Best away win since Plymouth but unless we put together performances like that on a regular basis using width then today will just be an outlier. We desperately need players to find consistently and NJ to set the team up so the fans believe that we can progress and create chances.
Good to have some respite from the torrent of abuse but Nathan Jones needs to own the bad performances as well as the good.
Let today be the catalyst for big improvement in play and results.
I'm going to say well done to the fans, the journalists and Gavin Carter who I'm presuming finally got the message through to Nathan Jones that hoof ball is not acceptable unless it was successful.
I think most fans thought in this very poor league that Charlton were under performing and the main reasons were down to hoofing the ball, with no forward passing through the midfield and no width to create space.
It appears Nathan Jones has been told he must change the style/tactics and has relented.
Anyway, let's just hope it's the turning of the corner and at the very least we can watch some decent football for the rest of the season.
i very much doubt Gavin Carter has told NJ to change style but certainly having 3 mobile / pacey players provides a threat going forwards that we haven't seen this season - lets hope this is a turning point and we add some more threat in the window.
I hope Jones found his winning formula today. That shape worked well - going five at the back when out of possession, and then into a 4-2-3-1 with the ball. We had plenty of width and even saw some overlaps today! I thought I was going to pass out.
It's not easy to play the lone striker role and Leaburn lead the line well, especially as a young man. TC was also well-suited to playing wide again, especially being left high and wide to start counter attacks. They couldn't handle him at times.
Docherty - finally the player we thought we signed. He was superb. Him and Coventry made a really effective pairing. Berry had some good moments as well.
Jones & Mitchell are a superb pair of CBs - a real foundation to build on. The team should take confidence from knowing they've got those two at the back.
It's hard work watching this team sometimes, so I feel like today was very well earned. Merry Christmas.
Did not see that coming. Impressive result and a couple of nice goals. Mind you we did similar against Walsall and it meant nothing in the scheme of our form/ results over time.
Northampton must be/ were truly awful!
pleased to see us away from the relegation places, didn’t want to have to start panicking about that again like the last couple of years
Missed the first five mins or so, but the rest of it was a delight to watch. Berry, Doc, TC, Miles all had their best game for us this season. Lloyd Jones is a solid defender, Small stepped up his game and Coventry ran the midfield. A great team performance and as I said on the match thread....today were we the best version of ourselves? Yes I believe we were, now long may this continue!!
Defensively we looks night and day when Lloyd Jones is back. Miles better going forward today, hard to tell if a lot of that was due to Northampton comfortably being the worst side we have played all season.
Thought Leaburn had a brilliant game today, getting some pace and width into the team makes such a difference.
Fingers crossed this performance is the catalyst for our season but I’m sceptical we can replicate it often enough.
Nathan Jones was first off the pitch at the end, he’s clearly not happy with the fans digging him out for previous performances. Does he not understand the nature of this game?
Why clearly, are you a relative?
Somebody on here said he didn’t applaud the fans and i know he was first off the pitch. Yeah, he’s my brother.
It's a good day, we need more like this though and more consistency from players such as Docherty and Berry, both were outstanding today, and with Coventry, ran the show. Perhaps this formation suits them, if so then the fans who have called for width within the side have been proved correct, Small and Campbell give us that width and even if there final ball can sometimes be erratic, defences do not like facing their pace. When you consider our recent form then to be in the position we are is an indication of this leagues weakness, that said, win the next three and I might start believing.
I can see a lot of flak coming Jones way from the post match comments, and apparently walking down the tunnel on full time. He feels the criticism is over the top. He did preface this with where the club has been, the fans want to get back there. I just hope as a fanbase that we don't just dump on the comments, and destroy the momentum that today might provide. I hope he has a long term plan, the first one is easy, and he's quoted it quite a few times, that was to make us more difficult to defeat. The Jones injury seemed to stall that objective. The second one was then to make us more effective in the forward positions, scoring goals. Northampton were poor, but today, there was much more fluidity in the passing through midfield, and the width provided by Tyreece and Small. Did this happen because it was sorted out on the training ground, or because of the illness in the squad forced his hand. We will never know, but I guess whether this is a momentum change will be confirmed in the results of the next few games.
Great performance. More evidence that despite the weaknesses in this squad we need to play decent football, something that’s been said on here for the last few months. The players are good enough to do it, and that pure defensive route one style was neither effective nor could the players have been enjoying it.
