[Archived] Charlton Athletic 1 0 Rovers

[mrsjansen]

Even Busweiser have picked up on that.

[JonnyH]

I think the outstanding factor was poor passing and control tonight. True, Charlton closed down to well but there was limited options for the pass (so add movement to the list). We seemed jumpy and blunt tonight. Lots of the ball but nothing meaningfully creative from the midfield.

[S15]

If we had 10 Dickovs (and Friedel in goal) we'd be fine.

Why can only one man run around and cause mistakes... Its hardly a skill...

Think the guys a legend.

[tcj_jones]

Read the first few post match posts and couldn't believe the complete negativity...

After an awful first half the lads really picked themselves up and put in a great performance. I couldn't see the goal properly because i was in the opposite end but after that the team sustained long periods of pressure and we were desperatly unlucky. Again I am lead to presume Hughes has the ability to rally the players.

First half we just couldn't keep hold of the ball; why oh why did Matteo and Amoruso CONSTANTLY whack the ball 40 yards up the pitch at a time we needed Fergie on the ball?! Very disapointing because Amoruso's distribution against Pompey was pretty good. The midfield was bypassed the entire half and Ferguson and Flitty looked poor (again very disapointing as Ferguson looked pretty good up until now) but Emerton and Neill looked good at times on the right, as did Gray on the left.

Second half as soon as we conceded the team rallied together and put in a really good, spirited performance. Gray was outstanding on the left and Emerton even managed to take on, and beat, his man on the right a few times. Just disapointing that his crosses were often way too long.

Ferguson and Flitcroft were just useless today, Fergie especially constantly gave the ball away, never took players on and both were anonymous all game. The one criticsm I have for Hughes is that he hasn't replaced Flitcroft at half time two games in a row after two poor performances.

Stead and Dickov tried but they just didn't work well together - we seriously lacked strength up front and it showed when Bothroyd was introduced. He made an immediate impact. We REALLY miss Cole right now.

In my section of the stand the fans were tremendous and I salute you. Jordan and another guy nearby really carried the fans, well done

Edited September 27, 2004 by tcj_jones

[broadsword]

We should have had a penalty, definitely. It wasn't blatant, a bit of playmanship in trying to take the sting out of the ball, but a definite penalty nonetheless. Charlton's claim wasn't as strong but we were still a little lucky with it.

We struggled to get to grips with playing through Charlton's formation, but the biggest thing for me was a proven striker up front. We will struggle now. Got a lot of time for Stead (still very young), Dickov (can never be faulted for effort), Jay (classy deep-lying player) and possibly Jansen (still not totally conviced), but we desperately need someone who is an out-and-out poacher who knows where the goal is (and has some height), someone proven.

Emerton still drifts in too early but at least showed some confidence despite taking the easy option at times.

At least we only conceded one goal, but I should imagine there'll be changes in Jan.

Can't wait for the transfer window.

[LeChuck]

Can't be bothered to do a full match report but the general jist of it is that we're gonna have a long hard struggle this season.

*For me, Ferguson is nearing Grabbi in the 'wasting £7 million' race, he does nothing that a £500k midfielder couldn't do (Matt Holland for example).

*As poor as his final ball is, Emerton looks our most dangerous player.

*We play far too many long balls which just result in more pressure on the defence.

*Amoruso is crap, at least two mistakes tonight which could have cost goals. Get Short/Nissa/Todd in there ASAP.

*Jansen is looking quite sharpe although still obviously low on confidence.

*Stead still looks good but too many terrible balls into him at awkward heights is not helping his confidence.

*Dickov runs around a lot but there's no quality, bring Gallagher in please.

*Swapping Emerton and Jansen? Please Sparky, don't do what Souey did to us last season.

*Friedel seems back to the form which made him the best keeper in the Premiership, long may it continue.

Personally I think we'll stay up and I think Hughes knows we have major problems, his big test will be whether he can sort those out within the next year or so.

Oh...and if Souey is planning to poach Ferguson from us...hurry up and get on with it will you?

Edit: Posted this before reading anything, suprised to see so many people agreeing with me on Ferguson.......but as for the 'penalty'.....take the blinkers off will you? It was no more hand-to-ball than Matteo's, I was with several neutral observers and they all said ours was not a penalty. We lost because we couldn't create, not because of a referee.

Edited September 27, 2004 by LeChuck

[philipl]

I agree tcj that the negativity has beeen way over done by some of the posters on here. Also completely agree with your comments about individual players.

This is the london evening standard's report. Hardly the same game as some of the more negative posters purport to have seen!

[mjs]

I agree tcj that the negativity has beeen way over done by some of the posters on here. Also completely agree with your comments about individual players.

This is the london evening standard's report. Hardly the same game as some of the more negative posters purport to have seen!

I think the phrase is 'wake up and smell the coffee'.

Take those blinkers off, we are very very poor!!

[philipl]

No mjs, you are over reacting and enjoying wallowing in negativity. Read my post about four pages back.

