Sep 13
History always repeats itself, something always happens and it is a given in this game that Millwall will score late, and late they did.
The hurt continues and it will take a couple of days for the fog to clear and when it does it will show that we played very well and were the better team.
Please click for moreIt was quite nice watching last Monday’s transfer deadline pass without having expectations of loads of last minute signings, although whatever happened to David Datro Fofana was a slight dissapointment, if it ever was a thing. We’ll probably never know.
We’ve had so many last minute signings that have turned out to be crap at best, that it’s so much more comforting having new players in the building early in the window. Jones’ stance on loans also means we are not scrapping around in the Premier League academy barrel hoping that the next young hopeful turns out to be Conor Gallagher.
Please click for moreI think that was a warning call today. We didn’t deserve to lose that match, from 60 mins on we looked the most likely to win, but we left Loftus Road with our tail between our legs.
I think us fans need to remember the ultimate goal here. Possibly our surprise element has been exhausted, we have to be better, and we have to learn quicker but for long periods as the away side we still had the upper hand.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
The problem with these early kick off’s is that it leaves a long time for reflection. 12.30 is 7.30am here, and that’s a lot of day to wallow, sulk, or be grumpy. Just ask the missus.
Please click for moreWe were going to lose at some point, and if you’re going to lose, then lose like that.
It was another excellent display of sheer determination, aggressive pressing and quality not only matching but eclipsing our exalted opponents, but the winning goal was straight out of the Premier League and separated the two teams.
Please click for moreBack at The Valley on Saturday with another big crowd expected. Leicester have sold out their allocation. The attendance will certainly be bigger than the last time we hosted the Foxes almost exactly 12 years ago, when Yann scored against his old club.
Crazy to think that just two season’s after that Leicester won the Premier League title.
Please click for moreI really enjoyed that. Throughly deserving of a point, and perhaps could even have snatched all three as we again finished the stronger of the two sides.
Some superb individual performances all across the pitch, but it was a stoic team showing that gave the noisy travelling Addicks something to be really proud off.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
We all know it was only the first game, and there are 45 to play, but I’m still wallowing a little bit from Saturday’s win over Watford. Back to earth tomorrow though when we host Stevenage in the Carabao Cup, and whilst we hadn’t played Watford since 2015, this is our 7th meeting with Stevenage in less than three years.
Please click for moreWhat a way to win a season opener. So many trademarks from last season in that performance and it was great to see Nathan Jones push for the win in the last part of the game and not be content with a point
I was grateful that my Qatar Airways WiFi held out and the game was a joy to watch and a very noticeable step up in quality.
Please click for moreTwo more sleeps, and how are you feeling? Optimistic? Nervous? Restless?
We have to be excited don’t we. After some desperate years we all deserve that feeling. The club has laid a terrific foundation for all Addicks to have something to believe in, and that for me has always been the core principle of being a Charlton fan, and that hasn’t always been easy.
Please click for moreIt’s exciting, right?
Six years ago in the exact same position we had just convinced Jason Pearce and Jonny Williams to sign new contracts, this only after Roland Duchatelet did a u-turn over Lee Bowyer’s contract. Joe Aribo had just left and Duchatelet was behind our backs negotiating to cash in on Anfernee Djiksteel.
Please click for moreWatford at home 12.30pm opening day. Then we travel to Bristol City the following Saturday followed by Leicester back at The Valley a week later. The last game of August is a trip to Loftus Road.
Millwall at home is early (Sept 13th), we travel to The Den on Saturday, January 24th. Hopefully it will be snowing!
Please click for moreWhen the samba rhythm starts to play🎵. Still singing.
I’ve been staring at the picture of next season’s Championship clubs. A little foreboding, a lot exciting. Other than Wrexham, we have played regularly against the others since I started watching Charlton in the mid 70’s. In fact Portsmouth (116 times), Middlesbrough, Blackburn and Derby are all among the teams we have played the most in our history.
Please click for moreI’m at Gatwick waiting for my flight, which I might actually miss unless I can stop myself scrolling through videos and photos of yesterday.
A momentous day, a momentous season that due to the contrasting segments of it seemed to last forever.
