5th-6th is wide open for around 7-10 teams potentially. We are one of them.
I don't think we will get it, I have a feeling we will end up 8th or 9th. I might sound delusional as well, as I'm usually quite negative about how I rate us as a footballing team, but if we did land in the play offs, we'd have a genuine chance. Despite what I think of us attacking wise, we are pretty sound defensively, and it's rare proper football is played in play-offs, it's usually scrappy as anything.
I think if we get 6- 9 points from the next 3, and then make some improvements in January, we can start thinking about play-offs, the league is genuinely just too shit to completely dismiss it at this stage and the look of that table.
5th-6th is wide open for around 7-10 teams potentially. We are one of them.
I don't think we will get it, I have a feeling we will end up 8th or 9th. I might sound delusional as well, as I'm usually quite negative about how I rate us as a footballing team, but if we did land in the play offs, we'd have a genuine chance. Despite what I think of us attacking wise, we are pretty sound defensively, and it's rare proper football is played in play-offs, it's usually scrappy as anything.
I think if we get 6- 9 points from the next 3, and then make some improvements in January, we can start thinking about play-offs, the league is genuinely just too shit to completely dismiss it at this stage and the look of that table.
A win is a win and there are signs of improvement but i'm not getting carried away purely because we've beaten two sides who will do well to avoid relegation this season. Wycombe is going to be a proper test of how much we have actually improved and generally we do tend to fare quite well against the top sides.
Personally if we can get a point from that and then beat Crawley and Reading next week to make it 13 points from 15 (and 15 from 21) then i would be delighted with that and i don't think we'd be more than 1-2 points off the play off spots.
After all is said and done this is League One, quality is not a word that is easily associated with it.
FWIW I thought we made less unforced errors than of late, there was an attempt to play the ball rather than hoof it and commitment to the cause was high. We deserved the win.
Happy with the 3 points, not happy with the performance. That's how I see it.
The positives:
- We won (and could have scored 3 or 4) - Miles and TC have scored in back to back games - No injuries
The negatives:
- they're a pants team, so we should have been out of sight - we conceded the lions share of possession, and looked less comfortable on the ball than them - We held on a bit towards the end
Make no mistake, they're a diabolical side. There's a reason they've been in a relegation scrap the last couple of seasons. They seriously lack quality and are on a tight budget from what I've heard. I expect us to beat sides who we have a lot more of a budget than at home.
2 wins out of the mini 5 so far, if we get 7 or 9 points from the next 3, then Jones can give some back a bit. Until then, we still haven't done much and will have just stayed put around mid-table.
It's not as extreme as some people make out. We all watched a game of football, we can all make our own judgment. If you think that was a good performance and a well earned 3 points, fine, if you think the opposite, that's also fine. None of it makes a difference in the grand scheme. It's just a discussion. You'd be very sadistic to support a club as pants as ours for years just to try and be 'right' on a football forum.
Looking forward to the real test against Wycombe on Sunday, win that and we can start looking up rather than down imo, as they're actually a good side, unlike the last few bunch of teams we have played.
Merry Christmas
I think the term you’re looking for is “masochistic“.
Coming away from the Northampton win I felt more optimistic than I did after yesterday , we could play better than that and lose against Wycombe . I like the front footed players who try and gamble as we attack rather than crab it around but understand there needs to be a balance, so I’m rare in the fact I’m keen on Berry as well as TC . Felt the atmosphere from the home ends was a culmination of over doing it on Christmas Day and a feeling of apathy and boredom towards it all , Cambridge with pathetic numbers and losing for the whole match had a decent go at creating an atmosphere . crowd looked sparse to me , 14,369 felt more like 2/3 of that . CM had a camera stuck to him in the directors box , least I think it was him, don’t know what that was about . Saw headphones Norm getting mic’d up round the back of the West Stand . saw and chatted with 3 other Charlton legends AFKA , Fanny and Steve Dixon . We need to do better for these good people . had 19 of our family there today before heading back to sister/mum’s for a million sarnies , crisps and chocolate , games and arguments about the games . Good family fun had by all . Merry Christmas ya filthy animals .
