The game has been summed up well by most posters, so some random thoughts;
Perhaps Lapslie didn't shoot because he has no confidence on his left foot. He also saw Reeves in a trademark Reeves goalscoring position (ok, this time it didn't work out).
Grant is definitely a work in progress but is contributing a lot more now. We now have the ability to get in behind defences (something we lacked last season).
I liked the look of Steer and thought his handling in the 2nd half was good. He'll get better with games.
Pearce deserves great credit for handling Akinfenwa and for getting the troops going a bit towards the end of the 1st half. He had a fine game.
We are definitely a more physical team compared with last season and that's a good thing. Good to see Sarr give their fella a decent whack from behind but then stay disciplined thereafter.
Having the three centre backs made us more of a threat in their box. Sarr's goal came from a good delivery and a lot of pressure from our big men.
It will be interesting to see if Bowyer sticks with the 3-5-2 once he gets Ward and Fosu available. I suspect he won't.
I think we've got a good squad....Fosu, Bielik, Cullen, Ward and Vetokele all to come in if needed. With that lot plus Reeves, I think we could see some pretty good football in the coming months.
Another shocker of a referee! Keeper pole-axed Taylor. Should have been a pen. Lucky that Lyle wasn't badly injured. Bit ragged towards the end. Had a gooner mate with me! said he forgot what a proper atmosphere was like at a game!
Another shocker of a referee! Keeper pole-axed Taylor. Should have been a pen. Lucky that Lyle wasn't badly injured. Bit ragged towards the end. Had a gooner mate with me! said he forgot what a proper atmosphere was like at a game!
I didn't think the keeper did anything wrong. Both went for the ball, the collision was inevitable
The atmosphere I thought was pretty patchy. In the first half hour it was like a morgue in the home areas!
Excellent three points while we wait for our full squad to be ready. There was a lot wrong with that performance, not least a poor team selection IMHO. We can’t play 3.5.2 with Solly (who had a good game but is not equipped with the speed or skill to be a wing back), Pratley (of whom the more I see the less I like) and Ajose (who should simply be nowhere near this team). Reeves is not my favourite player but he and young George helped to turn this round with Taylor who recovered from a dire first 30 minutes to deliver as good a centre forward display at this level that I’ve seen since Yann was in his pomp. Special word to Karlan whose brain and feet are not always in tune but caused all sorts of problems. If wycombe had been any good we’d have been 4 down after half an hour but fair play to all those who helped get the collective finger out. Those points will be very valuable come the final tally up.
I’m beginning to picture what our first choice team is when all are available. Without having seen either Cullen or Ward my jury is out but Fosu and Bielik will walk straight back in to yesterday’s line up and Reeves did his claims no harm yesterday although I suspect 90 minutes from him will be a rarity. Young George will continue to get cameos as he should and hopefully it will be adios to Ajose and Pratley and I suspect Aribo will be given some time on the bench. 4-4-2 beckons I suspect.
Another shocker of a referee! Keeper pole-axed Taylor. Should have been a pen. Lucky that Lyle wasn't badly injured. Bit ragged towards the end. Had a gooner mate with me! said he forgot what a proper atmosphere was like at a game!
I didn't think the keeper did anything wrong. Both went for the ball, the collision was inevitable
The atmosphere I thought was pretty patchy. In the first half hour it was like a morgue in the home areas!
Agreed... From where I saw the keeper jumped into the challenge with Taylor and caught the ball, I thought he'd come off worse actually as looked liked he to took a high foot to the chest
If anything it was Taylor's fault for injuring himself by messing around rather than just shooting
Charlton being Charlton never do things the easy way and we were punished for a lethargic start. Eventually we gained some sort of foothold and our equaliser came from almost our first attack of the match. A low cross from Page was deflected into his own net by a Wycombe defender under pressure from Taylor amongst others.
Second half the 10 men of Charlton came out with a lot more intent than the 10 plus Ajose had in the first half eventually Reeves joined the party and probably did more useful work in forty minutes yesterday than the whole of last season.
We moved through the gears and dominated for 20 minutes or so and our second goal was a good team effort set up by a wicked low cross from Grant cutting in from the left. For a welcome change rather than sit back we continued to press and The Nabster scored a welcome goal to silence his detractors including the bloke next to me and LLG.
