Aug 18
Alex Mitchell has moved to Plymouth Argyle on loan for the season.
A very likable and a solid, non-compromising centre half, still only 23 Alex will do a good job for Argyle and I hope he gets plenty of game time.
Please click for moreAnother name I am always going to type wrong!
Welcome to Macaulay Gillesphey, a left footed centre-back signed from Plymouth Argyle for what is believed to be a six-figure sum. The Geordie has signed a contract until 2026.
Please click for moreA proper end of season feel to the game, but at least we won meaning the after match walk around the pitch was a little less futile than it could have been.
Three goals from the three young forwards Tyreece Campbell, Jes Rak-Sakyi and Miles Leaburn. An average age of 19.3. It should give optimism, but that is hard to find.
Please click for moreThis week sees us wrap up a run of playing five of the top six and six of the top 9 in recent weeks.
We face the bi-polar Peterborough tomorrow in the re-arranged January game. After losing badly to Bolton and then away at Fleetwood, Posh have taken six points and scored eight goals in the last two games.
Please click for moređ5ď¸âŁ. My final 2021 Top Five Iâve saved for my favourite Addicksâ matches. By my calculation we played 58 times throughout 2021 although picking five hardly evoked a rush of everlasting memories.
Thanks to Charlton TV I see more games a season now than I have ever done in 47 years of support. Even in my most active Charlton going days I probably saw 35-40 matches a season depending on cup runsâŚ. okay 36 then đ.
Please click for moreFrom after the first 30 minutes that was a very poor performance today in Jackoâs first game as permanent managerâŚ. was always going to happen wasnât it.
We werenât great in that first half hour, but with the travelling Addicks in fine voice we were dominant and should have made our superiority count. Stockley had our best chance but headed unmarked straight at their keeper.
Please click for moreWell that sent a shot across the bows for those in the table looking down on us.
What a performance. What an atmosphere. What a day. I have long since stopped pinning my hopes on a Charlton game headlining a trip home. I try to compartmentalize the 90 minutes as part of a whole day out with family and mates. Wake up on a Sunday morning a bit worse for wear, and consign the football to lower down the memories of a fine day out, but bloody hell yesterdayâs âhour and half in the middleâ had bloody everything.
Please click for morePart III then of my annual spot analysis of our competition.
Weâve done the bookies promotion favourites and play-off contenders now for the mid-tablers, where a surprise challenger might spring from, or alternatively one or more of them will have play-off dreamâs crushed and instead get embroiled in a relegation battle.
Please click for moreWell if there was ever a day to hide bad news, then today was it, but there was nothing bad about tonight’s result.
Laughably, we can now, we didn’t get out of our own half in the first ten minutes as Plymouth pressed from the off and forced corner after corner.
The first time in 11 seasons that we’ve exited the FA Cup in the 1st Round, and only the second time since 1973, but Lee Bowyer didn’t appear to care much, and he made the point in as many words at least, that if the players had cared more we wouldn’t have lost.
Bow was pretty scathing in his post-match press conference about most things – the players who came back in, bar one or two, the amount of games, the “stupid cup” on Tuesday and the international break. Marcus Maddison was given the benefit of doubt but his expectation of the midfielder’s work rate was left in little doubt.
Part III and my final look at our fellow League One teams teams this season. I started in the north in Part I and moved towards the middle of the country in Part II and lastly we have the southern teams for this conclusion.
Karl Robinson had a sticky start to LAC (life after Charlton) but this is his third full season at Oxford United and a sense of optimism fills the town. Robinson’s side fell at the final hurdle a couple of months back but have kept the majority of that squad together.
Plymouth is always a tough place to go, and if ever the Pilgrims can be decent for a whole season they are sure to be promotion challengers, and the boys in retro red and black navigated some choppy waters down in the West Country today but returned home with all three points.
The Addicks struggled to contain a very attack-minded Argyle first half, not helped by a referee who was on a mission to book every Charlton player. Weâd had three in the book before a returning Bielik fouled the dangerous Lameiras to give away a penalty late in the first period.
However Dillon Phillips stood strong and despite diving to his left he beat Careyâs centrally placed kick out with his foot.
The second part of my look at our League One rivals as we enter our third consecutive season under our current genius owner. I am sure he is reading this as he renews his subscription for Valley Pass.
Here was Part One of my 2018/19 League One preview, which went Accrington Stanley to Coventry City.
After last night’s Scunthorpe win over Plymouth our task on Saturday became clear. Plymouth were soundly beaten at Glanford Park, with 2-0 flattering the Pilgrims, but we have to expect them to give it everything at Gillingham on Saturday, and likewise at the same time Lee Bowyer’s team must not let up their current levels of work rate at Spotland.
Plymouth failed to capitalize on their games in hand, just as we didn’t either, proving that points in the bag are eminently more valuable.
We played like a team of Lee Bowyer’s..
Off the pitch we haven’t yet got our Charlton back, but on it yesterday under the management of Lee Bowyer we appeared to move a big step in the right direction.
After the rigidity of Robinson, Bowyer talked afterwards about being flexible in his formations, picking them based on who we are playing. The caretaker went with two up front, Zyro and Ajose. He played a diamond in the middle to nullify a threat from Argyle that he had picked up on after watching them during the week. JFC and Reeves were the north and south points with Aribo and Fosu wide. He relied on additional width from his full backs welcoming back Page and giving Dijksteel a start at right back. Pearce was installed as captain and played alongside Bauer with Amos in goal. Interestingly there was no place on the bench for new assistant manager Jacko.
