Like the black and white kit worn yesterday. Very smart.
Absolutely hated it. In fact it's only laziness that stopped me from starting a thread about it. To be fair though, with my tired old eyes I thought it was a very dark blue rather than black. It reminded me of those old Scotland kits, which is probably why I didn't like it.
There's no reason, except for rampant commercialism, that we couldn't have worn red yesterday.
On the train home. We played 4-1-4-1 again, a system which is set up for counter attacking football. In the first half, we started well, then conceded a goal of premiership quality, after Wolves opened us up on the left and Sako arrived late into the box to finish. But as the half progressed, we contained Wolves quite comfortably without getting forward and causing them too many problems ourselves.
In the second half, CP obviously made the right adjustments at half-time and we got forward better, with Wilson on the right supported by Solly and Kerker on the left supported by Evina, producing some really good attacking play, often getting behind the wolves full backs. We got a break when Wolves opened us up on the one occasion and a shot from Sako hit Doyle on the line as it went in, which was obviously offside. But we contained them fairly comfortably for much of the half, and in the end could have taken all the points. Hulse hit the outside of the post with a header, but also headed wide with the goal at his mercy in the dying minutes.
All in all, a very good performance and a good point. We need to back it up with a home win.
On individual performances, Hamer's handling was immaculate. Cort & Morrison were as solid as usual, Solly & Wilson combined really well on the right. Evina had a shaky start against Pennant but settled down. Dervite swept up in front of the back four really well. Pritchard & Jackson worked hard in central midfield, Kerker showed his close control & dribbling ability on the left and Hulse led the line really well while often isolated.
Lots of good summaries on here, but the above is the best.
I'd add, as others have, that our biggest problem is the static central midfield. Neither Pritchard nor Jackson run forward with the ball. It's all static & small sideways passing.
No one is any better ie Stephens or Hollands, no one is running forward with the ball.
Our latest tactic seems to be working reasonably well away from home.
Keep hold of the ball in a crowded midfield & bore the fans & opposition until nearly comatose & then strike, when they're all giving up the will to live :-)
Like the black and white kit worn yesterday. Very smart.
Absolutely hated it. In fact it's only laziness that stopped me from starting a thread about it. To be fair though, with my tired old eyes I thought it was a very dark blue rather than black. It reminded me of those old Scotland kits, which is probably why I didn't like it.
There's no reason, except for rampant commercialism, that we couldn't have worn red yesterday.
I'm with you on this one Stig !!
I'm also looking forward to a post xmas goal fest, when we trounce all & sundry and storm up the table because according to most of you all that is needed is a bit of time for the new formation to work and a bit of luck with decisions going our way and everything in the garden will be rosey !!!!!!!1
sorry, but I don't subscribe to that "don't worry, we aren't such a bad team after all" way of thinking. Yes, picking up points at at places like Elland Rd and Molyneaux is no mean feat - but it was only 2 draws. I wasn't at Leeds so I can't really commemt, but yesterday we should have stolen all 3 - not because we were better than Wolves (we weren't) but because we had more & better chances than Wolves and on 90 mins our striker had a chance that most strikers would have burried (like Barnsley & Watford did to us ) and we would have won.
That is why we will continue to struggle - we are not ruthless enough - it is that simple.
Am hoping that Father Christmas can deliver the money for an attacking midfielder when the window opens in the new year because without one we are gong to struggle to pick up enough points to make this season nail biting right to the end.
Good team performance, some are being unfair on Hulse. He just needs more time i think. Good performance, much much improved in the second half. These last two points have been good results.
Other than Hulse it sounded like a great team performance and I'm more than happy with a point. If we keep playing like that away and sort out our home form we should move up the table in no time.
It just could've been 6 points this week instead of 2!!!!!!! But thats great considering i thought we were going to 0 at the start of it.
Funny, Hulses header at the end was a carbon copy of a Lisbie special up at Sunderland when we lost 3-2 about 10 years ago. Remember one enraged Addick booting dustbins outside in frustration, watched by a bunch of bemused (and highly amused) mackems. Hope the Wolverhampton refuse disposal facilities survived intact.
