Jan 22
I thought this one had died. Certainly the current head coach didn’t seem aware any signings were close during his gruelling presser this morning.
However Lewis Ward, who had his Swindon contract cancelled last week, has now signed for Charlton on loan, with the club option of a further year in the summer.
Please click for moreBen Garner strikes me as a reasonably smart bloke, he always carried an honest opinion post games, which was refreshing, but in recent weeks and even months the narrative had become a lot more barbed.
In front of the owner on Saturday he pretty much wrote his suicide note by playing a team and formation that issued a ‘what else am I meant to do’ plea.
Please click for moreLooks as if Jack Payne will be the next Ben Garner acquisition as the new Addicks’ boss raids his old club once more.
27-year old Payne can play as an 8 or a 10, and turned down a very good offer to apparently take lower wages at Charlton. Payne will have a medical today before being announced tomorrow.
Please click for moreInteresting new signing today. Once again Thomas and the black box analytics team have raided Swindon Town and signed the 25-year old Ghana international goalkeeper Joe Wollacott on a three-year deal.
Wollacott is still young for a goalkeeper but prior to one season at Swindon had spent his whole career in non-league after coming through the Bristol City academy.
Please click for moreSeems like a confident young lad. Attacking right back Mandela Egbo became the club’s second summer signing today penning a two-year contract with an option of a third.
The 24-year old was at Swindon at the end of last season under Ben Garner, signed just to keep fit initially, but Egbo had a star run in the team as Swindon made it into the L2 play-off’s.
Please click for moreWidely expected to join Ben Garner at The Valley, Scott Lindsay has been appointed as Swindon’s new manager.
Lindsay and Garner’s other previous assistant coach Scott Marshall were expected to leave Swindon once compensation was agreed, but in what could turn out to be a clever move Town have made Lindsay their new manager. It is not known if Marshall will remain at Swindon in a new role as well.
Please click for moreThe soap opera, because that is what we have become, surrounding the appointment of a new manager continued tonight.
32 days after Johnnie Jackson was sacked by Thomas Sandgaard today the senior sports reporter at the Swindon Advertiser plus Talksport and even The Athletic all reported that Ben Garner had signed a 2-year deal with the Addicks.
Please click for moreAn interesting development at Swindon Town today. Director of Football Ben Chorley has suddenly resigned.
Chorley originally served as a free-lance recruitment scout before last July moving into the role of director of football at the County Ground the same day that Ben Garner was appointed as manager.
Please click for moreAt least according to Rich Cawley, who get’s very little wrong but there are some murmurings tonight that Thomas Sandgaard has denied Garner’s imminent appointment. Nothing is ever clear cut is it.
If Cawley is correct then Sandgaard has agreed both terms with Ben Garner and compensation with his club Swindon Town. I guess we may find out more tomorrow. Possibly.
Please click for moreTwo more points dropped. How many times can we give a team a two-goal lead. Can we at least next time start the game 0-2 down, so it gives us 90 minutes to get them back?
Get bored of saying this, but this team makes it hard to build real trust in, and affinity with. It’s extremely hard to look at the games since November and think we are anything other than a mid-table side.
Today we started well, but were 0-1 down at five past three! The defending was atrocious. Ben Amos also looks as if he is lacking confidence, but that is probably not surprising.
Haven’t learnt a thing have we.
That’s four points dropped in injury time in the least two away games against teams at the bottom. You know 4 points come the end of the season will matter. Leading up to the Leeds game at the end of last season how many last minute conceded goals did we mull over in our heads.
Fine lines, but so needless, so frustrating. We weren’t great, weren’t particularly at the races, but we were better and had the better chances. The negative tactics to defend a lead against inferior opposition is becoming very irksome.
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.
Friendly, kick-about, run out, cup tie.. whatever you call it, it was a nice confidence booster for Lee Bowyer and his team today.
In front again of Thomas Sandgaard plus his family, Bowyer put out a team capable of winning the game but it still included 17-year old Charlie Barker and 20-year old James Vennings.
Ben Amos started in goal with Ashley Maynard-Brewer on the bench with Dillon Phillips told he either commits to the club or doesn’t play. The Addicks lined up in a fluid 4-3-3.
Amongst all of this holy mess, a fixture was drawn out of a virtual hat this morning. The Carabao Cup 1st Round pitched us away to Swindon Town in the Southern Section.
When I look at that League One listing a few names send shudders down my spine, and Swindon is one of them. I was at the County Ground the last time we played them in November 2016.
The chairmen of AFC Wimbledon, Shrewsbury Town and Swindon Town have all been busy today.
Dons’ chairman Erik Samuelson removed Neil Ardley from his role at Wimbledon after a hugely successful six years, the Shrews’ very own Roland (Wycherley) moved on John Askey after just five months in the role after he was given the difficult job of rebuilding the side that Paul Hurst built. Hurst was just sacked himself by Ipswich and one would thought he’d be favourite to head back to Shropshire.
Askey’s old team Macclesfield, who are marooned to the bottom of League Two, may offer a route back into management for Askey. Macclesfield have broken the mould of recent promoted National League teams, who have mostly flourished at the higher level, showing what a magnificent job Askey did at the Moss Rose.
