The table says that Charlton were not quite good to earn automatic promotion. But is that actually true?
Another win here, a few more draws there, and automatic promotion could have been achieved.
As it turns out, the difference in points over 46 games between Leeds, Millwall, Charlton and Swindon was razor thin. So my rationale is that all four were good enough, but only one could get the second automatic promotion spot.
Did Charlton overachieve to get so close with the squad at hand? Or did Charlton underachieve, given how close we got and with so many mediocre performances?
Hindsight is always 20/20, so it is relatively easy to say 'had we done this, or had we done that, then the result might have been different (better).'
Was Parky good enough? Is he good enough to soldier on with him at the helm?
Manchester United just missed out on the Premier League title. Did Alex Ferguson make a few mistakes during the season that cost his team points? Of course, all managers do in retrospect.
To judge a manager's value, a whole body of work has to be judged. Particularly when you go so very close to your club's objective. Were you that close because he did the job? Or did you miss out because he wasn't up to it?
Were the players good enough? Too many loan players? The wrong loan players?
Obviously, the board shares in the failure of promotion not being achieved. Past decisions put Charlton where the club is now. And they didn't have the resources to add the players needed to get the job done. But they also kept the club going under trying economic conditions and came oh-so-close. Could they have spent the club's money more wisely? All subjects for debate.
The close season is upon us. An interesting, if not scary time, in SE7. With much to talk about.
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Not that I would have cared one iota had we been celebrating in a fortnight.
And in between when we didn't.
I think we'll find that all the promotion race teams did just that at times, and none rode their luck more than Leeds during the second half of the season. But they got away with it, just ...... by a single point.
Without doubt we were one of the best teams in a League One that this season had more big name clubs than usual.
Most of the time the team played to a decent level.
Unfortunately we often lacked that sharp cutting edge in front of goal, and the instinct to kill teams off once we'd taken the lead. But there's been some great games - and I for one have enjoyed this season more than for a long time.
I sincerely hope the nucleus of this side doesn't get dismantled.
My only real "what if" really is had Jonjo played instead of Racon more often.
Pointless speculation though really. I understand Reid wasn't fit enough to start a lot of the time otherwise playing HIM instead of Racon might have been an option.
As for Racon he did more as a sub on Monday than he often did in 90 minutes during the season!
Trouble is most of the players will be gone this summer, the manager won't.
This is a real de ja vue of our fall from the Prem...first season in the Champ we were ok, second season we were relegated....
I imagine these odds may have lengthened somewhat by the time the start of the season comes around and our squad has been dismantled.
I believe Llera has been remarkably effective when he has played. Some cracking long distance passing to set our wingers free, goals too ..... including that stunning last gasp control and finish against Swindon at Christmas.
Also a decent partnership with Dailly, who I feel has been more comfortable with Llera playing beside him than with Sam Sodje, IMO.
The exception was the 2 nightmare performances @ Colchester and Millwall, where he seemed to lose the plot completely at times.
But overall I quite like Llera, and despite the occasional heart in mouth lapses, like his spirit and attitude.
Even when out of the team, he played his part saying all the right things.
I wonder if he'd played more regularly instead of Sam Sodje, who was clearly lacking 100% fitness during the last couple of months of the season ...... if that would have made a crucial difference?
It's a fine line. We only missed out by 2 points and an inferior goal difference.
So results wise we weren't good enough, when it comes to strikers we're surely the weakest club there (but probably made up for it with our defending and goals from other areas).
Every club in the play-off positions will be saying if they won this game or drew that game they'd have got second.
As Oggy said it's a fine line, that goes for the league season and the play-off semi final. It was nice to enjoy a season (not all of it of course) more than the last few and be one of the best teams in the league. Going to be a hard season next year and depending on what happens, mid table might be a decent season.
I have only watched you in six or seven games but my feeling is tactical you should have got more out of the squad.
Technically the players were the best in the league, although it was close with what I saw with Norwich, but Norwich seemed more of a team unit and had more options to offer.
Its no co-incidence that our 2 promotions in the last 20 years have included a striker who got 20+ goals (medonca in 97/98 and Hunt in 99/00
Totally agree with this.
In a rose-tinted attempt to make the team seem better than the table shows, I tried to think of a way of constructing a table where we would finish high enough to get promotion. Sadly, I couldn't. Two points for a win puts us neck and neck on points with Leeds and Millwall, but we'd still be fourth on GD or GA. There's still luck though isn't there, and I guess anyone that wanted could recite a list of if-only moments. Ultimately though, that counts for nothing as you don't get points for if-only's and I'm sure every other team could do the same anyway.
When I started this post I wanted to find a way of showing that we were good enough. I'll I've done though is convince myself that we weren't. That said, it was a tough league this season and I'm not convinced there'll be such stiff competition next time out; in many years 84 points would have been enough. Here's looking forward to next season.
+1
I think we had a great season, especially that run at the start. League 1 will be weaker next season, as will we be. We may do alright next season as well.
next year will be much tougher, but i have faith and we can do it! no matter who goes keep the faith people
Agree wioth every single word of this.
Spot on.
If it wasn't for the financial predicament of the club we could be happy after a really good season (surpassing most expectations) in which we came within a whisker of finishing second. We could look forward to building on that next season ... building a bright little conservatory perhaps, sadly the reality is more likely to be shoring up the building up after some serious fire damage.
Every team has injuries, but we didn't get that little bit of luck you sometimes need. In particular, Youga started the season in outstanding form and one can't help but feel that more Kelly would have meant more wins.
We've lacked goals from strikers this season. There's no safe way to get a goal scoring striker on a tight budget, but the manager has tried to address it. Leon McKenzie has a good track record at a higher level and if fit would probably have been successful in League One; sadly for us the gamble on his fitness didn't pay off. Alternatives might have been to take a chance on a promising kid striker from the PL but maybe there weren't any available for L1.
If we sign him up, a positive for next season could be Mooney; I can hear the howls of derision already :-)
He hasn't always excelled but he has also been unfairly maligned. He's generally been a tireless, intelligent runner into dangerous postions, not without some skill and Monday's goal backs up previous glimpses we've seen of him which suggests he does have a good eye for goal - I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) he was pretty inexperienced in English football before coming to us so there should be more to come. His strength, if not his pace, could be developed, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get 15+ goals next season.
We only needed to turn one of those 1 1 draws into a win and with a little more ambition and belief from Parky we should have made it.
Jonjo should have played far more games, especially in periods when we were producing few chances.
Randy should have come in for Elliot far sooner.
Bailey should have played more games in the middle for Racon and Reid more on the left.
Elliot is a good, reliable keeper - Randy is good, probably better, but wasn't reliable in the past, maybe not a key area to have changed.
Based on Monday's performances, ones less would have been good!
would've helped a lot if he had been fit enough