Apr 11
I had one eye on the Addicks U17 team today. Their Premier League Cup Final against Tottenham was on Charlton TV and I watched it while I worked.
The Addicks ended up losing 5-2 but put up a gallant fight and for long spells of the game put their Cat 1 academy opposition under a lot of pressure.
Please click for moreI warm to Jason Pearce. He played the game like everyone was his last and led by example. Pearce was handed an early chance to coach under Steve Avory in the academy and then took the full reigns of the U18’s. He obviously has made a good impression both on and off the field, and after just a year in a coaching role has been further recognized with a promotion to be the Senior Professional Development Phase (PDP) Lead Coach.
Please click for moreRing it up.
London Senior Cup Champions, Carabao Cup champions of London and the highest placed London team in the league (*third tier). We are great.
In all seriousness it was a wonderful achievement by the U21’s to win the London Senior Cup beating Haringey Borough 5-3 last night in extra-time. Those in attendance called it one of the games of the season, and Danny Senda adds another string to his burgeoning bow as do the string of exciting young academy players we are very fortunate to have.
Please click for moreThis team….. Just when you want to shun them, give them the cold shoulder, they come up and give you a big fat slobbering kiss!
What a performance, one filled with heart and hope. I didn’t want to use that last word, but it spilled out. There is a lot to happen still off the pitch, whether sooner or later, but it was a night for us not to forget all of the issues, but a night to saviour, and to remember what it is to support this football club.
Please click for moreAnthony Hayes has had an interesting coaching career spending 5 years within Brentford’s progressive coaching set-up before moving to Charlton in 2016.
The Irishman moved through the ranks at The Valley and was promoted by Ben Garner recently to be first team assistant coach. This morning he was given the job of caretaker manager following Garner’s sacking yesterday.
Please click for moreFormer club captain Jason Pearce has taken a coaching role with the Addicks’ academy and will work with the U18’s. Interview here: Pearce retires.
Pearce has decided to retire, after turning down a couple of playing opportunities elsewhere, including some local club offers, to join the academy coaching staff at Charlton and will work with Hamza Serrar and the exciting group of U18’s.
Please click for moreThe club today issued their released and retained list.
Chris Gunter, Conor Washington, Adam Matthews, Ben Watson, Pape Souare and Stephen Henderson all leave following the expiry of their contracts.
Whereas all of the loan players return to their parent clubs, that is Akin Famewo, who we did have an option to buy, Elliot Lee, Jonathan Leko, Mason Burstow, Nile John and Juan Castillo.
Please click for moreA crazy first half which saw both sides reduced to ten men, but we got our goal and clung onto it like a piece of treasure.
The first half resembled a bundle in the playground as old adversary Trevor Kettle sent off Jayden Stockley and ex-Addick Deji Oshilaja and handed out yellow cards like confetti, including one to Harry Arter who didn’t even get his tracksuit off.
Please click for moreWell that set the heart racing.
Today Nigel Adkins welcomed club captain and 33-year old Jason Pearce and Ben Watson, who will be 36 next month, to another year at the club. Whoopee 🎉..
Please click for moreBaby steps.
If Saturday was a head on car crash then tonight was of one of parallel parking where you get the car in the space without accident even though it is not very straight!
Tonight was not about the aesthetics, it was about the win and secondly it was about the desire to get that win.
This team feels so hard to love, or even like a little at the moment. You just cannot make mistakes like that and get away with it. They are not learning and are not good enough.
For 60 minutes if we weren’t good enough, then they were at least battling on a quagmire of a pitch, and doing enough to defend our lead given to us by a generous penalty converted by Washington.
Frustrating watching the Addicks at the moment, and I’m thinking I may do something else with my time on Friday afternoon rather than watch the Accrington Stanley game from behind the sofa.
The biggest barrier to watching them at the moment for me is that as a team they are hard to like. What I mean by that is there are no characters, or any sense of leadership. Where’s the midfield terrier, who will chase anything and anyone all around the pitch?
Skipper Jason Pearce, who injured a knee in training last week has been ruled out for up to 8 weeks. It is not known whether surgery is required.
Pearce was a rock after lockdown and is highly influential among the players, and is going to be a big loss. Those first two months of the season encompass 10 league games.
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.
On Wednesday night, to steal from Lee Bowyer, we battered Forest. Today the battering was on the other foot, but heroic defending, and total commitment saw us gather another 3 points to our early unforeseen total.
8 points above the relegation zone, it’s how I’m looking at it, and another wonderful Valley occasion as second best throughout we showed another side to our game. If Wednesday was about slick passing and movement, today was about blood and guts with the back three of Lockyer, Pearce and Pratley immense and Duracell bunny Lapslie and Purrington leaving no blade of glass unturned.
Back with a bang. Wow, I don’t think many of us were expecting that. A squad short on numbers, but never short on belief and resolve, and urged on again by a band of noisy Addicks.
The first half hour was probably as expected, Blackburn dominated possession and we looked like a team thrown a little together in the school playground. Yet there was work rate and the back five looked solid led admirably by Jason Pearce with Darren Pratley in front of him.
Skipper Jason Pearce has been the first of the three players targeted by Lee Bowyer to sign a contract extension.