However normal service was then resumed. Foot off the throat, let them back in, late Wycombe goal, nails bitten down to the elbows for the last few minutes.
We held on though! 3 welcome points and so all was good in the world for a little while.
I was offered a free ticket to the members' pavilion at the Test Match yesterday but as this will probably the only game I will get to this season, I chose The Valley over The Oval, having endured a rather soporific day at the cricket on Friday.
Watching the first half I thought I'd have been better off watching England's bowlers but the second half made my choice a good one.
The two weakest players yesterday (Pratley + Ajose) were both injured and replaced by two energised players (Reeves + Lapslie) who grabbed the game from Wycombe, plus Taylor who will outscore Josh over a season by at least 10 goals IF he stays fit !
Yesterday Bowyer was a Lucky Manager; Long may it last.
Just watched the goals on Quest. Scrappy, but great deliveries from page for the OG, Grant/Bauer for the 2nd and Reeves for the 3rd. Excellent result. Thought their manager came across really well. Seems like a decent bloke.
Another shocker of a referee! Keeper pole-axed Taylor. Should have been a pen. Lucky that Lyle wasn't badly injured. Bit ragged towards the end. Had a gooner mate with me! said he forgot what a proper atmosphere was like at a game!
I didn't think the keeper did anything wrong. Both went for the ball, the collision was inevitable
The atmosphere I thought was pretty patchy. In the first half hour it was like a morgue in the home areas!
Agreed... From where I saw the keeper jumped into the challenge with Taylor and caught the ball, I thought he'd come off worse actually as looked liked he to took a high foot to the chest
If anything it was Taylor's fault for injuring himself by messing around rather than just shooting
Yes, it looked fair enough to me. But of course, we have to do our bit and stand up screaming for a penalty! Taylor should have shot first chance he got rather than try to take it in closer, but that's easy for me to say.
As for brutal collisions, I think Akinfenwa should have been pulled up by the ref on numerous occasions. Yes, he is going to win most of the 50/50 shoulder to shoulder challenges because he is a gigantic two ton blob of a footballer but he was just blatantly pushing our centre halves about as the game went on and he was becoming more and more knackered and less and less effective.
The ref was generally not that good, but not outright awful and unable to control of the game like some of them have been. Booking Steer for time wasting was an absolute joke though.
Having the three centre backs made us more of a threat in their box. Sarr's goal came from a good delivery and a lot of pressure from our big men.
It will be interesting to see if Bowyer sticks with the 3-5-2 once he gets Ward and Fosu available. I suspect he won't.
I believe Bielik is the biggest key to the 4-4-2 diamond formation at the moment.
Wycombes first goal would have been prevented with Bielik or anyone playing in front of the centre backs. Theres to much space between Aribo and Pratley, and Sarr is not able to come up from the back line to close down their goal scorer.
There are pros and cons, but the set plays will probably be executed the same way regardless formation.
LB seem to chose formation for the players he has got available, and not bother too much how the opposition are playing. Thats good to see. Let the others adapt to us. We seem confortable in both 3-5-2 and 4-4-2. Biggest worry really is how much we are depending on Page and Solly at the moment.
There's a lot of confusion as to whether the second goal was assisted by Reeves (what I thought I saw, sitting 10 yards away) or Bauer (what the official Twitter feed thought) - what's the consensus?
Reeves, comes off the defender, Sarr, then Sarr puts it in. The game's too easy for our Naby. Start him in goal next weekend to give him a challenge.
This season's Sarr is shaping up to be Ben Reeves. He came on and provided absolute quality that we don't have elsewhere in the squad right now. And he works hard, does his doggies, always wants the ball, and takes up good positions. I hope he gets a run in the team playing with two mobile forwards in front of him. He will unlock defenses.
Glad I went. I thought it would be a good game as Wycombe are a footballing side rather than the sort of negative lot we regularly seem to host. Agree with a lot of the other comments above - we were not at the races in the first half and I felt the one on one contests were being won by the boys in blue and blue. Ref was inconsistent as usual - felt their no 24 was getting away with a lot of niggles while doing anything back seemed to result in a free kick. He was a handful all the time he was on and I suspect was taken off after Pratley's lunge. Wouldn't have surprised me if he'd seen red for that. All our goals were flukey and I missed the 2nd as I was too slow getting to my feet. Doh! Subs definitely made it for us - thought Reeves was really good today, Lapslie's energy seemed to radiate and Taylor was getting so much stick I'm surprised he kept going as long as he did. Wycombe look to me a bit like us last season - some good football in parts but not got enough about them to keep it going all game. Thought their support was really good for quite a small club, vocal and kept going. Hope they do well except against us.
