Two months month ago, the prospect of consecutive home games against Bristol City and Cardiff struck a chord: I remember watching the same opponents within the same week at The Valley when I were a nipper. I have just dug out the programmes from the loft.
We played Cardiff on 24 September 1966, and won 5-0. Three days later at The Valley, we played Bristol City, and won 5-0.
The line-ups are these: Charlie Wright; Billy Bonds and Brian Kinsey; Appleton, King and Burridge; Mike Kenning, Harry Gregory, Ron Saunders, Alan Campbell, Len Glover, and Keith Peacock.
The puff on the club website this week trills: "Come and meet Charlton Legends in the Bar after the Game..."
The players today wore black arm-bands, both teams and match officials arranged around the centre circle for the ritual mawkish minute's silence. Which of course is now a minute's applause. Fifteen thousand fans were standing and clapping in tearful pride, Graham Moore's youthful face beaming from the vast big screen overlooking The Valley.
After two seconds, my mate Bill exclaimed: "Hang on! That's Alan Campbell!" At half-time, a sheepish message came over the Tannoy: "We would like the apologise to the family of Graham Moore..." This was like Radar, spluttering at the war-zone in M.A.S.H.
Cardiff hit the post in the first half, and hit the bar in the second. They are ordinarily fluid, side-to-side, smooth and easy: fierce shots at Henderson and others fizzing past the post. We stirred only in the last 20 minutes: all ragged and desperate, like buskers on the Tube fighting for a spinning coin. MacDons won at Derby. Bristol City beat Ipswich. Rotherham drew. We are now six points from 'safety', plus one for (no) goal difference.
Our midfielders might learn. I can see Graham Moore now, deceiving his opponent, powering forward and letting rip: the onion bag at the Covered End almost burst. That must have been in 1967, the season after we beat Bristol City and Cardiff 5-0 in the same week.
Now, we are beckoned by Rochdale, Scunthorpe, and Bury.
When Lookman came on with his pace we were really able to stretch them as our chances had been a little limited. But we were dogged at the other end and Hendo made some good saves. Overall a point is a fair result.
Cardiff were the better side for most of the match but we could have nicked it even though it took us to the 39th minute to have a shot on target!
I hope the injury to Cousins is not too serious. Survival is probably already beyond us but if there is any hope whatsoever we need Jordan in there battling.
I am a Riga fan but he made three big errors today - 1 was starting Reza, 2 was starting JJ and 3 was not replacing Reza sooner. I called all three before he acted so I am not saying with the benefit of hindsight! Last 20 minutes was as good as we have got all season, and we need to take that forward into the coming games. Hope is not finally gone for me - but only because of those 20 minutes - we have to take inspiration afrom that and the manager needs to learn from it also. The next game could be the one that sends us down. A win and hope will return. By teh way - had we got Riga in instead of Fraeye, we would not be in the relegation places now, so I am not knocking him - he is new and it takes time to work some things out.
Effectively relegated, too much ground to make up. Riga to blame today starting with Bergdich and Reza on the wings...?
Must win home game against a poor side and Lookman is benched and Harriott disappears completely.
Jackson legs gone but still selected with Poyet and Ba on the bench both better options.
Subs were weird, leaving Sonogo to get cold for 2 or 3 minutes before he came on.
Not to mention he bought in Fanni and then does not even put the bloke in the squad.
The only enjoyable part of the day was the protest after the game.
I agree with most of your comment but enjoyed the last 15 to 20 minutes after all the subs, when Charlton carried a threat, gave it a go and could have nicked the points. The crowd really got behind the team for the last bit of the game.
It was good to have the protest as it helps maintain the pressure on Meire but not sure if that is going to be enough on its own or will be sustained in the same format.
Maybe a meet up beforehand and walk together to the ground for a prematch protest before the match may help draw everyone together and shake things up a bit and give some energy and momentum ?
The subs were admittedly very disorderly. Cousins should have gone off straight away on first injurying himself. I hope staying on hasn't made the injury worse. Jackson also went off injured. Lookman may not have been fit enough to start but may have come off the bench without the injuries. Reza had to be subbed of. He ran around without effect throughout the game and his replacement helped turn the game.