The 31-year old has signed an extension to his contract to keep him at Charlton until at least June 2021. (more)
“I love the club and it has been a good year and I feel like Charlton are on the up. The club obviously had a bit of interest for me in the summer but it didn’t change anything, I wanted to stay here.”
1,500 Addicks turned Adams Park into a home match last night as they sung and roared on Charlton to victory.
It wasn’t a classic but Lee Bowyer’s men ground and fought out a hard earned win against a decent Wycombe side. Bowyer juggled his squad around to rest a few legs and it was returning skipper Jason Pearce who got the vital goal expertly volleying in a cross from a lovely Josh Cullen cross on 33 minutes.
Not been very festive these Christmas games have they. We are well and truly stuck on the naughty list.
You can’t give a team of Barnsley’s quality, especially with their home records, a 2-0 head start. Apparently well taken goals, but we sounded all over the place and we allowed them to stretch us, and push us back towards our own goal. It was a very sluggish start and the game was all but over after a quarter of an hour.
Daylight Robbery last night as we stole all three points from Burton, who dominated the game in almost every way. I listened in on the radio to segments and we couldn’t seem to get any kind of hold on the game.
We were under the cosh from the off and eventually conceded to a penalty but soon equalized as Grant scored his 10th league of the season. That’s 9 penalties we’ve had so far and we are still in November.
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.
Jason Pearce will wear the captain’s armband next season but Chris Solly will takeover Jacko’s role as club captain. Seems like a nice resolution for both men, Pearce a visible leader and Solly, who this season celebrates 10 years, Charlton through and through.
An away point is still an away point..
I’m in Sarasota at the moment and was unable to pay yesterday’s game a lot of attention, but it said a lot about what Lee Bowyer has brought that the result was considered disappointing.
From looking around at the post match comments it sounded like the performance lacked the intensity and attacking quality of the previous games, yet the pitch was poor and Bristol Rovers are not.
Karl Robinson I remembered earlier in the season was extolling the virtues of his squad. He was a little bit more on message then with Kait and Roly. I have always liked the Scouser’s honesty but recently he has stepped out a little from behind the screen to be a bit more forthright.
Injuries are part and parcel of football, particularly modern day football because I am sure in the 70’a and 80’s players only missed matches if one of their legs had fallen off. Building a squad is all about compensating for missing players due to injuries, resting out of form players and giving the manager formation and tactical options. Robinson has none of these and the cracks are showing.
I read that we missed a leader on the pitch last night. Solly, for all of his qualities, is a quiet captain, and Pearce always comes across as a far more visible and audible influence.
With Ricky Holmes’ contract still sat unsigned in Katrien Meire’s office, he is away on holiday incidentally, it was Jason Pearce who grabbed the Bic and scratched his name onto a contract extension.
Pearce had a contract until 2019, but with other clubs sniffing around, Pearce added a year to it, which is very good news. Pearce was influential and the stat on the OS that from the 23 games he started, we took 38 points, and when he didn’t we won 22, speaks for itself.
Pearce is a winner, and we need winners.
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When we signed Jason Pearce I called him as Slade’s best summer signing. He started slowly but has proven himself as a leader and a very accomplished defender. Today Pearce tweeted this:
Not the news I wanted at all. Tough one to take.Gonna work hard&come back stronger and hope to be back to help the team achieve our goals.⚪️🔴
— Jason Pearce (@jpearce05) December 13, 2016
That is a blow, but the silver lining is that this has to open up a return for Jorge Teixeira, who was outcasted by Slade, possibly under Duchatelet’s orders. However Karl Robinson involved the Portuguese straight away and he is undoubtedly a class act. Bauer is suspended but will be back for Saturday, and these two will still make a formidable central defensive pairing.
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I’m liking the cut of Russell Slade’s jib. He says it straight, and talks with authority and honesty. He’s got a little twinkle in his eye too. That can be quite infectious.
I said a while back that if they could bring Jason Pearce into the club, then that would say a lot about Slade’s influence and ability to manage our inadequate CEO, and to get what he wants and or was promised. Pearce joined yesterday and for me is the signing of the summer. Pearce is a winner, vocal and not stupid. He has also been team captain wherever he has played and I suspect he will be for us with Jacko remaining club captain.
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Another day closer to Bury and another day still without the 5 or 6 players Russell Slade thinks we need as a minimum. And I think he is being kind. And that is 5 or 6 on the basis no one else leaves and Solly, Ajose and Bauer will be match ready.
Slade was very honest in his assessment after a poor performance at Leyton Orient and said:
“We’re miles away. I’d like to think between now and the start of the season that we can get another five or six additions to the group. In all honesty, if we’re going to be competitive at the top end then that’s what we need to do. Even against a Leyton Orient that will have a campaign in Division Two, they’re making substitutions and sending men on. I’m sending on a lot of young players.”
Interestingly a year ago after a shocking pre-season tour in Belgium previous man in charge Guy Luzon said:
“We also wait for another four or five players, so it was not a fair game, but it’s okay, today will not be in our first-team squad, it was the young players from the academy. 60 or 70 per cent of the players who played today will not be in our first-team squad, it was the young players from the academy.”
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Sarasota, Florida
