I must be mad but I am going today. I feel a bit like a heroin addict, I would desperately like to kick the habit. But I can't. I am expecting the worse, 1-0 to Oldham. I really can't see us scoring.
Really not expecting more than a draw today. If KR drops Magennis and goes 442, Oldham's entire gameplan will go out the window. Sadly, that's where I expect my hopes of three points today to go (alongside any sort of job opportunity for KR with the new owners). I'll go 1-2 Oldham while hoping the team make me eat my words.
Watchable first half, if low-key. Excellent goal from Mavididi, but he has been booked for diving as well. 1-0 up and we were the better team, but we need a second goal.
Full time 1-0. Reports that Ricky Holmes looked unhappy? I wonder if he wants his dream move to Sheff Utd now ?
We were marginally better than Oldham today but they certainly had a go in the second half. Mavididi was the difference, without his skill for that goal we would not have won. Also two great saves from Amos preserved our clean sheet and saved the points. The win is all that matters in the end, we had to get it any way we could. We were a bit better than Oldham, just enough to get the job done. Given the injury list and uncertainty at the moment, our performance was OK. Ricky Holmes was battered several times. Was subbed on 90 minutes limping a bit. Probably just bruises and scrapes.
I have to say that was a turgid second half display. We were holding on against the mighty Oldham. A class goal by Mavididi which was totally out of place in this match. The attendance was about 7500. A win is a win, but we will need to play much better.
Well we clung on for a win at home to Oldham. No, I'm not being sarcastic. The dream of automatic promotion has gone, we've gone weeks witjout a win. Today we needed to grind out some sort of victory and we did. I have to be honest, unless things change radically soon, we were looking like possible relegation battle candidates. Now we have more three points and a week to build a little. Maybe Roland will do one and we can even indulge in a spot of transfer buying. But tonight we have a win. Thats okay for today. Shame we couldn't attract anyone to watch
Scary sight - I’m not convinced the numbers will return immediately after the club is sold. The new owners will have their work cut out.
About 7,000 I would say. If anything the home stands looked slightly emptier than on New Year's Day, though the much lower number of away fans might have added to the impression of emptiness. The travelling hundreds did make a fair noise though. The home crowd was subdued for long periods but did get louder when we managed to win a corner or sustain an attack. Big relief at full time. Musical interludes They played 'Something Good' by Herman's Hermits over the PA after the full time whistle. Also a brief airing of the recorded version of 'Valley Floyd Road' before kick-off. I thought that was not being played anymore?
A win at last is obviously a step in the right direction again, and we should even be able to make it a 'run' of two wins away at Bury next weekend. However the stats shown above are still damning. Charlton are still lagging behind their points haul and league position after 26 games in all of the three seasons we were down in the third tier under Phil Parkinson and Chris Powell. Despite his grandiose claims to have given Charlton back its team and its DNA, all Karl Robinson has achieved so far is to out-perform our embarrassing 2016-17 season. Yes, we are back in touch with 6th place for the moment, but even our most optimistic fans would not claim Charlton are playing with promotion form right now. The best we can do is hang on in there, and hope that by the time most of our missing players have recovered and found their match-sharpness again, we are not cut too far adrift of the play-offs. That is a lot to hope for, but it's all we have left now. I don't want to give up hoping for something this season until there is no alternative.