How was the Konch? I really appreciated the effort he put in for us over the years.
Got booed obviously, no idea why - really good homegrown player for us during our best period in living memory... "Booooo!"
He was probably booed for the way he revelled in goals and he kissed the badge for West Ham to the Charlton fans in the season we went down from the Premiership. Good player.
Gillingham have the one of the worst defences in League One? Is that why we had 4-5-1? One up top? Seriously?!
I went to get a beer early, and was offered out by one of our own idiotic morons, and missed the first goal. And I was having a pee when we scored. Pretty naff game.
I made plans for another away match on the way home, but jesus - that was a rubbish afternoon. For me this was a decent afternoon to grab a few beers away, meet some new people and so on.. it was certainly not an afternoon to watch football. Special mention to the lifer who got me a ticket and to the chap behind me who listened whilst I moaned!
One match for me, and I already agree we need a new manager. Slade out. Special mention to whoever arranged the plane and banner too.. betcha didn't think that would be the highlight of the day.
Lunch with " our gang" in Rochester pre match - positive
Heavy traffic between Rochester & Gillingham - negative
Parking near Priestfield at approx. 2.55pm - negative
Seeing the anti regime banner flying overhead - positive ( Fantastic !)
Missing first 15 mins of match - positive
1st half goal from the Gills - negative
Half time substitution by Brussell - positive ( sorry JJ !)
1st pen missed/ 2nd pen scored - OK , I'm as fed up with this game as I was all afternoon.
A dingy, lower league stadium where the away end feels like the illustrious Den & unfortunately encourages some of those "gracing" it today to behave in a similar manner. Although what struck me most was the total lack of atmosphere generated by our faithful , albeit difficult in an open stand. For me, the support was lacklustre- as though we've already thrown in the towel & sadly the players mirrored this with a few exceptions.
I'm finding it incredibly difficult to describe this afternoon from the perspective of a supporter who follows her team all over the country , through the good and bad times, but always with hope in her heart ....and who enjoys a laugh with fellow fans even though it be gallows humour.
Today, there were no laughs heard around our area....just groans, bellows of frustration & anger and ultimately the slagging off of both players and their gaffer. Everything was so bleak , predictable & so depressing. Everything around us seems to be falling apart. Not even a Roland Out chant to be heard.
This isn't the Charlton we knew & loved. This is the "end of the road" Charlton with merely a faint glimmer of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. This is what our club has been reduced to under Roland's stewardship and today we appeared to be on the verge of capitulation without much of a fight. Desperate times indeed.
Others have described the action, or lack of, on the pitch so I'll just add that Fred, Big Josh, Holmsey & young Ezri stood out for me today as is becoming the norm but as a whole,, this team remains disjointed. I question whether the spirit in the camp is fast diminishing & whether the players are as enamoured of RS as they say. Ajose for one appears to be less than happy with his manager. And there appears to be some confusion as to why the talented Tex , fit enough to play for the under 23s, continues to be ignored at first team level. So many questions with any answers we DO receive appearing to be a tissue of lies.
My apologies for being "all doom & gloom " tonight....I clearly didn't quaff enough wines this afternoon to dull the feelings of despair I'm currently experiencing. Of course I'll be there again next Saturday , wearing my black & white scarf, my enamel Protest badge and holding aloft our banner, hoping for a successful afternoon on the pitch. But I also hope that those of us who KNOW without a shadow of doubt that OUR Charlton will remain out of reach until this toxic regime has left the building, will raise their voices together loud & long....
....not only to show our support for our players but also to remind them that we want, no demand, a positive, secure & successful future for the football club we currently share with them.
For the sake of ALL connected to this famous football club , just go Roland.
