Just got back - not from Udders, but from walking from Sevenoaks to Westerham: we tuned in to the crackling match reports in the pub gardens at Ide Hill and Toys Hill.
So, we played badly today - yet this is good: We fought for a draw, which was way beyond our capability last season. What is 'competent', or even what is 'good' can only ever be a point of departure, never a satisfactory point of arrival.
We played bloody well against Wigan last week, and even better against Derby: strong, intelligent, quick attacking football that stamped our authority and had our opponents wondering: 'What do we do now?'
Jordan Cousins has blossomed: he has the confidence to advance, sure in the knowledge that his fellow midfielders will hold steady. And Bikey is superb: against Colchester in a League Cup game when others might not bother, he was waving his arms in dispute with the lino - and in the next second darting across the box like shit off a shovel to make a vital interception.
Those games against Wigan and Derby are our benchmark for this season. We played with guts, invention, precision and power - we have proved we are damn good. There is no reason whatsoever why we shouldn't frighten the bloody life out of all the teams in this league from here until May.
Not a great performance from the Men in Black - in fact a pretty poor display overall.
Can't think of one player that showed the skill & energy we've seen in the previous 4 games. And most worrying for me was that this was the worst I've seen thus far from both of our full backs. Wiggy gave the ball away far too many times ( and consequently put young Nick in trouble at least twice in the first few minutes) and Solly looked off the pace.
A big plus was the handling by our rookie 'keeper once the early nerves/ errors by our defence had passed and it was good to see Bob give him a big hug at the final whistle.
As I'm sure others have posted, the ref left a lot to be desired and I'm unsure whether the red card he waved did us any favours....
But, Igor's last gasp equaliser ( a get out of gaol card if ever there was one!) sent the travelling faithful home with the ghost of a smile on their faces and the fervent hope that all concerned will have learned a useful lesson from the physical, niggling Yorkies.
Everything crossed that we won't be required to make this trip again until next season.
( Don't believe I deafened anyone this afternoon - there really was little to shout about unfortunately)
Just had a feeling he hadn't had a sniff and that if he got one it was gonna hit the back of the net
It happens to us so often, how we have a poacher of our own it won't be the last time either that igor gets us a draw from a loss mor a win from a draw
Views (or biased match report?) of a frustrated Huddersfield fan:
"Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.
In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).
The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.
His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.
This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.
Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.
An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.
After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.
The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.
His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.
Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse."
Well, we may have done a classic smash and grab, but having just watched the highlights, I was not at all convinced by Hudds' pen shout (nor by the sending off, tbh...)
As they say in football, it all evens itself out...........we are just getting the good luck that we havent had lately. Against Wigan we won with a deflected goal ( lost count last season how many of those went past Hamer) and today we benefit from a dodgy ref (and god, haven't we had a fair few of them over the past few seasons)
Well, we may have done a classic smash and grab, but having just watched the highlights, I was not at all convinced by Hudds' pen shout (nor by the sending off, tbh...)
Yep! Saw that and the rest of the football league show. Three things...we did what we did and got a result...let's just stay top six as long as we can - we ain't top two but we might be able to stay the pace for a little while longer...the rest of the division looking interesting with some basket cases and some real front runners!
On the train back home, will post in detail later but we definitely didn't deserve to come away from that game with a point.
Well that will part way make up for the games we definitely didn't deserve to come away with no points in then.
You must of gone ape shit when the equaliser went in though? ;0)
Of course I did! Then again being away from the UK last season, Wigan was the first win I had seen since Leicester in September, so I've been going mental for all our goals!
Views (or biased match report?) of a frustrated Huddersfield fan:
"Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.
In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).
The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.
His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.
This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.
Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.
An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.
After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.
The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.
His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.
Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse."
Callum - What you are saying is that our ref today was bent. Corrupted not only by the Udders Mafia, but the pinkoes in the BBC, the Spanners Massive, the casino at the Ritz, and...
This is not Burkina Faso, nor even the fourth division of the Italian league. Our refs have rigorous professional qualifications - and are bloody good at their job. When our strikers blast the ball over the bar from ten yards, they aren't missing deliberately to cash in on a betting syndicate from Kuala Lumpur - or are they?
Of course they aren't. Our refs have integrity too. They have far more intelligence and experience to discern the nudge from a push - the trip from a dive - than any of us ranting and raving on the terraces. If teams "never get a pen at Old Trafford" it's because they aren't good enough to get into the box in the first place.
