Some thousand Addicks travelled the long road north to strugglers Carlisle, a club recently taken over by a family of good ol’ Americans looking to prospect the lower echelons of the English game for footballing riches and, presumably, to bring freedom and democracy to the area.
From the off, Charlton kept their shape and played the ball effectively without managing the breakthrough they deserved. As my mate Moss says, “The thing with Charlton is they always try to walk it in…” We remained solid throughout and limited Carlisle largely to chasing shadows and trying to manage a counter attack.
In the second half, Charlton pushed on to find the opener through Corey Blackett-Taylor, who had just moments earlier lashed one off the crossbar. Unfortunately, ex-Addick Sam Lavelle managed to level things up some moments later after a defensive lapse allowed him to poke it home from a scramble in the box forced by a poorly defended corner. Charlton then had a handful of moments that could have put us back in front, but it wasn’t to be.
I’m still not quite sure why Appleton doesn’t keep Louis Watson in the side over McGrandles. It seems Watson brings more much needed impetus and drive alongside Dobson. We certainly dropped two points, as Carlisle were there for the taking. It’s a shame we can’t keep a clean sheet, as one goal would have been enough. Once they equalised, I would’ve liked to have seen Appleton make changes sooner to effect the game and give the travelling fans something to hold on to, other than absolute FRUSTRATION.
Carlisle 1 Charlton 1
Over to you.
Comments
We are clearly a better side than Carlisle but once again our defence costs us a goal.
Sort it out in January or forget all about the playoffs
On the plus side, McGrandles and Fraser ran the show for over an hour, and our full-backs, often a problem, were fantastic
Leaburn looks so ineffective currently- think he would do better coming off the bench- but the constant desire to play May out wide is baffling considering we end up giving it to CBT all the time!
Everyone bar Dobbo played well. We were excellent in possession. We created chances. It's just about that one little moment of quality.
Also, this was a game made for Chuks. I do think you can overstate it, but a fit Chuks might be the difference between Playoffs and not.
Our bench doesn't look great at the moment. I don't think he solves all of our problems, but I think a Kanu recall might be in order. I don't think he's great up front on his own, but I also think he's useful when you're chasing a goal. Tedic just clearly isn't trusted.
You said it in the match thread, but Alfie May was mostly poor today. And he's usually good for our moment of magic.
Days like this are why even in this significantly weaker league one it feels we are destined to miss out on the fun at the end of the season yet again but I will still hope for the best, on to the next match.
"Inside Area 4-15
xG 0.69-1.21"
On the xG, 1-1 is not unreasonable but on the shots inside the area, 1-1 is an appalling result.
Not the worst... could’ve been seven though so a bit gutting nonetheless.
Focus turns to midweek…
Get back to SE7 where we have the best scoring record in the division. Pick up two wins against Cheltenham and Cambridge and that would put us back on the right track.
At times we looked head and shoulders above Carlisle and we should have won comfortably.
I don't blame Watson for their goal because they got a lucky ricochet but who was marking Levelle ?
Also Leaburn needs to learn how to head a ball. He had a clear cut header to score in the first half and rarely wins the ball in the air against center halfs.
So frustrating because there is no way we deserved anything other than three points.
Almost halfway through the season and I've seen nothing to suggest we can be consistently good enough to put the required run together to catch the top 6 and then stay there.
Defence were excellent
We massively lack aggression and have done for weeks
Sort that defense out!
Many more questions, but the most important one for me, are there any experienced L1 defenders without scrambled egg for brains out there in the next window and are we prepared to invest in a fee or wages?
Otherwise, Not this season.
Not much to bring from the bench. I think I'd have swapped L Watson for Dobbo rather than McGrandles (and am a big Dobson fan).
Frustrating point on the road to move away from play offs. Let's win Tues
1st half: block, block, block, block, block, miss
2nd half: saved, GOAL, miss, saved, saved, miss, saved, saved, saved
1st half: saved, saved
2nd half: GOAL, miss
To give Carlisle credit, they had a game plan for defending which relied on sitting deep and not letting us get behind. The evidence of it working is that string of blocked shots. Crowd the area and don’t let May, Leaburn get easy shots off.
We played some lovely football at times and were so much the better team it is crazy we haven't won. But we just couldn't get the ball past that blooming keeper.
Talking of him, given he seems about 7 foot tall, the one thing I would moan about is the fact we kept banging in high, hanging crosses that he just gobbled up. One of the few times we put a hard, low cross in we scored.
Thought Edun put in the best display I've seen from him so far.
Appleton has got a difficult decision to make with where he plays May. Today playing him on the right just didn't work. He should have moved him into the centre much earlier.
And I just hope those new Carlisle owners have got very deep pockets because they are going to need them from what we saw today.
Definitely two points dropped. We were very much in control for almost the whole game and, apart from scrappy spells towards the end of both halves, played some polished, controlled football. Perhaps the biggest criticism is that we lacked a bit of composure in the final third.
The defence is starting to look much stronger. Lloyd Jones was his usual solid self and I thought both Tennai Watson and Tayo Edun played very well. Hector is an enigma. Classy one moment and then calamitous another.
Alfie had by some way his poorest game since he joined us, especially in the first half when he seemed unable to quite be in the right position to control the ball.
That's the kind of game where you look back at the end of the season and think "if only".
McGrandles justified his place in the team incidentally. While it was on paper an attacking sub to replace Fraser with TC, and move May to No10, it weakened our midfield, and led to a lot of ineffective long ball near the end.
Leaburn isn't playing well at the moment, surely Tedic has to be given more minutes? And baffling why Chem Campbell is so out of favour.
I doubt, unless we win the next 6 games on the trot that our Board will not want to dip into their pocket and give Apples the opportunity to make a real go of it.
On another point I really feel for those brave souls that went today, they deserved better and our Club should recognise what amazing support we have.
Finally, after an off day for Alfie and few others I hope he has his scoring boots on Tuesday as a win is really needed now before the next banana skin at the caravan park.
By the way does anyone think Leaburn wants away in Jan??? He don't look happy....
Appleton still working it out and is now getting closer
Home results under Appleton are a 3-1 win (Wycombe), a 4-1 win (Exeter), 2-2 draw (Blackpool), a 4-0 win (Reading) and a 0-2 defeat (Bolton).