People (admittedly those that weren't there) have moaned about Gray and Waghorn last night. Let me tell you that these two put a real shift in up front, they both ran their socks off and many many times in especially the first half they were closing the QPR back 4 down really quickly forcing sliced clearances to the stands and rushed passes back to their keeper. This is something that other teams have done to us on numerous occasions both last season and this and we hadn't seem to be putting that sort of graft in.
I don't think too much will need to be changed Saturday. I thought Semedo and Racon were an awesome pairing in the middle and much as I like Bailey he's gonna have to really work to get back in the team in my opinion. I think Crainie also did ok, I can see the logic in playing him as he'd had a stint on loan at QPR previously and they obviously rated him highly.
The two most worrying things for me are Youga at left back, the guy just scares the hell out of me his passing always seems wayward and he seems to wear ice skates as he slips all over the place. I'd play Basey personally. The other thing that worries me is I actually quite like the pairing of Hudson and Primus as both are clearly good defenders, however the ease that opposition strikers seem to get acres of space in our penalty area is really alarming, both goals last night Blackstock was unmarked with no one within 5 yards of him. This simply has to stop. Fortune for Primus maybe?
Gillespie and Bouaza looked really dangerous last night and the talk of accomadating Varney on the wing is farcical in my opinion. I'd stick with these two as they're both different but also look like they'll make things happen. The pair of them played a big part in our goal last night.
We were clearly the better side and deserved at least a point if not all 3. QPR really didn't offer much and scored from their 2 meaningful attacks. It's probably why I'm still hurting this morning because we really went out there and fought. We looked a good team just lacking a little bit going forward maybe but I fear for us at home just because I think the team are terrified to play there at the moment, it's away I think we'll get our first win.
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good to here, even from the thread it seemed we played well... and were pushing for a winner......
However, I definitely agree that the centre-half pairing look really poor - you only have to look at the goals conceded tally.
When was the last time we had a clean sheet?
Fortune has to come in for one of them on Saturday and I think there's an argument for Cranie moving alongside him to replace the other one.
Youga, I think we all agree, is a total disaster and should never be allowed to darken our famous shirt again.
I think the ball had gone out on their first goal, but as every 8 year old will tell you, you don't stop playing until the whistle is blown. it was a poor goal to give away but our goal was magic, we must have passed it around for 10/15 minutes, i counted maybe a hundred passes.
Overall, very encouraging. I just hope we can get something out of saturday - but more importantly, put in a similar performance. Play like that week in week out and we'll be fine.
We have had some excellent players over the years, with great ability, that have received loads of abuse from most of our supporters. On the other hand, frankly useless players, with zero ability, are hero worshiped just coz they "put a shift in" lol. In that case, why not randomly pick some of us supporters to play instead, get our fitness levels up and we wont be far short of these players.
That is exactly the reason we are where we are, you all boo the better players we have, completely drain them of confidence, we are then left with the blokes who put a shift in, frankly poor players, if compared like to like with conference players, wouldnt be significantly better.
I think you've got me all wrong, I've always backed the likes of Zheng, Toddy, Ambrose, Jensen etc. (even Thomas) over recent times as they have the quality needed to unlock defences when others have branded them lazy good for nothings etc. If you are ever lucky enough to see me play you'll know why ;o)!
My point is more that in recent games (the Barnsley game sticks out) we had much poorer players out working us especially the strikers and our defence really folded under pressure. Our attitude in these games has lacked real fight that excuse me if I'm wrong but when you're at the foot of any table you need!
Last night we had fight right throughout the team and we defended from the front for the first time in ages. Seeing the strikers work hard to close down their defenders really pleased me.
I'd love to be in a position where we could have 6 workers and 4 real quality players who were left to work their magic but when we're in the bottom 3 everyone has got to "work their socks off" to get us out of it.
Gotta say qpr's support was shocking, both in numbers and vocally, only time both sets of fans really sang at each other was when they went 2-1 up and that only lasted 5 mins.
Hard for me to say how many were there for us as i was right at the end of the stand, at a guess, 6-700?
I do like the old school grounds though, getting few and far between now.
The net result is that we QPR could hold quite a solid and flat back line that is difficult to breakdown because there was no one really pushing them back or making runs behind.
Well apart from being gutted about losing a game it seemed impossible to lose, i had a real good night.
Good laugh in the pub beforehand, lesbian action on the tube, stood throughout and had a good old sing song, no real barracking of the team, couldn't fault one player for effort, and thought the midfield four was superb.
WE ARE CHARLTON'S RED N WHITE ARMY !
Although I think in this league we can compare ourselves with Arsenal in the prem, when we beat them for example. We only really beat teams like Arsenal and the other top teams, by shear effort and energy. But the problem was, we would be mentally and emotionally drained by January, and then plummet. While the top teams would always improve consistently as they had players with much more "quality". Surely we can do likewise in this league, if the more talented players find their feet. but in order to do that they dont need booing everytime they try to dribble past someone and get tackled. Because the majority of times, even when someone like Cristano Ronaldo runs at someone, he ends up losing the ball, but when he does beat his man, goals or assists will follow.
But saying all of that, god almighty, this league is bloody hard aint it, you dont get more than 2 seconds on the ball before some donkey's trying to hack you down.
Only my second away game of the season last night and was very impressed with the support.
If only we could get the crowd on Saturday to be half as good as last night it would be quality.
Loved the "Charlton give us a wave" aimed at the guy sat in the QPR end with CAFC shirt on.
Only negative for me was the total fecking moron sat a few rows back from me who just shouted a stream of negativity from start to finish.
I honestly don't know why people like that go, I don't think there was any player on our team that escaped his barracking.
He struck me as the kind of person that would almost be disappointed if we started winning, absolute plum.
LOL all the football stuff on this thread and you pick up that! Although the lesbian action was a highlight, until we realised one the girls' dad was sitting opposite!
i left in a more positive mood last night than i have done for quite a while.
first half was a bit scrappy, but with gillespie and waghorn new, and a new central midfield pairing, there was bound to be a period of getting used to one another.
bad mistake for their goal, where we just watched the ball waiting for it to go out of play.
the things that i was most pleased with were (especially in the second half)
the high tempo we played.
we seemed to have more possesion higher up the pitch.
we were dragging their players all accross the pitch, switching play, at pace, between the wide men.
racon and semedo looked comfortable.
gillespie and especially bouazza looked a threat.
gray/bouazza/waghorn/gillespie didn't let up when we didn't have possesion, causing qpr to make mistakes.
there are still many things need working on, but seeing that improvement over 3 days of parkies reign is imo encouraging.
how much of this observation was down to the opposition we played, i don't know. but if we carry on playing as we did in the second half, with a bit of composure/luck in front of goal, i don't think it'll be long before we start climbing out of the relegation zone.
must be something to do with the hokey-cokey with kinsella at half time.
This wasn't like going to a decent side like Wolves, Brum or Sheff Utd and not getting anything - they were a weak side who will be mid-table at best this season in my opinion.
And despite lots of positive signs from the midfield, the defence looked very dodgy and our strikers didn't really create anything.
;o)