Dec 6
Ben 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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