We won’t regularly score 5 but it’s the type of football we should be playing - a good balance between being positive yet keeping tight defensively, pass and move but with long balls used to mix things up and when it makes sense.
It’ll be interesting to see how it evolves. I thought it looked like 3-5-2 but with Small more attacking than Edwards, which as said above turned it into a 4-2-3-1 shape going forward. So much better to have some patterns and ideas over what seemed to be a plan to score from Gillesphey’s long balls, forcing mistakes and set pieces - hopefully Jones has accepted that isn’t going to work for us.
Mitchell getting an assist sums it up - even probably our least technical outfield player out there can still show intelligence by making a good run and picking out the right pass.
Doc, Leaburn and TC needed those goals, while Hylton scoring against his old club he struggled really rubbed it in. They all deserve praise, as do others, but I’m especially pleased for Leaburn who has had a lot of criticism on here and some questioning his ability. His hold up play was good, and he showed both his finishing ability and quality in picking out a through ball. I see both goals and assists in him but it won’t come without playing the football that gets him on the ball in the right areas with good movement and support around him.
I hope we build on this over the next few games and add the right type of signings to this squad to add some creativity, flair and pace.
We have substandard players which shows how low Northampton is. I still don’t understand Adhame in what he contributes. Anyway, am pleased with the result and it made a change not to worry in the last 10 minutes.
Strangely, we are only 4 points away from play offs and a game in hand…it’s a funny ol game innit!
I don't have a problem with his comments and don't really care about whether he or we are proved right - all that matters is what we do from now on - the way he has recruited and set the team up has been good defensively and poor going forwards - that's a fact, regardless of what he or anybody says - lets just hope we have seen the future today and we can put the last few months firmly behind us.
Comments
https://x.com/CAFCofficial/status/1870532892390309893
We desperately need players to find consistently and NJ to set the team up so the fans believe that we can progress and create chances.
Good to have some respite from the torrent of abuse but Nathan Jones needs to own the bad performances as well as the good.
Let today be the catalyst for big improvement in play and results.
What fcuking chances????????
Was that Lloyd Jones with the commanding header that led to the 2nd goal?
It's not easy to play the lone striker role and Leaburn lead the line well, especially as a young man. TC was also well-suited to playing wide again, especially being left high and wide to start counter attacks. They couldn't handle him at times.
Docherty - finally the player we thought we signed. He was superb. Him and Coventry made a really effective pairing. Berry had some good moments as well.
Jones & Mitchell are a superb pair of CBs - a real foundation to build on. The team should take confidence from knowing they've got those two at the back.
It's hard work watching this team sometimes, so I feel like today was very well earned. Merry Christmas.
pleased to see us away from the relegation places, didn’t want to have to start panicking about that again like the last couple of years
A great team performance and as I said on the match thread....today were we the best version of ourselves? Yes I believe we were, now long may this continue!!
Thought Leaburn had a brilliant game today, getting some pace and width into the team makes such a difference.
Fingers crossed this performance is the catalyst for our season but I’m sceptical we can replicate it often enough.
Northampton were poor, but today, there was much more fluidity in the passing through midfield, and the width provided by Tyreece and Small. Did this happen because it was sorted out on the training ground, or because of the illness in the squad forced his hand. We will never know, but I guess whether this is a momentum change will be confirmed in the results of the next few games.
We won’t regularly score 5 but it’s the type of football we should be playing - a good balance between being positive yet keeping tight defensively, pass and move but with long balls used to mix things up and when it makes sense.
It’ll be interesting to see how it evolves. I thought it looked like 3-5-2 but with Small more attacking than Edwards, which as said above turned it into a 4-2-3-1 shape going forward. So much better to have some patterns and ideas over what seemed to be a plan to score from Gillesphey’s long balls, forcing mistakes and set pieces - hopefully Jones has accepted that isn’t going to work for us.
Mitchell getting an assist sums it up - even probably our least technical outfield player out there can still show intelligence by making a good run and picking out the right pass.
Doc, Leaburn and TC needed those goals, while Hylton scoring against his old club he struggled really rubbed it in. They all deserve praise, as do others, but I’m especially pleased for Leaburn who has had a lot of criticism on here and some questioning his ability. His hold up play was good, and he showed both his finishing ability and quality in picking out a through ball. I see both goals and assists in him but it won’t come without playing the football that gets him on the ball in the right areas with good movement and support around him.
I hope we build on this over the next few games and add the right type of signings to this squad to add some creativity, flair and pace.