OK, so a win is worth 3 points no matter who the opposition, but just been looking at the table and low and behold, we're top. Early days I know, but the only one in the top 6 we've played so far was Palace up there - null points as we're all painfully aware. All our points have come against teams below that level. We've still got both games to play against the other four - Middlesbrough, Leicester, Hull and Blackburn. Now could that be seen to be a tough ask or could it really be a good thing for us? Destiny in our own hands and all that stuff?
Sparkey, I do believe that some of the sides we have beaten we're in and around the top ix when we played them mate!
As the old saying goes "you can only play what's put in front of you". A lot of the points picked up so far came when about 15 teams or more were separated by about 3/4 points so not a great deal between any one at the time (I remember the wurzels singing "we're top of the league"... look at them now). Like you say Sparkey, it is early days and destiny is in our own hands. I think I prefer playing teams in and around us rather than towards the lower end of the table. They're usually the proverbial "banana skin" games that we have a habit of cocking up.
Come on Red, Blackpool is hardly "some teams"............. Anyway from memory, hadn't Holloway dropped 7 regular players because they'd just been stuffed by Huddersfield in their previous game? Blackpool were crap that day, but not as bad as Wolves who were are the worst side I've seen so far at the CCS.
And yet Wolves gave us a hard time until we got the equaliser. Burnley get my vote as the worst so far but I missed the Blackpool and Birmingham games so haven't seen them all. Huddersfield and Brighton have been top 6 this season but just weren't there when we played them. Not our fault. Just hope we don't go backwards as they and Blackpool have done. After tonight (which most of us seem to have down as a nailed on win - hope we don't blow it although if you look at the Charlton board they seem to have a few issues of their own with injuries and a variety of team selections - just the sort of situation where we usually cock up completely) we have 2 major toughies coming up with Hull and Middlesboro at home. They wil be the tests for how far we have progressed. It would have been good to have either Bellers or Smith (or both) back for at least one of those - seems unlikely this week anyway.
If you had looked at the league 4 matches ago we had played 6 of the top 7 , the exception being Leicester, and we had lost only to Palace. Our wins pushed those teams down the pecking order and Palace's win against us helpd them up it. It just proves that this league is hard and can bite you faster than a cottonmouth if you take your eye of it even for a second. The only thing I care about is 20 pomits from the second 10 games, and at the moment we are on track to fail that target.
This early poor away form is similar to last season. Of the first 14 league games we started with a surprise win at W. Ham then went 6 aways without a win. That last game being a 1 - 1 draw at Weeds.( A momentous day for them that day) The first 14 games produced W - 5 D - 6 L - 3.
Sorry Snaggs - can't see that mate - here's the table after the forest game: - Position Team Played Goal Difference Points No movement 1 Leicester 11 8 22 No movement 2 Cardiff 11 6 22 No movement 3 Huddersfield 11 5 20 No movement 4 Crystal Palace 11 1 20 No movement 5 Wolves 11 4 19 No movement 6 Hull 11 3 19 No movement 7 Middlesbrough 11 0 19 No movement 8 Brighton 11 8 18 No movement 9 Leeds United 11 2 18 No movement 10 Blackburn 11 3 17 No movement 11 Nottm Forest 11 3 17 No movement 12 Blackpool 11 4 16 No movement 13 Watford 11 -2 16 No movement 14 Derby 11 2 14 No movement 15 Burnley 11 0 14 No movement 16 Bolton 11 -2 14 No movement 17 Barnsley 11 -2 14 No movement 18 Charlton 11 -1 12 No movement 19 Millwall 11 -5 12 No movement 20 Birmingham 11 -7 12 No movement 21 Bristol City 11 -2 11 No movement 22 Sheff Wed 11 -7 9 No movement 23 Ipswich 11 -12 7 No movement 24 Peterborough 11 -9 6 Apart from Blackpool and Wolves (who were both poor on the day) being up there, we've beaten Burnley, Watford, Ipswich, Birmingham, Millwall, Leeds along with Hudders in the first game of the season. Hardly fantastic opposition. No Boro, Hull, Leicester nor Blackburn scalps in there (yet ) - they are the sides we will be competing with at the end of the season for auto spots. Whilst losing to the wurzels was as a result of farcical performance from us, the Palace, Forest and Bolton games were more typical of our away form. Charlton tonight needs to be 3 points in the bag to redress the balance somewhat.
I think we will be ok tonight and i think everyone at the club realises that the away form needs to change. What has been apparant so far away from home is the Total lack of chances being created, change that and the away results will change. Charlton are basically a League 1 side still and we should really put them away comfortably.
Well it was at one stage sparky lmao. The on-going injuries to Bellamy Smith and Mutch bother me, specially as Maynard is already a write-off. MM is talking aboyt M and S being out for another 2 weeks and god knows how long for Mutch. Not good, specially considering the money that was spent on them. If they had all stayed fit how many away games would we have won?
Old Sparkey, I think there may be some confusion going on here pal. From what I am reading you seem to think that Redbird said top six, in fact if you read it carefully it says ix, which I don`t know exactly, but in roman numerals speak may be a hell of a lot more. Help me out here!
I don't think you have anything to worry about when you play us. We're so open you'll rip us to shreds
I noticed that Dom. If Snaggs is really a re-born Roman centurian, he could have meant the top 9. In any case, he's still fcking wrong!!............