Yeah the best player on the pitch was probably the substitute goalkeeper, and I know goals change matches, but this was still a very poor performance. Even Gillingham had a midfield that would utilise each other with a lot of confident short passes, a bit of a shimmy here and there thrown in. Once again our midfield, especially first half, were all playing in their individual bubble (assuming Crofts was playing at all), and the sum total was less than the individual parts! Long to Magennis and hope, Lookman for the tricky stuff, Holmes expected to do his runs all afternoon (he didn't manage one) and Crofts and Fred expected to break up play, and shovel it to Lookman or Holmes. predictable, easily counteracted, and by the time we had sussed which bit of midfield Gillingham was using they had moved the ball on. Don't get me wrong, Gillingham weren't world beaters by any stretch, often mis placing passes, or mis controlling the ball, but they were a coherent force with a plan. We were overall poor. Konsa was our best player, calm, skilled, even managed a decent effort on goal, Magennis good though largely unsupported and affected by the early booking. Fox had a torrid time, Solly played the big bloke well, but where was Pearce when they scored? It was impossible to engender any atmosphere in that appalling stand, which would even make Colchester feel like a cauldron. General crap, another missed penalty, and the same all over again except they scored first. We remain 11 points behind target.
Good day out with the Boys as usual spoilt by the 'football'.Blackpool 72 the walk around Gillingham was worth it as the Dog and Bone was a good old fashioned pub - pool table,duke box and cheap beer.First half was as bad as I have seen this season and pretty sad that Brussel has to bow to fan pressure for 442.But at least he made the change .When will he realise that we should be taking the game to our opponents and not the other way around.With the players he has we should be pissing this league and not dependant on a refferee who I thought was spot on with is decisions.Play Ajose from the start FFS?Its still not too late to turn it around but I fear in Brussel we will be mid table at best.
Has anyone told Slade that he is not back at Orient and he needs to shed the defensive underdog mentality. If we had won 3 out of the 8 drawn games and lost the rest then we would have been in a better position - nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.
Gills players who would fit in nicely dahn the Valley ..
Jackson the young Gills right back is a heck of a player .. like a quicker version of Solly from years back, very promising .. SIGN HIM UP Miere .. and midfielder Billy Knott and of course Brad Dack are VERY useful .. also their central defender Max Ehmer, another f b g .. but not quite as b as Bauer ((:>) .. thing is, we are overloaded with central defenders ... Ehmer looks better than most of them, though Konsa had the best game I have seen from him today .. VERY powerful and committed, very good positional sense
I was surprised by the number of Police on duty, from as far afield as Essex (not too far for them) and Thames Valley as well as Kent and a few Met .. are we getting a rep as a trouble club ?
I was wondering this. They were also filming the away end the entire time.
I have a family contact who polices these games and I spotted him on their 'control tower' thing at one point. I'm gonna ask him if these numbers of extra police are normal and if filming the away end is normal.
To be fair to Slade (and I'm not going to say that too often), the 4-5-1 formation created a hatful of chances against Port Vale in the week so you can't blame him for starting with the same tactics today. Also, if played correctly, it really isn't as negative a formation as people make it out to be particularly when you're playing two attacking wingers such as Lookman and Holmes. It just didn't work well today and (sadly), with Jacko playing the attacking midfield role, it will probably fail more than it succeeds.
And, to be fair to Slade again (!), he changed it at half time and we looked much better in the second half.
I'm not going to start defending him on here because he has been a big disappointment so far and, given his long career, I don't imagine he's going to change his ways anytime soon but I do think the stick this week has been over the top. Granted the ill judged post Port Vale interview really didn't help....
As @Fanny Fanackapan succinctly puts it in her fantastic post, it's not a particularly great time to be a Charlton supporter and these "local" away games really are tough going and not just because of the average performance of the team. Luckily the next two for me are Bristol and Bradford so hopefully the half term crew won't have the pocket money to travel that far.....
Thrilling, exhilarating, unpredictable, a real rollercoaster ride. But let's not dwell for too long on my recent trip to Chessington.
Today was a tactical masterclass from Slade. He lured Gillingham into a false sense of security by setting us up to look absolutely hopeless in the first half. This also enabled him to benefit from the away fans' tactical advice on the way off the pitch at half time.
He went for a double whammy during the break, bringing on an extra forward and bunging the ref £50 to sort out a few corners and penalties in our direction and boom - nearly 3,000 Addicks can travel home tonight proud in the knowledge that, when it comes to drawing matches 1-1, we are peerless throughout world football.
Very well done to whoever sorted the plane out. Katrien, you've only got another thirty weeks or so of protests before the end of the season.