Many years ago, David Pleat was managing Luton in the First Division: they had lost at Bristol Titty, and Pleat came on the radio and said in all seriousness: "Well, what do you expect when the linesman comes from Chippenham?" Pleat knew his geography - Chippenham is only 15 miles from Bristol - but, laughably, he misunderstood integrity.
My thoughts after having watched our small segment on FLS.
The first half we really did dominate in terms of possession but in terms of clear-cut chances I can remember was the Vetokele chance which Smithies saved, this was again theme of the second half.
We were incredibly ropey in defence from the start and Pope looked shaky, first coming up and not commanding and winning the ball, and the second when he backed out of a tackle with Wells who promptly rounded him and but for a last-ditch tackle would've scored. However a couple of excellent saves in the space of a few minutes and a few routine ones nand he looked confident from then on. Shame he couldn't keep a clean sheet but hopefully this game will have done his confidence wonders and help his decision making and handling. Their goal is shocking defending from Cousins.
The Huddersfield sending off: from the stand you could see the arm go across from the Hudds defender, I wasn't sure if it was a red as there was another defender beside him. Looked soft on the highlights. Also as you saw on FLS, they should've had a stonewall penalty, a blatant shove by TBH on Vaughan in the box, how the ref didn't give that I don't know.
The big problem today was how easy it was for Huddersfield to defend against us with 10 men, and the cause of that again was the lack of movement, and even more frustratingly, the lack of ideas in our play. Players again largely static, there wasn't much effort to move their defence around, what really saddened me was the real lack of overlapping from the full-backs which would pull their men behind the ball around and cause problems. Instead we just camped in their half passing the ball from side to side, we need a bit of incision when we are playing against 10 behind the ball and we need to mix up play.
I still don't get in situations like that why we aren't running at full-backs, putting them on the back foot and putting balls into the box which cause the defence trouble - when Harriott came on he made a massive difference and he put in some excellent testing crosses which won us a few corners.
Regarding set-pieces - APPALLING today. Possibly only one or two corners which cleared the near post? Not good enough when we are looking for a goal. Didn't make the most of free-kick situations either. Practice on this in training.
Great finish from Vetokele and he caused their defence problems all game. I've always wanted a 20-goal season man and BWP was great but was definitely a poacher type, the amount of chances Vetokele fashions for himself through pace, skill or persistence is astonishing and he ran their defence dragged today and I think he'll be among the top league scorers come the end of the season. Also, didn't notice but a brilliant flick from Tucudean leading to their red card - he's a bit too cumbersome to be a Berbatov like striker, but maybe if Delort comes in we could play him in the hole behind the two strikers? He has some lovely touches sometimes and links up play excellently.
All being said, it feels good writing this and feeling frustrated because I know we are much better and can do much better, rather than last season where we were all pretty gutted at how bad the team were. Hope Bob gave them the hair dryer after the match but a good point given our performance.
Edit: forgot to say terrific Huddersfield supporting steward who was happy with standing, had a bit of fun with the fans and was happy to chat about both Huddersfield, Charlton and football in general. Really top bloke.
Re: the Huddersfield fan report - apart from being very funny I'm liking that we are moving towards being a team that others hate. It shows more of a winning mentality.
Nice to keep that unbeaten run going, my first game of the season next week at Brighton and i'm taking my son who's never seen us win away in about 10 attempts so reality will return next week. Great flick on by Bikey and sharpness in Igor, that was shown in his youtube stuff , for that finish . Above the scum an added bonus and palace bottom two
0.5% top two.........8.5% 3rd-6th.......... 45% 7th-12th.........46% 13th-21st......... 0% Relegation
Just watched FLS and can't really argue with anything the Huddersfield fans are moaning about. Never a red and a penalty all day long.
Agree but these things balance out, didn't Charlton get a player harshly sent off a couple of seasons back at Huddersfield in League One. That didn't help us on that day.
Charlton have had lots of sure fire penalties not given. As a football supporter, it is difficult to remember the lucky breaks when experiencing a decision go against you.
Very glad we have Vetekele. Just need a strike partner for him and Charlton may have a chance of maintaining a top half / top 10 position.
Views (or biased match report?) of a frustrated Huddersfield fan:
"Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.
In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).
The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.
His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.
This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.
Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.
An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.
After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.
