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MATCH THREAD [+POST p29]: Cambridge Utd V Charlton Athletic: Lge Cup Rd2 : Tue 26th Aug 2025 KO19:30
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Refuse to read 140+ posts, all probably understandably negative and annoyed comments.
We lost, and frankly deserved everything we got…
On to the important stuff Saturday when the first team need to turn in a decent performance to gain a result… 🙏6 -
May I propose the lack of reserve team football as the third element?Gammon said:
I get your point, we should try and challenge, what's the point of football to just survive.golfaddick said:
I don't get it. Why were we stretched defensively ? Are all our defenders out injured ?? Jones, Edwards, Bell, Ramsay ?? All out?? When did that happen ???ForeverAddickted said:
Yes....I'm being facetious, but why is it that we cant play a few of our first team ? Never used to happen. Teams used to play cup games, extra time, replays.....and more replays. On heavy muddy pitches too. And back on the good old days squads were of 18 or 19 players. One sub (3 if you only go back 20 years). I dont remember Curbs or Lennie changing all 11 starters from the previous Saturday and filling the team with teenagers.
Oh well. Progress they call it. Same for inverted wingers, 50 yard diagonal balls & playing out from the back.
But the issue is the football pyramid is much less balanced and professionalism is much more acute.
Players are much more fragile due to being much more athletic, and they are likely to get punished for not being in peak fitness for any single game. Both in the game and also in terms of injuries.
With teams throwing nation states' worth of kitchen sinks, other teams can only compete by being selective with fixtures.
And with money being so disproportionate between leagues, that where the clubs put their attention.
I know most of that is stating the obvious but these two elements together have ruined domestic cup football.1 -
Anyone who decided at the last minute not to go to this made the right decision. This game was truly dire and says everything about lower league football. Shit ground, leery support from them. I used to like Cambridge but last night was so bad.But, we really were bad. I can’t remember an away game that I’ve least enjoyed. From the 1st minute it just didn’t seem right. They even seemed to kick off 15 minutes early. What was all that about! And, what on earth were we doing on the field. No cohesion, no leadership, no heart. And, nothing on the bench that inspired hope. That truly was a waste of money and time.I’m perplexed that we played so bad. That was like chalk and cheese compared to all the games we’ve played since the new year really. No heart, no passion. Like I said, perplexing. Where did that come from!1
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Either NJ has no interest in this Cup competition
And was giving the young players some Match time OR that was totally embarrassing 😳 👎
especially in front of Goal awful 👎👎
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The exact reason I will no longer attend early round cup games was on show last night - the result was secondary - it was a reserve team game5
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It does make sense. It was a weak team we put out. We didn’t use a lot of the bench from a league game is my point in a combination that mixes starters and others.sam3110 said:
Hang on, so we shouldn't play the lesser players in the cup because we got knocked out, and that means the lesser players have less games to play in?! 🤔valleynick66 said:It was the League Cup
not the Pizza Trophy.The prize was a potential money spinning 3rd round draw.Now our lesser used squad players / 1st team ‘finishers’ have fewer opportunities to look forward to.Usual attitude towards a competition we should want to do well in.Poor all around.NJ needs a win at QPR and against Millwall to redeem himself. 🙂
Make it make sense!You don’t have to defend that we’ve again ‘chosen’ not to treat the competition and opposition seriously enough. We finished with a very young team.0 -
100 % Correct as last night was totally embarrassing 😳 👎👎👎eastterrace6168 said:Refuse to read 140+ posts, all probably understandably negative and annoyed comments.
We lost, and frankly deserved everything we got…
On to the important stuff Saturday when the first team need to turn in a decent performance to gain a result… 🙏1 -
Dreadful decision. Momentum lost. Play a few youngsters , but have a bench to save the day if needed. But more importantly, momentum now lost.5
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Some of the youngsters did well but I’m not sure I’d have gone to the expense of a trip to Cambridge for an U21 game.0
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Stevenage was at home, that's why we had a better bench I reckon.AberystwythAddick said:What changed from Stevenage to this game I wonder? Has he just decided to bin off the cup competitions completely, or was it as people say a message to the board?If so it’s a bit odd, can’t say he’s not been backed
He wanted to give the senior pro's a night off.1 - Sponsored links:
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The end of that game was treated like a Kent Senior Cup match, very disappointing the obvious can’t be arsed attitude about getting a good cup run together. Brings in money and momentum1
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The body language after we scored says it all. Doesn’t look like anyone gave a shit. Poor Fullah didn’t even have anyone to celebrate his great goal with.1
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I think Zach has something about him, good composure and can play a bit.Swisdom said:I think the criticism of Zach is a bit harsh. He wasn’t great but he wasn’t the only one. I think it safe to say he is a bit rusty but the Zach that played at St Johnstone was much much more solid a few months ago. It was just an off day. Very flat
But I question that he's suitable for a centre back role.