First game of the season for me today, and the most depressing thing was seeing how much of a League One side we seem to have become. No indication on today’s performance that we’re ‘too good for this league’.
First half was dire, second half better, Ajose on gave us an extra outlet, and he at least stuck the pen away decisively. Magennis battled well all game, but was very isolated in the first half. Centre midfield was (as seems to have been all season) fairly anonymous - until that improves we won’t trouble the jury for 6th place or above.
Seeing the fly by plane was a highlight, well done CARD (or whoever might have arranged it...)
Atmosphere very flat today for such an awayday turnout, but admittedly not a great deal to cheer about.
Good to catch up with all my pals today (the game just got in the way for a couple of hours), roll on our pub crawl for the Port vale game.
I was surprised by the number of Police on duty, from as far afield as Essex (not too far for them) and Thames Valley as well as Kent and a few Met .. are we getting a rep as a trouble club ?
I was wondering this. They were also filming the away end the entire time.
I have a family contact who polices these games and I spotted him on their 'control tower' thing at one point. I'm gonna ask him if these numbers of extra police are normal and if filming the away end is normal.
I'm sure they'll just say local derby etc.
this is worth a topic all on its own and extends far beyond football .. with the massive contemporary data bases and instant google like retrieval systems, the amount of info held by the authorities is immense .. we ARE being watched, listened to, analysed and spied upon ALL the time .. brings up the ancient conundrum .. 'who guards, watches and controls the watchful guardians ?'
Sorry Russell, but I reckon someone like Billy Davies, Lee Johnson or Kenny Jackett could get that squad tearing up this division.
Some youthful fans there today smashing seats up near us. Wouldn't mind if it was fuelled by genuine anger, but it just looked like showing off in front of friends. Embarrassing really.
I was surprised by the number of Police on duty, from as far afield as Essex (not too far for them) and Thames Valley as well as Kent and a few Met .. are we getting a rep as a trouble club ?
I was wondering this. They were also filming the away end the entire time.
I have a family contact who polices these games and I spotted him on their 'control tower' thing at one point. I'm gonna ask him if these numbers of extra police are normal and if filming the away end is normal.
I'm sure they'll just say local derby etc.
My Mrs' best mate is in Wiltshire police and always polices Swindons home ganes. The last time we was in league one Swindon only had 3 category 1(heaviest police presence) games. Millwall, Bristol City (I think) and us.
Gills had the temerity to watch us before and know that our only danger is Holmes and Lookman. mark them tight and with 2 good full backs Jackson and Konchesky and we have no threat. With Fox playing like he did today they would have opportunities. Slade didn't have a clue how to change it. Lucky lucky Charlton. The best team only drew.
Gills players who would fit in nicely dahn the Valley ..
Jackson the young Gills right back is a heck of a player .. like a quicker version of Solly from years back, very promising .. SIGN HIM UP Miere .. and midfielder Billy Knott and of course Brad Dack are VERY useful .. also their central defender Max Ehmer, another f b g .. but not quite as b as Bauer ((:>) .. thing is, we are overloaded with central defenders ... Ehmer looks better than most of them, though Konsa had the best game I have seen from him today .. VERY powerful and committed, very good positional sense
We had Dack in our academy but gave him the heave ho so my daughter told me. Friend knows him apparently.
enjoyed the CARD Air Force show .. very ingenious .. ((:>)
it took the angry fans chanting '4 4 2' to get soppy Slade to do the right thing for the second half .. we're so disorganised that Holmes took the first pen .. he looked so nervous, I knew he'd miss it .. RUSSEL F F S .. AJOSE WAS SLAMMING THEM IN FOR SWINDON ALL LAST SEASON ....
first half .. cluttered midfield stepping on each others toes .. can't recall a shot on target .. Dack the best player on the field .. outplayed by the Gills who were pretty ordinary themselves .. long ball to no-one, sometimes somewhere near Magennis our main 'tactic'
Second Half .. Ajose for Jackson, transformation .. Ulvested took over in midfield, Ajose and poor old knackered Magennis along with Holmes started to make progress .. they changed their keeper who pulled off a tremendous save from Magennis and saved a pretty poor Holmes pen .. he had NO chance with Ajose's ice cool effort. We just shaded the second period
After our goal, there was an attempted 'pitch invasion' .. seemed pretty 'light hearted' if over enthusiastic to me, old bill and the stewards giving as good as they got, it was a good old scrap and just not violent .. I saw some street fights on the way back to the station, nothing too out of control .. I was surprised by the number of Police on duty, from as far afield as Essex (not too far for them) and Thames Valley as well as Kent and a few Met .. are we getting a rep as a trouble club ?
