Charlton Athletic 0 Birmingham City 1 (CC1)
I gave yesterday a wide berth and just checked into the score occasionally. I thought if Charlton can’t be bothered with Cups, then why should I.
Although to be fair Jones did play quite a strong line-up with Terry Taylor being the only obvious omission. I guess that may tell its own story as the month of August continues.
Sounded as if we did alright first half. I am told Tyreece Campbell looked the most nervous man in the ground when he put the ball on the spot. He wouldn’t have been my first choice for penalty taker.
My mate that was there was very critical of the performance, but I have seen others look at it under a more positive light. Berry sounded lively in the first period, and it took a worldly to settle the game.
Chance creation still looks an issue, and that has me concerned, as it should Nathan Jones.
Cup exit at first stage ✔️
My friend who I go to all the home matches with, went yesterday and whilst he said they defended well and midfield worked hard, up front they had no one who looks like scoring, which I agreed with, same as the Wigan game! Apart from the penalty, which was missed anyway, not one effort on goal by any of the forwards, same as the Wigan game! Lucky we now have two centre backs who can score from balls crossed in!
Aneke looks totally unfit, he can’t run, he’s like an old Ox ambling around and just bundles into players,commiting fouls. Ahadme, as many said after the Wigan game, just runs around getting nowhere, just like Stockley, but younger with more energy. Campbell may be fast be has yet to get past either of those two defences and hit the target and Kanu needs someone stronger than Campbell up front with him, to assist.
Let’s hope Leaburn is back soon, as without May, we have looked pretty toothless up front, having any sort of efforts on target!
Preciselym Mike and could not agree with you more and a huge concern still in all ares of the pitch and we need at keast 3 players but we can not rid of Fraser and Ness and the latter been injured and not even loans to get them out but it looks this must happen first.
Defensively we looked solid, it took a goal of the season contender to get past us, and by then we’d missed a penalty.
In midfield we worked hard and Luke Berry looked determined to score on his home/starting debut, maybe he was a bit too determined as he blasted at a few chances.
I didn’t like the pairing of DK and TC – they were a bit to similar but I can see with no Leaburn or Godden currently available that NJ didn’t want to risk starting Aneke or Ahadme and having them get injured for the much more important league campaign.
Maybe overall we treated Birmingham City with a bit too much respect and we lacked the confidence to win a game that wasn’t exactly ours for the taking but could have been with a bit more belief.
The Messiah was pleased with the performance. He may be on his own there.
Losing at home at the first opportunity will depress the ‘crowd’ (if you can call it that?) for Saturday.
One cup run down, two to go (if you include the silly bollocks trophy)
Still at least that striker who scored 23 League one goals last season, didn’t score against us (yet) I think his name is May?
Yes, Daggs ad wish Jones and some of the players wind in their comments and yes good to have some positivity I agree but this was over the top and it was Brum’s B team after all!!!
I have watched Campbell for 5 years, since he played as an under 16 in the U18s and I have always thought that he would develop into a winger or a number 10, not a striker, as he is an on the ground player without the physical presence to compete in the air. As the system adopted by NJ uses wingbacks then possibly dropping Campbell back into midfield behind the front two may be worth considering. Campbell is more capable of making crucial passes than those at present in midfield.
We won at Wigan but could have easily lost if a defender had not scored the goal as our attack did not look potent.
Kanu is a good finisher but needs to play off a player like Leaburn or a fit Aneke. Leaburn and Kanu were effective as a pair in the U18s.
Still baffled that NJ considers Ahadme a better option than May!!
As a Birmingham fan I thought Charlton did well for large periods of the game. If May was still with you then you’d have won 3-0. A few of our new signings were on display and they haven’t gelled as yet. I was impressed with Marc Leonard and Emil Hansson but we lacked the cutting edge to get past a well organised Charlton defence. Fantastic goal from 17 year old Khela to win it. Take a bow young man. Fulham next round and you just know it Jay Stansfield will score past us. Hopefully we can both get top two in the league this season.
Thanks for commenting ljazW.
The May point is hopefully not going to be the story of our season.
I like Leonard. Best of luck to you and the Blues.
I wish we had bought May about 3 years he looks like he’s gonna score bucket loads for us. He went to us for the money and at 31 you cannot really begrudge him as it’s probably his last big pay deal. It’s always sad when one of your favourites does the dirty on you and the fans boo him. The exact same happened to us with Robbie Savage when he left us for Blackburn. I think he must still be fond of you and missed on purpose 😂. Hopefully we can get at least another striker in before the deadline. It’s shocking that we’ve only got May and Juke as strikers though we’ve got a few wingers who can play there.