A sobering thought today that we are playing a team that was only formed in 1997, and has a stadium not much better than Welling's. Expecting the team to be unchanged : Rudd Fox Solly Pearce Konsa Jackson Crofts Foley Holmes Magennis Ajose Another stadium chalked off today in a personal quest to watch Charlton at all 92. Will try to post some updates during the game.
Mike Tyson Jr is on his way to Fleetwood ....unbelievable yo think we are playing them in a league game with AFC Wimbledon up next. Surely cautious Slade has to start Lookman and Holmes and go for the throat
No excuses for Lookman not to play today. Borderline embarrassing visiting these places for league games, and we have to get promoted at the first attempt. Hopefully Slade has got his attacking head on today.
Always easy to pick a team from the terraces (or the studio in my case) but I agree it would be nice to pick an attacking side and try and grab the game by the throat. Fleetwood are third (only loss is against Bolton according to CL) so clearly no mugs, but we have quality in our ranks, so lets try the new midfielder, Ulverstad, and let Lookman run at them. COYA
Fleetwood's two home league attendances so far this season are 2,500 and 2,600 . Their stadium is absolutely dire. Real non league stuff.
****ing hate them ****ers ruining our club... ****ing ****! Playing Fleetwood. That's what they've done.
Posting on the train back to Preston. A very expensive and ultimately disappointing day. We were lucky to get away with a point, and were basically outplayed and out passed for large parts of the game by Fleetwood. The midfield was particularly hopeless, with Crofts and the new lad on loan from Burnley totally bypassed by Fleetwood's quicker players. Our first goal was a very good header from Magennis after a cross from the right. Our equaliser came right at the death with Novak tapping in, right in front of our fans. No real standout players for us today, Magennis MOM. Fox was particularly bad and gave away several chances down his side. Bokara came on for the last ten mins and looked lively. Pearce took a really nasty kick in the face. Let not kid ourselves, we are now a very, very average side. No craft no guile and no flair. Coming to these distant Northern hellholes should be a doddle, but we struggle. Mid table is the absolute best for us this season. Not good enough. P.S: Fleetwood's programme only cost a pound
Because we haven't got any cover we sold Holmes-Dennis who could have put some pressure on Morgan the Donkey. The fundamental problem with this team is the midfield and Slade failed to address that in the transfer window
An enjoyable day out at a nice little ground, but we were lucky to get a point today. The start was unbelievably sloppy, even by some of our recent standards. We lost the ball in midfield, Fleetwood drove forward and Long fizzed in a low shot which might have taken a small deflection to beat Rudd. This was a running theme; Fleetwood players were constantly appearing in the gaps between the midfield and our defence, creating the kind of attacking threat completely beyond Crofts, Foley and Ulvestad's ken. A number of shots from just outside the area needed desperate, last-minute blocks, and another effort grazed the far post. Their second came in a similar fashion to the first, though credit should go to Ball for curling in a wonderful shot which gave Rudd no chance. In between, we grabbed an equaliser. Holmes had a poor game - we can forgive him one every now and then - but his left-foot cross from the right was perfect for Magennis, who headed back across the keeper for his first Charlton goal. It was no less than he deserved for what has been a stellar start to his Charlton career, and it was in keeping with his all-round excellent performance. Being a target man is an unforgiving job, requiring both brawn and brain, and he has both in spades. The second half was for the most part frustrating. Our plan at corners was to play it to the back post for Magennis to try and knock it back into the penalty area, which in theory is not a bad idea. What it does mean, though, is that if a cross is overhit it will go straight out of play, and this happened infuriatingly often. Magennis and Ajose still aren't quite on the same wavelength, and Ajose's consistently poor first touch will be what holds him back from playing higher than League One. Nor is his finishing quite clinical enough either - the one chance he did get today he blazed high over the bar. However, we did exert some pressure on the Fleetwood goal, and on 87 minutes we levelled things up again after a move involving all three substitutes. Botaka got past his man on the right, slipped in Foley in the penalty area and Novak was on the end of his low cross to bundle the ball in from a yard out. His season has been stop-start so far, but he did very well when he came on today and, like Magennis, will be delighted to be off the mark as an Addick. He nearly scored before that, chipping a clever effort from a narrow angle which the keeper only just pushed onto the roof of the net. Botaka, too, looked a real threat and is a handy option to throw on against tiring defences. Ultimately, though, today was a warning. Fleetwood were superior in nearly every position, and will in all probability cause lots of teams problems this season. Our midfield won't. Ulvestad is cut from the same cloth as Crofts and surely can't have been Slade's number one target, while Crofts himself is painfully slow and not blessed with the passing ability to make up for it. The lack of creativity in the middle means that, no matter how much we try to play the ball out from the back, eventually we end up going long towards Magennis or giving it to Holmes in the hope that he can weave his magic. Both are excellent players, but others need to step up to the plate if we are to get anywhere near the promotion race.
Heard (@Miketyson2007Junior) that Fleetwood's goal was good. How my expectations have fallen #ROLANDOUT
Their second goal was a good one, I was right behind their first one and Rudd could/ should have saved it
There's a limit to how far we excuse the team. However, they are on a bit of a roll, and once you take away the respective histories of the two clubs, a draw isn't such a bad result ( a draw at home to Bolton was worse in my opinion- we were at home). But we were by and large outplayed today. The result was the best bit. A lot of clubs in this league bought in freebies. We paid for some of ours, though to be fair, Holmes, Magennis and today Novak are looking good. I'll wait to see if the Burnley guy picks up the pace, and today was his first time playing with us. But the truth is we failed to address the midfield problems adequately and it's looking like an achilles heel right now. I'm sort of confused why some people on ITTV are so happy about our position now when we were relegated, sold our stars, and are now looking solid mid-table league 1 material. I know some peole are eadoly pleased, but that is just pathetic. Getting behind the team is great, and if I get to the UK this winter, I look forward to doing so, but all the sad criticism of the protestors? Lucky these guys weren't around when we left the Valley.
Nope. A draw is not good enough. Powell's team probably would have smashed this lot. #JustSayin #RolandsTeam #MieresTeam is ****
Magennis spent about half of the first half out wide and did nothing, once he moved to the centre he played well as he does. Ajose was poor and Lookman didn't do much. Holmes probably had his worst game but was still miles ahead of the rest and created our first goal. Botaka deserves a mention for playing strangely well considering how bad he looked in his first game at the Valley.
Why is Lookman taking our corners now? We must have had at least 6, and every one of them he overhit. Agree about Magennis, he will be a threat at this level if we keep him in the middle of the pitch troubling the opposition centre halves. Too early to write off Ajose yet, but he has been a major disappointment so far. Shades of Bradley Wright-Phillips in his lack of work rate and body language. Konsa continues to impress, barely makes a mistake and despite his young age I liked the way he bollocked Rudd after their first goal (screamed at Rudd asking him why he didn't clear the first ball properly). Konsa is a potential captain, but not for us as we don't keep our best young talent Talking to a few of our fans up there yesterday, I would describe the mood amongst our supporter base ( that being people who actually shell out to go, not the internet hand wringers on ITTV), as sceptical/hostile. A couple of defeats and the mood will boil over. Slade was certainly getting a few catcalls from the away end with a substitutions policy that makes Chris Powell look radical. The midfield is utter gash, even at this level. Crofts, Foley, Jackson and now Ulvedst (sic) - 4 defensive midfielders who all want to play exactly the same role in the team...
Some good reports in here - sorry to hear you guys weren't rewarded with a better performance though. Re Magennis playing wide, was that to accommodate Lookman playing up top? I assumed when I read the team sheet Lookman was gonna be on the wing.