Glad I went. I thought it would be a good game as Wycombe are a footballing side rather than the sort of negative lot we regularly seem to host. Agree with a lot of the other comments above - we were not at the races in the first half and I felt the one on one contests were being won by the boys in blue and blue. Ref was inconsistent as usual - felt their no 24 was getting away with a lot of niggles while doing anything back seemed to result in a free kick. He was a handful all the time he was on and I suspect was taken off after Pratley's lunge. Wouldn't have surprised me if he'd seen red for that. All our goals were flukey and I missed the 2nd as I was too slow getting to my feet. Doh! Subs definitely made it for us - thought Reeves was really good today, Lapslie's energy seemed to radiate and Taylor was getting so much stick I'm surprised he kept going as long as he did. Wycombe look to me a bit like us last season - some good football in parts but not got enough about them to keep it going all game. Thought their support was really good for quite a small club, vocal and kept going. Hope they do well except against us.
To be fair to Pratley, his horror challenge this week wasn't as bad as his horror challenge last week.
Despite the claim of an injury, the unexpected absence of Ajose remains a mystery. Interesting that the very last kick of the first half was his wildly overhit corner, sailing straight out of play in the manner of the great Danny Green.
I enjoyed the whole game immensely. I don’t mind at all when we fall behind early on; a goal conceded stirs the crowd and rattles our players. From my vantage in the Covered End, it’s a pleasure to admire the opponents’ fluent attacking moves at close quarters. Randell Williams was left unmarked from a throw-in; his carefully placed, curving shot was an object lesson. Pearce and Bauer were mostly assured, and Sarr headed clearances astutely away from danger. But Solly had a shocker: misplaced passes all afternoon.
The second half fizzed with popular third-division entertainment: quick punts from Steer for Taylor to chase (ref was right not to give a pen), improvised busking, desperate attacks, meaningless passes that put team-mates in trouble. And a folk-hero fat guy whose gridiron shoulder charges flirted with foul play. Pratley still hasn’t impressed, and was lucky not to be red-carded for taking out the excellent Williams; Lapslie charges around like a blond bull in a china shop.
A rare glimpse of finesse: Reeves flashed his twinkle toes – he has done it before – wriggling away from two defenders to whip an inviting low cross. All great fun. Bradford, Plymouth, Luton, Scunny: Bowyer’s scrappers are mounting a charge.
Comments
Perhaps Lapslie didn't shoot because he has no confidence on his left foot. He also saw Reeves in a trademark Reeves goalscoring position (ok, this time it didn't work out).
Grant is definitely a work in progress but is contributing a lot more now. We now have the ability to get in behind defences (something we lacked last season).
I liked the look of Steer and thought his handling in the 2nd half was good. He'll get better with games.
Pearce deserves great credit for handling Akinfenwa and for getting the troops going a bit towards the end of the 1st half. He had a fine game.
We are definitely a more physical team compared with last season and that's a good thing. Good to see Sarr give their fella a decent whack from behind but then stay disciplined thereafter.
Having the three centre backs made us more of a threat in their box. Sarr's goal came from a good delivery and a lot of pressure from our big men.
It will be interesting to see if Bowyer sticks with the 3-5-2 once he gets Ward and Fosu available. I suspect he won't.
I think we've got a good squad....Fosu, Bielik, Cullen, Ward and Vetokele all to come in if needed. With that lot plus Reeves, I think we could see some pretty good football in the coming months.
Bit ragged towards the end. Had a gooner mate with me! said he forgot what a proper atmosphere was like at a game!
The atmosphere I thought was pretty patchy. In the first half hour it was like a morgue in the home areas!
I’m beginning to picture what our first choice team is when all are available. Without having seen either Cullen or Ward my jury is out but Fosu and Bielik will walk straight back in to yesterday’s line up and Reeves did his claims no harm yesterday although I suspect 90 minutes from him will be a rarity. Young George will continue to get cameos as he should and hopefully it will be adios to Ajose and Pratley and I suspect Aribo will be given some time on the bench. 4-4-2 beckons I suspect.