We deserved a point, no more .. IF IF IF Slade had sent out from the start the team that started the second half we would have won
Last word .. I am staying over in Enfield, easy drive from the East Coast .. London Transport is super and St Pancras & Stratford worth every penny of the untold billions spent on them .. Westfield shopping centre, VERY impressive and packed to the gunnels
Last last word .. If Slade has not learnt from this, SACK HIM Miere and bring in a bright younger thing .. Justin Edinburgh or Graham Alexander (some hopes, pigs might fly)
I was amazed by the number of police there. Town was full of them, quite a lot mounted too. Seemed much more than we get at the valley and they were filming everything. Whatever the pubs were on the high street, they had cameras set up on them.
Another bore draw by the sounds of it but more proof the league is pony but we are a big part of the poniness! Still think with a little bit more effort from players and management alike we could be pushing for the play offs
0% Top two ......... 25 % 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 25% 13th-20th ........ 0% relegation
Comments
I went to get a beer early, and was offered out by one of our own idiotic morons, and missed the first goal. And I was having a pee when we scored. Pretty naff game.
I made plans for another away match on the way home, but jesus - that was a rubbish afternoon. For me this was a decent afternoon to grab a few beers away, meet some new people and so on.. it was certainly not an afternoon to watch football. Special mention to the lifer who got me a ticket and to the chap behind me who listened whilst I moaned!
One match for me, and I already agree we need a new manager. Slade out. Special mention to whoever arranged the plane and banner too.. betcha didn't think that would be the highlight of the day.
Heavy traffic between Rochester & Gillingham - negative
Parking near Priestfield at approx. 2.55pm - negative
Seeing the anti regime banner flying overhead - positive ( Fantastic !)
Missing first 15 mins of match - positive
1st half goal from the Gills - negative
Half time substitution by Brussell - positive ( sorry JJ !)
1st pen missed/ 2nd pen scored - OK , I'm as fed up with this game as I was all afternoon.
A dingy, lower league stadium where the away end feels like the illustrious Den & unfortunately encourages some of those "gracing" it today to behave in a similar manner. Although what struck me most was the total lack of atmosphere generated by our faithful , albeit difficult in an open stand. For me, the support was lacklustre- as though we've already thrown in the towel & sadly the players mirrored this with a few exceptions.
I'm finding it incredibly difficult to describe this afternoon from the perspective of a supporter who follows her team all over the country , through the good and bad times, but always with hope in her heart ....and who enjoys a laugh with fellow fans even though it be gallows humour.
Today, there were no laughs heard around our area....just groans, bellows of frustration & anger and ultimately the slagging off of both players and their gaffer. Everything was so bleak , predictable & so depressing. Everything around us seems to be falling apart. Not even a Roland Out chant to be heard.
This isn't the Charlton we knew & loved. This is the "end of the road" Charlton with merely a faint glimmer of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. This is what our club has been reduced to under Roland's stewardship and today we appeared to be on the verge of capitulation without much of a fight. Desperate times indeed.
Others have described the action, or lack of, on the pitch so I'll just add that Fred, Big Josh, Holmsey & young Ezri stood out for me today as is becoming the norm but as a whole,, this team remains disjointed. I question whether the spirit in the camp is fast diminishing & whether the players are as enamoured of RS as they say. Ajose for one appears to be less than happy with his manager. And there appears to be some confusion as to why the talented Tex , fit enough to play for the under 23s, continues to be ignored at first team level. So many questions with any answers we DO receive appearing to be a tissue of lies.
My apologies for being "all doom & gloom " tonight....I clearly didn't quaff enough wines this afternoon to dull the feelings of despair I'm currently experiencing. Of course I'll be there again next Saturday , wearing my black & white scarf, my enamel Protest badge and holding aloft our banner, hoping for a successful afternoon on the pitch. But I also hope that those of us who KNOW without a shadow of doubt that OUR Charlton will remain out of reach until this toxic regime has left the building, will raise their voices together loud & long....