The Valley, Floyd Road, London SE7. Our spiritual home. A home that I first made my own in 1975, and this year for the first season in 42 years, a home that will not have been to, nor to a final home game that I have nearly always made it back for since leaving the UK in 2003.
However this Sunday CARD have plans to get as many of us there as possible, even if you don’t want to part with your money and enter the ground.
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An enjoyble weekend at home for the football, only ruined by the football! I’m only glad that I didn’t waste time watching it on the telly. Oh….
A 200-mile round trip across a very rainy London, the fact that it stopped raining when we reached the magic roundabout was the only highlight of another dismal day of being a Charlton fan. A couple of players out on international duty and our most creative and direct player injured showed up all of Russell Slade’s tactical weaknesses and how glaringly sparse and unbalanced our squad is, with 9 defenders in the 18 man squad!
How bad we were yesterday left me a little shell shocked to be honest. The first half was dreadful, but Swindon at least showed some splashes of intent and had a couple of players that could play the ball well on the ground. Meanwhile all we could do is move the ball sideways and backwards around the back four and eventually hoof it up front to no one in particular. Nicky Ajose attempted to make a fist of a couple of wayward high balls, but as an attacking force we showed no invention and less ambition.
In fact throughout the whole game we had just one shot on target. Novak and Ajose scored 39 goals between them last season yet Slade looks unable to get them playing together or individually to their strengths. I only found out once we got home that Slade had them set up in a diamond formation. I think those of us there were oblivious to that, although it might explain why Novak and Ajose kept being found out wide. Or then again it may not.
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Remembrance Day, 11/11, is actually a public holiday in Bermuda, which is a very honourable way to remember the 125 brave Bermudian’s that were lost during the World Wars.
I’m taking the opportunity tonight to fly home for the weekend. Land Friday morning, depart Sunday afternoon. In and out, no time to get affected by the time difference, and a crash bang wallop opportunity to see family and friends and against my better judgement the Addicks.
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Part I is here and Part II is here.
Rochdale under Keith Hill have made the transition to League One look fairly comfortable. Two top ten finishes are not to be sniffed at as Dale keep company with much bigger and financially stronger clubs. Hill also remains at Spotland and unlike 95% of the countries managers, you have to think that the manager does control quite a lot of his own destiny.
Just a couple of additions aligned with a bit of a clear out, should mean that Dale at least stand still but with the lowest home attendance in the division last season, Hill must continue to get his players to punch above their weight. Led by young skipper Jamie Allen, it is not a squad of household names although Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, ex of Peterborough and Wolves, is there, but it is a young but clearly a non-intimidated group of players. Hill and is his team should expect a mid table finish again. Promotion 12/1. Relegation 9/2.
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Welcome to Nicky Ajose, who today finally put pen to paper. The fee was obviously undisclosed but it widely thought to be £800,000.
Ajose was expected to sign for a Championship club with Birmingham and Bristol City both interested. The Blues were said to have had a bid of £500,000 turned down as Swindon chairman Lee Power hung on for more.
Ajose had a belter of a season scoring 24 goals in 38 games finishing 2nd top league scorer behind on-fire Will Grigg. Swindon obviously saw something in the 24-year old picking him up from Leeds on a free. He never scored for Leeds but was never given a chance as they churned through managers Charlton style and was farmed out on loan to Crewe where he scored 8.
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There’s a certain symmetry to the 3rd and 4th placed teams, 4th and 5th in League Two, reaching the play-off final, if you like the ‘two best teams’ after those already promoted. You can also add the Conference into that unusual statistic this season as well.
I have worked out that this year is only the third time in 29 seasons that the best two placed teams in the three tiers have made it to the play-off final. The last time was 2000, and in 1998 it also happened. I remember it well.
Everyone has there own theories on the play-offs, although few complain that they are a bad thing, as there is no doubt it adds some great excitement and also prolongs the season’s dreams. This season is only the 8th time that 3rd and 4th in The Championship have made it to the Final. It also happened last year when 4th placed QPR scraped past Derby.
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Charlton Athletic 2 Swindon Town 4
The last time Swindon visited The Valley Addicks fans ended the evening distraught but with at least a sense of pride. There was no pride this evening, just despair.
From start to finish this was a woeful display. For the umpteenth time this season we were lacking in ideas and any kind of creativity. With our first meaningful attack Johnnie Jackson scored again, this time from a lucky deflection and we were fortunate to see the goal stand. TV replays showed a handball and an offiside. But it did and it was a great opportunity to push on.
But we didn’t, Swindon continued to dominate while we just launched long balls forward and the midfield ran around in circles trying to work out Parky’s 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 system and Swindon fully deserved their 41st minute equaliser.
At the break Michael Slater would have been hoping along with 14,000 others that Parky would demonstrate some managerial skills. He didn’t.
Swindon Town 0 Charlton Athletic 3
I was on the plane for the whole length of the game last night travelling back to Bermuda from Gatwick. The brilliant new Sherlock Holmes BBC series had taken my mind off what might be happening at the County Ground but once we touched down a fair few scenario’s played in my mind in the time it took to turn the mobile on and for it to obtain a signal but as Twitter burst into life the first few messages at the top of the page told me all I needed to know!
Thanks also to those of you that sent me the final result directly. But what a fantastic result and on paper probably the best one of the season and fine revenge too, after the heartbreak of the play-off’s.
Sarasota, Florida