Believe me, if we were "very very poor", the Evening Standard (which is produced even closeer to Charlton's ground than the LET is to Ewood) would have said so loud and clear.

[ABBEY]

They are saying it was ball to hand. That if someone fires a shot from 10 yards out then he can't help it if his hands are by his side and can't get them out of the way on time.

Stop moaning about the penalty-issue. Charlton had the exact same thing in the 1st half. How can a player remove their arm from 2 meters? And NO, holding the hand there ISNT an "un-natural" placement of the arm! Holding the arm into you body is.

We lost because we sucked, and the players used sucked. Bad managing.

dont talk like a knob!!!their claim was arm tucked away and no way of moving away...our shout was with arm stuck out to the ball !!!

bad management how the fk do you work that out?we hit the post and had 64_% possesion bad finishing maybe ...but management f me with a cactus ...your talking @#/?

We cant moan about penalties when were in div 1. I'll give them a chance, of cource, but now im just frustrated.

div 1 2 or 3 what does it matter i will be there

so youll enjoy it? do you WANT us to go down?

wtf do you think......

[broadsword]

As much as it's nice to be positive Philip, it was quite clear that we lack class going forward. There was a definite lack of alertness/ alacrity, and a paucity of ideas in the final third.

We lack someone of genuine class who the opposition fear. OK, Everton are in the top three and they have no-one, but we have no-one as well as springing leaks everywhere.

The defence doesn't inspire confidence, we do not possess a midfield to be feared and if we were being cruel, our forward line is a mix of rookies and try-hards.

Thanks, Graeme!

[ABBEY]

Abbey, I have watched their pen shout a few times now and it is very very similar to ours.

one difference.....as i said earlier....

THEIR SHOUT...defender had arms tucked in

OUR SHOUT.......if you stick your arm out away from the body penalty!!!!!

if it was other way round id have said the same.

[mrsjansen]

We deserved a least a point from the game.- FACT

We should have had a penalty FACT

We were not poor. If half the people on this site think that was a poor performance. I'd hate to see what you would think if it was a really poor performance. We didn't play the best, but we have played worse.

We looked stronger as a team.

So stop moaning and get behind the team for Saturday.

I think now is the time when Rovers need there fans.

[philipl]

Read the first few post match posts and couldn't believe the complete negativity...

After an awful first half the lads really picked themselves up and put in a great performance. I couldn't see the goal properly because i was in the opposite end but after that the team sustained long periods of pressure and we were desperatly unlucky. Again I am lead to presume Hughes has the ability to rally the players.

First half we just couldn't keep hold of the ball; why oh why did Matteo and Amoruso CONSTANTLY whack the ball 40 yards up the pitch at a time we needed Fergie on the ball?! Very disapointing because Amoruso's distribution against Pompey was pretty good. The midfield was bypassed the entire half and Ferguson and Flitty looked poor (again very disapointing as Ferguson looked pretty good up until now) but Emerton and Neill looked good at times on the right, as did Gray on the left.

Second half as soon as we conceded the team rallied together and put in a really good, spirited performance. Gray was outstanding on the left and Emerton even managed to take on, and beat, his man on the right a few times. Just disapointing that his crosses were often way too long.

Ferguson and Flitcroft were just useless today, Fergie especially constantly gave the ball away, never took players on and both were anonymous all game. The one criticsm I have for Hughes is that he hasn't replaced Flitcroft at half time two games in a row after two poor performances.

Stead and Dickov tried but they just didn't work well together - we seriously lacked strength up front and it showed when Bothroyd was introduced. He made an immediate impact. We REALLY miss Cole right now.

In my section of the stand the fans were tremendous and I salute you. Jordan and another guy nearby really carried the fans, well done

Neither tcj nor myself are in the happy clappy everything is rosey camp.

[tcj_jones]

Mjs, the poor side of our game came from our centre backs constantly whacking the ball aimlessly all game, bypassing Ferguson and thus eliminating him from the game. Saying that, Ferguson and Flitty were seriously poor and neither went to get the ball. If we can instruct Amoruso to play the ball along the floor like he did at Pompey and Hughes to absolutely scream at Ferguson to get involved, we should be far better on Saturday. Added to that we lacked strength up front big style and Bothroyd should start at Villa. I REALLY hope we get Hartson, we need him.

The second half looked to me as though we were well on the way to sorting out our width problems that hindered us last season. If Jansen wasn't so poor tonight we would have provided more of a threat but Emerton is becoming more and more of a winger and Gray overlapped superbly, man of the match for us by a long way.

I came away noth thinking of how bad we had played, but about just how lucky Charlton were to come away with that win and how desperatly unlucky we were.

[Scotty]

Neither tcj nor myself are in the happy clappy everything is rosey camp.

Tcj certainly is and you change your tune about the team and the manager every couple of weeks.

If tonight was a one off I could happily put it down to bad luck, no rub of the green, dodgy ref etc. But it isn't a one off at all. We've been playing like we did tonight for a year or so now and we keep finding ourselves on the receiving end of scorelines like tonights. It isn't a coincidence - we really aren't very good.