Remember that same moment, it was bloody freezing that day too.
Funny, Hulses header at the end was a carbon copy of a Lisbie special up at Sunderland when we lost 3-2 about 10 years ago. Remember one enraged Addick booting dustbins outside in frustration, watched by a bunch of bemused (and highly amused) mackems. Hope the Wolverhampton refuse disposal facilities survived intact.
Yes I was that enraged Addick! The Mackem not knowing the cause of my distress asked me who our number 17 was - 'cos he loved him for that shocking miss! Drank in a nice pub that day:).
Sunderland was such a dump that when queuing up for pre match Fish & Chips a Mackem waxed lyrical about the away game at Charlton and how he and his mates "had a great night out in Woolwich!" I kid you not.
Good result, as a few people have said, CM needs sorting out especially if we play only 1 up front, lone striker needs support. Jacko hasn't the legs for it, thought Pritch would have been told to help out in the dept. a bit more, he has the energy. What about Razak, thought he was supposed to be playing that role ?
Good result, as a few people have said, CM needs sorting out especially if we play only 1 up front, lone striker needs support. Jacko hasn't the legs for it, thought Pritch would have been told to help out in the dept. a bit more, he has the energy. What about Razak, thought he was supposed to be playing that role ?
I agree with you. I'd like to see Razak feature in the next two home games. The guy is rated quite highly at Man City and should bring a little more quality to our midfield.
Other than Hulse it sounded like a great team performance and I'm more than happy with a point. If we keep playing like that away and sort out our home form we should move up the table in no time.
It just could've been 6 points this week instead of 2!!!!!!! But thats great considering i thought we were going to 0 at the start of it.
So it wasn't a team performance then was it
Two things:
1) The 'other than' at the start clearly exempts Hulse from the team in that sentence.
Just seen the highlights from yesterday. That miss from Hulse at the death was horrendous, the rest I can forgive him for in comparison.
Agreed. Harder to miss than score! Oh well a hard fought point away from home that I would have taken before kick off. Do need to start picking home wins though and I think CP is struggling to find the correct formula there!
The most memorable thing about that day in Sunderland was the site of Abs, blind drunk due to the Russian vodka from the Sparta fans on the train, trying to crawl between the legs of the coppers on the central concourse of the away end :-)
Also, had a great drink after the game and must have shaken more hands that day than the rest of my life combined. I wouldn't be surprised if every Sunderland fan in the city shock my hand at some stage.
Also, had a great drink after the game and must have shaken more hands that day than the rest of my life combined. I wouldn't be surprised if every Sunderland fan in the city shock my hand at some stage.
It was the same for me after the wonderful '98 play-off final. The Sunderland fans I met that day were first class!
Hulse clearly needs games and no purpose is served by getting on his back. He is clearly getting into th eright positions so is halfway there! The season has been a bit frustrating as I think there is a lot more to come from this side. Injuries haven't helped but I'm confident we'll push on.
Poor start to the game but felt we grew into it very well and possibly should of nicked it.
On another note, I was stood at the back of the lower tier singing with about 15 other fans, then the stewards and police decided to force us to sit down or face being ejected, not ideal as me and my mates prefer standing but to be honest there was nobody behind us so I didn't see why we had to, anyway in the end we did, but they were so over the top it was unbelievable, my mate said to one of them "what team do you support mate" not in a sacastic manor or anything, the Policeman replied "no one, I don't follow Football, I'm not that stupid". Any need for that? Then the Wolves fans baiting us above decided to try and spit on us, but this was ignored by them of course. Walkabout before the game was better atmosphere than what was in the ground, but I won't be rushing back to Wolves that's for sure.
Interestingly, the Wolves fans booed their team off at the end despite a draw!
We've done it before .. sadly, its what some so called fans do when their expectations are not fulfilled and I suspect Wolves were expecting to roll us over - which to my eternal guilt I did to.