Heard Rodwell has been demoted with Gavin Carters promotion within .
5th-6th is wide open for around 7-10 teams potentially. We are one of them.
I don't think we will get it, I have a feeling we will end up 8th or 9th. I might sound delusional as well, as I'm usually quite negative about how I rate us as a footballing team, but if we did land in the play offs, we'd have a genuine chance. Despite what I think of us attacking wise, we are pretty sound defensively, and it's rare proper football is played in play-offs, it's usually scrappy as anything.
I think if we get 6- 9 points from the next 3, and then make some improvements in January, we can start thinking about play-offs, the league is genuinely just too shit to completely dismiss it at this stage and the look of that table.
I reckon we'll finish around 8th - 10th as well
The Play-Offs have always been seen as the minimum target, but given that we've been going backwards in the last couple of seasons, I've equally felt that it would take a couple of windows before we can really compete for the top six - So whilst 8th would be disappointing in the sense that we dont achieve the goal that we're after, I'd see it as a genuine sign that we're a work in progress, especially as we finished 16th last season.
Back to back wins always good. Both Cambridge and Northampton will go down (IMO) which makes the Crawley defeat even more frustrating.
Can’t argue with the desire and putting in a shift. The lack of quality for a side trying to get in amongst the top 6 is there to see. We look so much better defensively with Jones back.
Took my wife for the first time this season and she was surprised by how often we bypass the midfield and hit it high to the front two…I said you get used to it.
Reading the comments back this morning it seems increasingly everything seems to be black / white, sh*t / great, when the reality is normally somewhere in the middle. We neither buried them nor were we comfortable.
Delighted to win yesterday, in recent years a rare feeling for us over the Xmas period and it help keeps our season alive, But it wasn’t particularly convincing. I sighed afterwards when I saw the league table and that Cambridge had won just 4 games all season as I thought they moved the ball really well against us. Had that great move that hit the post gone in I’m fairly sure what team would go on and win that.
Weve definitely improved from a month ago. Miles means we get the ball held up better than Ahadme or two smaller ones do, Jones is quite dominant at the back and Doherty has def improved on his early form. But it’s nothing spectacular, and I asked after a couple of neutrals who see us a few times a season who impresses them from our team and the honest answer is no one stands out.
I said before Northampton we’d win that one and go on a little run. We’ve ground to make up but anything is possible at this level, there’s half a season left and more momentum can carry you a fair way as the season progresses. We have to bring a creative player in January who hits the ground running.
I'd like to see a signing in January that could elevate us. I think we are not far off but we are not quite where we need to be. We look to be a side that ought to do better away to me but results don't show that.
I wasn’t able to watch today so can’t comment on the match and am grateful for this post match thread. Having said that and recognising that a wins a win and three points is always welcome I really don’t understand the rose tinted view that’s creeping back here. We’ve been god damned awful all season and in reality for some years now and frankly after supporting Charlton since 1961 my ambitions and hopes are way way above scraping a 2 - 1 home win against Cambridge United and getting all gooey eyed over the hope that something is changing. It’s not and won’t until we see an alignment of the investors, the SMT and the first team manager all working in harmony. Strikes me we don’t have any of that. I’m hopeful that the owners have ambition but I’ve seen nothing in the other two key elements to give me hope we’re moving forward.
Without getting gooey eyed though wearing rose tinted glasses, two wins from the last two games is better than the alternative and, yes, represents a change from preceding weeks. What I find hard to understand is why some feel the need to snuff out any hint of optimism expressed by others.
Fair enough but it’s not about “snuffing out a hint of optimism in others” it’s all about facing up to a reality. Before the Northampton game the mood and expectations on this forum were about as low as we’ve seen. Whoop de do, we’ve had two games and two wins where the football was acceptable and not the complete tripe previously served up. An improvement ? Certainly but that doesn’t detract from the fact that CAFC are at our very best mediocre and I’d say that goes for the whole football club not just the first eleven. Once we fall into getting optimistic about a 2 - 1 home win against the second worse defence in the league, incidentally the worst being Northampton then we’re starting to accept that mediocrity and Methvens job is done. Think on this. We’re approaching our next game thinking it’s going to be mightily tough and any kind of result will be a good one. This is against and I don’t mean this in a disparaging way against Wycombe Wanderers. Just my opinion but for me Jones has proved his preferred style of football is totally unacceptable. He’s been forced (by the owners, fans ?) to try something else. It’s how we should have been playing from the start. His arrogance and stubbornness have virtually killed off our season. I don’t believe Jones has a good working relationship with Scott. In fact I think there is a lot of friction. We won’t achieve much without every part of the club pulling together. I don’t see we’re close to that.
