General thoughts from the game yesterday Hamer - 4 - Truly abysmal for crosses. No protection from referee for first 20 minutes, which didn't help. Worst game for the club. Solly - 9 - Am running out of superlatives for this guy, who I really thought was surplus to requirements at the end of last season. Wiggins - 9 - MOM - And anything Solly can do, Rhoys seems to match, but he added the dimension that he never stopped running, brought the ball out of defence on so many occasions, completely shut them up down their right flank, totally complete full-back performance. Taylor and Morrison - both 9 - again, dominating performances from both of them, barely put a foot wrong in 90 minutes, and... Hamer's howler aside... didn't give Evans a sniff. Green - 7 - Tired fast, panicked a bit at our clearest chance of the day and ended up passing it back to their keeper, albeit with his weaker foot. Will have better games. Pritchard - 6 - Worst game I've seen him play. Tried for 90 minutes, but just got bullied out of the game for the most part. Did some great bits of control in midfield, and came strong again for the last 5 after Russell went off. Hollands - 8 - Very solid... ever dependable and had to cover a huge amount of ground. Good play by Blades meant he never really imposed going forward JJ - 8 - Never going to have the pace to beat the full back, but what a free-kick... and to do it 2 weeks running?! Stunning. Kermit - 9 - Bullied, harrassed, shocking forearm smash to his face at the end of the first-half not noticed by ref, definite straight red if it'd been seen, but he just kept on winning headers and holding the ball up well. BWP - 8 - Worked tirelessly, even covered at right-back on one occasion when Solly went through. Didn't get a sniff at goal, but some good flicks and put in more effort than he gets any sort of credit for. Against some of the so-called weaker sides, he'll recover his scoring boots. Subs - Russell - Not easy to score as he was only on for 5 minutes. As soon as he went in, I thought 'red card'. Stupid challenge. Looking at it again, it seems a bit harsh, but he was off the ground and it was in their own half, so was a crazy thing to do. Luckily Beattie's madness meant we weren't short-handed. Haynes - Looked quick... that's about all I gathered from his 2 minute cameo! Ref - Hate to say it as I spent most of the day shouting at him, but he got most of the key decisions right. He got most of the minor ones wrong, though. Can't argue with booking for Hamer for time-wasting, he was doing it all day and it's getting annoying, but Hollands and especially Wiggins were unlucky with theirs (Wiggins wasn't even a foul). Not sure what Kermit was supposed to have done either as he was being strangled by Beattie.
Oops. Pressed submit to quickly. meant to add that kermit did do a bit of pulling in the melee to which Beattie reacted and wiggins did look like a foul from where I was. Quite right about hamer though.
Markings from Blackheath Addick http://blackheathaddicted.blogspot.com/2012/01/got-goal-won-game.html Have to agree with him that Beattie was our MoM Wilson says that Charlton had all the decisions ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16668603.stm
Surprise surprise a losing manager spends the post-match press conference whingeing about the referee!
Disagree a bit from TVR's perception of the team - primarily with midfield and attack. But - what a defence we have !! Hamer - 6 - ok, flapped a bit for a couple of crosses, but generally got more than he missed ! Solly - 9 - very good as usual So solid, so dependable.Slight issue with his forward play - but only slight however. Wiggins - 9 - His running and skill on the ball is amazing, even under pressure - a class act. Taylor - 10 my MOM - he was totally outstanding - didn't give Evans a sniff, put his body on the line everytime, won every header, won every 50/50 - fantastic clearance in first half too - brilliant performance. Morrison 9 - - i like this guys cut - with Taylor, make a superlative pairing - his sliding clearance at the end typified his performance - we are really fortunate to have these 2 at the back - forget Dailly and The Doc - long gone !!!! Green 6 - hmmm, not a great performance - bottled out of one 50/50, and should have done much better with the 2 shots straight at goalie. His continual wasting by blazing high and wide with long shots gets to me - that free-kick in first half was schoolboyish Will have MUCH better games. Pritchard - 5 - looked out of his depth. huffed and puffed and chased - was lucky not to get sent-off Hollands - 5 - hmm, i notice VFR gave him 8 !! - to me,was totally innocuous the whole game - i had to double check he was still on the pitch. JJ - 7 - gets an extra point for the free-kick - what a stunner ! Otherwise,like Hollands fairly innocuous. Kermit - 6 - again, disagree with VFR who gave him 9 !!!! - Chased,harried, won most headers as usual but hardly any flick-ons got to BWP, seemed to spend a lot of his time on the ground complaining of injury. for me, not a great day at the office, but he got very little service . BWP - 5 - again, vastly disagree to VFR. Again, got very little service. Dont recall him doing much at all. His runs from Kermy flick-ons were all wrong. Looked a teeny-weeny bit disinterested/disheartened to me- and was getting frustrated at the lack of service in 2nd half.Doesnt have the physical presence to be a hold the ball up forward. Needs someone big around him. Not his best game, but nothing a goal wont put right. Ref - i didnt think was too bad overall, think he got a bit flustered when Addicks started having a go at him with the Wiggins incidents in the corner around 60 mins and then every deicsion was scrutinised as Sheff U started to put pressure on and playing longer-ball.