I was listening to the radio on the way home and the Wolves fans were going mad at their manager and their recent home perfomances. You would think they were positioned at the bottom of the table the way they were going on; quite unbelievable and typical of an EPL relegated team I suppose.
This league is proving hard for the home teams though. I have had a moan about the way teams set up against us at the Valley, but it is the same way as we set up away. You really need that bit of extra quality in key positions to make your home advantage pay. Wolves were expected to win, but when we got a grip, they only allowed us to create more than they by pushing for a winner.
It will be interesting on Saturday as I would expect Middlesborough to have a go. That might paly into our hands if it happens.
Two good points away from home last week but we need to start chalking up some 3 pointers and that means home wins. Hopefully we will see a settled side and formation, problem is Rob Hulse has never been prolific as a goal scorer so having to rely on midfield is a bit of a problem, clearly BWP is out of form and not a target man either but now Fuller is injured its hard to see where the regular goals are coming from.
Comments
There's no reason, except for rampant commercialism, that we couldn't have worn red yesterday.
I'd add, as others have, that our biggest problem is the static central midfield. Neither Pritchard nor Jackson run forward with the ball. It's all static & small sideways passing.
No one is any better ie Stephens or Hollands, no one is running forward with the ball.
Our latest tactic seems to be working reasonably well away from home.
Keep hold of the ball in a crowded midfield & bore the fans & opposition until nearly comatose & then strike, when they're all giving up the will to live :-)
I'm also looking forward to a post xmas goal fest, when we trounce all & sundry and storm up the table because according to most of you all that is needed is a bit of time for the new formation to work and a bit of luck with decisions going our way and everything in the garden will be rosey !!!!!!!1
sorry, but I don't subscribe to that "don't worry, we aren't such a bad team after all" way of thinking. Yes, picking up points at at places like Elland Rd and Molyneaux is no mean feat - but it was only 2 draws. I wasn't at Leeds so I can't really commemt, but yesterday we should have stolen all 3 - not because we were better than Wolves (we weren't) but because we had more & better chances than Wolves and on 90 mins our striker had a chance that most strikers would have burried (like Barnsley & Watford did to us ) and we would have won.
That is why we will continue to struggle - we are not ruthless enough - it is that simple.
But then again maybe these tactics , whilst boring for us to watch, contributed to what most of us agree was a good result?
Yes I was that enraged Addick! The Mackem not knowing the cause of my distress asked me who our number 17 was - 'cos he loved him for that shocking miss! Drank in a nice pub that day:).
Sunderland was such a dump that when queuing up for pre match Fish & Chips a Mackem waxed lyrical about the away game at Charlton and how he and his mates "had a great night out in Woolwich!" I kid you not.
1) The 'other than' at the start clearly exempts Hulse from the team in that sentence.
2) After seeing the highlights (which can be found here: http://www.caughtoffside.com/2012/10/28/video-wolves-1-1-charlton-athletic-championship-highlights/? ) Hulse actually did very well in the first 1 on 1 to get into the box in the first place and his shocking first miss didn't matter because of Wilson. The last one was horrendous but its not as bad overall as he sounded on the radio.
http://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/51293/the-missing-pieces-of-the-jigsaw#latest
Also, had a great drink after the game and must have shaken more hands that day than the rest of my life combined. I wouldn't be surprised if every Sunderland fan in the city shock my hand at some stage.
On another note, I was stood at the back of the lower tier singing with about 15 other fans, then the stewards and police decided to force us to sit down or face being ejected, not ideal as me and my mates prefer standing but to be honest there was nobody behind us so I didn't see why we had to, anyway in the end we did, but they were so over the top it was unbelievable, my mate said to one of them "what team do you support mate" not in a sacastic manor or anything, the Policeman replied "no one, I don't follow Football, I'm not that stupid". Any need for that? Then the Wolves fans baiting us above decided to try and spit on us, but this was ignored by them of course. Walkabout before the game was better atmosphere than what was in the ground, but I won't be rushing back to Wolves that's for sure.
It will be interesting on Saturday as I would expect Middlesborough to have a go. That might paly into our hands if it happens.