The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.
His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.
Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse."
This is great for us, at last we are doing what all the good top teams do. We appear to have found our balls!
Huddersfield fans quickly forgetting the cynical challenges to stop our attacks, the time wasting, ball boys who only found the urge to throw the ball back for the last 2 minutes having forgotten how to retrieve a ball for the previous 40, Smithies collapsing in the box, substitutions taking longer than eternity itself.
Yes we had the refereeing decisions go largely in our favour, but Huddersfield are kidding themselves if they think it was all one way.
Huddersfield deserved the 3 points and are rightly gutted to have lost. This whole self-loathing is completely over the top though.
Views (or biased match report?) of a frustrated Huddersfield fan:
"Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.
In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).
The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.
His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.
This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.
Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.
An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.
After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.
The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.
His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.
Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse."
Callum - What you are saying is that our ref today was bent.
I think you will find, Viewfinder, that all CallumCAFC is doing is copying and pasting a quote from a one eyed Huddersfield fan.The open and closed quotation marks give it away or the the subtitle - Views (or biased match report?) of a frustrated Huddersfield fan: may be a hint at what CallumCAFC is doing here.
Just watched FLS and can't really argue with anything the Huddersfield fans are moaning about. Never a red and a penalty all day long.
Agree but these things balance out, didn't Charlton get a player harshly sent off a couple of seasons back at Huddersfield in League One. That didn't help us on that day.
Charlton have had lots of sure fire penalties not given. As a football supporter, it is difficult to remember the lucky breaks when experiencing a decision go against you.
Very glad we have Vetekele. Just need a strike partner for him and Charlton may have a chance of maintaining a top half / top 10 position.
We had a defensive midfield player who was on loan from Preston sent off after he was poleaxed by a Huddersfield player and reacted, whereas the offending playing did not get even a yellow.
Just reading the posts on here since I retired for the night.
I have some sympathy with the Hudders fan & there is a deal of truth in his rant. We were fortunate in the ref's interpretation of events in several incidents during the game but on the other hand, so were they. Of course an opposition supporter is going to view proceedings in an entirely different manner especially when the 3 points he was on the verge of celebrating were reduced to 1 at the death. For a managerless team, their performance on the whole, and if you ignore their diving/fouling/time wasting, was a very decent one which caused us problems.
West 2003's post contained some pertinent comments on our overall performance . I totally agree that our lack of movement was apparent yesterday, but just as concerning was the dearth of overlapping by our fullbacks - as I posted last night, both Solly & Wiggy failed to impress me. And finally, to the set pieces which have been one of our strengths in recent seasons.....most corners taken failed to clear the first defender - very unCharltonlike. Several components of our game that I am confident BB will address in training next week.
I am currently watching "Goals on Sunday" on Sky, where Steve Clarke is guesting. He has been talking about his years at Abramovitch Utd and the philosophy of their Special One. Not rocket science, but he stated the plan was to win EVERY match and, should things be going against you, to FIND a way to win. As one Lifer highlighted earlier on this thread, BB pushed Bikey forward( can anyone push him !) as the minutes ticked away and his successful header culminated in Igor's goal, illustrating an example of thinking " outside the box" ( literally!) & hence maintaining our unbeaten start of this exciting season. Maybe we should rename our manager, Special Bob ?
And I couldn't post without mentioning the "hospitality" and friendliness of the Hudders fans, as others have done before me. We had a long chat with one in the Club where we always park near the ground - lovely guy & well informed of our history etc. One comment that did make us chuckle though was when he said " That Pardew was a great manager for you in the Premiership years !" We Addicks exchanged perplexed glances before correcting him ....Has Curbs really been forgotten already ?
Interesting to listen to BP post match. Basically the coaching staff appear to have plans B & C in place ready to adapt to the state of play but it would appear that the players become nervous and start to do their own thing, their own thing being hoofball as far as I can make out. Perhaps they all need time for trust to develop?
A big plus was the handling by our rookie 'keeper once the early nerves/ errors by our defence had passed and it was good to see Bob give him a big hug at the final whistle.
That's really encouraging to hear. Big Bob's man management appears to be first class so far with the way he has handled Tucudean and Pope by showing belief in them and he seems extremely keen for the players to do well for themselves and the football club. Very encouraging.
Comments
So, we played badly today - yet this is good: We fought for a draw, which was way beyond our capability last season. What is 'competent', or even what is 'good' can only ever be a point of departure, never a satisfactory point of arrival.