He isn't aerially dominant and he lacks strength and presence.
That may come but he was bloody exposed tonight0 -
JRC, Karoy & Knibbs is more than enough in midfield to dominate that game.Oloafe & Kelman is more than enough up front to finish off that game.Mitchell & Gillesphy are meant to be championship squad back ups.
Lets not pretend that we put out a drastically weak starting 11.
We were just simply dreadful!
Gillesphy punted almost everything into no man’s land. Karoy hid and wouldn’t receive from the back line. Not sure what Tanto & Kelman are meant to do being played long into 1v2’s most of the night. The one moment we actually decided to play a bit, we score.
Fullah is exciting. Mwamba was impressive.6 -
As I said during the match itself, when did we last score a goal like their first ? Crisp passing with players moving forward with speed.clive said:0 -
You can’t dress up a pig and it’s hard to take any positives from last night.
We've no Papa Johns Trophy this season so we save 4-5 games from that, we don’t do R1&2 of the FA Cup so we’ve saved another 2 games there, and the majority of our squad won’t be called up for internationals, so will get 3 break points between now and mid November alone. So there should be no concern about overplay.
i get fully the need to give some squad players minutes and experience, that’s important and this cup gives an opportunity for that. But there was absolutely no need to do so to such an extent that a number of the kids on the bench had already played a competitive game earlier the same day. That just showed we were putting zero effort into progressing.Yes cups can be a distraction. They can also be exciting for fans, money spinners for clubs and momentum providers for teams. We so rarely experience, we’ve exited this competition before it’s even fully started 8 out of the last 9 seasons. Absolutely pitiful.
Most of the youngsters fielded last night didn’t get a particularly positive experience from it, none of the fringe first teamers put a case forward and now the backdrop is a negative one putting additional pressure on Saturday following 2 defeats in 4 days.We exited early last season and went on to have a great season so it’s not the be all and end all, and if we win on Saturday many people will quickly point and say told you so etc,
it’s just our performances and results in cups are so consistently disappointing as a fan and last night felt a bit unecessary.29 -
Sending off looked harsh.0
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Gough looked class! Hadnt heard of him before.Pavoren007 said:Just back home, that said had a 50 minute detour to help my folks complete a medical form while M25 Jctn 5 was closed etc.
Anyhow, like others have said, all a bit bizarre. The game was clearly not taken seriously - a men vs boys scenario if ever there was one. The more experienced in the CAFC side just didn’t get going properly all night, while Fullah again shone and Gough looked strong in his cameo debut.I hope NJ’s post match call for more defensive back ups was a teaser for us fans rather than a public call for a bit more investment. Suspect the former which however irregular to standard form could have been meant as a bit of a booster after a tough night. If it points to the latter, not sure that would be a welcome signal (all round).At the end of the day, won’t lose any sleep if we get 1 or 3 points at QPR, however, if we lose, three on the bounce won’t feel/be so easy to swallow.Thought mwamba looked good when he came on and rylah was rapid. Defo some potential in there and some players that could change games.Would like to see fullah get a run out1 -
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Yeah. The team that started the game should have been able to do better and take us to a ht lead, not deficit.drawnablank said:JRC, Karoy & Knibbs is more than enough in midfield to dominate that game.Oloafe & Kelman is more than enough up front to finish off that game.Mitchell & Gillesphy are meant to be championship squad back ups.
Lets not pretend that we put out a drastically weak starting 11.
We were just simply dreadful!
Gillesphy punted almost everything into no man’s land. Karoy hid and would t receive from the back line. Not sure what Tanto & Kelman are meant to do being played long into 1v2’s most of the night. The one moment we actually decided to play a bit, we score.
Fullah is exciting. Mwamba was impressive.0 -
Excellent post.Nicholas said:
I don't think it's a massive over reaction. Have just spent and wasted loads of money for no reason whatsoever. I have no problem with the team that started, I have no problem with losing, seen us do that a million times already, my problem was the bench was full of kids who were never going to be good enough to change the game should we be losing with half hour to go. I have a problem with we have just spent over 3 mil on a striker and are starting him in a team that was never going to create any chances for him, what is that going to do for his confidence. Same for poor Tanto. He put a squad out which he knew would get turned over and turned over we was. Having that team out there today does no good for anyone, no good for the fringe players confidence and no good for the poor kids who are no where near ready, Fullah being the exception.FishCostaFortune said:
I LOL’d it because I think it’s a massive overreaction. If you followed the match thread you’ll see that I was annoyed as anyone at the choice of team.Desmond Oulu said:
Lots of LOLs being given to this post. I'd be interested to know if any of those LOLs came from anybody that actually spent their hard-earned time and money going to the match. Not many, I expect.Nicholas said:Absolute dog shit by Jones tonight. Yes I’ve had problems with him before but tonight was disgusting. If I wanna watch the kids I will go and watch them play. That team selection was a fucking disgrace. Waste of time and money for all those who travelled today. Sick of being treated like a mug by these piss takersHowever, I think it’s silly to say it was ‘disgusting’ and it’s plain stupid to refer to a manager who got us out of the doldrums of league one, and a leadership team who have actually spent money as ‘piss takers’.