A great start to the game with a two goal lead inside 20 minutes, aided and abetted by two goalkeeping errors. The goalie, Reyes, is on loan from Norwich and they have apparently indicated that they want him back in January. On the basis of his performance today, I don’t think Cambridge will be troubled about that, notwithstanding one good save in the second half.
The game quietened down after the early goals but Campbell and Leaburn continued to trouble the opposition and Cambridge were unable to lay a glove on us offensively in the first half. So far, so good and the hope was that we’d come in the second half, score again and really put the game to bed.
The half-time introduction of a couple of substitutes, particularly Liam Bennett at right wing back, energised Cambridge and they came out very much on the front foot. Following some weak play from Gillesphey and (I think) Docherty, Cambridge pulled one back and proceeded to put us under significant pressure for the next 15 minutes or so, hitting the post and putting a few dangerous balls into our box.
Thereafter, although I think they continued to have the better of things in midfield, we created a few openings of our own and contained them reasonably comfortably at the other end. I was surprised that Nathan Jones didn’t introduce some fresh legs earlier, as Anderson’s energy would have been useful in closing the game out.
It was hardly a thing of beauty but we chiselled out the three points and got the job done. The 6 points from the last two games have steered us well away from the lower reaches of the table and moved us into the top half.
There were a lot of very ordinary performances across the team, although Lloyd Jones had another fine game and I thought there were also good performances from Campbell, Leaburn and Small.
A much tougher test awaits us on Sunday - hopefully we’ll raise our game and meet the challenge.
Coming away from the Northampton win I felt more optimistic than I did after yesterday , we could play better than that and lose against Wycombe . I like the front footed players who try and gamble as we attack rather than crab it around but understand there needs to be a balance, so I’m rare in the fact I’m keen on Berry as well as TC . Felt the atmosphere from the home ends was a culmination of over doing it on Christmas Day and a feeling of apathy and boredom towards it all , Cambridge with pathetic numbers and losing for the whole match had a decent go at creating an atmosphere . crowd looked sparse to me , 14,369 felt more like 2/3 of that . CM had a camera stuck to him in the directors box , least I think it was him, don’t know what that was about . Saw headphones Norm getting mic’d up round the back of the West Stand . saw and chatted with 3 other Charlton legends AFKA , Fanny and Steve Dixon . We need to do better for these good people . had 19 of our family there today before heading back to sister/mum’s for a million sarnies , crisps and chocolate , games and arguments about the games . Good family fun had by all . Merry Christmas ya filthy animals .
Heard Rodwell has been demoted with Gavin Carters promotion within .
On the stream, and while the game was going on, the camera decided to zoom in on CM and linger there. After a few seconds we saw him talking to the guy next to him, I think it was Carter; CM was doing all the talking, Carter looked like he wasnt much impressed. The commentators had nothing to say about this random cut to the directors’ box. Weird. I didn’t like it, not least as it was in the second half when we were losing our grip on the game.
Watching the highlights programmes on the television yesterday it felt to me that there were more empty spaces to be seen in stadiums across the land. Maybe that was because people have sky television. Or because fixtures yesterday were awkward for those who have arrangements over this holiday period. I know for certain that seven season ticket holders around me weren’t there, but I do know they will be counted in the numbers posted in the attendance. It wasn’t a runaway one yesterday, but getting a win is excellent. If we can only drop eleven points from all our remaining matches I am pretty sure we will get automatic promotion.
Although we didn't play particularly well yesterday there is definitely an upward trend in our attempts to actually play a passing game rather than always hoofing it upfield. That trend is welcome.