We played bloody well against Wigan last week, and even better against Derby: strong, intelligent, quick attacking football that stamped our authority and had our opponents wondering: 'What do we do now?'
Jordan Cousins has blossomed: he has the confidence to advance, sure in the knowledge that his fellow midfielders will hold steady. And Bikey is superb: against Colchester in a League Cup game when others might not bother, he was waving his arms in dispute with the lino - and in the next second darting across the box like shit off a shovel to make a vital interception.
Those games against Wigan and Derby are our benchmark for this season. We played with guts, invention, precision and power - we have proved we are damn good. There is no reason whatsoever why we shouldn't frighten the bloody life out of all the teams in this league from here until May.
Not a great performance from the Men in Black - in fact a pretty poor display overall.
Can't think of one player that showed the skill & energy we've seen in the previous 4 games. And most worrying for me was that this was the worst I've seen thus far from both of our full backs. Wiggy gave the ball away far too many times ( and consequently put young Nick in trouble at least twice in the first few minutes) and Solly looked off the pace.
A big plus was the handling by our rookie 'keeper once the early nerves/ errors by our defence had passed and it was good to see Bob give him a big hug at the final whistle.
As I'm sure others have posted, the ref left a lot to be desired and I'm unsure whether the red card he waved did us any favours....
But, Igor's last gasp equaliser ( a get out of gaol card if ever there was one!) sent the travelling faithful home with the ghost of a smile on their faces and the fervent hope that all concerned will have learned a useful lesson from the physical, niggling Yorkies.
Everything crossed that we won't be required to make this trip again until next season.
( Don't believe I deafened anyone this afternoon - there really was little to shout about unfortunately)
Just had a feeling he hadn't had a sniff and that if he got one it was gonna hit the back of the net
It happens to us so often, how we have a poacher of our own it won't be the last time either that igor gets us a draw from a loss mor a win from a draw
- what a save from Pope, top class.
- what a save from their keeper, almost a great goal for Igor
- amazing flick from George T for Igor when they got their man sent off, right decision
- HOW ON EARTH WAS THAT NOT A PEN?!
- Lovely finish from Igor and great flick from Bikey.
"Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.
In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).
The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.
His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.
This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.
Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.
An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.
After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.
The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.
His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.
Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse."
Saw that and the rest of the football league show. Three things...we did what we did and got a result...let's just stay top six as long as we can - we ain't top two but we might be able to stay the pace for a little while longer...the rest of the division looking interesting with some basket cases and some real front runners!
This is not Burkina Faso, nor even the fourth division of the Italian league. Our refs have rigorous professional qualifications - and are bloody good at their job. When our strikers blast the ball over the bar from ten yards, they aren't missing deliberately to cash in on a betting syndicate from Kuala Lumpur - or are they?
Of course they aren't. Our refs have integrity too. They have far more intelligence and experience to discern the nudge from a push - the trip from a dive - than any of us ranting and raving on the terraces. If teams "never get a pen at Old Trafford" it's because they aren't good enough to get into the box in the first place.
Many years ago, David Pleat was managing Luton in the First Division: they had lost at Bristol Titty, and Pleat came on the radio and said in all seriousness: "Well, what do you expect when the linesman comes from Chippenham?" Pleat knew his geography - Chippenham is only 15 miles from Bristol - but, laughably, he misunderstood integrity.
The first half we really did dominate in terms of possession but in terms of clear-cut chances I can remember was the Vetokele chance which Smithies saved, this was again theme of the second half.
We were incredibly ropey in defence from the start and Pope looked shaky, first coming up and not commanding and winning the ball, and the second when he backed out of a tackle with Wells who promptly rounded him and but for a last-ditch tackle would've scored. However a couple of excellent saves in the space of a few minutes and a few routine ones nand he looked confident from then on. Shame he couldn't keep a clean sheet but hopefully this game will have done his confidence wonders and help his decision making and handling. Their goal is shocking defending from Cousins.
The Huddersfield sending off: from the stand you could see the arm go across from the Hudds defender, I wasn't sure if it was a red as there was another defender beside him. Looked soft on the highlights. Also as you saw on FLS, they should've had a stonewall penalty, a blatant shove by TBH on Vaughan in the box, how the ref didn't give that I don't know.