Please click for moreI had no doubt that Birmingham would win today. I was at St. Andrew’s for the last game of the 1992/93 season when the Blues had to beat Charlton to stay up.
Saying the atmosphere was hostile does not do it justice and if Peter Garland’s shot had gone in instead of hitting the post I feared we would not got out alive.
Please click for moreAfter 12 years languishing outside of The Championship, 7 in League One, Portsmouth finally found the secret sauce to get themselves back in there after coming from behind to beat Barnsley tonight and are crowned L1 champions.
We’ll miss those points we usually take off our long time peers, but Pompey are a proper club, so congratulations to them and their supporters.
Please click for moreThe 2nd legs of the play-off semi-final’s begin tonight and with Sunderland, Luton and Coventry being in the mix for a Premiership place, they each offer a glimmer of hope to us disconsolate Addicks.
Please click for moreA big final day all around us in League One and in The Championship. Unsure to why we get Sunday all to ourselves.
Sheffield Wednesday were relegated a year after they really should have been as Wayne Rooney’s Derby County survived by the skin of their teeth thanks to a heartbreaking late goal for Cardiff that meant that Rotherham also dropped despite leading in Wales for so much of the game.
I had Soccer Saturday on and Paul Merson spent the whole of the first half complaining. I don’t know what sort of game he was expecting at Pride Park, but he was a little bit more present in the 2nd half, after a word from the director I guess.
Please click for moreI don’t have a lot of like for Birmingham City. I’ve been to St. Andrews numerous times and most of them have been rather unpleasant, off the field anyway. Yet I have been keeping an eye on their progress under Lee Bowyer, and today a win at ‘Wayne Rooney’s Derby’ secured their Championship safety which looked very dubious upon his arrival in mid-March.
Lee Bowyer touched on a topic many of us have highlighted as a problem today, and that is our miserable home form.
By my calculations under Bowyer at The Valley since he took over with fans in the ground the Addicks won 26 of their 46 league games that were played. That does not include play-off’s, or games this season with a small number of socially distanced fans allowed in.
I was off the radar yesterday. I think that is what the glued-to-the-election-other-half said to me when I eventually got home last night before falling asleep on the sofa.
Thanks to Benjy Nurick’s Twitter feed I did manage to follow the game and at 2-0 with us steaming forward at every opportunity and not having conceded a goal forever the game sounded a forgone conclusion with just over half an hour gone.
Spoke too soon I said to myself after Ched Evans scored twice in two minutes to bring Fleetwood level.
What a farce. The EFL covering themselves in glory again.
Now I will say we finished 2nd from bottom after 46 games and deserved our fate. You are where you are. We had our chances but blew it. Bowyer and his team got blood out of a stone and somehow managed to win 48 Championship points with a middling League One squad, a ridiculous and hugely distracting ownership saga, a long and debilitating injury list, our best player refusing to play, and a transfer embargo just one of the many behind the scenes troubles.
It’s hard to write this. Hard to take, and even harder to look into our future now.
Of course we shouldn’t have been here. Having to go to the league’s best team needing to win. We’d already blown it. When Birmingham’s scored last week I knew that. Congratulations to Luton and Barnsley. They properly stepped up when they had too, and commiserations to Wigan and their supporters. How about that bottom three f*ucked over by shysters eh?
EFL, you must be proud, and I hope Lyle Taylor and Chris Solly sleep well tonight.
Torture isn’t it? No one ever said supporting this football club was going to be easy. Ever.
When the fixtures came out over a year ago, we all collectively sighed ‘I hope we don’t have to go to Elland Road needing something?’ Well, slow forward 12 months and here we are.
Gut wrenching. 93rd minute. What a hammer blow.
If we are going to do this, then it will be the bloody hard way…. always.
Absolutely gutted tonight. One point from the last two games. Even two would have given us something to cling onto. F sake.
Strange game really to summarize. We unusually had the majority of the possession, but they had 23 shots to our 7. Phillips could be criticized for their goal, but blimey he had a brilliant game, and without him we would have not have been clinging onto a 1-0 lead into injury time. Brilliant penalty save by the way.
I was fuming after that today. It was so frustrating. Yes blame the referee, blame Lyle Taylor, blame who you want, but we are a shower in front of goal.