So is the increasing early attacking threat. A few weeks ago I was despairing at how our only ambition seemed to be to keep it tight for 60 minutes and then hope we had some luck in the final stages to sneak a winner. There is much more attacking intent now, and I'd much rather get an early goal or two and then try to build on that
The timing of goals makes a big difference to perception. If we'd have gone 1-0 down and then put on a dominant display to win 2-1 I suspect the mood on here would have been more positive. The fact that we went two up in 20 minutes and then faded was more deflating.
Cambridge played some good football in the second half. Jordan Cousins was instrumental in that, always in the right place and his passing is excellent. I also like the pacy blond haired right back that came on. He's a decent player.
Happy enough with the win. Lloyd Jones superb again - just hope the powers that be are making serious attempts to get him to sign a new contract.
I wasn’t able to watch today so can’t comment on the match and am grateful for this post match thread. Having said that and recognising that a wins a win and three points is always welcome I really don’t understand the rose tinted view that’s creeping back here. We’ve been god damned awful all season and in reality for some years now and frankly after supporting Charlton since 1961 my ambitions and hopes are way way above scraping a 2 - 1 home win against Cambridge United and getting all gooey eyed over the hope that something is changing. It’s not and won’t until we see an alignment of the investors, the SMT and the first team manager all working in harmony. Strikes me we don’t have any of that. I’m hopeful that the owners have ambition but I’ve seen nothing in the other two key elements to give me hope we’re moving forward.
Without getting gooey eyed though wearing rose tinted glasses, two wins from the last two games is better than the alternative and, yes, represents a change from preceding weeks. What I find hard to understand is why some feel the need to snuff out any hint of optimism expressed by others.
Fair enough but it’s not about “snuffing out a hint of optimism in others” it’s all about facing up to a reality. Before the Northampton game the mood and expectations on this forum were about as low as we’ve seen. Whoop de do, we’ve had two games and two wins where the football was acceptable and not the complete tripe previously served up. An improvement ? Certainly but that doesn’t detract from the fact that CAFC are at our very best mediocre and I’d say that goes for the whole football club not just the first eleven. Once we fall into getting optimistic about a 2 - 1 home win against the second worse defence in the league, incidentally the worst being Northampton then we’re starting to accept that mediocrity and Methvens job is done. Think on this. We’re approaching our next game thinking it’s going to be mightily tough and any kind of result will be a good one. This is against and I don’t mean this in a disparaging way against Wycombe Wanderers. Just my opinion but for me Jones has proved his preferred style of football is totally unacceptable. He’s been forced (by the owners, fans ?) to try something else. It’s how we should have been playing from the start. His arrogance and stubbornness have virtually killed off our season. I don’t believe Jones has a good working relationship with Scott. In fact I think there is a lot of friction. We won’t achieve much without every part of the club pulling together. I don’t see we’re close to that.
We scored in the first 30 seconds yesterday. Scored 7 goals in 2. 1 conceded in 4 games. People complained last year that we conceded too many - now we have one of the best defenses in the league. People complained that we didn't score in the first half - complained we don't score enough - then when we do they find something else to complain about.
Wycombe are top of the league and in fantastic form, so yes, playing the top team in the league is always going to be tough?
Honestly the relentless negativity on here is something else.
I wasn’t able to watch today so can’t comment on the match and am grateful for this post match thread. Having said that and recognising that a wins a win and three points is always welcome I really don’t understand the rose tinted view that’s creeping back here. We’ve been god damned awful all season and in reality for some years now and frankly after supporting Charlton since 1961 my ambitions and hopes are way way above scraping a 2 - 1 home win against Cambridge United and getting all gooey eyed over the hope that something is changing. It’s not and won’t until we see an alignment of the investors, the SMT and the first team manager all working in harmony. Strikes me we don’t have any of that. I’m hopeful that the owners have ambition but I’ve seen nothing in the other two key elements to give me hope we’re moving forward.
Without getting gooey eyed though wearing rose tinted glasses, two wins from the last two games is better than the alternative and, yes, represents a change from preceding weeks. What I find hard to understand is why some feel the need to snuff out any hint of optimism expressed by others.
