures – hand the reins to Jones, give him some backing and you never know, could do back-to-backs.
This lot are a total shambles.
Very very frustrating to watch and its clear that we don’t have enough strong and experienced players to get a result.
The promise of a new dawn is fading as we face the biggest challenge in the clubs turbulent history.
Like you CA, the blame must rest with Scott and we could all see in October that he’s out of his depth with identifying suitable players to target.
I’m not a manager but a fan who could see it going pear-shaped long long ago.
The owners have already lost faith with the management team and want (and must) get more hands on seeing their team fail.
Nathan won’t sleep tonight and I really really hope that Hart and Flemming can stop the ship from sinking.
It’s ruined my weekend and I’m dreading Tuesday night after Lincoln won today…they have won 2 and drawn 3 of their last five games.
How can we have faith in the owners representatives who can talk the talk but their track record is woeful.
Yes it’s all seriously worrying. You wonder where the goals and wins are going to come from…. All those high hopes for today were sadly blown away by two well taken goals from the home side. We continue to ship goals and fail to score any. Not a combination that keeps you in the division.
The turnout from us today was superb. Something to be proud of. How long will that continue?
One game alofthevalley….Tuesday!!!
Here’s hoping!!! 🤞
Woeful at the back with the same errors should have been at least one nil down at half time and the only player who made the keeper make a save was Kanu who still doesn’t get a start and has looked streets ahead of Lapido, when he has come on as a sub!
Plus where was Ness who in the last three games has been back to his best, apart from one error which he himself got back and saved with a last ditch block. He wasn’t even on the bench?
Now with Dobson off on Monday flying out to Hungray for his medical, as Frasier use to say to Captain Mannering we are doomed, we are doomed! Unless N.J. can perform a miracle with this band, apart from a few, of total misfits!
Well looking at the rest of Febs fixtures I expect the Addicks to be ensconced on the bottom 4. March fixtures will be the final arbiter. The best squad in League 2?
CA – there is a common denominator to the failings of the last couple, of transfer windows – perhaps 3 if he was pulling the strings during the fag-end of the Sandgaard era, Scott….
What on earth qualifies him to be in charge of our recruitment policy? For goodness sake, Duchatalets idiot with the computer found better players for us than this lot….!! Only one player stands out of the dozens that Scott has brought in – Alfie.
He let’s our best play-maker leave on a dubious ‘loan’ without a sniff of replacing him, our defence is a shambles with numerous players out of form and error-prone, midfield is a hotch potch of square pegs trying to fit into round holes and service to our sole decent striker non-existent.
If Jones can keep this lot out of division 2 then he truly will be the Messiah….. and once we go down we are just one cock-up from non-league football – and given the idiots who are currently in charge of our club and its recruitment policy who would put money on us getting promotion next season back to division 1? Nobody with half a brain who values his money….
Three managers in a season is always going to be a recipe for disaster if there is a constant problem involved – and that problem is Scott and the other idiots in the boardroom. Oh yes, they talk the talk and show fancy graphs, but the evidence is before everybody’s eyes – they couldn’t run a whelk-stall, let alone a football club.
A week into the job and poor Nathan must be scratching his head and wondering why the hell he returned to SE7……
Not good…we are low on confidence and we have to face the rest of the season with what we have in the squad.
From now ’til the end of the season it’s going to be an arm wrestle to survive. But if we do Nathan Jones will learn more about the players in his squad than he would if we were meandering along in mid-division without much to play for. He seemed to like hungry players at Luton and he’s about to find out who is and isn’t hungry.
Lincoln up next…a must win game, but where are we going to find goals? And when will we keep a clean sheet?
Well, Nathan now knows what a bunch of rubbish (mostly) he has to work with……A mish mash of players who were recruited by Scott for various ‘Head Coaches’, from the last three or four transfer windows. There are fifteen games to go, and if Nathan can turn this lot into a team that survives relegation he will have done exceedingly well. Can he do it ?….I think he will.
Fingers crossed 🤞
greg I do hope so
My mate visited Sparrows Lane the other day and mistakenly went into Andy Scott’s office.
On the wall was the current division 1 table – but it showed Carlisle top, Charlton in 5th place and Pompey bottom…..
On the adjacent calendar the division’s play-off dates had been ringed as well as the Pompey home game with “3 points” written in….
Upon looking at the division 1 table a bit closer he realised that it had been pinned on the wall upside down….!!
Just about sums it all up at our once great club sadly. How can someone who has made such a pigs ear out of the transfer market and head coach selection get it all so wrong yet still be in the job?
Is he employed by SE7 & Partners, or is he part of the Board set up ?…..Either way there should be someone who can sack him for the abysmal job he’s done so far !!!
Who knows, Greg. This was an unusual situation in that SE7 Partners led by Methven as chief marketer went out and found the investors. Do SE7 Partners report to the investors? Rodwell is CEO and has responsibility for the budget, but I don’t know how much the investor group oversees the SMT on regular objectives and results. Which is why it intrigued me that Brener and Friedmann got involved with the hiring of Nathan Jones.
This does give Jones an ‘in’ to Brener and Friedmann though who surely didn’t think they were buying a club heading for Division 4.