Mentioned this on the match thread, but it’s still annoying me, for some reason. On two occasions our trainer came on to treat an injured player. He had a bottle of water sticking out of his bag , presumably so the injured player could have a drink. On each occasion a Stevenage player pinched the water when the trainer had his back turned, and shared it with other Stevenage players. Not a peep from any of our players, (or perhaps they didn’t notice?) Not a peep from the trainer either.
I’m sure it’s just part of the Stevenage wind up machine, but you’d imagine the Pratleys of this wouldn't be ‘aving it.
Shocking performance first half, much better 2nd half. Ref had a shocker, two stonewall penalties before he eventually gave one, which he still had to think about, the drip. The linesman was also terrible, their number 4 elbowed the ball out of play in front of him. How their 3 got away with smashing Taylor for the corner, the club should be asking for a review of that and officials performance.
Stevenage are a horrible team, no surprise with the seemingly shy pie eater as their manager, where was Steve today in the dugout? Nowhere to be seen? He wasn’t in the dugout for our last match either I recall? I wonder why?
With May back next week, and Chuks on bench, we have a decent strike force to make changes and both Chuks and Tedic made a difference for us, Chuks is a menace on his day and no knackered defender will want to see him coming on in the last 20 minutes.
Watching the highlights I have to agree with the earlier comments that the away end and some of the players got us the penalty. You can see the ref was ready to walk away.
Wasn't at the game but the highlights show a couple of key moments that could have lost Charlton the game. The opening goal has already been discussed as has Dobson's role in the lead up to that goal but take a look at the breakaway that led to Stevenage having a one on one situation. Dobson charges into a situation where Louie Watson is already involved, Watson may or may not win the ball but because of Dobson's rush of blood to the head, the Stevenage player steps through the pair of them. A simple ball laid off, then sets up a one on one, which luckily for us, Stevenage squander. Dobson needs to learn that he is the holding midfielder and the press should be down to the players in front of him, lets hope Appleton corrects that fault in his game and quickly.
In defense of Dobson, he has spent most of the last couple of years trying to do the role of multiple players since he has been surrounded by players who seem to lack his desire and ability.
Hopefully the current squad and the coaching team can step up over the season so he has more trust in them to perform their role so that he can just focus on his own performance rather then trying to fill in for the deficencies of his teammates.
Wasn’t at the game so can’t comment on the performance but looking at the table and other results so far it seems this will be a fairly open season - certainly nothing like last year. If, and I know it’s a big if, Appleton can sort out some of our longstanding issues and Leaburn stays fit, still all to play for IMO
We got away with that yesterday. We didn't create any chances other than a 25-yard shot from Thomas, and an edge of the box pot shot from Watson that was never going in. That was it.
We were really lucky to not be 2-0 down and game over when Jones stepped out of position to allow their man through. He was poor throughout, and see nothing to suggest he's a Top 6 CB. The communication from our defense was poor again and a total capitulation from three players (including Jones) for the first goal underlines our problems at the back.
Honestly did not see much improvement from Holden and had Stevenage's striker finished a simple one on one, it would be more misery.
That was a game to start the senior pros, not the youngsters, and we looked much better with Thomas at LB over Abankwah and with Watson over Anderson. It was foolish to go away to Stevenage with so much inexperience in the team.
A draw is a decent result but not taking much encouragement from the performance. More needed from Apples.
How bad is Isted, didn’t even bother to try for their goal.
Yeah that was very strange.
Haven't seen Isted do anything to indicate why he is starting ahead of AMB.
Think Holden took AMB out because he was either getting desperate or wanted to take AMB out of the firing line. AMB has been away all week and will have traveled fairly heavily so no real chance for MA to watch him train. Wouldn't be surprised to see AMB come back in soon
How bad is Isted, didn’t even bother to try for their goal.
Yeah that was very strange.
Haven't seen Isted do anything to indicate why he is starting ahead of AMB.
Think Holden took AMB out because he was either getting desperate or wanted to take AMB out of the firing line. AMB has been away all week and will have traveled fairly heavily so no real chance for MA to watch him train. Wouldn't be surprised to see AMB come back in soon
Could be a handful changes next week as Apples only made two enforced changes from the Fleetwood win. Having seen that first half performance and on of top the weeks training he’ll have a much better idea of how he wants to set up tactics, player availability and average age wise.
Quote from him in todays paper. "It was a little bit galling to see every time there's a free kick and it's contested there's seven Charlton players running around the referee. I think they get the penalty from that because there's not a chance in the world that's a penalty"
There maybe an element of truth in the second bit but there was only one team demanding free kicks for most of the game and it sure as heck wasn't us!
Didn't see the game so can only say that since Holden left we've picked up 4 points over two games which is promotion form.
We clearly need to play a lot, lot better and for much, much longer to maintain that but it's a start.
We're also getting players back... Feel for Holden, given that he was crying out for a second Striker to support May - In the very short time he's been gone, we've seen Tedic come in whilst Leaburn | Aneke have returned.
Doesn't look like Fraser is far from a return either.
Diabolical game of footie. Shows the level of the league that they were top. They have some decent centre backs and they sliced us up a bit on our left hand side first half but other than that, bang ordinary side and we didn't test them at all first half.
