Well, finally got back from the match and my god I should have left at 90mins. At 90 mins turned to my Dad and said, we're going to lose, in ET or pens and well. First match report from me for the season and we all know you love my reports that drone on and on. First off, no blame on the penalty takers, Wilson's hit the bar and Jacko's was a decent save but then Orient with 4 super pens. Match itself, scrappy heated affair with Sir Chris being sent to the stand for kicking a water bottle. I was sat 3 rows from the dug out (compared to my season ticket of the North) and Powell was fuming that the ref and his assistant missed a blatant push on our man and then they got a free kick 30 seconds later. The referee even went up to Powell and I heard him say "I missed the foul I'm sorry, but you can't then do that!" Powell sent to the stands nice to know he's still as passionate as last season. Waggy's goal, looked deflected to me, their goal, just poor defending with their man winning the header and burying it better then an killer in the woods. Court and Taylor were rocks at the back tonight even when Cort Pulled his hamstring with about 2 mins of ET to go he still won headers. Hamer looked pretty calm and quite confident compared to his spilling self of last season (even though he did give Mooney a golden opportunity). I thought Wilson despite giving away a penalty (that Mooney missed) and his miss Wilson seemed a good player, he certainly won't be pushing Solly out the way straight away but I'm confident in the back up we have. However since he can play at RM too Danny Green needs to look over his shoulder because he was abysmal tonight, he has a cracking cross... not once did it happen. Michael Smith who I think could well be a good player made me start to question if I could ever be a scout he was even worse then Green, a big man who hardly won a header? Pawel Abbot was more of a threat in the air. Waggy played off Smith and did he normal the odd problem caused but then just faded and wasn't seen again. One man impressed me though Cook, that lad is a great player on the left and I now think we have the left winger I wanted all of last season, now we just need to decide would we rather him on on the left or Jacko, or could Jacko move into the middle? Kerkar or however you spell it looked good, he bottled the odd 50/50 but hey ho, lots of players do now-a-days. Evina, lightening pace, quickest player I have seen in a charlton shirt since Rommedahl he is so quick, but I don't think he's a good defender and he couldn't cross tonight so god knows how we use him, least we have Wiggins. The Ref less said about him the better Hamer - 7 Looked solid and calm nothing he could have done better tonight apart from guess right in the pens Wilson - 5 would be higher, but he did give away a pen and miss his Taylor/Cort - 7 both solid in the air but still not as confident as when Morrison is along side one of them Evina - 6 Pace and pure pace but is missing that defensive or attacking edge Cook - 8 was superb for us on the left wing great ball to waggy for the assist and caused problems all night long Hollands - 6 was Danny Hollands, sat in the middle and did his job Kerkar - 6 looked good, just needs to get more stuck in Green - 3 couldn't pass, couldn't cross, couldn't shoot, only thing he did right was score his pen Smith - 5 couldn't win a header despite being a good 4 inches taller then the next tallest on the pitch (apart from Cort) Waggy - 6 ran all night just seemed to disappear into the game did score a goal though Jackson/Pritchard/BWP - Too little time to impact Alex Dyer had to make a change a hell of a lot sooner then he did Not a poor performance but we can do a hell of a lot better, still I'm optimistic
Not a great night at The Valley. Not much to report, but I shall do my best - Hamer - 5. Decision making was awful. Cort - 6. Solid. Taylor - 6. Solid. Evina - 6. Worked hard, but no great shakes. Wilson - 6. Too conservative. Green - 5. Same old, same old. Shooting was erratic. Cook - 7. Tireless, looks really promising. Kerkar - 5. Ordinary. Hollands - 5. No creation, but worked hard. Waggy - 6. Fluke goal, never stopped running. Too deep. Smith - 4. Great effort, but actually played dreadfully. Control is abysmal. Jackson - Missed penalty. BWP - Should have come on earlier. Pritchard - Pointless. First half was quite entertaining, second half died on its arse soon after CP went off. We should have beaten Orient with our second-string, but they dug in deep and defended brilliantly. The best part of the night, for me, was meeting up with an old comrade from my days travelling around the Lebanon.
They did, but it was no backs to the wall effort. They had more chances and better chances and Charlton were twice lucky, when Waggy's shot was deflected and when Mooney missed a penalty. CP's use (or in this case lack of use) of subs remains clueless. It must be his biggest weakness as a manager. What is the point of picking your best players (apart from Kermit who was mercifully spared any involvement) to sit on the bench if you are frightened to use them?
My understanding was that CP didnt want to use his first team, but brought Jacko ,Pritchard and BWP near the end as they were the Pen takers.
The worry for me is that Birmingham sent out a reasonably good team and won 5-1 so confidence is on a high while we sent out a second string and went out on pens so confidence must have taken a bit of a knock. Why did we have a strong team at Fulham yet a weak team last night? It is not for me to question the Doctor but not sure if last night's team was right.