Fair enough but it’s not about “snuffing out a hint of optimism in others” it’s all about facing up to a reality. Before the Northampton game the mood and expectations on this forum were about as low as we’ve seen. Whoop de do, we’ve had two games and two wins where the football was acceptable and not the complete tripe previously served up. An improvement ? Certainly but that doesn’t detract from the fact that CAFC are at our very best mediocre and I’d say that goes for the whole football club not just the first eleven. Once we fall into getting optimistic about a 2 - 1 home win against the second worse defence in the league, incidentally the worst being Northampton then we’re starting to accept that mediocrity and Methvens job is done. Think on this. We’re approaching our next game thinking it’s going to be mightily tough and any kind of result will be a good one. This is against and I don’t mean this in a disparaging way against Wycombe Wanderers. Just my opinion but for me Jones has proved his preferred style of football is totally unacceptable. He’s been forced (by the owners, fans ?) to try something else. It’s how we should have been playing from the start. His arrogance and stubbornness have virtually killed off our season. I don’t believe Jones has a good working relationship with Scott. In fact I think there is a lot of friction. We won’t achieve much without every part of the club pulling together. I don’t see we’re close to that.
We scored in the first 30 seconds yesterday. Scored 7 goals in 2. 1 conceded in 4 games. People complained last year that we conceded too many - now we have one of the best defenses in the league. People complained that we didn't score in the first half - complained we don't score enough - then when we do they find something else to complain about.
Wycombe are top of the league and in fantastic form, so yes, playing the top team in the league is always going to be tough?
Honestly the relentless negativity on here is something else.
Coming away from the Northampton win I felt more optimistic than I did after yesterday , we could play better than that and lose against Wycombe . I like the front footed players who try and gamble as we attack rather than crab it around but understand there needs to be a balance, so I’m rare in the fact I’m keen on Berry as well as TC . Felt the atmosphere from the home ends was a culmination of over doing it on Christmas Day and a feeling of apathy and boredom towards it all , Cambridge with pathetic numbers and losing for the whole match had a decent go at creating an atmosphere . crowd looked sparse to me , 14,369 felt more like 2/3 of that . CM had a camera stuck to him in the directors box , least I think it was him, don’t know what that was about . Saw headphones Norm getting mic’d up round the back of the West Stand . saw and chatted with 3 other Charlton legends AFKA , Fanny and Steve Dixon . We need to do better for these good people . had 19 of our family there today before heading back to sister/mum’s for a million sarnies , crisps and chocolate , games and arguments about the games . Good family fun had by all . Merry Christmas ya filthy animals .
Heard Rodwell has been demoted with Gavin Carters promotion within .
On the stream, and while the game was going on, the camera decided to zoom in on CM and linger there. After a few seconds we saw him talking to the guy next to him, I think it was Carter; CM was doing all the talking, Carter looked like he wasnt much impressed. The commentators had nothing to say about this random cut to the directors’ box. Weird. I didn’t like it, not least as it was in the second half when we were losing our grip on the game.
Have to remember that the CTV (assuming that’s where you were watching) stream will have been using the Sky feed yesterday and Sky love a random cut to the directors box
I wasn’t able to watch today so can’t comment on the match and am grateful for this post match thread. Having said that and recognising that a wins a win and three points is always welcome I really don’t understand the rose tinted view that’s creeping back here. We’ve been god damned awful all season and in reality for some years now and frankly after supporting Charlton since 1961 my ambitions and hopes are way way above scraping a 2 - 1 home win against Cambridge United and getting all gooey eyed over the hope that something is changing. It’s not and won’t until we see an alignment of the investors, the SMT and the first team manager all working in harmony. Strikes me we don’t have any of that. I’m hopeful that the owners have ambition but I’ve seen nothing in the other two key elements to give me hope we’re moving forward.
Without getting gooey eyed though wearing rose tinted glasses, two wins from the last two games is better than the alternative and, yes, represents a change from preceding weeks. What I find hard to understand is why some feel the need to snuff out any hint of optimism expressed by others.