Three goals in nine games. How hard can we make this for ourselves?
Our last two games, no hopes, and no points, so as we were then.
Positives to move on with? We didn’t lose to Millwall in injury time, and more seriously we played very well against Brentford. The absolute form team in this division who had been brushing teams aside pre and post lockdown.
Tonight was a free hit. Brentford have been rolling over teams and for my pound, deserve promotion. Yet to be ahead for more than an hour and lose to a penalty and what looked an own goal to me is pretty sickening. The facts of the matter are though Brentford are a very impressive side and we were becoming more and more under the cosh before they won their penalty.
Bow made several changes, perhaps with an eye to Saturday, but it was good to see Jonny Williams back, and I thought he, Sam Field, Jake Forster-Caskey and Alfie Doughty all played admirably.
Every time, same old Charlton blah blah.
I write these games off. Ever since the 70’s. Give them the six points at the beginning of the season, saves all the false hope’s and let-down’s.
I had to go out for dinner at the 2nd half drink’s break. Other than the constant threat of Jed Wallace, I thought we were doing alright up until that point. The giant Smith was off as was Romeo and Jonny had just been introduced and I think we were edging it. Still wasn’t confident of course, doesn’t take a seer to work the end result out against that lot.
As we totter on the edge of administration ourselves we should have every sympathy for Wigan’s fans and players after the Latics became the first professional club in England to fall into administration during the Covid-19 crisis.
It looks to me like another case of a murky and obscure flipping of control of a football club. Our friends at the EFL look culpable again after approving the takeover just last month by an entity called New Leader Fund (NLF) from a Hong Kong operation called International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), a Cayman Islands-registered company which owns a hotel and casino in the Philippines.
A great point to bring home from Wales tonight.
Another defensive blockade and when we needed him Dillon Phillips delivered with the one big save of the night from Adomah.
The result was all the more significant as Lee Bowyer made seven changes to his line-up and changed the formation. Adam Matthews and Tomer Hemed didn’t travel due to small knocks and Sam Field and Jake Forster-Caskey started in a three-man midfield after long lay-offs.
With hotels closed in Wales it will be a day trip to Cardiff on Tuesday for Charlton in their next behind closed doors game as part of this summer’s mini-season.
Cardiff City have propelled themselves into the top six since we re-started. The old adage that every game in this league is tough is no more apparent than our next three games as we now go full steam into a rollercoaster of games until the end of this prolonged season.
Come on you Addicks.
Another resolute and energetic performance today with Darren Pratley heading the early goal from another Josh Cullen corner.
An unchanged line up from Lee Bowyer with Andre Green replacing Erhun Oztumer on the 9-man bench the only change.
The deadline for Championship clubs to re-sign players whose contracts expire June 30th has officially passed, although it looks that many are still negotiating and many clubs are keen to keep news of departures in house.
Our news of Taylor and Solly not wanting to play and David Davis refusing to return to London was hurtful, but it was early, almost 4 weeks ago. This week clubs in our division have still been working out who they can rely on, or will lose. Meanwhile Steve Gallen could concentrate on offering future starts new contracts.
A massive win with real positive early signs that Lee Bowyer has re-ignited all the character traits that we have come to admire.
I watched the game on Valley Pass and think because I was fully submerged in it didn’t really miss the crowd, although the players entering the pitch like they had come for a kickabout was very strange, only added to by the fact I had no commentary for the first few minutes. The silence was very eerie.
We were definitely second out of the blocks as Hull won a couple of early set plays, but in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 we got going with Albie Morgan at the centre of most of it.
A clean slate for Lee Bowyer’s squad this weekend. Forgotten are those not wanting to play and those that were injured pre-lockdown. Also forgotten is how bloody awful we were leading into that Hull game in March. Much worse than we were during that injury torn winless run leading up to Christmas.
The EFL meet again tomorrow, whether that’s virtually or on a beach I don’t know. Curtailment of the season is expected to be voted for in League Two, whilst a vote could go either way in League One.
Clubs have put forward varying proposals including Barnsley in our division that suggests a general amendment to regulations that no club will be relegated from a division where that division fails to conclude its normal fixtures.