Was at the game last night, personally i think Kerkar was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Looks like a very good signing. Never looked tired, made a fair few interceptions and every time he had the ball he looked calm and collected. Had a few efforts on goal as well that were not far off at all. Smith was tosh, cant understand how someone that tall compared to the players marking him is that poor in the air. Taylor looked error prone again and Hamer did not seem too happy with him on at least 3 occasions. Green still likes to have a go and hit the post with a long range free kick and almost scored direct from a corner. Seems to me that Powell obviously did not want to risk injuring any key players, but still cant quite figure out why Hayes was named on the bench and never brought on. The sending off was down to him losing his patience with one of the worst performances from a referee seen at The Valley (considering they are awful every game). Orient were a disgrace, several tackles could have been straight red cards, and after 5 or 6 of them in quick succession we had a player taken out clear as day and it was ignored only for a soft penalty to be given 10 seconds later. Orients number 3 and number 8 could have been sent off on several occasions. I am not really bothered that we are out, we were not going to win the cup, so i would rather focus on our league football anyway, but at least now i know Kerkar is quality and Cook looks like a reasonable option down the left. Hamer - 6.5 Seems to use his voice more than last season, which can only be a good thing Wilson - 5.5 Difficult to gauge but seems good enough for cover Taylor - 5.5 Did well when he knew Cort was close enough to bail him out but looked shaky and error prone as an individual Cort - 7 Won almost everything he went for, Lisbie didn't bother going for the ball if it was lofted anywhere near Cort Evina - 6 Looks electric coming forward with the ball at such pace, but needs to work on his crossing and decision making Green - 6 Had a few very good efforts on goal, and seems to have worked on the defensive side of his game a bit Kerkar - 8 Composed, good set pieces, a good eye for goal and runs around like a Matt Holland tribute act. Quality signing Hollands - 6 Did not really notice he was there for almost all of the game, but did nothing wrong or i would have noticed him Cook - 7 Looked comfortable, never gave up hope on winning the ball and makes good use of his pace, seems like a good signing Waggy - 6 Got the goal, but was limited due to Smith having a poor game beside him Smith - 4 Oh dear, never looked like winning a header even though he was taller than the entire Orient backline by a fair margin, no threat at all but still young If it was not for the constant fouling and dangerous play from Orient i think we would have won this comfortably, but sadly the only people on the pitch who had a worse day than Smith were the referee and the hilariously awful Dave Mooney (i think everyone in the east stand started laughing the second we realised he was going to take it)
I personally felt the opposite, Smith was so isolated due to Waggy being the furthest player from a Striker in our squad. Which meant Smith was only receiving the long and lonesome ball with nobody to even try to nod too. He wasn't beaten as much as many made out, however compared to Kermo's constant ariel presence everyone seems poor in the air. I am in no panic personally(not that I think anyone really is over this) as I feel that at another front 2 and we would have won that game last night. BWP made an immediate impact in the 15 minutes.
Sorry these are so late. I disagree with some on here in that I thought Smith played OK. He linked up well with Cook and Wagstaff, and certainly deserves another chance to start, which makes it more unfortunate that we won't have another cup game for months. His first touch let him down at times, but he worked his socks off. Hell Ben-t is right, we've been spoiled by Kermo's aerial prowess. Kerkar is very left footed, but skilful. Aerially he is useless, he needs to bulk up. He drove forward well though. Cook was our MotM by a country mile, always looked threatening when on the ball, should be on the bench on Saturday at least. Green was the same as ever - frustrating. His tackling was much better than usual, but most things he tried with the ball didn't come off. Wasn't impressed with Wilson, but then again we all thought Wiggins wasn't much cop in the early games of last season. He and Ben Hamer had more than one stern exchange of words.
Very surprised, my views on the game seem to contradict nearly everybodys on here (especially RE Wilson, Smith, Green and Kerkar). Hamer 6.5 - didn't have many spectacular saves to make, but looked pretty comfortable. One bit of stupidity where he attempted to pass the ball to Taylor who was looking the other way, gifting Dave Mooney the ball and a golden chance to score. Wilson 6.5 - seemed pretty strong in the tackle and committed himself a lot. Seemed keen to go forward too. His half-hearted attempt at a tackle gave away a penalty, he seemed in two minds about whether to try tackle and ended up just sticking his leg out. Also, didn't play that well with Green, they seemed to get in one anothers way a fair bit, and didn't expect nor read one anothers passes well. Cort 7 - pretty solid as always, and his ever reliable Toblerone-foot cleared the ball from danger. Was always looking a threat from set-pieces, and nearly scored but for a defender saving the ball off the line. Taylor 7 - aside from the single mix-up with Hamer, he really seemed to be fighting for his place in the side - leaping into defensive headers and going up for every corner. Had one hilarious attempt on goal not worth mentioning though. Evina 5 - his pace and trickery deceive. Poor in the tackle, very bad positional sense and cannot cross. I hope he can improve on this as he's only young. Green 6.5 - always seemed to be a threat and found himself in some very good positions. His delivery from corners was superb as always, on one attempt curling the ball so that it hit the far-post, would have been wonderful if it went in. Sadly he seemed to be trying to hard to impress, and shot at every chance he got (did this a lot last season too). He also let Wilson take all the throw-in's which I found peculiar, then when he finally attempted a (long) throw himself, he fluffed it. After contemplating, I remembered he suffered a shoulder injury at the latter stages of last-season, perhaps he is still recovering. Hollands 6.5 - both solid and fairly anonymous. Some decent passes but not much else to report. Cook 7 - was a constant threat, and has been in every game I've seen him in. Not sure he'll be a regular started for us, but he seems a class act. Personally not a fan of right-footed players on the left, but that's a discussion for another time. Kerkar 6 - hard to give him a numerical rating as he blew hot and cold. Seemed great at tackling and had good vision to launch numerous counter attacks, yet he was a lot slower than I expected, and seemed quite clumsy at times when on the ball. Didn't think much of his corners. Wagstaff 6.5 - played in the 'second-striker'-esque role that I believe he should adapt to (*see the numerous debates about his unsuitability for the role of a winger*). His pace at times was very exciting and he did well to get behind the defensive line on occasion. Yet seemed anonymous for large quantities of the game, and didn't get forward enough to link up well with Smith. Smith 7 - true he didn't win as much in the air as you'd expect given his height, yet he showed some great close control and seems capable of playing along the floor (albeit whilst remaining immobile). Withstood pressure from defenders very well and even launched a very good cross into the box at one point. Would have loved to see him play alongside BWP rather than being replaced by him. Said it before, but he's a very very good prospect.