Sod's law that we are doomed just when we get Sonogo. He made a refreshing change in the Cardiff match - following 20 odd matches where nobody looks like they are trying. The other sad bit is that Sonogo must have made 3 or 4 tasty lay-offs in the box - which Watt would have buried. Instead, they mostly fell to Mak who hit them straight at a defender.
6 points adrift and L1 looking a cert - the best thing we can do now is boycott ST purchases next season. The club will go the "cheap ST" route - and match by match purchases will be pricey, but it's hard to think what will constitute "Platinum, Gold, Silver" matches - especially if there is no Gills or spanners in the league.
Bury/Rochdale/Scunny/Blackpool/Port Vale ??????
Save your £300 and just go to matches as and when. The most applicable point for next season was made by David Pleat many years ago (I have quoted it on here many times)
"It is up to the players on the pitch to inspire the crowd into life - not the other way around"
See who RD buys in the Summer - if it's Stefan Van Honkytonk and Jacques De Doobydoo from some Afghan 3rd division side, then you can count me out.
I thought we were poor again. Even the last 15 was just gung ho all out attack football and a decent team would have killed us on the break. Relegation a certainty now I believe. The only things that keeps me mildly entertained is ticking off a few more grounds off the list next season. Very sad to watch and see what we have become.
As everything about this season screams going down, I'm starting to think about next season, and the team/squad needs improvement to be competitive.
I wonder whether RD has been pondering the same scenario, jon.
Would relegation change his mind set regarding bringing in players with experience in the English leagues ? Surely this is highly unlikely as they would inevitably cost him more than he's prepared to pay...
If relegation is our fate, I can only see an owner with a serious dilemma on his hands ...Players on long contracts who do not fit the bill in Division One or want away to play at a higher level ( JBG ?) plus the cheaper option of more Academy youngsters blooded too early & played too often.
I honestly believe he hasn't prepared for his team to be playing outside the Championship so maybe this is our best chance of escaping from the clutches of this weird Belgian.
Please don't give up on us yet, PV !
If we go down which I hope we don't, I think players such as Brad Inman an attacking midfielder of Crewe and Jay Simpson striker of Orient should be looked at as potential signings in the summer but as you say we will probably get cheap overseas players
Omg I missed that Lookman was on the bench I thought injured again when I saw the lineup! Jose we are ment to have belief in you to play our best players, Lookman is possibly our best player! Hmm enough said
Better than last week (it could hardly have been worse) but, sadly, not good enough. In truth, I think we were fortunate to get the draw, given that Cardiff hit the woodwork twice, Henderson was by far the busier keeper and Cardiff were the better side for the majority of the game. The substitutions galvanised us into pinning them back in the last 15 minutes but we only had one clear chance near the end and I think Makienok's shot was going wide, even if the defender hadn't blocked it.
It was good to keep a clean sheet at last and I thought that Henderson, Lennon and Solly all did very well. Up front, Makienok did ok without looking a real goal threat, Reza buzzed around to little effect and was his usual powderpuff self and Gudmundsson, despite looking more interested this week, looks a shadow of the player we saw last season. Sanogo gave Cardiff something different to think about and caused a bit of chaos in their box, but I'm hoping that Igor Vetokele is fit for next Saturday.
The biggest problem for me is in midfield and I am left scratching my head as to what Poyet has to do to get a game. Jacko has minimal influence on the game and leaves Jordan Cousins with far too much ground to cover when the opposition have the ball (which seems to be a lot of the time, given our inability to retain possession). Even Ba - a notoriously inconsistent player from minute to minute - gave us a better platform when he came on.
Most bookies have us at between 1/10 and 1/12 to go down, which is probably about right for a team with only 25 points and an abysmal goal difference with only 15 games left. We are coming very close to the point of no return and the stage at which we have to start looking at players for a campaign next season in League 1. Apart from trying to move existing players on (which will be far from easy in many cases), the question is whether we have a UK scouting network capable of identifying talent in the lower divisions, in the same way we did in 2011. Regrettably, I very much doubt it, even if Roland was prepared to take experienced and competent advice on what is required for this very tough division.
