Mar 15
Absolute dominance for 84 minutes then it all got a bit panicky.
For the first half and almost the entirety of the second we played like a juggernaut running downhill, we were quality, but we weren’t able to completely snuffle out our visitors who had a new manager in the dugout.
Please click for moreA 1-0 clean sheet away win, something that was improbable all of last season. It was a fine way to start the season.
Lloyd Jones’ 81st minute controlled finish the difference between the two sides with solidity, concentration and hard work overcoming Wigan’s possession based style.
Please click for moreYes, I know we play everyone twice, home and away and it all works out in the end.
Nonetheless I always believe that a good season is 99% of time spawned by a good start and looking at those early fixtures they will be a test for Nathan Jones’ new look side.
Please click for moreA polar opposite game from Saturday as two mid table slides slogged it out in a quieter atmosphere.
The Addicks had enough chances to win the game but had to settle for their 18th draw of the season, the most in all of the EFL.
Please click for moreA few weeks back I’d have been happy to have a free Saturday away from the despair of football, but fast forward a few weeks and I found myself a little bit forlorn, especially as I was home alone with the dog as the girls were across the state at a swim meet.
Please click for moreOur What’s App chat at half time was debating how many goals we were going to let in during the 2nd half. No way won’t they score said one.
Well for 80 odd minutes we were fine, three goals to the good. Six minutes to go and Wigan score, and I am bemoaning another game without a clean sheet. Then they score again and then we are baying for the final whistle.
Please click for moreA much better performance than Tuesday but the same result at Wigan this afternoon.
With no Aneke, Washington, Stockley, or Scott Fraser we were always going top be up against it. The assumption was that Famewo missed out due to loan numbers. Jacko kept to his 3-5-2 but there were more centre-backs on the bench than in the team. I’m all for having a philosophy, but you also need the players.
We can question recruitment again on this front, or any sense of long-term planning which doesn’t seem to be Sandgaard’s forte….
Please click for moreA toothless performance today. Was it terrible? No, but as night follows day we were there for the taking as the game moved into the last 20 minutes.
It was however, another display devoid of style, purpose, organization and hope.
Please click for moreThe first part of my League One rate the competition review guide….guide is a massive overstatement by the way, but hopefully you will stick with it.
League One is wide open this coming season, possibly only a handful of teams will have their ambitions fixed solely on survival, everyone else will either have a longing for a play-off place, expect a concerted challenge towards it or will have a vision of top two.
Please click for moreBen Amos has signed for Wigan Athletic, who are showing to be one of next season’s biggest L1 spenders.
Amos played 92 games for the Addicks covering two full seasons in 17/18 and 20/21 and although in apparent new contract discussions with Charlton, he has followed Chuks Aneke out of the door and moved elsewhere.
Please click for moreI was little distracted on Friday by work of all things, so wasn’t able to fully concentrate on the U18 Professional Development League 2 play-off final at The Valley, but it looked as if the best team won.
Congratulations to Wigan, who I have a lot of admiration for and credit to them for keeping their academy intact throughout all of their own traumatic ownership. Jamie Carragher’s son looked impressive at center-half. Likewise Charlie Barker was a class above the majority of others on the pitch.
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.
A scrappy and sometimes untidy performance but we came away with the much needed 3 points today at The Valley.
It’s almost impossible to judge the team, and I think it will be most of this month before it’ll be fair to make any appraisals.
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.
Most half-prudent organizations would buy similar domain names to avoid copycat attacks or brand reputational damage, but not our friends at the EFL.
This website is a work of art, blissfully put together by some clever and provoked football fans, some I believe Addicks. Take a read and watch the football club stories, including Charlton’s, but let me warn you they will not warm your heart, they will only fire your anger.
What a farce. The EFL covering themselves in glory again.
Now I will say we finished 2nd from bottom after 46 games and deserved our fate. You are where you are. We had our chances but blew it. Bowyer and his team got blood out of a stone and somehow managed to win 48 Championship points with a middling League One squad, a ridiculous and hugely distracting ownership saga, a long and debilitating injury list, our best player refusing to play, and a transfer embargo just one of the many behind the scenes troubles.
Torture isn’t it? No one ever said supporting this football club was going to be easy. Ever.
When the fixtures came out over a year ago, we all collectively sighed ‘I hope we don’t have to go to Elland Road needing something?’ Well, slow forward 12 months and here we are.
As we totter on the edge of administration ourselves we should have every sympathy for Wigan’s fans and players after the Latics became the first professional club in England to fall into administration during the Covid-19 crisis.
It looks to me like another case of a murky and obscure flipping of control of a football club. Our friends at the EFL look culpable again after approving the takeover just last month by an entity called New Leader Fund (NLF) from a Hong Kong operation called International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), a Cayman Islands-registered company which owns a hotel and casino in the Philippines.