Felt in the climate at the moment the ref was always gonna send off Russell, if you listen to the press conference i cant see why one journo felt Kermit should have gone instead of Beattie. For me the ref had an awful game - Huge game yet when fouls started, the ref didnt once have the sense just to talk to a player about his conduct - I knew around Half time there would be a red card
I agree on Hollands Stu, the thing with Hollands yesterday that really irked me was that he stood off too much - at one point he, JJ and Wiggins (who was marking to be fair) just stood off a cross with his hands behind his back - lunacy. JJ I disagree however - he got stuck in and does lead by example. He's almost a hardman too in terms of putting a foot in and just getting up and getting on.
Hey, Stu, good to have a second view-point. Think you're being seriously harsh on the two front men, though, especially Kermit. He won pretty much every header that was passed to him, and thought his hold-up play was excellent. Agree on Jackson and Green, though, reckon I gave JJ an extra 2 for his free-kick. And why not?!
Blackheath's view on Kermit was about the same as mine, yeah, he won most headers (as he usually does) - but most of them went to Sheff U defender - cant say he did much else, aside from a sublime piece of skill in first half from throw-in that set Hollands off.... Blackheaths... 'Kermorgant – 6/10. The service today to the front two was limited; it just wasn’t a day for them to shine. Won his fair share in the air, but to no effect as BWP didn’t get on the end of any of the touches. ' Couldnt see your comment re Hollands either !
But probably agree with 2 points for the free-kick - what a strike it was !! Not seen a better free-kick for a long time - as soon as it got over and through the wall you just knew it was in - goalie didnt stand a chance - last weeks was good - but this was phenomenal.
Can't agree with any of the criticism of Hamer except for timewasting if there was any, if that had been Elliott in goal a few would've gone in. He's now kept 3 clean sheets in a row in the league last 3 games. All the defence, BWP and JJ would get 7 plus from me, the rest including Kermi 6 or less. I am also concerned about players like Yann who overreact and seem to lack self discpline when they should know better and the 3 who fell down too easily in the first half. Why do our players keep falling over at the slightest nudge, Sheff Utd didn't only the once for something which looked genuine.
Just watched the Football League Show on IPlayer - always watch it on Sunday morning so i can skip the dross from the Champs. The free-kick was sublime - also interesting that Claridge actually was quite complimentary of us this time - saying that we have nous to go with our skill.
Kermit's touches went where they should, but BWP picked the wrong path sometimes, plus you'll never get 100% of flick-ons going to the striker partner... Kermit's role is just to win the flick on and put in the right areas, which he did against a tough CB. Hollands I felt covered Pritchard the whole game, he was the only one stopping them going straight through the middle. He didn't do a lot going forward, but he covered so much ground. Claridge's comments were about the first intelligent criticism of Charlton I've heard on that show... think he was spot on about how that's one of Charlton's strengths. No coincidence that team after team moan about how we got lucky... a combination of our defense, some frustrating tactics, and a very hard work ethic means we can combat teams when we're not playing well.
Yesterdays game reminded me of Norwich last year where wo totally battered them but didn't get the result, this time round we were the ones getting battered and we got the result. That game last year was the pivotal game for the second auto-matic spot and now I can't see us leaving the top spot let alone top two.
Similar, but hardly the same. Of what i remember of the Norwich game we battered them and it was only the goalie (Forster) that kept us out - this time it wasnt our goalie that kept United out - they hardly had a shot on target because it was our magnificent defending that kept them out - and also, i remember we had 70 per cent possession in that game - whereas yesterday, according to BBC, United had 52 per cent. I also , now, cant see us not being top at end of season.