Better than last week (it could hardly have been worse) but, sadly, not good enough. In truth, I think we were fortunate to get the draw, given that Cardiff hit the woodwork twice, Henderson was by far the busier keeper and Cardiff were the better side for the majority of the game. The substitutions galvanised us into pinning them back in the last 15 minutes but we only had one clear chance near the end and I think Makienok's shot was going wide, even if the defender hadn't blocked it.
It was good to keep a clean sheet at last and I thought that Henderson, Lennon and Solly all did very well. Up front, Makienok did ok without looking a real goal threat, Reza buzzed around to little effect and was his usual powderpuff self and Gudmundsson, despite looking more interested this week, looks a shadow of the player we saw last season. Sanogo gave Cardiff something different to think about and caused a bit of chaos in their box, but I'm hoping that Igor Vetokele is fit for next Saturday.
The biggest problem for me is in midfield and I am left scratching my head as to what Poyet has to do to get a game. Jacko has minimal influence on the game and leaves Jordan Cousins with far too much ground to cover when the opposition have the ball (which seems to be a lot of the time, given our inability to retain possession). Even Ba - a notoriously inconsistent player from minute to minute - gave us a better platform when he came on.
Most bookies have us at between 1/10 and 1/12 to go down, which is probably about right for a team with only 25 points and an abysmal goal difference with only 15 games left. We are coming very close to the point of no return and the stage at which we have to start looking at players for a campaign next season in League 1. Apart from trying to move existing players on (which will be far from easy in many cases), the question is whether we have a UK scouting network capable of identifying talent in the lower divisions, in the same way we did in 2011. Regrettably, I very much doubt it, even if Roland was prepared to take experienced and competent advice on what is required for this very tough division.
Agree with most of this, although I would add that Pilkington's effort that hit the bar was one of the few times they managed to do anything threatening in our box, most of Hendo's saves were from longer ranger efforts and were relatively comfortable for him. They had the better of the game for a lot of it, but I felt we looked far more threatening in the last 15 minutes than Cardiff ever did before that.
A draw was a fair result for me, but given the commitment and desire from us at the end, however lacking in quality, a winner for us wouldn't have been totally undeserved and could have made a massive difference to the confidence, shame we couldn't get it.
Might have been a bad day for him, but based on that showing Jacko looked a spent force, much as it pains me to say it because I have much admiration for the fella. He was a freekick waiting to happen and we had so much more impetus and competed much better in midfield once Ba came on, even allowing for how frustrating he is to watch.
Was my first game since Blackburn away and will be my last trip to the Valley for the foreseeable as I have no plans to be back in England for a while. Thought the crowd were pretty poor for a lot of the game. True there wasn't much to shout about but there was at least one incident in the first half where Reza, Makienok and JoBerg worked hard to pressure a mistake from Cardiff and won the ball back high up the pitch. The move ultimately petered out, but it was exactly the kind of determination we need them to show and they barely gotta ripple of applause for it. Towards the end was much better though with fans and players feeding off each other like the good old days, hopefully there will be much more of that for the rest of the season.
