Charlton Athletic 1 Norwich City 3
Big problems. Home defeat for the first time this season, but the last time we won at all was in August, and The Valley boos and players’ heads dropping told a woeful story on a wet afternoon.
Not sure where we go from here. The noise for Jones to go will get louder but I personally feel he has deserved the right to sort it out, but there is a lot to sort.
Generally we were better going forward today, but our defensive solidity has completely unglued with no midfield protection whatsoever, this despite Jones making four team changes.
We started as we would’ve hoped. On the front foot and aggressive in the press. Campbell really should have scored in less than 20 seconds, and maybe an early-season TC would have put it away, but it was saved.
Yet, we continued in a good vein and took the lead after 10 minutes when Ramsey intercepted a ball as Norwich tried to play out, JRC played in Kelman who finished with aplomb.
JRC was driving forward and Kelman was looking good playing off the shoulder and for 20 minutes we were pinning them in.
Koumetio had to make a last ditch tackle, and slowly the momentum shift changed.
Our recent games have been pockmarked by errors, and with the ball deep in their half, Norwich cleared the ball, and Ramsey inexplicably flicked to ball backwards into no man’s land which saw Norwich burst forward, the ball ends up with Maghoma, Coventry doesn’t close him down, and he smacks the ball past Akonkwo for an equalizer.
Once again I was ticking off the minutes to half-time, but again when you hope for a sea change, the tide came in at the start of the 2nd half.
We began poorly and Norwich should’ve scored before they actually did on 54 minutes and we were once again all over the place at the back.
A triple sub improved matters and we did respond pretty well to that Norwich goal.
Then a moment that perhaps might have changed the final result. A lovely Campbell cross was headed into his own net by McConville, but the linesman flagged for offside, which possibly could only have been a toe that even a VAR calibration line would have trouble in discovering.
Sadly the result did become pretty conclusive after that, Norwich on a run of six straight losses, were pulling us apart and a Mesik OG added to two goals from errors to finish us off.
It was a harrowing performance from Charlton, whatever Jones tries to do is not working and we have become so easy to pick off.
🎙️ “We stopped doing pretty much everything we were doing in the opening in the opening 20 minutes. The performance started to unravel there.”
⭐️ Charlie Kelman
🏟️ 19,588 (3,055 Norwich)
📸 Kyle Andrews
Taxi for Jones
I’ll pay
Effort over tactics will not work in this division
To be honest there is not a lot you can say after the first 20 minutes apart from dreadful, no fight no passion where do we go Scott parker comes to mind
I’m not one to shout for the manager to go, but for how long can you tolerate such poor performances? We’ve looked good for the first 20 minutes of recent games and then fallen apart. Players are making silly mistakes all over the pitch and we were picked apart so easily, Norwich just sat deep and then released their quick forwards on the break, it’s not rocket science.
I have very mixed feelings about the suggestion of Scott Parker being a possible replacement, he’s already gone on strike while employed by us . . . . .
Boy oh boy that was not great after 20 mins battering Norwich !!!
We allowed them to get back into the game and stopped being positive in our play.
The players adopted a negative approach and allowed Norwich a goal that did affect our spirit.
It’s sad to hear the booing second half and I’m at a loss to criticise fans for expressing their feelings……not a good sign.
Have to admit I stopped watching after 35 minutes. Perhaps Nathan stays, but something has to change.
A truly awful watch. Jones had a massive headloss with the players after Norwich’s disallowed effort and after that we parked the bus and with no Conor Coadyesque protection the game was up. So where does the blame lie, the manager, the players, the recruitment…bit of everything I suspect.
If we were to end up with another makeweight manager in the Holden/Appleby/Garner mould we’ll end up back where we’ve spent 8 of the previous 10 seasons and will doubtless look forward to another 5 years or so wishing we’d been smarter.
I’m with you CA in that he definitely deserves the opportunity to sort it out, after all, if it weren’t for him we’d still be wallowing in L1 or worse so a little bit of calming TF down in order. We’re looking dire in the championship because we’re in the championship and pretty much the only reason for that is Jones.
It’s all about momentum shifts really, if we’d have started with these last 6 and ended with the first 6 but we haven’t so we are where we are. Chalobah may make all the difference but that’s a pretty precarious reliance.
From our less than illustrious list of last 20 managers, only 3 have had any success and I’d argue only 1 has progressed us as a club so the track record of recruitment ain’t great. Talk of the geeedy bastard is fanciful, like really!? I may well be wrong but collective knuckling down and steadying the ship might just be the best way. For now.
Scott Parker may well get West Ham or Wolves promoted as he has only had success in this division with a Premier League squad. His managerial capabilities in relegation battles is dreadful.