Wake up call..
Karl Robinson complained on Tuesday that our second string should have had the game wrapped up by half-time and back in Devon it was the same story today with our first XI as we went down to our first defeat of the season in front of a good turnout of Addicks at Home Park.
1st half we played well, good possession, attacked well and Luke McCormick performed heroics, but we should have been ahead at the break. Back from injury Josh Magennis had a couple of golden opportunities, and Clarke had a shot cleared off the line. Nonetheless it was a good half and a decent match at the break.
Second 45 we paid for those chances as the Pilgrims worked out our plan A, frustrated us, grew in confidence and took the lead, and in remnants of past seasons once we went behind we never looked like getting back into the game. Plymouth wrapped the game up in the dying minutes of normal time.
Another farcical Carabao Cup draw last night, with our tie and three others home and away venues being mixed up. We were drawn at home to Norwich, but then it was apparent that we should have been away.
Norwich were seeded, as were Brentford, Crystal Palace and Watford and they each had their ties around the wrong way. Among the confusion the dopey TV hosts also appeared to forget that both Newport and West Ham were meant to play away due to home ground issues.
Part I, Lancastrians and Yorkshire types here, Part II for Greater Mancunians here, and Part III for Middle Englanders here.
Right then, my final part and the good old South of England. I’ll start my way from the eastern most club to the one furthest west.
One of a few seaside clubs in the division, Southend United chased a play-off berth all the way to the final game of last season, a nod to what a bit of experience and stability in these trigger happy days of football management can do. Only Keith Hill pips Phil Brown in the League One longevity stakes.
Huge heartfelt congratulations to Brighton and my mates who have followed them through their peaks and many, many troughs. 20 years ago Brighton were homeless thanks to the ineptitude and irresponsibility of a club chairman who shamelessly sold their historic Goldstone Ground from under them. They subsequently played 70 miles away at Gillinghamâs ground for two years before spending 12 seasons at the Withdean athletics stadium, with portable cabins for changing rooms.
But today at their wonderful Falmer stadium, a legacy to the generous and patient Tony Bloom, the Seagulls returned to the countries top division 34 years after they were last there, and in that time only Steve Gritt and a last-day draw at Hereford stopped them from sinking into the non league, and potentially the abyss.
Brighton have long been ready for the Premier League and they are a proper club, with proper fans and the long friendship with Charlton supporters runs very deep.
Charlton Athletic 2 Plymouth Argyle 0
A perfect start then to Chris Powell’s reign as Charlton manager. I think at this stage of the re-birth it wasn’t about the performance yesterday but more the result and the players showing some positive signs of better things ahead.
Chris now has another week to work with the players and the coaching staff to further put his personal stamp on things, such as set-places, which by all accounts continue to be awful. I liked Dave’s comment commending Simon Francis for his accuracy. As a former full-back I’m expecting Powell can improve the distribution from out wide.
From the commentary it did sound like both Francis and Fry did a fair amount of overlapping (I’d be interested to hear if that was correct). This would be something influenced by Powell I would presume.
I’m feeling an emotional pull tonight. It was a normal Friday evening in our house, I put our daughter to bed, I cooked dinner, we drunk some wine, we made plans for the weekend and my other half and I caught up on our week’s stories.
But I have been distracted tonight, my head is not really here. Most Saturday mornings I wake and invariably wish that I was somewhere in England watching the Addicks. It is fair to say that often 90 minutes later I’m pleased that I wasn’t, but on the eve of tomorrow’s game at home to Plymouth, tonight I have an unfamiliar feeling inside me.
It’s the feeling I always used to have as a teenager before every Charlton game, you know the one after you are too young to understand and too old to have other things to worry about.
Tomorrow is the first game of the season, the FA Cup 3rd Round, the Play-Off final, a relegation 6-pointer, promotion decider and local derby all rolled into one. I know that it’s just one game, and we might have to go back to go forward but I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight, probably like many others, perhaps even like Chris Powell because we all want this to work out.
Come on you Addicks.
Plymouth Argyle 2 Charlton Athletic 2
This game followed an all to familiar pattern of many others this season. We conceded early (4 minutes) and then seemingly we had no idea how to get back into the match until out of the blue Benson scored his 2nd goal in a red shirt from a Robbie Elliot goal kick.
Second half was a different story. We dominated proceedings with substitute Lee Martin and Kyel Reid a real threat on the wings. I was in the kitchen cooking egging the Addicks on as Clive Walker kept on telling us that it was only a matter of time.
Then as if on cue Yannick Bolasie rifled home from distance and it looked like another defeat on the road. But credit to the team as we grabbed a deserved draw when Gary Doherty, who playing as an extra striker, nodded on a Semedo cross for Benson to tap in.
I will take a draw and we remain just a point from the play-off’s in a very open division.
Addicks at Home Park: Veezy on Twitter; Doctor Kish; Addicks Diary;
CA fact: 5 of the 8 goals scored in the last two Charlton games at Home Park have come in the last 7 minutes of the game.
Sarasota, Florida