Henderson - 7 flapped at a couple of crosses but again without him we'd have got toned Solly - 8 best attacking outlet Texeira - 6 quiet game Lennon - 6 improving Fox - 5 his best for a while Berg Gudmundsson - 0.5 sulked hid bottled challenges and his set plays were all pathetic despicable Cousins - 6 hi energy to the point he broke down Jackson - 6 gave his all as usual but has to take more responsibility for set plays cos of jbg's continuing cuntishness Bergdich - 1 ran around more than jbg but he'd struggle in conference south barely looks like a pro footballer at all Makienok - 6 plenty of effort if not efficacy Reza - 5 makes the most of what he has shame the same can't be said of his most talented colleague Ba - 2 slightly better than Zac Birdshit maybe conference national
Riga - 2 selected Birdshit, left substitutions too late, selected Ba before Poyet, didn't respond to JC's hamstring quickly enough. Unfamiliar from him, let's hope it's a blip. Academic now tho cos Charlton and Bolton are both doomed. We need 7 more points than at least 2 other clubs in just 15 fixtures aka a thundering miracle and the last bloke dishing those up fell foul of the authorities 2000 odd years ago
1 point from 2 home games against sides as toothless as brizzle and bluebirds proved to be is gilt edged relegation form. No cause for optimism. And we've got a deluded ignoramus for an owner, Ho hum it'll soon be Christmas
Think we were definitely on the back foot for the first 70 minutes, and were lucky to still be in it when we came into the game late on. I think Cardiff pushing for a win (based on the fact that 'an away point at Charlton' is a bad result) actually gave us the better chances to win it - and this may be our best chance of getting points the rest of this season.
Not sure if anyone has said earlier in the thread, but the 'stand up if you want them out' chant towards the end of the game seemed pretty poorly timed to me - when we were building up a bit of a positive atmosphere for once and the pressure seemed to be getting to Cardiff.
Bristol City fair enough but cant really call Cardiff toothless... They're only five points from the Play-Offs.
As @Oh_Yoni_Boy says, we probably played better because Cardiff had to go for it and at the moment I think they're the teams we want to be playing, I've been going to Charlton for over 20-years now and its always been the same regardless of the manager...
We turn up against the better sides because they're confident of going for the win and leave gaps whereas we look poor (and usually are poor) against the relegation rivals because they play just as tight and defensive and leave nothing to chance meaning they're extremely difficult to breakdown, meaning that both sides appear on the surface as rubbish
Have to agree that we are not getting out of this and League 1 beckons. What really gets me is that we only played for 10-15 minutes at the end. With nothing to lose now we may as well go all out from the begining. Many mistakes in selection as well, JJ is just not up to it for the full match, kept giving away free kicks, Reza well words fail me really, but the jeering after he skied the ball was IMO out of order. Hopefully Cousins will be OK we really need him and we start with Poyet next time, we know there is a footballer in there.
We need a clean out of the dead wood for next season but we all know what we end up with is another influx of network nobodies. All fine and well RD saying he empathises with us, but if he really meant that he would sell to somebody who would put the team in the hands of a proper manager, buy some decent players and push on then he could fuck off back to Belgium like a bad dream. Not going to happen though we all know it.
That performance didn't inspire much confidence, BUT the last 20 minutes showed we are a much bigger threat when we play 2 up top and with some positive intent.
I like Riga but I think he made an error on Saturday. I know it's easy in hindsight but JBG, Reza and Bergdich offered virtually nothing going forward. Jackson and Cousins sat very deep so there we always had men back, and Reza and Bergdich both played quite far forward. Can't help but think with either Sanogo/Lookman as a partner for Mak would have been a much bigger threat going forward without losing anything defensively, Reza would have been the man to go for me, with JBG on the right and Bergdich on the left.
Very frustrating at the end when Fox had a few throw ins in the attacking third and nobody was moving for him. Ba and Poyet were both covering the same space and didn't move, they couldn't even blame it on tired legs.
currently 1/10 red hot favourites to go down all rather embarassing, lets have a piss up at fulham make a bit of noise and never know we could get a result the games coming up against brentford and qpr should have high attendance of away fans so lets make ourselves heard and see if it changed anything.
Comments
We played Cardiff on 24 September 1966, and won 5-0. Three days later at The Valley, we played Bristol City, and won 5-0.
The line-ups are these: Charlie Wright; Billy Bonds and Brian Kinsey; Appleton, King and Burridge; Mike Kenning, Harry Gregory, Ron Saunders, Alan Campbell, Len Glover, and Keith Peacock.
The puff on the club website this week trills: "Come and meet Charlton Legends in the Bar after the Game..."
The players today wore black arm-bands, both teams and match officials arranged around the centre circle for the ritual mawkish minute's silence. Which of course is now a minute's applause. Fifteen thousand fans were standing and clapping in tearful pride, Graham Moore's youthful face beaming from the vast big screen overlooking The Valley.