Second half of course better but I didn't really see any sort of footballing style on display, Chuks just did Chuks things and caused them problems. Always impressed by Chuks raw power and physicality. I thought Sweeney, Piergianni & Thompson were schooling young Miles, in particular Thomson, Chuks comes on and all of a sudden they're playing completely different. Got to be worth having a look at Piergianni and Sweeney though as I thought they were class in the Carabao cup last season and thought they were very decent again today.
We will take the point considering the circumstances. Need a big home result now against an in-form Wycombe, 4 wins and 1 draw in their last 5 league outings..
Do you not think that Miles Leaburn needs a player, say Alfie May to play in a two up front ? The irony which shouldn't be lost on Charlton Critic's is Chuks Aneke is about the only player we have who can play as a lone central striker because of his strength but when will we see him again ? Chuks prefers to start on the bench so even if he doesn't have a reaction we will only get limited time out of Aneke.
I will ask again as somebody must know why did we use 6 subs ( another concussion?)and when did May get concussion?
Taylor concussed today, May concussed in training on Tuesday and must have seven days off
Thanks Ross, Oggy, Large and Fortune 👍
If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
An electric motor and a bigger pension pot, please.
An off topic question I've been wondering for a while (and perhaps it should be posted somewhere else)... Is Appleton our first ever manager who's heavily tattooed?😂Whenever I see his pictures on the official site I find his sleeve tattoos disturbing and distracting. I know tattoos are very common in the West especially among footballers but... this really looks a bit scary to me😅
But that said, as long as he gets results for us, it doesn't matter how he looks. It's just one tiny little thing that has come across my mind a few times lately.
Unless a tattoo has something objectionable to say, tattoos are not menacing anymore in the west. No one would bat an eyelid if my grandmother got a tattoo of her favourite doily. The exception might be a facial tattoo may indicate something to some people. However even those can be culturally significant - especially in New Zealand where a lot of people get ‘moko’
In defense of Dobson, he has spent most of the last couple of years trying to do the role of multiple players since he has been surrounded by players who seem to lack his desire and ability.
Hopefully the current squad and the coaching team can step up over the season so he has more trust in them to perform their role so that he can just focus on his own performance rather then trying to fill in for the deficencies of his teammates.
Agree with this, but Dobson doesn’t need defending, he is our best player, best trier, and best leader. If the other players had a bit of Dobson about them we wouldn’t be in this current relegation battle.
Most people would have taken a point at 3pm. Thought once again we looked really good in parts. If MA can get this lot organised at the back we have a decent squad imo
Leaburn is in just his 2nd season of men's football and surprise, Surprise, Miles will have games when the ball doesn't stick or he looks limited. More so if he gets isolated as a central striker in a 3.
Alway believed in tandem partnerships up front and at CB whatever the formation is in the rest of the team.
Leaburn and May can work off each other so obviously if we play a 3 with CBT on the field at the same time then Alfie and Miles will link while the X factor player Corey can be the wide man.
There surely can't be anyone that thinks if/when we play 3-5-2 that CBT is the LWB 🤦🏻♂️ With Edun available why would that happen!
16 man (17 for Cafc yesterday !) game over about 105 minutes so flexibility and fluidity is key which to those of us who started coaching with the youngest age groups where roll on and roll off subs was a requirement, were used to the chaos.
Never has a manager/Head coach and the analysts been so important as the game continues to evolve even if the skill levels don't improve in the mediocre 3rd tier.
🤞Fraser, May and Leaburn can be on the field at the same time soon.
Comments
We clearly need to play a lot, lot better and for much, much longer to maintain that but it's a start.
Hopefully the current squad and the coaching team can step up over the season so he has more trust in them to perform their role so that he can just focus on his own performance rather then trying to fill in for the deficencies of his teammates.
We were really lucky to not be 2-0 down and game over when Jones stepped out of position to allow their man through. He was poor throughout, and see nothing to suggest he's a Top 6 CB. The communication from our defense was poor again and a total capitulation from three players (including Jones) for the first goal underlines our problems at the back.
Honestly did not see much improvement from Holden and had Stevenage's striker finished a simple one on one, it would be more misery.
That was a game to start the senior pros, not the youngsters, and we looked much better with Thomas at LB over Abankwah and with Watson over Anderson. It was foolish to go away to Stevenage with so much inexperience in the team.
A draw is a decent result but not taking much encouragement from the performance. More needed from Apples.
Quote from him in todays paper. "It was a little bit galling to see every time there's a free kick and it's contested there's seven Charlton players running around the referee. I think they get the penalty from that because there's not a chance in the world that's a penalty"
There maybe an element of truth in the second bit but there was only one team demanding free kicks for most of the game and it sure as heck wasn't us!
Doesn't look like Fraser is far from a return either.
If the other players had a bit of Dobson about them we wouldn’t be in this current relegation battle.
Alway believed in tandem partnerships up front and at CB whatever the formation is in the rest of the team.
Leaburn and May can work off each other so obviously if we play a 3 with CBT on the field at the same time then Alfie and Miles will link while the X factor player Corey can be the wide man.
There surely can't be anyone that thinks if/when we play 3-5-2 that CBT is the LWB 🤦🏻♂️
With Edun available why would that happen!
16 man (17 for Cafc yesterday !) game over about 105 minutes so flexibility and fluidity is key which to those of us who started coaching with the youngest age groups where roll on and roll off subs was a requirement, were used to the chaos.
Never has a manager/Head coach and the analysts been so important as the game continues to evolve even if the skill levels don't improve in the mediocre 3rd tier.
🤞Fraser, May and Leaburn can be on the field at the same time soon.