Did Charlton not lay down against Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic? We have a better squad and team than both of them. So logically we lost because they were better than us on the day only. Which strongly implies to me that some of our players were not trying as hard as they should - as hard as they did today against Leeds. Today's win was a great win. But if Charlton are only going to give 100% against the biggest / best teams then besting the likes of Leeds is only compensation for losing against the likes of Wigan. In the end it's a zero sum. And nobody ever got promoted by just playing up for the glamour games.
I think I have aged a couple of years in that second half. What a great fighting display from each and every player. Leeds threw everything at us. But we weren’t going to give that goal up. I don’t like to single players out but Lockyer and Solly were immense. When I get home I am going to have to have a lie down in a darkened room.
According to Bowyer he couldn’t fault the effort of the players in the two defeats. The bottom line is we missed a number of chances in both games.
I did not know he said that. It isn't an opinion shared by all (or even a majority) of fans whose posts I read after those games.
Before the season I said that the best we could hope for was that Bowyer would give us a stuffy fighting team that no-one would enjoy playing, and that's what we've got. For all Leeds second half pressure I only recall Phillips making one save, and that was in stoppage time. A fantastic 3points, especially with a ref who on several occasions gave us nothing.
The fact is we don't have the squad to be promotion contenders, and results like Wigan and Birmingham are going to happen again. But Bowyer has the knack of creating a team that is more than the sum of the parts. Today it sounded as if we grabbed a goal and then rode our luck. Birmingham pretty much did the same. But today we turned the small losing streak around. A lot of our recent managers couldn't do that. A late save by Dillon helped. But we can trust the team to give everything.
A gritty display against a hopelessly over elaborate Leeds side. After 5 mins it looked as though we could be on the end of a stuffing, with 4 corners and some last ditch blocks looking ominous. Their No..22 was giving Solly a chasing, and we were struggling to get over the half way line. Well led by the superb Conor Gallagher, we gradually got a foothold in the game, and scored a scruffy one from a corner. Leko continues to frustrate the fvck out of everyone - you can’t fault his effort, but once again today his decision making & composure were terrible. I thought the Leeds fans were quiet by their standards - and their team is all fur coat & no knickers.
So Taylor still on crutches. Looks like we've got a few weeks yet to wait. Couldn't you have posted that monday Royston?
If he doesn't want to sign a contrzct, I'd love to keep him till may. Doesn't make much financial sense, but it would probably be worth quite a few points this season.
i'd say if we were safe at xmas, then sell him end of january if he wont sign up and the money can be reinvested. then come summer, go and get a replacement, use any change leftover to give the rest of the squad decent/normal length contracts. the lyle taylor sale could be similar in some ways to the rob lee one.
After a few minutes yesterday I thought Leeds were going to hammer us, so good was their movement and they could have scored twice in the first minute. And at H/T I believed we were sure to concede, and so needed another goal. But this squad keep surprising me for the better. We saw the Solly of old, Lockyer, Sarr and Pratley were an impenetrable barrier in the middle, and Gallagher played like two men in midfield. Bowyer's achievement in welding this makeshift squad into a never-say-die unit is phenominal. Yet it could be his last season at Charlton. Shockin, juss shockin.
It was good to see Bowyer & the team rewarded by a very decent attendance and atmosphere yesterday. It actually felt as if there was 21,800 inside the Valley. The Covered looked just about full, and the NW Quad and East Stand were much fuller than usual. Mid table or even survival will still be a great achievement this season. On another day, Leeds would have won 4-0.
