Maribor friendly

I had the NK Maribor game on in the background while I worked this afternoon. Nothing so dull or unfulfilling as a pre-season friendly, especially 5 weeks before the first league game, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.

The 16x Slovenian league champions are weeks ahead of us in pre-season and the game ended 1-1 with Miles Leaburn getting our goal with a neat finish from a very nice TC cross.

Still, the Addicks played two different teams in each half and I would expect Nathan Jones and his team got a lot more out of the watch than those of us sat in front of our computers.

It was great however to see and hear about 100 travelling supporters that took the trip and I am sure sampled the delights of the wine region on the Drava River.

Those Addicks competed in the noise stakes with Maribor’s ultra’s sat high behind one goal, and from the pictures, it looked busy in the stadium and the attendance was called as 4,000. We are massive!

The 2nd half team was a lot more fluid than the first, with Jones playing what looked a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 which would be an interesting development especially when we currently have 8 central defenders in the building.

Mesík stood out in the 1st half, but was booked. 2nd half there were more that took the eye. Leaburn was good, TC lively, Mwamba impressed. The trialist was Nathan Redmond, who has spent the whole week on the trip.

Still no sign on the pitch of Josh Edwards, Collins Sichenje, Greg Docherty, Matty Godden and Micah Mbick.

We should definitely expect a different transfer window, where we see players coming in right up until the deadline.