Also we are Charlton Athletic we don't ever have a lot to play for, so to throw away a great chance to get a good cup draw against one of the big boys is a massive disappointment.3 -
I know that Jones is always going to be the lightning rod for criticism but I think it's a little harsh on him in this respect. He played a very similar team to the one that dominated a Stevenage team that are currently flying high in L1 and it wasn't completely unreasonable to suggest that they should also be able to do the job on a L2 team. I get that not filling up the bench with first teamers is a risk but he likely didn't want them travelling up, going through the full game day routine, warming up and then needing to play when they could be resting.
The big problem we had yesterday was that the back 3 was all over the place. In that case though I think Jones is more a victim of a lack of depth at the moment than anything else; I think most people would agree that our two best players are probably Lloyd Jones and Ramsay. We saw how lost we are without Jones when he was injured last season and Ramsay elevates us hugely. Ramsay got plenty of knocks and was limping for most of the game on Saturday and Jones has had a number of injury layoffs with us. Jones obviously wanted to rotate but he only has 5 proper first team CBs at the moment. Alex Mitchell moved before we got in a replacement and Burke isn't ready so Jones either had to pick two kids or risk not resting our best players. I think people would have been substantially angrier if we'd lost one of them to injury in a pointless League Cup game. I know there will always be a 'they're professional footballers, they should be able to play two games' crowd but the reality is these are two players with a history of injuries for us, one of whom looks pretty injured already and it's a risk we didn't need to take. I think playing Hobden was also a bit of an error but it's not like we could play our backup first team RWB because we don't have one and Rylah wasn't great against Stevenage. The fact is that we've spent a lot of money this summer but we still don't have every position covered with a first team level backup player and as a result we need to protect the key players we do have. I don't blame Jones for making the changes and using what he had, it's the likes of JRC, Anderson, Knibbs and Olaofe who needed to step up and show some quality and leadership yesterday and didn't. Bad day at the office, move on.7 -
The front 5 definitely, the problem was the inexperienced defence was easily exposed.Siv_in_Norfolk said:
Yeah. The team that started the game should have been able to do better and take us to a ht lead, not deficit.drawnablank said:JRC, Karoy & Knibbs is more than enough in midfield to dominate that game.Oloafe & Kelman is more than enough up front to finish off that game.Mitchell & Gillesphy are meant to be championship squad back ups.
Lets not pretend that we put out a drastically weak starting 11.
We were just simply dreadful!
Gillesphy punted almost everything into no man’s land. Karoy hid and would t receive from the back line. Not sure what Tanto & Kelman are meant to do being played long into 1v2’s most of the night. The one moment we actually decided to play a bit, we score.
Fullah is exciting. Mwamba was impressive.
Zach could do with a L1 loan.
Laqeretabua probably gets a L2 loan at best if he goes out, as it would be his first loan.
Hobden if he went out I’d expect a non-league loan as we saw with Casey and Bower.
All would benefit playing alongside a few experienced defenders if they’re loaned out.Add in Fullah who is the stand out youngster but an attacking midfielder who can cover WB it’s not a good mix.2 -
I wouldn't expect all 3 of the U21's who started to go on loan though, the U21's would be made so weak by thatScoham said:
The front 5 definitely, the problem was the inexperienced defence was easily exposed.Siv_in_Norfolk said:
Yeah. The team that started the game should have been able to do better and take us to a ht lead, not deficit.drawnablank said:JRC, Karoy & Knibbs is more than enough in midfield to dominate that game.Oloafe & Kelman is more than enough up front to finish off that game.Mitchell & Gillesphy are meant to be championship squad back ups.
Lets not pretend that we put out a drastically weak starting 11.
We were just simply dreadful!
Gillesphy punted almost everything into no man’s land. Karoy hid and would t receive from the back line. Not sure what Tanto & Kelman are meant to do being played long into 1v2’s most of the night. The one moment we actually decided to play a bit, we score.
Fullah is exciting. Mwamba was impressive.