Tomorrow morning Lee Bowyer welcomes his players back to Sparrows Lane to start ‘small group training.’
Bowyer sounded delighted to be able to mix with his staff and players again but there are strict protocols that have to be adhered to.
Although it’s not is it, although whether it’s the start or the middle, no one knows.
It would have been the final game of the season today. Elland Road hosting noisy and anxious hopes, dreams and tears. The final of nine games now suspended.
Unprecedented but not unexpected the Premier League and EFL have suspended all football down to the National League until April 3rd.. at the earliest.
Selfishly with all that has gone on with us this week, allowing the players to take a breather and the club to settle down a bit is much welcome, although I don’t mean to downplay the severity of the Coronavirus situation.
The third defeat in a row, with no goals scored and into the bottom three for the first time this season. This is not for the feint hearted.
At the end of the day it was another defensive blooper that saw us lose, Ben Purrington gifting the ball away in the 17th minute that ended with McNair scoring the winner.
Morning Addicks. That was a restless night’s sleep wasn’t it?
A bad, bad week up in Yorkshire for Charlton ended in capitulation and the season’s worst defeat yesterday as Karlan Grant helped himself to a couple of goals and raised anxiety levels to bursting amongst Addicks’ fans.
As gut wrenching as it was last night to concede with the last touch of the game, if we are honest we got what we deserved! Nothing.
Nothing summed up our night pretty succinctly other than Lyle Taylor’s incredible shot which hit the bar, we had to rely on Dillon Phillips to keep us level. Yet, for the sixth time this season we could not keep the ball out of our net in injury time.
Lovely. A vitally important 3 points today.
After an even first half we produced a dominant second led by captain for the day and all-round paladin Lyle Taylor who gave everything and scored twice.
One of those goals was perfection, even down to the boos from the away fans just as he hit sumptuous half volley into the far corner of the net. This after controlling a difficult ball from behind him before teeing it up to fire us into the lead.
Disappointing today. Another football for a fiver and another defeat.. that’s six in a row!
We just were not at the races, beaten by a better team who comfortably worked us out and took easy advantage in the first half and put it in cruise control for the second.
Again, I’m not too au fait with the game yesterday as I was tied to a seat in a big conference hall resorting to checking my phone. But, that was a fantastic result. A proper Curbs’ performance that one.
I was on an airplane for the duration of the game. Sounds as if I was the lucky one. Sounded as if there were no marks of encouragement today. We are in a relegation scrap, no doubts at all.
Stoke have had a good home record since their managerial change and have a squad of players belying their league position but if you play crap, crap is what you get and we need to quickly file this one and move on because Tuesday will be harder still.
Phew, didn’t we need that!
Addicks at The Valley:
Bow: “I’ve just said to the players there, it should have been a bit more comfortable at times and a bit more pretty.”
Elsewhere:
Photo:
A lot to be positive about tonight. Lee Bowyer signs a 3-year contract, a whole throng of players re-appeared on the bench and in the starting eleven. We keep a clean sheet for the first time in 17 games, we hold a promotion chasing Fulham side to a draw and we end the week another point off the bottom three.
Another single goal defeat, another two goals conceded. Is it time to get worried yet?
Disappointing to see the line-up with the bench not including Josh Cullen or Jake Forster Caskey, and in fact even missing a body. No Chris Solly either.
Yet we started really well, and got a great early goal. We passed the ball around from left to right and back to the left side with Sarr releasing Doughty who burst into the box, and put a delightful cross on a plate for Green to score.
What a cracking game. I’ll say it again. What a great division this is. It was fast paced with plenty of blood and thunder, and some really good football played.
WBA have some very classy players, and a deep bench but for the second league match this season we gave them a proper game. Just like at the Hawthorns we never stopped chasing, hustling, snapping at heels and running. Despite being behind twice our heads never dropped.
It was a special atmosphere and I have seen many photos on social media from Addicks who made their way back to The Valley after refusing to attend under the previous owner.
For all but the last five minutes that was bad. Yes injuries, yes budget, yes 12-year olds but I was worried as soon as I read Bowyer’s pre-match thoughts. It sounded so defeatist. I was much happier with his response after, and of course he is right, there is no excuse for the absence of fight and battle.