If anything it was Taylor's fault for injuring himself by messing around rather than just shooting
We won
It was enjoyable for me as @Len\'s_little_girl was in attendance.
Charlton being Charlton never do things the easy way and we were punished for a lethargic start. Eventually we gained some sort of foothold and our equaliser came from almost our first attack of the match. A low cross from Page was deflected into his own net by a Wycombe defender under pressure from Taylor amongst others.
Second half the 10 men of Charlton came out with a lot more intent than the 10 plus Ajose had in the first half eventually Reeves joined the party and probably did more useful work in forty minutes yesterday than the whole of last season.
We moved through the gears and dominated for 20 minutes or so and our second goal was a good team effort set up by a wicked low cross from Grant cutting in from the left. For a welcome change rather than sit back we continued to press and The Nabster scored a welcome goal to silence his detractors including the bloke next to me and LLG.
However normal service was then resumed. Foot off the throat, let them back in, late Wycombe goal, nails bitten down to the elbows for the last few minutes.
We held on though! 3 welcome points and so all was good in the world for a little while.
COYR
Watching the first half I thought I'd have been better off watching England's bowlers but the second half made my choice a good one.
Yesterday Bowyer was a Lucky Manager;
Long may it last.
As for brutal collisions, I think Akinfenwa should have been pulled up by the ref on numerous occasions. Yes, he is going to win most of the 50/50 shoulder to shoulder challenges because he is a gigantic two ton blob of a footballer but he was just blatantly pushing our centre halves about as the game went on and he was becoming more and more knackered and less and less effective.
The ref was generally not that good, but not outright awful and unable to control of the game like some of them have been. Booking Steer for time wasting was an absolute joke though.
Wycombes first goal would have been prevented with Bielik or anyone playing in front of the centre backs. Theres to much space between Aribo and Pratley, and Sarr is not able to come up from the back line to close down their goal scorer.
There are pros and cons, but the set plays will probably be executed the same way regardless formation.
LB seem to chose formation for the players he has got available, and not bother too much how the opposition are playing. Thats good to see. Let the others adapt to us. We seem confortable in both 3-5-2 and 4-4-2. Biggest worry really is how much we are depending on Page and Solly at the moment.
This season's Sarr is shaping up to be Ben Reeves. He came on and provided absolute quality that we don't have elsewhere in the squad right now. And he works hard, does his doggies, always wants the ball, and takes up good positions. I hope he gets a run in the team playing with two mobile forwards in front of him. He will unlock defenses.
All our goals were flukey and I missed the 2nd as I was too slow getting to my feet. Doh! Subs definitely made it for us - thought Reeves was really good today, Lapslie's energy seemed to radiate and Taylor was getting so much stick I'm surprised he kept going as long as he did.
Wycombe look to me a bit like us last season - some good football in parts but not got enough about them to keep it going all game. Thought their support was really good for quite a small club, vocal and kept going. Hope they do well except against us.
I enjoyed the whole game immensely. I don’t mind at all when we fall behind early on; a goal conceded stirs the crowd and rattles our players. From my vantage in the Covered End, it’s a pleasure to admire the opponents’ fluent attacking moves at close quarters. Randell Williams was left unmarked from a throw-in; his carefully placed, curving shot was an object lesson. Pearce and Bauer were mostly assured, and Sarr headed clearances astutely away from danger. But Solly had a shocker: misplaced passes all afternoon.
The second half fizzed with popular third-division entertainment: quick punts from Steer for Taylor to chase (ref was right not to give a pen), improvised busking, desperate attacks, meaningless passes that put team-mates in trouble. And a folk-hero fat guy whose gridiron shoulder charges flirted with foul play. Pratley still hasn’t impressed, and was lucky not to be red-carded for taking out the excellent Williams; Lapslie charges around like a blond bull in a china shop.
A rare glimpse of finesse: Reeves flashed his twinkle toes – he has done it before – wriggling away from two defenders to whip an inviting low cross. All great fun. Bradford, Plymouth, Luton, Scunny: Bowyer’s scrappers are mounting a charge.