Charlton Athletic 1 Blackpool 2
Today’s game was on in the background to other stuff I had going on so I wasn’t paying it full attention, and I am glad I had better things to do.
The 1st half was as bad as any time last season particularly defensively. 2nd half became a masterclass in time-wasting and shithousery from the visitors.
Simply, Steve Bruce’s team worked us out in the 1st half and with a non-existent midfield, strikers chasing pointless hoofs to release pressure, and our defense inexplicably changed with REG in for Alex Mitchell, we were an accident waiting to happen.
Gassan Ahadme’s beautifully dispatched header, the first time he has connected with a cross so well all season was our best moment, unfortunately it was into his own net.
Then of course Albie Morgan was always going to score, and he didn’t hide his celebration.
The 2nd half was better, it couldn’t have been worse, but turning around a 0-2 deficit does look beyond this group. Jones substituted half the team, but questions have to be asked about the team selection.
It was a jarring day all round, but my lord Blackpool’s time wasting and falling to the floor from a gust of wind was abhorrent.
🎙️”I was really disappointed….” – Nathan Jones
⭐️ Will Mannion
🏟️ 14,149 (675 Tangerines)
📸 Kyle Andrews
more than abhorrent ca – quite simply it is cheating. And the ref had definitely taken a bung. We had a 6 year old with us who became so upset by the atmosphere I doubt he will ever return. The game that I have loved is slowly being destroyed. Glad I am missing the Birmingham game although I hope they come to play football. I can’t bear to hear Alfie may booed by people with very short memories. Hope all is well with you.
Only adds to how absolutely awful this league is. You must be back from your travels ✈️
Alfie May sat on Birmingham’s bench yesterday whilst the useless Ahadme destroyed us yet again. Got to be the worst trade in our recent history and we’ve had some bad ones.
No way deserved anything and next Saturday looks like a must win with Birmingham next up. Hopefully May will be a bit more restrained when he comes on and scores in front of the Covered End.
Despite being woefully open and off the pace, that’s got to be the most embarrassing way to win a game of football, Steve Bruce has had a great career but that mate was shameful. Setting aside sour grapes on the result, it’s just cheating the fans who pay to watch 90 minutes of football not 60 with the rest taken up with players collapsing and faking injuries. I want a refund.
we need to move on from May. The problem yesterday was team selection, why no Mitchell ? Adam Campbell was useless although the midfield in general were poor. Ahadme isn’t great but tbh hoofball isn’t the answer for him. Maybe we should also look at overall recruitment, ex Luton players may not be the answer and only one person is to blame for that Andy Scott. The sooner the board realise that the better
I’m a season ticket holder of a certain age, let’s just say I had the privilege of seeing the original Alan Campbell play for Charlton when I was a boy.
i was brought up less than a mile away from the Valley on the Morris Walk Estate and I was also signed as a schoolboy for the club by the manager then Theo Foley, my father and brother went (both passed away now) my sister went, my son and I were season ticket holders during those glory premiership years, so I’ve got a life long affinity and love for the club, so it hurts to say this but:
Yesterday was my 2nd home game (I was away on holiday for 3 weeks in August), and I’ve got to say I’m not enjoying what I’m seeing at all.
Three big centre halves hitting 40/50 yard up and unders to GA, who by the way resembles Bambi on Chrystal Meths, and we hope for a 2nd ball to bounce kindly for us…is just painful to watch, at no time yesterday or against Rotherham did I feel we were the better team or were capable of passing our way to a goal. I looked at the stats after Blackpool scored their 2nd goal they had had 5 shots at that stage and us 1. We were at home and 3rd in the table, the covered end was as full as I’ve seen it for many a year….what on earth were the instructions given to the players before they ran out!!!?
It seems out tactics are let’s just hoof it up there and hope, then hope we can hold on until we bring TC and Chuks on with 20 mins to go to save our skins.