....not only to show our support for our players but also to remind them that we want, no demand, a positive, secure & successful future for the football club we currently share with them.
For the sake of ALL connected to this famous football club , just go Roland.
Yeah the best player on the pitch was probably the substitute goalkeeper, and I know goals change matches, but this was still a very poor performance.
Even Gillingham had a midfield that would utilise each other with a lot of confident short passes, a bit of a shimmy here and there thrown in. Once again our midfield, especially first half, were all playing in their individual bubble (assuming Crofts was playing at all), and the sum total was less than the individual parts!
Long to Magennis and hope, Lookman for the tricky stuff, Holmes expected to do his runs all afternoon (he didn't manage one) and Crofts and Fred expected to break up play, and shovel it to Lookman or Holmes. predictable, easily counteracted, and by the time we had sussed which bit of midfield Gillingham was using they had moved the ball on.
Don't get me wrong, Gillingham weren't world beaters by any stretch, often mis placing passes, or mis controlling the ball, but they were a coherent force with a plan.
We were overall poor.
Konsa was our best player, calm, skilled, even managed a decent effort on goal, Magennis good though largely unsupported and affected by the early booking. Fox had a torrid time, Solly played the big bloke well, but where was Pearce when they scored?
It was impossible to engender any atmosphere in that appalling stand, which would even make Colchester feel like a cauldron.
General crap, another missed penalty, and the same all over again except they scored first.
We remain 11 points behind target.
Jackson the young Gills right back is a heck of a player .. like a quicker version of Solly from years back, very promising .. SIGN HIM UP Miere .. and midfielder Billy Knott and of course Brad Dack are VERY useful ..
also their central defender Max Ehmer, another f b g .. but not quite as b as Bauer ((:>) .. thing is, we are overloaded with central defenders ... Ehmer looks better than most of them, though Konsa had the best game I have seen from him today .. VERY powerful and committed, very good positional sense
I have a family contact who polices these games and I spotted him on their 'control tower' thing at one point. I'm gonna ask him if these numbers of extra police are normal and if filming the away end is normal.
I'm sure they'll just say local derby etc.
And, to be fair to Slade again (!), he changed it at half time and we looked much better in the second half.
I'm not going to start defending him on here because he has been a big disappointment so far and, given his long career, I don't imagine he's going to change his ways anytime soon but I do think the stick this week has been over the top. Granted the ill judged post Port Vale interview really didn't help....
As @Fanny Fanackapan succinctly puts it in her fantastic post, it's not a particularly great time to be a Charlton supporter and these "local" away games really are tough going and not just because of the average performance of the team. Luckily the next two for me are Bristol and Bradford so hopefully the half term crew won't have the pocket money to travel that far.....
First half was dire, second half better, Ajose on gave us an extra outlet, and he at least stuck the pen away decisively. Magennis battled well all game, but was very isolated in the first half. Centre midfield was (as seems to have been all season) fairly anonymous - until that improves we won’t trouble the jury for 6th place or above.
Seeing the fly by plane was a highlight, well done CARD (or whoever might have arranged it...)
Atmosphere very flat today for such an awayday turnout, but admittedly not a great deal to cheer about.
Good to catch up with all my pals today (the game just got in the way for a couple of hours), roll on our pub crawl for the Port vale game.
We all remember the @cabbles and Katrien Meire email thread fondly.
Let's get his handle right?
Some youthful fans there today smashing seats up near us. Wouldn't mind if it was fuelled by genuine anger, but it just looked like showing off in front of friends. Embarrassing really.
Finally, well played Konsa.
With Fox playing like he did today they would have opportunities.
Slade didn't have a clue how to change it.
Lucky lucky Charlton. The best team only drew.
Not sure at what age he left us.
OB very evident on trains and stations back to SE18 - seemed well excessive.
Still think with a little bit more effort from players and management alike we could be pushing for the play offs
0% Top two ......... 25 % 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 25% 13th-20th ........ 0% relegation