Charlton Athletic 3 Carlisle United 2
I didn’t get to watch the game and instead followed on a dodgy signal from a vast swimming arena in the middle of Florida, an area that boasts being America’s equestrian capital, but is clearly lacking in cell towers!
It did not sound either pretty or straightforward, but it was a precious home win, the first for over three months.
You can never write a team off and I saw that Paul Simpson issued a rallying cry during the week and Carlisle almost left with share of the points, but credit to Nathan Jones’ boys for grinding out the win which gives us more comfort in the table.
I was surprised he went unchanged again I’d have thought at least Anderson was in need of a rest, but new signing Connor Wickham was on the bench and it was Lloyd Jones who was sat down.
Keeping a clean sheet is still beyond us, but we equalized at a good time and was wonderful to see Alfie May’s name flash up goalscorer twice, and another from young Daniel Kanu.
Wickham appeared to play his part when introduced, and then happily Sam Lavelle hadn’t forgotten his Addicks’ indoctrination by playing in Alfie to get the winner in front of the Covered End.
Very grateful for the win, albeit it sounded a bit touch and go on my dodgy mobile signal. Was it?
MoW: Those there said Coventry or Dobbo. I’m going two-goal Alfie. Extra marks for his head over heels tumble tunnel jump!
Elsewhere: Oxford beat Cheltenham 2-1, Fleetwood held hosts Stevenage goalless, Shrewsbury had a big win at Port Vale and Cambridge and Northampton was 1-1.
It was a strange game, for some reason we have reverted to overplaying at the back . It crept back in against Cheltenham and we struggle with that tactic. We simply can play that way. Anderson has dropped his level, so clearly needs a rest. His last 2 games reflect what we saw under Appleton. The keeper inspires no confidence at all. Rushed kicks, no communication and a weak hand for their first goal. We looked disjointed, but Dobbo and Coventry started to win midfield and were magnificent. May is back.. great finishes with anticipation.
Lavelle demonstrated why we let him go .. at fault for all three goals. Rumours of another freebie signing..are interesting. Clearly Jones believes that this inflated squad is not delivering. Wickham did ok , early days with him .
Sublime Alfie May second goal worth watching time and again
Yes, we made hard work of it. Carlisle were spirited but offered little other threat. Yet we conceded twice. Alfie deserved his goals for his usual Duracell workrate and young Kanu almost matched him for chasing lost causes. For me, he has been the bonus this years as I never expected him to be ready enough to be central to our plans. NJ was his usual, animated, self. Could hardly be more different to his predecessor.
Another sloppy performance, but another welcome three points. As things are the points are more important than the performance.
NJ frustrates me Re. subs. Anderson needed to come of at half-time. He was playing poorly and had been booked.
Moaning aside, two or three more wins from eight games will see us safe.
I’ll be glad to see the back of this season and dream of a promotion push next time. I hate League one football.
That was not a comfortable win !
OK we did manage at the end but we looked at times fragile in defence.Credit to Carlisle for having a sustained go at us first half and to be honest it was hard to believe they’re 10 points adrift at the bottom.of the table.
It was great to see Sam Lavelle play against us as a player I feel should have been retained.
We woke up second half and pressed so many times that allowed us to get a grip.
Dobbo,Coventry and Alfie did us proud
Before anyone highlights that Sam Lavelle was partly to blame for Alfies goal…..I know but its rare he made errors with us.
I think you should revisit some of games when he played. Lack defensive awareness with no pace. This all was evidenced with our three goals.. you can borrow my rosetinted glasses ! 😀
He was great in training ground games…😁
Sounds like an Appleton line. Great on the grass 😀
I thought we deserved the win – but in 2023/24 style we insisted on making it hard for ourselves. Their first goal was a bit strange but went in and we unnecessarily gifted Carlisle a penalty. Other than while they worked hard they created little.
Conceding careless goals has cost us points and could have done so yesterday…and under Michael Appleton probably would have.
But we now have a different manager and mind-set with Nathan Jones. The reaction to Carlisle making it 2-2 was what I wanted to see – some determination, Kanu hit the post, we had several other shots narrowly miss, get blocked or saved and then Sam Lavelle under-hit a back pass. In isolation it was a bad mistake but it came from the pressure we created over the previous 10 minutes or so.
There’s still much to work on – defensive solidity mostly, we’ve had one clean sheet since that Reading home win and that is an appalling stat. I hope that we push on next season and look towards promotion but not if we keep playing like that at the back…
NJ could do with trusting his bench a bit more and freshening things up 10/15 minutes earlier. Ife he wants to play a high energy intense pressing game then he needs to bring on some fresh legs around the 60 minute mark.
Isted should have done better for the first goal and does not inspire confidence, of the last 5 goals conceded he made mistakes for 2 and for 2 others he should have done better. Another area for improvement in my opinion is throw ins, it would be nice to have somebody with a good powerful throw. A good long throw can be as good as a corner.
Also we are weak at set plays both attacking or defending.
We’ve been abysmal at set plays for season’s.
Yep, I was there,,with a friend who is a United supporter (Carlisle that is of course). I had said to him that we would give him a goal start on behalf of Mr Punch and so it happened. Im wondering when it will d to be honest.