The big problem today was how easy it was for Huddersfield to defend against us with 10 men, and the cause of that again was the lack of movement, and even more frustratingly, the lack of ideas in our play. Players again largely static, there wasn't much effort to move their defence around, what really saddened me was the real lack of overlapping from the full-backs which would pull their men behind the ball around and cause problems. Instead we just camped in their half passing the ball from side to side, we need a bit of incision when we are playing against 10 behind the ball and we need to mix up play.
I still don't get in situations like that why we aren't running at full-backs, putting them on the back foot and putting balls into the box which cause the defence trouble - when Harriott came on he made a massive difference and he put in some excellent testing crosses which won us a few corners.
Regarding set-pieces - APPALLING today. Possibly only one or two corners which cleared the near post? Not good enough when we are looking for a goal. Didn't make the most of free-kick situations either. Practice on this in training.
Great finish from Vetokele and he caused their defence problems all game. I've always wanted a 20-goal season man and BWP was great but was definitely a poacher type, the amount of chances Vetokele fashions for himself through pace, skill or persistence is astonishing and he ran their defence dragged today and I think he'll be among the top league scorers come the end of the season. Also, didn't notice but a brilliant flick from Tucudean leading to their red card - he's a bit too cumbersome to be a Berbatov like striker, but maybe if Delort comes in we could play him in the hole behind the two strikers? He has some lovely touches sometimes and links up play excellently.
All being said, it feels good writing this and feeling frustrated because I know we are much better and can do much better, rather than last season where we were all pretty gutted at how bad the team were. Hope Bob gave them the hair dryer after the match but a good point given our performance.
Edit: forgot to say terrific Huddersfield supporting steward who was happy with standing, had a bit of fun with the fans and was happy to chat about both Huddersfield, Charlton and football in general. Really top bloke.
"It was a different aesthetic from midweek"
An auto-correct error or an attempt to appear in Private Eye?
: - )
Having then seen that Forestieri pen at watford, and the red card you have to say "blimey"
If Huddersfield think we are a bunch of diving, cheats .... well
Should have read "it was a different anaesthetic from last week"
Charlton have had lots of sure fire penalties not given. As a football supporter, it is difficult to remember the lucky breaks when experiencing a decision go against you.
Very glad we have Vetekele. Just need a strike partner for him and Charlton may have a chance of maintaining a top half / top 10 position.
Yes we had the refereeing decisions go largely in our favour, but Huddersfield are kidding themselves if they think it was all one way.
Huddersfield deserved the 3 points and are rightly gutted to have lost. This whole self-loathing is completely over the top though.
I have some sympathy with the Hudders fan & there is a deal of truth in his rant. We were fortunate in the ref's interpretation of events in several incidents during the game but on the other hand, so were they. Of course an opposition supporter is going to view proceedings in an entirely different manner especially when the 3 points he was on the verge of celebrating were reduced to 1 at the death. For a managerless team, their performance on the whole, and if you ignore their diving/fouling/time wasting, was a very decent one which caused us problems.
West 2003's post contained some pertinent comments on our overall performance . I totally agree that our lack of movement was apparent yesterday, but just as concerning was the dearth of overlapping by our fullbacks - as I posted last night, both Solly & Wiggy failed to impress me. And finally, to the set pieces which have been one of our strengths in recent seasons.....most corners taken failed to clear the first defender - very unCharltonlike. Several components of our game that I am confident BB will address in training next week.
I am currently watching "Goals on Sunday" on Sky, where Steve Clarke is guesting. He has been talking about his years at Abramovitch Utd and the philosophy of their Special One. Not rocket science, but he stated the plan was to win EVERY match and, should things be going against you, to FIND a way to win. As one Lifer highlighted earlier on this thread, BB pushed Bikey forward( can anyone push him !) as the minutes ticked away and his successful header culminated in Igor's goal, illustrating an example of thinking " outside the box" ( literally!) & hence maintaining our unbeaten start of this exciting season. Maybe we should rename our manager, Special Bob ?
And I couldn't post without mentioning the "hospitality" and friendliness of the Hudders fans, as others have done before me. We had a long chat with one in the Club where we always park near the ground - lovely guy & well informed of our history etc. One comment that did make us chuckle though was when he said " That Pardew was a great manager for you in the Premiership years !" We Addicks exchanged perplexed glances before correcting him ....Has Curbs really been forgotten already ?