After two seconds, my mate Bill exclaimed: "Hang on! That's Alan Campbell!" At half-time, a sheepish message came over the Tannoy: "We would like the apologise to the family of Graham Moore..." This was like Radar, spluttering at the war-zone in M.A.S.H.
Cardiff hit the post in the first half, and hit the bar in the second. They are ordinarily fluid, side-to-side, smooth and easy: fierce shots at Henderson and others fizzing past the post. We stirred only in the last 20 minutes: all ragged and desperate, like buskers on the Tube fighting for a spinning coin. MacDons won at Derby. Bristol City beat Ipswich. Rotherham drew. We are now six points from 'safety', plus one for (no) goal difference.
Our midfielders might learn. I can see Graham Moore now, deceiving his opponent, powering forward and letting rip: the onion bag at the Covered End almost burst. That must have been in 1967, the season after we beat Bristol City and Cardiff 5-0 in the same week.
Now, we are beckoned by Rochdale, Scunthorpe, and Bury.
Cardiff were the better side for most of the match but we could have nicked it even though it took us to the 39th minute to have a shot on target!
I hope the injury to Cousins is not too serious. Survival is probably already beyond us but if there is any hope whatsoever we need Jordan in there battling.
Southend away
It was good to have the protest as it helps maintain the pressure on Meire but not sure if that is going to be enough on its own or will be sustained in the same format.
Maybe a meet up beforehand and walk together to the ground for a prematch protest before the match may help draw everyone together and shake things up a bit and give some energy and momentum ?
The subs were admittedly very disorderly. Cousins should have gone off straight away on first injurying himself. I hope staying on hasn't made the injury worse. Jackson also went off injured. Lookman may not have been fit enough to start but may have come off the bench without the injuries. Reza had to be subbed of. He ran around without effect throughout the game and his replacement helped turn the game.
He made a refreshing change in the Cardiff match - following 20 odd matches where nobody looks like they are trying.
The other sad bit is that Sonogo must have made 3 or 4 tasty lay-offs in the box - which Watt would have buried.
Instead, they mostly fell to Mak who hit them straight at a defender.
6 points adrift and L1 looking a cert - the best thing we can do now is boycott ST purchases next season.
The club will go the "cheap ST" route - and match by match purchases will be pricey, but it's hard to think what will constitute "Platinum, Gold, Silver" matches - especially if there is no Gills or spanners in the league.
Bury/Rochdale/Scunny/Blackpool/Port Vale ??????
Save your £300 and just go to matches as and when.
The most applicable point for next season was made by David Pleat many years ago (I have quoted it on here many times)
"It is up to the players on the pitch to inspire the crowd into life - not the other way around"
See who RD buys in the Summer - if it's Stefan Van Honkytonk and Jacques De Doobydoo from some Afghan 3rd division side, then you can count me out.
They'll probably be buying Roland's Academy "product".
It was good to keep a clean sheet at last and I thought that Henderson, Lennon and Solly all did very well. Up front, Makienok did ok without looking a real goal threat, Reza buzzed around to little effect and was his usual powderpuff self and Gudmundsson, despite looking more interested this week, looks a shadow of the player we saw last season. Sanogo gave Cardiff something different to think about and caused a bit of chaos in their box, but I'm hoping that Igor Vetokele is fit for next Saturday.
The biggest problem for me is in midfield and I am left scratching my head as to what Poyet has to do to get a game. Jacko has minimal influence on the game and leaves Jordan Cousins with far too much ground to cover when the opposition have the ball (which seems to be a lot of the time, given our inability to retain possession). Even Ba - a notoriously inconsistent player from minute to minute - gave us a better platform when he came on.
Most bookies have us at between 1/10 and 1/12 to go down, which is probably about right for a team with only 25 points and an abysmal goal difference with only 15 games left. We are coming very close to the point of no return and the stage at which we have to start looking at players for a campaign next season in League 1. Apart from trying to move existing players on (which will be far from easy in many cases), the question is whether we have a UK scouting network capable of identifying talent in the lower divisions, in the same way we did in 2011. Regrettably, I very much doubt it, even if Roland was prepared to take experienced and competent advice on what is required for this very tough division.