Equally we just didn’t go for it. We had a man advantage, maybe throw Sarr up front (he’s a liability at the back) with Davison and not take him off. Jesus we are about as useless against ten men as we are on the box.
Inexplicably over this Christmas season we play on a Monday night in the East Midlands and then, worse on a Thursday night in South Wales. Both work days. Thank you Sky Sports 🙏.
Since that extraordinary day at Wembley we have not won on the box in six attempts after Sky suddenly came across us after our scintillating start to the season. 750 Addicks will travel to Pride Park tomorrow evening as Bowyer’s men look to build on 5 points in the last 3 games.
The first half of the season ticked off then, well plus one. How nice it is being back in The Championship, and when I look at the struggle to get up that Pompey and Sunderland are having this season, it makes me even more thankful for Patrick Bauer’s 94th minute goal.
Relegation favourites, our budget the lowest. We started the season on fire, unknown to everybody, scared of no one, surprising all and sundry including ourselves, and we quickly added points to the board. Then we lost a whole team to injury, naturally teams countered our style, defensive errors cost us points, and we lost some confidence, but significantly we have stayed in games, and vitally won on Boxing Day as we began the second half of the season.
Who said Santa’s work was done? A much welcomed three points won at a crackling Valley with Macauley Bonne and Alfie Doughty leading the plaudits. We conceded two again, and defensively we still have many things to work on, but that fighting spirit was there in bundles to give us all a big Boxing Day grin.
If a week ago a 2-2 draw felt like a loss, then yesterday’s felt like victory. It was a roller coaster game to watch for the close to 3,000 Addicks and for 20 first half minutes most of them would’ve wished they were Christmas shopping.
Defensively we were all over the shop. Rangers scored early after Sarr sliced a clearance directly into the path of Cameron. After that it could and should have been at least two or three more. Dillon Phillips kept us in it, and one save when Bermudian Nahki Wells was through on goal with only another QPR anywhere near him was beyond belief.
That was dreadful. On an dreary weather night Charlton got what they absolutely deserved. Nothing. No redeeming features, no excuses.
We can’t keep blaming injuries. Huddersfield had a load out injured as well. It was an utter rubbish performance and Bowyer needs to quickly sort it out because what can often takes years to build can be dismantled in weeks, and none of us want to see that. At all.
That was about as far removed from a Lee Bowyer’s team performance as possible. It was awful, and my heart goes out to the brave 500 or so Addicks who wasted a day if not longer going up there to watch it. Including Matt Southall. Legends all.
Today at The Valley was about a lot more than a game of football and a result. It was a day long awaited by Addicks everywhere as the oppressive Duchatelet era appears to be close to an end. Proposed new chairman Matt Southall was in the crowd and spent time with fans before and after the game. We have seen other supposed saviours soak up applause with scarves around their necks, but Southall looked more assured and happily didn’t feel the need to wear a red and white scarf.
This is a tough run, no win in six, and no clean sheets either, and our points total is stuck in the quicksand. The squad is decimated, and now Gallagher will miss Saturday after being booked. Josh Cullen will be out until after Christmas.
We have a bigger squad this season, two players for each position etc, but it is an infliction of Duchatelet’s ownership that once again too many of these players are brought in last minute, cheaply, not fit enough or have never been fit. Or all of the above.
It was a good, open game for the Sky cameras, but we can’t afford to give away two-goal leads, but in the end we have to be pleased to take a point and after their second I was happy to see us go for it and try to get the winner.
We started slowly but took the lead with our first real attack. Gallagher showing great awareness and desire to continue his run into the box and slot home after Leko missed a pass from Bonne, who deserved the assist.
We relaxed after and got the passing game going as the Covered End turned the volume up.
One week on. Are we over it yet? Nah, me neither, even though my brain has been through an abundance of senses travelling with work in Nevada and California this past week, that final few minutes plays over and over.
The international break is an annoyance, even though I noticed that England qualified for next year’s Euro tour. Shocking to hear Joe Gomez getting booed too, some people are such idiotic lemmings.
Vilamoura, Portugal