Nathan can’t keep spewing out those same words after the game
That just wasn’t us
we were too passive
we didn’t show the aggression we are capable of
we are better than that
we didn’t use the ball when we were in possession.
From my reconning that’s the 3rd time in the last 4 games.ive heard the same excuses from NJ… Reading, Rotherham (1st half,) and yesterday.
Nathan, you’re the coach, something is clearly not happening, either the messages your giving the team are not being understood or your coaching staff are not doing their job. It’s happening too often.
Based on what I’ve seen we are heading for mid table mediocrity again and if Nathan Jones uses Miles Leaburn as a big lump up front to get his defenders to ‘hoof it up to, then shame on him, for a brief time we will have a £10m player at our disposal and we must use him to his strengths as he has so many, speed, strength, close control, heading ability.
i could write for days here, so much to say and that I need to get off my chest, but I’ll finish on the same note I started, I strongly feel this will be my last season as a season ticket holder, or even a true supporter and I genuinely doubt if I’ll be going much more this season, it,’s just too depressing.
Sorry so negative, but unless he gets us playing football I don’t believe Nathan Jones is the man to take us up
Positives for me yesterday, Conor Coventry, TC and of course Chuks.
Trev
Great points Trev. It will take anything to get out of this league, but this doesn’t look it.
Now for the positives, The defence is OK, not sure why NJ saw fit to change it yesterday? The wingbacks in Josh Edwards and Kayne Ramsey are very good (I haven’t had the benefit of seeing Josh Edwards but on all accounts he’s been first class for us)
central Midfield, absolutely must keep CC but we need a creative in there, too many like for like workhorses at present who don’t seem able to retain possession or create anything.
up front, got replaced GA, hopefully with Miles L soon,
Whilst we all know Chuks can’t start games, NY needs to use TC more from the start, he makes things happen and gets the crowd up…something that was woefully absent until he came on yesterday.
When reading your views I find myself agreeing with almost everything you have said apart from the “and of course Chuks”. I thought Conor Coventry was the stand out yesterday and TC did make some good attacking runs with some defensive tackles included. Try to keep the faith although this does look like a difficult ask!
What an excellent summary of the match. I took started watching Charlton in the early to mid 1960s with my Dad. My first ever favourite footballer was the wonderful Alan Campbell. That never changed until Derek Hales came long. So seen plenty of highs and lows along the way. The quality of football under NJ is poor and with Mitchell and Edwards missing yesterday poor Lloyd Jones was all on his own and no wonder we conceded. NJ is probably a little too animated on the touchline and needs to reign that in a bit. Birmingham, Wrexham and Stockport will give us a really good idea where we stand for this season. The time wasting tactics from Steve Bruce were disgusting and the Referee was clearly being conned by them. I can’t stand this League One football and match officials quality. I sincerely hope out season can get better whatever it takes
Spot on Trev and why on earth he dropped Mitchell for Reg, who yet again struggled as per last season, is beyond belief!
As for GA, how many more games is Jones going to stick with starting him, every other forward has been partnered with him yet he is still absolutely useless, surely Jones must see he is the problem! In all honesty he is one of the worst & probably most expensive forward I have ever seen play for Charlton in over 50 years, his best and only real effort so far was where he soared above everyone else to score an own goal!
As for the midfield I think Loius Mendez summed it up in his write up! Greg Docherty and Luke Berry have both been bypassed too often this season and theres a real inability to create any fluidity in the middle of the park, with also Alan Campbell far off the pace! Which I totally agree. I think we have all seen that, as only Coventry seems to really do anything.
Three of Jones old boys who aren’t performing like they use to, in the old days, along with our most costly player GA, could well be his undoing, as apart from Anderson and the yet to play Terry Taylor, we have no other midfielders plus if Miles returns and starts to perform well, he will quickly be sold off, before his contract ends!!!