A draw was a fair result for me, but given the commitment and desire from us at the end, however lacking in quality, a winner for us wouldn't have been totally undeserved and could have made a massive difference to the confidence, shame we couldn't get it.
Might have been a bad day for him, but based on that showing Jacko looked a spent force, much as it pains me to say it because I have much admiration for the fella. He was a freekick waiting to happen and we had so much more impetus and competed much better in midfield once Ba came on, even allowing for how frustrating he is to watch.
Was my first game since Blackburn away and will be my last trip to the Valley for the foreseeable as I have no plans to be back in England for a while. Thought the crowd were pretty poor for a lot of the game. True there wasn't much to shout about but there was at least one incident in the first half where Reza, Makienok and JoBerg worked hard to pressure a mistake from Cardiff and won the ball back high up the pitch. The move ultimately petered out, but it was exactly the kind of determination we need them to show and they barely gotta ripple of applause for it. Towards the end was much better though with fans and players feeding off each other like the good old days, hopefully there will be much more of that for the rest of the season.
Solly - 8 best attacking outlet
Texeira - 6 quiet game
Lennon - 6 improving
Fox - 5 his best for a while
Berg Gudmundsson - 0.5 sulked hid bottled challenges and his set plays were all pathetic despicable
Cousins - 6 hi energy to the point he broke down
Jackson - 6 gave his all as usual but has to take more responsibility for set plays cos of jbg's continuing cuntishness
Bergdich - 1 ran around more than jbg but he'd struggle in conference south barely looks like a pro footballer at all
Makienok - 6 plenty of effort if not efficacy
Reza - 5 makes the most of what he has shame the same can't be said of his most talented colleague
Ba - 2 slightly better than Zac Birdshit maybe conference national
Riga - 2 selected Birdshit, left substitutions too late, selected Ba before Poyet, didn't respond to JC's hamstring quickly enough. Unfamiliar from him, let's hope it's a blip.
Academic now tho cos Charlton and Bolton are both doomed. We need 7 more points than at least 2 other clubs in just 15 fixtures aka a thundering miracle and the last bloke dishing those up fell foul of the authorities 2000 odd years ago
Not sure if anyone has said earlier in the thread, but the 'stand up if you want them out' chant towards the end of the game seemed pretty poorly timed to me - when we were building up a bit of a positive atmosphere for once and the pressure seemed to be getting to Cardiff.
As @Oh_Yoni_Boy says, we probably played better because Cardiff had to go for it and at the moment I think they're the teams we want to be playing, I've been going to Charlton for over 20-years now and its always been the same regardless of the manager...
We turn up against the better sides because they're confident of going for the win and leave gaps whereas we look poor (and usually are poor) against the relegation rivals because they play just as tight and defensive and leave nothing to chance meaning they're extremely difficult to breakdown, meaning that both sides appear on the surface as rubbish
We need a clean out of the dead wood for next season but we all know what we end up with is another influx of network nobodies. All fine and well RD saying he empathises with us, but if he really meant that he would sell to somebody who would put the team in the hands of a proper manager, buy some decent players and push on then he could fuck off back to Belgium like a bad dream. Not going to happen though we all know it.
I like Riga but I think he made an error on Saturday. I know it's easy in hindsight but JBG, Reza and Bergdich offered virtually nothing going forward. Jackson and Cousins sat very deep so there we always had men back, and Reza and Bergdich both played quite far forward. Can't help but think with either Sanogo/Lookman as a partner for Mak would have been a much bigger threat going forward without losing anything defensively, Reza would have been the man to go for me, with JBG on the right and Bergdich on the left.
Very frustrating at the end when Fox had a few throw ins in the attacking third and nobody was moving for him. Ba and Poyet were both covering the same space and didn't move, they couldn't even blame it on tired legs.
Given some luck and that