An uncharacteristic performance up at Wigan yesterday as we fell to our second consecutive defeat of the season. Not good enough according to Lee Bowyer. The almost 1,000 Addicks there would have agreed.
Two goals, one in each half, from set-pieces were more than the difference as we were comfortably beaten. We now head into back to back tough games. If we hadn’t found out how formidable this division can be, we might in the next couple of weeks.
And the final part of the jigsaw to complete my look at The Championship competition for this season. Part One is here Two here and Part there.
Sheffield Wednesday’s pre-season was thrown a wobbly when Steve Bruce upped and left for Newcastle. Currently Lee Bullen is in caretaker charge for his third time.
Put the bunting back..
Our first test against a promotion hopeful ended in an embarrassing defeat tonight as Charlton put in an unsatisfactory and wearisome display and Wigan cantered to an easy victory. Robinson hinted at resting Solly and Kashi. He didn’t, he perhaps should have, but he, you and I know he doesn’t have the personnel or the options to change it about. The bench is unispiring and there’s simply too much reliance on Magennis and Holmes.
With Reeves still way off, I wonder what he will do on Saturday. He should make some changes, but what are his options? Will Aribo and Konsa get a chance? Are Dodoo and KAG up to it? And why are we letting in so many goals? More than any other team in the top half.
Didn’t think I would be calling the visit of Wigan Athletic to The Valley a big game, but the Latics are one of the bigger fish in this division, with one of the largest player budgets, and a sizeable squad, which incidentally they have significantly trimmed following relegation and the end of their 4-year parachute payments that netted them a cool £59m.
The Latics are the first floodlit visitors to SE7 this season, and they surprisingly lost to early league leaders Shrewsbury on the weekend with Terrell Thomas and Will Grigg on the bench. Grigg came on but I’d expect Paul Cook to let him lose on us tomorrow. Grigg has just signed a new contract, which probably means he will move in the window for an even bigger fee than what we supposedly encountered in August.
Part I here.
Out of Yorkshire then and back to the north-west of the country and those teams that have to live in the shadows of United and City in Greater Manchester.
Wigan Athletic have been a league club for less than 40 years, and under the generous ownership of Dave Whelan, the Latics have spent almost half of that time in the top two divisions. This season they find themselves, now under the chairmanship of Whelan’s grandson David Sharpe, back in the 3rd tier. After winning the League One title Wigan should have had enough to survive in The Championship and relegation appeared to be avoidable, but relegated they were and four managers later they begin this season as one of the bookies’ favourites for promotion.
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 Gillingham’s 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.
The trapdoor finally opened for Millwall tonight as Rotherham beat Reading 2-1 to end the Lions 5-year stay in The Championship. Wigan, FA Cup winners two seasons ago are also relegated to League One.
Relegation for Millwall didn’t happen suddenly, the Lions have been treading water for a long while. This despite John Berylson backing Steve Lomas and Ian Holloway with the two biggest wagerolls in the club’s history. What Millwall fans want to hear now is that the American is going to stick with it.
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Looks as if the international break has signalled the end of our season. Rather pedestrian last night at The Valley by all accounts and now we’re left with a run of four games against fellow teams without anything to play for before Bournemouth’s party bus comes to SE7 on the final day of the season.
Fulham put up a little bit of a fight, and so they should, and it has been one of this season’s mysteries that they have struggled so badly with the playing squad they have including a World Cup quarter finalist, past and probable future England players (Cauley Woodrow) and a £11m striker. Mis-management only bettered by that at Wigan.
As an aside I read that Wigan have received £32m in parachute payments since they dropped into the Championship and are due another £16m over the next two years. Incredible, but hope for all of us that worry Palace will be light years ahead of us by the summer.
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In what must be some sort of record three Championship managers were sacked within a 24-hour period starting with David Flitcroft and ending with Owen Coyle with Dave Jones in the middle. Just for good measure Fulham also put Martin Jol out of his misery.
Welcome to the silly season as chairmen everywhere with Christmas and the window looming write to Santa asking for new managers, but sadly they themselves haven’t been good throughout the year.
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After the euphoria of Saturday when the romance came bursting back to the FA Cup tonight Wigan became the first ever team to win the FA Cup and get relegated in the same season. The Latics finally ran out of legs tonight and Arsenal cruelly rolled them over.
Wigan now face losing many of their best young players plus their talismanic manager. Next season they will have to face another 8 league games as well as however many Europa Cup games, at least 5 before December, plus cup games of course. That will be a heck of a schedule. I can’t see them featuring heavily amongst the favourites.
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City of London