Fair enough but it’s not about “snuffing out a hint of optimism in others” it’s all about facing up to a reality. Before the Northampton game the mood and expectations on this forum were about as low as we’ve seen. Whoop de do, we’ve had two games and two wins where the football was acceptable and not the complete tripe previously served up. An improvement ? Certainly but that doesn’t detract from the fact that CAFC are at our very best mediocre and I’d say that goes for the whole football club not just the first eleven. Once we fall into getting optimistic about a 2 - 1 home win against the second worse defence in the league, incidentally the worst being Northampton then we’re starting to accept that mediocrity and Methvens job is done. Think on this. We’re approaching our next game thinking it’s going to be mightily tough and any kind of result will be a good one. This is against and I don’t mean this in a disparaging way against Wycombe Wanderers. Just my opinion but for me Jones has proved his preferred style of football is totally unacceptable. He’s been forced (by the owners, fans ?) to try something else. It’s how we should have been playing from the start. His arrogance and stubbornness have virtually killed off our season. I don’t believe Jones has a good working relationship with Scott. In fact I think there is a lot of friction. We won’t achieve much without every part of the club pulling together. I don’t see we’re close to that.
We scored in the first 30 seconds yesterday. Scored 7 goals in 2. 1 conceded in 4 games. People complained last year that we conceded too many - now we have one of the best defenses in the league. People complained that we didn't score in the first half - complained we don't score enough - then when we do they find something else to complain about.
Wycombe are top of the league and in fantastic form, so yes, playing the top team in the league is always going to be tough?
Honestly the relentless negativity on here is something else.
As is the ridiculous unfounded optimism
It's not unfounded you lemon. 8 points from 12. We need to keep it up and I don't see anyone saying we are the finished article or speaking of automatics or anything. The original point you responded to is spot on - you're just snuffing out any form of optimism.
Watching the highlights programmes on the television yesterday it felt to me that there were more empty spaces to be seen in stadiums across the land. Maybe that was because people have sky television. Or because fixtures yesterday were awkward for those who have arrangements over this holiday period. I know for certain that seven season ticket holders around me weren’t there, but I do know they will be counted in the numbers posted in the attendance. It wasn’t a runaway one yesterday, but getting a win is excellent. If we can only drop eleven points from all our remaining matches I am pretty sure we will get automatic promotion.
Boxing Day used to be one of the best football days of the season, but family commitments and lack of transport options make it tricky. Much prefer New Years Day for a home match as there's little else going on that day
Comments
I don't think we will get it, I have a feeling we will end up 8th or 9th. I might sound delusional as well, as I'm usually quite negative about how I rate us as a footballing team, but if we did land in the play offs, we'd have a genuine chance. Despite what I think of us attacking wise, we are pretty sound defensively, and it's rare proper football is played in play-offs, it's usually scrappy as anything.
I think if we get 6- 9 points from the next 3, and then make some improvements in January, we can start thinking about play-offs, the league is genuinely just too shit to completely dismiss it at this stage and the look of that table.
Personally if we can get a point from that and then beat Crawley and Reading next week to make it 13 points from 15 (and 15 from 21) then i would be delighted with that and i don't think we'd be more than 1-2 points off the play off spots.
FWIW I thought we made less unforced errors than of late, there was an attempt to play the ball rather than hoof it and commitment to the cause was high. We deserved the win.
I like the front footed players who try and gamble as we attack rather than crab it around but understand there needs to be a balance, so I’m rare in the fact I’m keen on Berry as well as TC .
Felt the atmosphere from the home ends was a culmination of over doing it on Christmas Day and a feeling of apathy and boredom towards it all , Cambridge with pathetic numbers and losing for the whole match had a decent go at creating an atmosphere .
crowd looked sparse to me , 14,369 felt more like 2/3 of that .
CM had a camera stuck to him in the directors box , least I think it was him, don’t know what that was about .
Saw headphones Norm getting mic’d up round the back of the West Stand .
saw and chatted with 3 other Charlton legends AFKA , Fanny and Steve Dixon . We need to do better for these good people .
had 19 of our family there today before heading back to sister/mum’s for a million sarnies , crisps and chocolate , games and arguments about the games . Good family fun had by all .
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals .
Heard Rodwell has been demoted with Gavin Carters promotion within .