Jones still seems to believe we are as good as any team in this division, well we may now have one of the best defences, when Edwards and Mitchell return, but apart from Coventry we have no midfield and currently no real striker who can score. Only 7 goals scored, even Cambridge bottom of the league with one draw have scored 6. Our friendly well known manager at Rotherham implied, even before their loss to Birmingham, they are going to walk this league, which currently looks likely, so thats one automatic space gone, the other I am sure won’t be Charlton, so it leaves us fighting to get in the top six, which currently I can’t see at all at present. So unless things change drastically &/or he manages to somehow get some really good signings in at the next window, as per Trev implied “we will be heading for mid table mediocrity again”
we need to move on from May. Midfield was poor all round yesterday and we created nothing. Why Mitchell didn’t play is a mystery. Adahme needs some proper service, he works hard but has zero end product.
recruitment of so many underperforming players is down to one man, Andy Scott, he needs to go.
Albie celebrating, why not. Most of the fan base absolutely panned him when he played for us, he wasn’t going to celebrate then the W chant changed his mind.
the ref was totally useless, got conned all afternoon, but that’s the usual standard for this league. Steve Bruce is a better coach than that and should be ashamed.
I have heard some good news – apparently Cardiff are considering NJ for next manager.
Whilst I give NJ credit for the defence, the midfield is not good enough and the attack is pathetic.
When I saw the team yesterday I feared the worst, I don’t rate REG as his left foot is only for standing on, frankly not a patch on the Mitchells ( A and Z)
Pairing Ahadme with Kanu was a bad mistake as both do not have the technical ability to set each other up. Play one of them with Aneke or Leaburn you might have a chance.
The next few games are difficult so we need Mitchell, Edwards, Leaburn and Dixon on the pitch. Anderson and T Campbell should both be in midfield .
Well the Nathan Jones express rolls onward, to the buffers!
I’ve said consistently (as Chicago can confirm) NJ is a self-opinionated, bighead who offers one dimensional football. This is his team, his players, and both are crap.
There’s no way NJ will get us out of this league in an upward direction. The sooner the owners see this and sack him off the better.
It’s rumoured Cardiff want him. I’ll give him the train fare tomorrow.
The best striker we had, Alfie May who NJ hounded out. Found himself behind Stansfield (sp) in the Birmingham pecking order yesterday. Perhaps we should put in a cheeky bid …………
All I would say here chaps is that he took over a team flirting with relegation and now a few months (and having sold out golden boo best player) on were flirting with the play offs.
What realistically do you expect, Birmingham and Wrexham are out of sight not in our league…a bit of patience and realism for a project might not be a bad idea.
The issue is that we have a Plan A, playing 3-5-2 but no real Plan B when that gets sussed out.
We did try and go 4-3-3 but it didn’t work, we have to remember that we are still a team in transition and while we recruited well we are still lacking some creativity, either in midfield or at number 10. The player we lack is a Yann Kermogant type who can unlock tight defences and play in forwards or attacking midfielders.
But we did enough to win, despite everything. Ahadme’s OG was one of those things. We scored one goal and had a couple of penalty shouts not given although we really needed some calmness in front of goal. Speaking of the one goal we did get, that came from a set piece so there’s some evidence of the coaching working there.
Elsewhere Josh Edwards and Miles Leaburn are close to recall, the former played in midweek in the BSM trophy match and has been training for the last couple of weeks and the latter got through an hour for the U21s and scored a goal. It looks as though neither are going to be rushed back but they’ll be in contention sooner rather than later.
The referee was poor – a few Blackpool players should have been booked for blatant timewasting but we did get 12 minutes of added time. The standard of refereeing in L1 has never been high, my thinking is that we get in this league the referees who aren’t quite good enough for the top two divisions while maybe L2 get the up and coming refs who are being aimed at better things but are being blooded at a lower level. Also I’d like to think that what goes around comes around and we’ll benefit from some bad referee calls. These things balance out in time.
There they are. A voice of reason.