Zach could do with a L1 loan.
Laqeretabua probably gets a L2 loan at best if he goes out, as it would be his first loan.
Hobden if he went out I’d expect a non-league loan as we saw with Casey and Bower.
All would benefit playing alongside a few experienced defenders if they’re loaned out.Add in Fullah who is the stand out youngster but an attacking midfielder who can cover WB it’s not a good mix.0 -
Definitely understand us being light at the back and being defensively fragile but I’m sorry there’s no reason why a midfield of JRC Anderson and Knibbs should be getting dominated by a rotated L2 midfield. Olaofe and Kelman didn’t have much to work with but they looked completely lost and didn’t know what to do whenever they did get the ball0
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I agree they won’t all go out on loan, I was just saying the level I’d see them going to if they did. My point was that it was nowhere near a L1 level back 5.fenaddick said:
I wouldn't expect all 3 of the U21's who started to go on loan though, the U21's would be made so weak by thatScoham said:
The front 5 definitely, the problem was the inexperienced defence was easily exposed.Siv_in_Norfolk said:
Yeah. The team that started the game should have been able to do better and take us to a ht lead, not deficit.drawnablank said:JRC, Karoy & Knibbs is more than enough in midfield to dominate that game.Oloafe & Kelman is more than enough up front to finish off that game.Mitchell & Gillesphy are meant to be championship squad back ups.
Lets not pretend that we put out a drastically weak starting 11.
We were just simply dreadful!
Gillesphy punted almost everything into no man’s land. Karoy hid and would t receive from the back line. Not sure what Tanto & Kelman are meant to do being played long into 1v2’s most of the night. The one moment we actually decided to play a bit, we score.
Fullah is exciting. Mwamba was impressive.
Zach could do with a L1 loan.
Laqeretabua probably gets a L2 loan at best if he goes out, as it would be his first loan.
Hobden if he went out I’d expect a non-league loan as we saw with Casey and Bower.
All would benefit playing alongside a few experienced defenders if they’re loaned out.Add in Fullah who is the stand out youngster but an attacking midfielder who can cover WB it’s not a good mix.1 -
If i had to take a really wild guess I’d say that we might have put out a stronger side last night had the transfer window been closed. We showcased some weaknesses in our plan B squad members last night.AFKABartram said:You can’t dress up a pig and it’s hard to take any positives from last night.
We've no Papa Johns Trophy this season so we save 4-5 games from that, we don’t do R1&2 of the FA Cup so we’ve saved another 2 games there, and the majority of our squad won’t be called up for internationals, so will get 3 break points between now and mid November alone. So there should be no concern about overplay.
i get fully the need to give some squad players minutes and experience, that’s important and this cup gives an opportunity for that. But there was absolutely no need to do so to such an extent that a number of the kids on the bench had already played a competitive game earlier the same day. That just showed we were putting zero effort into progressing.Yes cups can be a distraction. They can also be exciting for fans, money spinners for clubs and momentum providers for teams. We so rarely experience, we’ve exited this competition before it’s even fully started 8 out of the last 9 seasons. Absolutely pitiful.
Most of the youngsters fielded last night didn’t get a particularly positive experience from it, none of the fringe first teamers put a case forward and now the backdrop is a negative one putting additional pressure on Saturday following 2 defeats in 4 days.We exited early last season and went on to have a great season so it’s not the be all and end all, and if we win on Saturday many people will quickly point and say told you so etc,
it’s just our performances and results in cups are so consistently disappointing as a fan and last night felt a bit unecessary.
TBF, last time we were promoted, injuries and suspensions as the season progressed saw us playing 16 year old kids just to put out a team. As frustrating as it is to lose what should have been an easily winnable cup game, strengthening the squad when we can does make much more sense. I’m still pissed off about it though.1 -
no need for such mass wholesale changes, after this weekend it's an international break - should've had a bench full of first teamers and not kids (some of whom had already played that day!)
Watch Cambridge now get a cracking draw to really rub salt into the wounds4 -
That was the polar opposite of a Nathan Jones team:
Weak defensively, being out battled, and having no edge, plus little cohesion.
Cambridge wanted it more.
From 65 minutes onwards we had an U21 side with AMB. This is men's football and despite some promising moments individually by the Cafc youngsters they were lambs to the slaughter.
IF we get a positive result at QPR and that isn't a given as they will be chasened after their thrashing at Coventry then we can just say, not for the first time that the cups are for youngsters and players getting minutes.
The Anderson red card in the 112th minute summed up a bad night at the office.
There were plenty of positives against Leicester but other than Fullah just before HT hardly any in the Carabao cup.
Cliche time: we concentrate on the League and move on.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0RleREycZY
