May 10
On loan Josh Davison still has some unfinished business at Swindon Town as they kick off the play-off’s at home to Port Vale on Sunday. Davison has scored 9 goals since his move on loan in January.
One out on loan player that has returned however is Charlie Kirk. I didn’t see many grievances of Sandgaard’s signing of Kirk from Crewe in the summer, but he never settled in the smoke particularly following the death of his father.
Please click for moreBlackpool happily ensconced in mid-table in The Championship after winning the play-off’s last season have signed Charlie Kirk on loan with a view to a permanent move in the summer.
Please click for moreSounding more and more like Charlie Kirk’s short stay at The Valley will come to an end in this window.
There are talks of a permanent move back to the north-west with Blackpool, who obviously see things in him that we haven’t.
Please click for moreIs this the corner?
After the club appealed Chuks Aneke’s sending off against Blackpool on Saturday – it was in the 85th minute if you’d had already turned off by then. The Football Association’s independent Regulatory Commission have agreed and the red card has now been rescinded.
Amongst the total hopelessness today was the sound of the death knoll echoing around that famous stadium. We couldn’t hear it, but it was there loud and long.
A month or so back we stopped looking like a promotion team. Today we didn’t look like a team at all, shorn of all pride and commitment.
This evening the newly put together Addicks squad proved they can do it on a chilly Tuesday night by the seaside as we left the Lancastrian coast with all three points.
The performance was once again a long, long way from perfect but there were encouraging signs. Ryan Inniss and Akin Famewo were dominant at the back against a good forward three for Blackpool. I thought Andrew Shinnie and Chris Gunter were more on point, and Alfie was once again a live wire, night cap and all.
The Addicks back in the third tier for the fourth time in five seasons. From our first season back down there in 2016/17 AFC Wimbledon, Fleetwood, Gillingham, Oxford United, Peterborough, Rochdale and Shrewsbury are all still there. Both Gillingham and Peterborough are the longest serving with this season being their 8th consective.
The 24 teams are evenly spread north and south, but I will begin my quick glance at our League One rivals at the top of the country.
A wonderful day for Blackpool supporters yesterday. Four times the normal gate at Bloomfield Road as thousands and thousands of stay away fans ended their long excruciating and often depressing boycott.
A toxic owner / supporter relationship, which we know so much about began to come to an end when a High Court ruling in the middle of February put the football club into receivership, meaning that Owen Oyston had to pay former director Valeri Belokon the £25m he was owed.
We may have lost Karlan Grant’s goals, but we’ve also lost his pace. We have to be so much easier to defend against as we play in front of opposition defenders instead of behind them and around them. I don’t expect Dillon Phillips gives us the quick counterattack outlet that Steer did either.
It was good to see Joe Aribo back who had a very influential spell of the game, but obviously tired later, but that midfield doesn’t sound right to me, and hasn’t been itself since the much heralded (me included) return of Cullen. Square pegs, round holes comes to mind. Not much Bow can do now about losing and not being allowed to replace Grant, but his midfield decision making is key.
Oh well, at least we can concentrate on the Cup. Oh..
Always going to happen wasn’t it after we rested the whole team to whimper out of the Cup. Fast forward to the next league game 7 days later we concede a late winner. Meanwhile Doncaster scored 4 away from home. Blackpool also put out a strong side last week. Think that debate is settled, don’t you?
Charlton and our friends from Blackpool joined forces today to protest against not just our irresponsible owners, but the many others, outside the EFL offices in west London today. Meanwhile northern based Addicks and a large contingent of Blackpool fans gathered outside the EFL HQ in Preston and loudly made their presence known.
The protests were heavily picked up by the national media as well as Sky Sports and a large crowd made their feelings loud and clear. Two Addicks got to meet EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey, and after, one of them Alan Davis, said that Harvey confirmed the delay in the ‘Australian takeover’ is not as a result of any lack of process of documentation at the EFL. This the reason that Duchatelet, de Turck and Murray have all publicly stated as the reason any takeover has not yet happened.
With motivational levels at an all time low, I have managed to drag some fingers over my keypad to look at our fellow League One rivals and give them each a mini once over for the new season.
Let’s start at the beginning of the alphabet with Accrington Stanley, who will play at their highest ever level in 50 years after winning League Two last season following a magnificent run of 16 wins in 19 games between January and April culminating in an historic promotion.
Please let it stop. I want to get off..
Absolute shocker of a performance tonight. If that is a group of players with a point to prove, then they are an embarrassment, as is their manager, who in tonight’s game of excuse bingo (17 minutes long) blamed the takeover for the way the players are performing. Oh the players have families and don’t know if they are going to have a contract in summer…. They don’t deserve a f-in contract.
Seems like the referee wanted to be centre of attention yesterday. Those 4-500 poor Addicks who hauled it up the motorway, about a 550-mile round trip wasted. Nonetheless, like him or not, I was proud of the way Karl Robinson led the players to observe the Jimmy Armfield tributes both inside and outside Bloomfield Road. Robinson may never get labelled as ‘proper Charlton’ but what he and the players did yesterday after the referee scuppered a game of football, and more than that, a memorial to a footballing legend, was a touch of class and one as a Charlton fan I was proud to see and read about. Addicks fans too, as we’d expect, also joined in the homage to Armfield, who died a week ago.
Groundhog Day..
Missed chances, unable to defend crosses, loads of possession, more injuries, threadbare squad with kids not ready playing, Marshall and Reeves not doing it, Robinson’s excuses.
But there’s always the transfer window..
I like Robinson, I’ve said that before, but I wish he would stop making excuses and moaning about the referees and spend time putting in place a plan B. We must be one of the simpliest sides to work out and neutralize in the division. Robinson has watched us struggle for weeks, and yes players are falling like flies, but he has to prove himself now. And what he’s waiting for in January only Lord knows. Konsa sold and a few loanes from Carl Zeiss Jena I suspect.
Chicago Addick 