The Play-Offs have always been seen as the minimum target, but given that we've been going backwards in the last couple of seasons, I've equally felt that it would take a couple of windows before we can really compete for the top six - So whilst 8th would be disappointing in the sense that we dont achieve the goal that we're after, I'd see it as a genuine sign that we're a work in progress, especially as we finished 16th last season.
Delighted to win yesterday, in recent years a rare feeling for us over the Xmas period and it help keeps our season alive, But it wasn’t particularly convincing. I sighed afterwards when I saw the league table and that Cambridge had won just 4 games all season as I thought they moved the ball really well against us. Had that great move that hit the post gone in I’m fairly sure what team would go on and win that.
Weve definitely improved from a month ago. Miles means we get the ball held up better than Ahadme or two smaller ones do, Jones is quite dominant at the back and Doherty has def improved on his early form. But it’s nothing spectacular, and I asked after a couple of neutrals who see us a few times a season who impresses them from our team and the honest answer is no one stands out.
A great start to the game with a two goal lead inside 20 minutes, aided and abetted by two goalkeeping errors. The goalie, Reyes, is on loan from Norwich and they have apparently indicated that they want him back in January. On the basis of his performance today, I don’t think Cambridge will be troubled about that, notwithstanding one good save in the second half.
The game quietened down after the early goals but Campbell and Leaburn continued to trouble the opposition and Cambridge were unable to lay a glove on us offensively in the first half. So far, so good and the hope was that we’d come in the second half, score again and really put the game to bed.
The half-time introduction of a couple of substitutes, particularly Liam Bennett at right wing back, energised Cambridge and they came out very much on the front foot. Following some weak play from Gillesphey and (I think) Docherty, Cambridge pulled one back and proceeded to put us under significant pressure for the next 15 minutes or so, hitting the post and putting a few dangerous balls into our box.
Thereafter, although I think they continued to have the better of things in midfield, we created a few openings of our own and contained them reasonably comfortably at the other end. I was surprised that Nathan Jones didn’t introduce some fresh legs earlier, as Anderson’s energy would have been useful in closing the game out.
It was hardly a thing of beauty but we chiselled out the three points and got the job done. The 6 points from the last two games have steered us well away from the lower reaches of the table and moved us into the top half.
There were a lot of very ordinary performances across the team, although Lloyd Jones had another fine game and I thought there were also good performances from Campbell, Leaburn and Small.
A much tougher test awaits us on Sunday - hopefully we’ll raise our game and meet the challenge.
Maybe that was because people have sky television. Or because fixtures yesterday were awkward for those who have arrangements over this holiday period.
I know for certain that seven season ticket holders around me weren’t there, but I do know they will be counted in the numbers posted in the attendance.
It wasn’t a runaway one yesterday, but getting a win is excellent.
If we can only drop eleven points from all our remaining matches I am pretty sure we will get automatic promotion.
Cambridge vlog up for those interested. As usual, would really appreciate any shares, subs etc. Every little helps
So is the increasing early attacking threat. A few weeks ago I was despairing at how our only ambition seemed to be to keep it tight for 60 minutes and then hope we had some luck in the final stages to sneak a winner. There is much more attacking intent now, and I'd much rather get an early goal or two and then try to build on that
The timing of goals makes a big difference to perception. If we'd have gone 1-0 down and then put on a dominant display to win 2-1 I suspect the mood on here would have been more positive. The fact that we went two up in 20 minutes and then faded was more deflating.
Cambridge played some good football in the second half. Jordan Cousins was instrumental in that, always in the right place and his passing is excellent. I also like the pacy blond haired right back that came on. He's a decent player.
Happy enough with the win. Lloyd Jones superb again - just hope the powers that be are making serious attempts to get him to sign a new contract.
We scored in the first 30 seconds yesterday. Scored 7 goals in 2. 1 conceded in 4 games. People complained last year that we conceded too many - now we have one of the best defenses in the league. People complained that we didn't score in the first half - complained we don't score enough - then when we do they find something else to complain about.
Wycombe are top of the league and in fantastic form, so yes, playing the top team in the league is always going to be tough?
Honestly the relentless negativity on here is something else.