Charlton Athletic match Fred - Half a league onward!

The half time stats suggested Charlton marginally had the better of the first half. But nothing in it. I thought it was pretty even. A stretch to suggest we had the better of that half. At this stage of the season it’s fair to say all teams are finding their feet. We will get better, but so will others. Not been impressed with the quality in the opening two games from any of the three teams.

Hemming started to look better but we have no midfield. Too many others pretty anonymous.

Cooper, James, Kelman, Galbraith, Simpson, Moncur, Theo. Let’s hope for good news. Thankfully Clare didn’t see red. A slow motion clip on the other forum suggests a red would not have been out of place.

Saturday is going to be tough. I’ll be a lot happier when we have points on the board.

Just seen a slow motion replay of Clare's tackle , looks a cert red card to me ☹️

I also hate this diamond formation, I like to see width and balls crossed into the box. Where I disagree with many is that I didn’t think Charlton would score , I thought both defences were in control and a goalless draw was on the way.
I thought we had the better of the first half and they the second.
Once again we limited them to just a couple of chances yet come away with nothing.
I thought brown was the best of the bunch , and agree that ajyei was being unfairly pulled about, but think he is more effective playing down the channels than as a target man head of the diamond.
Thought O’Neil was again underperforming because of the formation.
We miss Archibald’s energy and work rate and of course el miz .
I am not really suprised we are pointless given the fixture list and I didn’t really think we would get much until Shrewsbury .
Putting it into perspective Birmigham have spent £22 million.
I doubt we have spent £22,000 on fees.

It absolutely didn’t look bad in real time. I’ve seen it at normal speed and slowed down from a Charlton fans video and omg that was a red all day long. It’s funny I was arguing with my son over it, yet the ref saw it the same way I did otherwise he’d have been off. Seeing it back and the ref was close by how he didn’t send him off is beyond me.

I’m still peeed off we lost.

Yes, that's definitely a red.

The defeat is troubling. Charlton aren't obvious promotion candidates yet they won on merit. They didn't have much in attack apart from the long ball, but they exerted more and more pressure as the game went on and in the end it told. The defence was backing off too much when the goal was scored. Happe, Becks and Sweeney all had chances to clear if they'd attacked the ball or marked tighter, but that's what happens when you are under the cosh for long spells and you are not producing any threat at the other end.

It's not a crisis. Two narrow defeats against two decent sides is not a reason to panic, but I'm a bit surprised not to have seen better from this squad. It is stronger than last year, despite the loss of El Miz and others. What has happened to O'Neill? He has shown none of the sparkle he did when he arrived. What has happened to the sharp passing game that caused problems for some of the best teams in the League?

It's early days and I remain hopeful. We have good players, a good coaching team and sound set-up. I'm glad it's Birmingham next week. We'll know a lot more after that, I 'm sure.

Not a crisis, always going to be a tough start. Doubt anyone is panicking, expected. Same for Saturday.  Any points are a bonus from the first 3 games.

My concern is neither Bolton nor Charlton looked particularly good yet beat us. We look ineffective as a team. RW and his coaches have a lot of work to do. Onwards and upwards.

If we are to go with a small squad they must be able to shuffle position.
O'neill is a shadow of last season playing a different roll.
Daniel A & kelman must take turns in matches alternating between centre striker and then just behind centre.
As that training video in Spain showed,its a little worrying how lacking true fitness they are when the oldest player at the club is the fittest by some stretch.
Bourne out in the second half against Charlton.

Personally i thought we were terrible yesterday

We didnt have a single meaningful shot at goal, apart from Kelmans flick in the first half

We tired massively in the second half. I know it was a hot day, but Charlton didnt tire

The new system Richie is playing isnt working IMO. When Jordan Graham finally gets back, where on earth is he going to fit in this 'new' system?

We miss El miz hugely........we alays were going to miss someone with that amount of quality, but in reality, he hasnt been replaced

Donley was anonymous yesterday, hopefully as he plays more he will be adding a great deal, but not yesterday

Remember 4 teams will be relegated, and i honestly cant think there are four worse than us. I love Richie, but the raw materials he has been given by Ling and the Board, are of not sufficient quality

I have great fears we will be relegated next May. I desperately hope im wrong

The materials he has been given are where we are as a club.

The guy that scored the winner for Charlton yesterday, they signed from Luton and he'd played 20+ games in the Premier League last season.

As much as it might seem unfair to everyone, that is just the situation we're in. Bigger clubs than us will have better players.

We will have done well to stay up this year, not an easy division at all. Totally agree with that.

Can I find four worse teams than us? It's early on but at the moment, probably not, we'll be in that bottom 8 portion of the league for most of the season I reckon.