Scraps of positivity in lost season

I’m not normally one to dwell on season’s past, especially crap ones, but I had ten minutes and was toying with some thoughts around if there was actually anything positive to say at all about the last nine months.

We began the season being fed the tag line of ‘new team, new era’ which coupled with Andy Scott pushing the mantra of ‘action not words’ told us in hindsight all we needed to know of what a cycle of incompetence we were to expect.

The much vaulted pre-season tour of Marbella open to supporters and then the awkward overt on-field celebrations after we beat Leyton Orient only encouraged those that should know better!

Dean Holden started the season without a recognised target man, which was never addressed and we were suffering injuries and were hapless at the back well before he was sacked by text after he went all kamikaze in an effort to beat Oxford on my birthday in August.

Transfer deadline day was at the bequest of Andy Scott and in rolled Chem Campbell, Louie Watson, James Abankwah and Slobodan Tedic. To add insult to injury Scott then spearheaded the arrival of a new head coach.

Often ridiculed on Charlton Life, the hiring of Michael Appleton took underwhelmed to new levels of underwhelming. I wrote on his first day “I can’t believe in Michael Appleton because he brings nothing to believe in.”

Appleton could not address our defensive issues nor the habit of only performing piecemeal in games. Wigan away first half was one of the season’s highlights as May, Leaburn and CBT offered a glimpse of taking us to another level, but we were forced to hang on at the end for the win.

Portsmouth away was an anomaly, albeit anticipated by Addicks, and Appleton’s dreary press conference’s continued to feature his longing for the January transfer window, a solid two months away, which hardly you’d think engendered team morale.

Even Cray Valley scored against us, twice, and team performances became more and more prosaic, matching the personality of Appleton himself.

The cycle of mediocrity surrounded us like a stink bomb in a closet. Gillingham in the FA Cup was another cup embarrassment, but all the while Appleton was claiming some unbeaten league run, which were mostly draws. We never got out of that habit nor the one in which we defended like we were applying for the circus.

Leyton Orient away on Boxing Day, with the Addicks again backed by a big following, was the last straw for most.

Dire performances continued as Appleton finally got his transfer window wish and despite a large offer for Jonson Clarke-Harris being turned down by the player, seven players were signed.

However, another injury time goal conceded, which was becoming a joke in itself, at home to Northampton saw a further embarrassing defeat in what was a bear pit of a Valley atmosphere and Appleton was sacked straight after the final whistle.

I know. I am not doing particularly well on finding the positives, but the management team with a large influence I’d say from the ownership chose Nathan Jones as our next manager and this was in all probability the most positive I have felt as a Charlton fan for some years.

Jones brought about positive change, making us harder to beat and more competitive. He also decisively kept us out of an historical relegation battle.

We were still often poor in games though, if not lacking in spirit or desire, we just lacked being any good, quite frankly.

Jones worked that out early and now we wait.

There were few players that endeared themselves under three different managers. POTY Alfie May and George Dobson about the only two senior players. The whole mismanagement of Dobbo’s contract brought Andy Scott’s role even more under the spotlight.

The introduction of Daniel Kanu and Karoy Anderson to the first team were big pluses, and seemingly out of nowhere came Thierry Small, who was our best player during the final few months of the season.

Although I did enjoy the teasing performance of the 1st half away at Wigan, the long awaited win at Derby after 18 games without one was fantastic. Anderson’s goal being my most celebrated.

Before that the draw at Bolton in the early days of Jones’ stewardship gave us all a huge lift and the best home game was Barnsley.

Three of those games were against the top six, and you can chuck both Portsmouth games in as well to only show what another lost season this was.