[tcj_jones]

Neither tcj nor myself are in the happy clappy everything is rosey camp.

Tcj certainly is and you change your tune about the team and the manager every couple of weeks.

If tonight was a one off I could happily put it down to bad luck, no rub of the green, dodgy ref etc. But it isn't a one off at all. We've been playing like we did tonight for a year or so now and we keep finding ourselves on the receiving end of scorelines like tonights. It isn't a coincidence - we really aren't very good.

Hows that Scotty? I've clearly pointed out several negatives from the game and criticised players accordingly.

The second half certainly gave me the impression of a real team spirit. We were desperatly unlucky and there were several positives to draw from the half.

Stop being so damned negative, step away for a minute and look at it from a neutrals perspective; we had the possession, we finally possess width, which was by and large very effective today and we had several chances. How you can not be so negative about our second half is beyond me.

Edited September 27, 2004 by tcj_jones

[LeChuck]

We deserved a least a point from the game.- FACT

We should have had a penalty FACT

Charlton had far better chances throughout the game than we did, even at 0-0 they looked the more likely team to score.

As for the penalty...again...it was not a penalty...but if you were going to give that one then you would have to give theirs too.

We lost tonight because of a lack of imagination and too many long balls, it was no hard luck story as many are trying to make out.

[Scotty]

Stop being so damned negative, step away for a minute and look at it from a neutrals perspective; we had the possession, we finally possess width, which was by and large very effective today and we had several chances. How you can not be so negative about our second half is beyond me.

The reason I'm so negative is that we lost another game that we controlled for large periods. We keep doing this. And I suspect that if I was a neutral I'd have switched off / left my seat long before the end as it was an awful game of football played by, on tonight's evidence, two very bad teams.

[LeChuck]

step away for a minute and look at it from a neutrals perspective; we had the possession, we finally possess width, which was by and large very effective today and we had several chances. How you can not be so negative about our second half is beyond me.

I watched the game with many neutrals tonight, they all said we were poor and that Charlton deserved to win and I fully agree with them. I admit, there was very little in it and had we turned some of our possesion into chances then we could very well have a case to say we were unlucky...but that wasn't the case.

Just accept we were the worst team and we have problems...I have confidence that Hughes will sort these out but with some people there's a worrying sense of the wool-pulled-over eyes syndrome that happened last season.

[Kandevil]

As poor as his final ball is, Emerton looks our most dangerous player.

today was the first time I've been screaming Emerton your'e useless! He saw a lot of the ball in dangerous postions, fair play to him being there I suppose, but he is useless. Don't give him corners, don't give him free kicks, don't give him the ball full stop.

[tcj_jones]

Bizare if you're suggesting that for one minute Charlton were the better team in the second half but as you didn't directly say that I'll take it it's not your opinion. Our wing play was so much better than it has been the last 14 months and it somewhat compensated for our awful central midfield where everything usually stems and we didn't play particularly badly. The team spirit seemed to be on a high and we really gave it our all as soon as we had conceded.

Im not ignoring our problems - they are clear to see, but we are well on our way to becoming a better team. If Hughes can install some confidence in Ferguson and get him on the ball, instruct Matteo and Amoruso to learn not to whack the ball aimlessly 40 yards and start Gallagher/Bothroyd from the start we will reap the benefits. A large part of our problems stem from bad tactics and Hughes will surely be able to sort this out, especially our poor defending at set pieces.

Scotty, I understand your negativity over once more not being able to convert sustained possession but the point is that we managed to sustain pressure and were desperatly unlucky not to score.

Edited September 27, 2004 by tcj_jones

[USABlue]

Did I watch a different game than some? I thought we were better than a lot I have seen of Rovers lately. First half we were poor, second half after they scored I thought we did rather well. I felt encouraged in defeat which is something I have not felt for a long time.

Neill needs to be sat though he scares me, Gray I thought ran his heart out for us. All the team worked hard and gave their all. We have been on a downslide for sometime the finesse play will come back with some confidence. I do hope however Hughes is not going to persist with the long ball, we have no one to win it. If we continue to be commited to effort as tonight we will turn the corner.

The final ball must get better, it will, some improvement in ideas from set pieces and I think we can do alright.

[chris]

strange thing about this thread is nearly every person is targeting a different players ability

Amo-useless

Matteo- can't head

Neill- out of position

Flitty- no quality

Ferguson- waste of money

Jansen- not the player of old

Emerton- a winger that can't cross

Stead- no confidence

Dickov- has no quality, not really news

god I hope we are no all right or we are in trouble, I think hughes will work things out, theres some good players there, but heres a prediction, in the 38th game of this season Dickov will be on tghe bench and Gallagher and Stead will be leading the attack, its a must.

[Ossyrob]

Ferguson was an expensive copy of Flitcroft and there wasnt room tonite for two players of simalar quality on the pitch. Emerton has lost the idea of what a left winger does.