Cheltenham Town 1 Charlton Athletic 3
I suppose it depended on the result whether this was to be considered our first competitive game or last friendly but what the day was really about was putting on a performance that showed some optimism for the new league season, and this certainly did.
I didn’t watch as I was sat by a pool, but I followed closely and the 1st half performance was excellent noting the opposition and their own very disjointed pre-season.
I think Jones picked a team with a base of what to expect next week. The big news was Kaminski didn’t feature at all so Mannion started. Chalobah was alongside Coventry. Ramsey was missing after turning an ankle in the week and will miss Derby.
Therefore McNamara and Bell were outside of Lloyd Jones and Billy Koumetio. The advanced three midfielders were TC, Carey and Grant. Godden began up top.
In front of 3,116 and a sold out away end the spectators endured a slowish start, but then on 22 minutes Carey stole away through the midfield and fed Godden on the left of the angle of the box, who then curled home beautifully. Ole ole.
On the highlights the silence between the goal and the Addicks celebrating was lovely, and they were probably just getting themselves back together when Chalobah carried the ball from defence to attack in a play we so rarely saw last season. He found Carey in a bit of room, who fired home for two in 3 minutes.
After that we continuously broke up play and threatened through the middle and out wide. TC was, as can often happen against inferior opposition, having a blinder.
On 38 minutes in about the same spot as Godden, Coventry put a nice ball into TC, who fired an unstoppable shot into the far corner and we were 3-up.
Grant then had a shot saved and TC hit the bar before half time.
On 55 minutes Cheltenham pulled one back from a corner, which has to be something to learn from and then we lost our way for a bit, but we regained control although Mannion will lose some sleep tonight because he may have blown his chance to start next week.
The last 10-15 minutes we started to be a threat again and by that time we had Leaburn, Mesik, Sichenje, Alli and Mwamba on to see the game out.
A good day, but this was just an added dress rehearsal, albeit with some meaning. The real business starts next week.
I managed to watch the game here in Italy!
I thought we began tentatively as Cheltenham had early advantage in the opening 15mins without causing us too many problems.Then we grabbed a goal arguably slightly against the run of play but it was clinical. Then Chalobah run the show.. crikey how we missed a player in the central with control and technique. It was disappointing to see us just long balls forward to Godden. I have to say L. Jones distribution from the back was not good. Anyway we look at the positives. 1 became 2 as the smooth Chalobah glided forward with running deep into their half and then giving the eyes to the defenders to slip in Carey. The delayed response from our fans could had been one of surprise 😳.. as we have not seen this type of play for many of a season. Then simply we dominated the rest of the half, TC as he does against lower opposition scored a sublime goal. Clearly enjoying his switch over to the left wing. Chalobah moved the ball around with ease, he produced a great touch kill and turn pass that even the home fans applauded. At halftime it was easy to get carried away, in the end this a side with a terrible defence last season, but credit goes to us for being clinical, something we were not last season. The second half Cheltenham had to respond and started to run and put in tackles and we looked rattled.
Mannion looked shaky, not commanding his area.. errors occurred. If that was Kaminski then the fans would be shouting from their keyboards. He was partially to blame for their goal, a lack of strength to get out and collect. He did make a decent save later on. We looked shaky and defensively out of shape. Chalobah not so effective nearly got caught short with a back pass. Subs came on and we got back in control. Carey could have a hat-trick and Alli served up a delicious cross for him and their keeper made a good save, but those need to be taken.
Could have more goals, even Coventry was passing forward.
League 2 opponents but a good work out and more positives than negatives at this stage of the season. You can see why we need a creative midfielder to sit alongside Chalobah and give the ability to play through the middle. The right wing is certainly an area, I thought Grant did ok on that side, clearly TC didn’t enjoy his time there. The left side looks better.. now we move forward to Derby and see what happens on the transfer market. I am looking forward to it.. but not underestimating the task we have in front of us. I think it will be a rocky road ride again… but I remain confident with some additional players we can be fine.
I had to rush home to watch the match on tv glad I did didn’t feel like doing the 470 mile round trip so took my son to watch the Norwich City game it then gave me 30 mins to get home which I did in 35mins Carey ,Godden, chaloblah Campbell all played well was it just me or did mcnamara look out of his depth today he made a few silly mistakes. Think we should keep hold of Campbell and not sell him to Preston as it might come back to haunt us. I thought NJ may have given Kanu some minutes but he didn’t. Anyway lets get behind the lads for Derby it will be a real test…. COYR
TC was a threat which shows what he can do if given a bit of space and time. The way we were set up last season with a 5-3-2 formation allowed teams to often man mark him out of matches plus he had to do a bit of defensive work as well. The 4-2-3-1 set up gives us a more attacking edge and the teams we play will have other players to keep an eye on besides TC but it does potentially give him that extra bit of room.
As others have said Nathaniel Chalobah was dominant in midfield – we’ve lacked someone to run with the ball in the centre and break play up and too often lumped the ball straight up to the forwards. His run and then forward pass to Sonny Carey looked to be a training ground move I hope we see more of, hopefully we can surprise a few teams.
We look to be playing through the lines a bit more.
Things will get harder from here but a good start to the season.
Lots of reasons to be positive-
All new signings are upgrades on the outgoings.
New formation – less predictable and more threatening.
We still have money in the bank
We still have loan spaces
We are a year more experienced in the Championship, yes it will be a tough season and we could be 22nd or 11th but it’s a lot better than League 1.
Well said, Surrey.
A good start to the season albeit against a League two side. Hopefully our midfield will continue to develop and scoring three goals a game will become more frequent than last season 🙂
I wouldn’t read much into Mannion being in goal. I suspect Kaminsky will be the League games goalie. with Mannion taking over in the cups.
Yeah. Agree, Daggs.
From memory he didn’t play in the last pre-season game last year either.
Posted this over on ITV but thought it might be appreciated here too:
Do find it interesting that just 4 players from the ’22–’23 squad still remain with the club (Campbell, Leaburn, Kanu, and Asiimwe). Only young academy prospects still around speaks to the dearth of talent we’ve had recently. The fact that none have prompted an acceptable offer by this point either doesn’t speak well sadly for the state of the club or the academy development itself unfortunately.
That’s a good debate.
I had been meaning to write a post about the quality of player coming out of our academy. It is pretty natural considering our level that the past gen of academy players are at best plying their trades in the lower divisions and non league. Lookman being the obvious exception.
I don’t think it is the coaching or our set up that remains the envy of a lot of clubs, but having Cat 2 status has been a hindrance but the biggest problem has been young players getting picked off by the big boys before they even get a sniff of our first team.
As for the revolving door of players. That speaks to terrible mismanagement. Hoping this looks better in conversations in a couple of years.
Agreed
To be fair to the kids, hard to imagine they’ve enjoyed watching the style of football the 1st team has played of late and can see brighter prospects elsewhere.
Yes, i think the competition has heated up over the last few years there are now quite a lot of Cat1 academies poaching on our turf ie Brighton, Palace, Chelsea and even Norwich. Millwall are still Cat 2 but also got planning for a new training ground in Fawkham a couple of years ago that seems to have gone quiet now. We obviously lost goalkeeper James Beadle to Brighton a couple of years ago who remains one of the highest rated prospects. If you have seen the facilities at Brighton’s training ground you can understand why. The commute into Sparrows Lane probably remains challenging for a lot of people given the geographic talent pools now called upon at this level.