Oct 28
I’d like to add my condolences to Leicester City fans and the family of their owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who died in such terrible circumstances yesterday after the end of their home game with West Ham United. It is yet unknown who else was in the helicopter when it crashed just outside of the Walker Stadium.
I was thinking before the game, that with no disrespect to Rochdale, if a team is to win promotion from this league then these are the kind of games that have to be won. Dale have lost at home to Peterborough, Barnsley, Walsall, Portsmouth and Doncaster already this season.
However a Charlton win never looked likely today. I watched on ifollow and we were hugely disappointing. There was effort and Pearce for example, had an excellent game, but Dale had our number. They closed us down at every opportunity, chased us into every corner, they defended in packs, and further to their credit, they showed plenty of threat going forward led by the experienced Henderson.
Didn’t deserve to win that did we?
Very disappointing after Saturday. I was sorry that Bowyer made changes in the name of resting players, albeit understanding why he did. Fosu came back and is misfiring. Maybe the diamond doesn’t suit his offensive style. By all accounts Pratley again did well at the back.
I listened on the radio and it sounded like we lacked bite, and 2nd half when a promotion-forward side should have upped the gas, we just didn’t and fell into Oxford’s trap, who scored a great goal to grab a probably deserved point.
Mansfield Town. Ball no. 11 was pulled out of the hat pretty early and we will make the trip to the League Two side on November 10th, unless it gets put on the box.
Sadly, two teams I follow, Eastbourne Borough and Welling fell at the last Qualifying Round stage but Maidstone, Ebbsfleet, Aldershot and Bromley all made it through and all got rewarded with home ties. Bromley’s game at home to Peterborough has TV written all over it.
A very nice win today against one of the most consistent performers in this division. Charlton attacked with real pace and purpose and two goals from Karlan Grant gave us our first win in four and inflicted defeat on Barnsley for only the second time this season.
I was following along from Florida, and the result never seemed in doubt with the returning Bielik strengthening our back four and our midfield excelling doing both the pretty and ugly stuff with Josh Cullen at the centre of it all.
Hugely disappointing today. Another game we dominated but didn’t make it count and as night follows day we folded as Coventry changed it up, went more direct and found our weak spot down the wings. That’s 9 goals conceded in 3 games and how many from crosses?
We can’t kill teams off, only once have we won this season by more than one goal, and with our defence as holey as the Vatican, we are looking like we need to score many more than one to win.
I love it when Bowyer talks top two, talks his team up, but we are so far off the top two and unless we sort out the defence and possibly change the keeper our promotion journey will turn itself around and make it’s way to mid table.
23 shots on goal and 16 corners as the Addicks’ perseverance eventually paid dividends yesterday as we stretched our impressive run. I was following the match at Miami airport and from what I could make out, our midfielders were excellent 2nd half led by Reeves and Aribo as we pushed and pushed for a winner and didn’t take the option of just lumping it.
If you have not caught any of Heather McKinley’s football stories and articles before then you are missing out. The Glasgow based Addick writes mostly for the Scottish football magazine Nutmeg, but somehow finds the time in between running her own strategic marketing business to write some excellent other stuff such as her chance meeting with Roger Alwen’s wife, also called Heather, for football journal The Blizzard.
The article about Heather Alwen’s role in their families ownership of Charlton and the struggle to get back to The Valley is superbly written and stirs some strong memories for me and my own family who lived game by game not knowing if we had a club to support the next week.
Sep 17
I’d imagine this was a surprising blow to all of us this morning. With the latest round of injuries to Bielik, Pratley and Ajose said to be just a couple of weeks of inability, after an MRI this morning Patrick Bauer tweeted that he has ruptured his fibular collateral ligament, which is located on the outer side of the knee, and will be out “for a couple of months.”
Lovely result today. Bradford’s league place belies them, they are loudly backed at Valley Parade and it is always a tough place to win.
But win we did. It was a gritty display, perhaps with an added nasty streak. Yet we showed some good skill, were determined, focused and scored with a couple of superb finishes. My, we could be talking about Bowyer the player.
I am more than happy Bow has introduced a tough streak. For too long we have been easy pushovers. We are going to pick up bookings though, that’ll we need to deal with.
When my Dad convinced me that watching Andy Nelson’s 1974 Charlton was like watching Rinus Michels 1974 Netherlands team, I knew I was in for life of disappointment.
With the Aussies seemingly back on the boat down under, captured on camera today being shown around The Valley by Duchatelet’s latest bag man, Lievan de Turck was ex-Nottingham Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi and his right hand man Hassan Saef, basically what Meire was to Duchatelet. The photo on Twitter taken by Saef got deleted as Addicks fans went into meltdown and Forest fans scared the living day lights out of us.
Three on Saturday against Wycombe. Nothing too serious but we are going to be without Darren Pratley for 2-3 weeks, Nicky Ajose probably this weekend and Krystian Bielik for a fortnight.
Dear Tom, I am sure you are a bright fellow. Ambitious, resourceful and proud. But tomorrow morning take a long good look at yourself in the mirror.
Tuesday, and Lievan de Turck, a Roland apologist with no affiliation or official connection to Charlton whatsoever, rocks up to SE7 with a scrappy piece of paper handwritten in Flemish. Ollie Groome makes a quick back exit for the Valley Cafe. Tom does what he is told. Mel Baroni doesn’t even show Charlton on her resume, take a note Tom, and not one of these {…}.
Read it. What an earth does it say? It’s an embarrassment.
Roland Duchatelet did the right thing today and made Lee Bowyer permanent first-team manager. Well deserved Lee.
The statement says a few things, possibly. There is a chance that the EFL told RD the club needs some stability and a permanent manager would be a start, but on recent history I’d be surprised that the EFL would be that demanding. It may tell us that the Aussie bid is dead, or not. It is only a 9 month contract after all, and I don’t think the two things are related. Finally it appears Richard Murray still has a tongue.
Apparently there was a game tonight, and apparently Tarique Fosu didn’t play. So far so good. And we drew, well lost. On penalties. And, as it turns out, in the most ridiculous rule of all off football time, Fosu was banned from playing, but it didn’t count towards his three-match ban. Yep, EFL you really are..
Chicago Addick 