Charlton forum

Mampi Swift · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:01 pm

One bloke saying "a hartlepool side that i cant help thinking will find it a struggle to stay in this division".

What do you think of that? Although I'm infinitely happier with the defence and keeper than last season in the two games I've seen, we don't seem to be offering much in attack. I'm a bit worried about where the goals are going to come from this season.

PJ_Poolie · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:07 pm

I think we are in a better position to judge the quality required to compete in League One than a Charlton fan who's seen two games at this level that they've won.

It's like a new team so it's hard to judge they are obviously going to need a bit of time and our August fixtures always looked tough.

Mute Witness · **Joined:** Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:10 am **Posts:** 3572

Mampi Swift wrote:

I'm a bit worried about where the goals are going to come from this season.

I'm not really that worried. A fully fit James Brown could score a few and Larkin, Boyd and Behan could chip in.

From midfield Monkhouse, Sweeney (based on the end of last season's form), Fredriksen and McSweeney all seem capable of scoring a few.

We will know more in a few weeks.

thereverand · **Joined:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:47 pm **Posts:** 99

i could see how a charlton fan watching yesterdays game could easily form that opinion violin

not saying I neccesarily think we will struggle, but we will need to improve a ton on yesterdays showing, in a load of areas of the pitch, if we are to do much good IMO. Starting Tuesday hopefully :razz:

Gibsons Beard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:25 am

Mampi Swift wrote:

One bloke saying "a hartlepool side that i cant help thinking will find it a struggle to stay in this division".

What do you think of that? Although I'm infinitely happier with the defence and keeper than last season in the two games I've seen, we don't seem to be offering much in attack. I'm a bit worried about where the goals are going to come from this season.

Chances are he wont be too far wide of the mark if we play like that for the rest of the season. We were 'average' at best on Saturday and unless we do as Chip says and get the ball on the deck then we will find ourselves looking over our shoulders at the relegation places.

If however we start playing football and get this Dean Emerson mk2 which we need then things may change. The Charlton supporters opinion of us was a just one IMO. Had we gone away from home and won 2-0 with the other side only really threatening at set pieces (which we did to be fair) then we would probably say the same thing about them.

Our midfield NEEDS to improve or we will struggle to get towards midtable.

Gibsons Beard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:03 pm

MadJohn wrote:

Grave wrote:

Chances are he wont be too far wide of the mark if we play like that for the rest of the season.

Gee, we'd best make sure we don't do that then.

I dont know what to say to that. Im just saying that the Charlton fan could only say it as he saw it during saturdays game and that we need to play better in future.

Compo · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:15 pm

If my aunty had balls she would be my uncle.

That point is about as much relevance

Gibsons Beard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:19 pm

MadJohn wrote:

Grave wrote:

I dont know what to say to that. Im just saying that the Charlton fan could only say it as he saw it during saturdays game and that we need to play better in future.

So you are saying that if we play below par all season we might struggle. Oh, ok then. An obvious point but a fair one I suppose confised

You also said that we only really threatened at set pieces, which is more deserving of a

than anything I, or anyone else, has said about the game :razz:

As the Charlton fan saw it, he would not know that we were below par. I think any neutral at the game would have come away thinking we would struggle as we did not really push Charlton. They were in the main part quite comfortable. The majority of our meaningful attacks come from free kicks from Behan and we struggled to get the ball into the box otherwise (We relied on those mega throw-ins from Collins quite a bit too). This is what I meant by our threats being mainly from set pieces.

ps, Collins' throw-ins seem to be going even further!

Gibsons Beard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:44 pm

chip fireball wrote:

i remember thinking much the same about colchester at the same stage last season. they had spent a fair few quid as well as losing their best striker, and took a long time to gel.

im hoping pools will be in the same category.

most of us can understand why turner felt the need to dismantle a team that has struggled for 2 years and pretty much start again from scratch. i think most of us also understand this is a long term job.

we have to be realistic and accept that things may get worse for a while before they get better. saturdays display was poor. what worried me was that we didnt even do the basic stuff well, like passing the ball short on the deck on a windy day, and also the comedy defending. theres no point pretending as some have done that we played well and were simply beaten by the best team in britain. theres also no point in thinking we are in a relegation battle after 2 games.

if we play well then thats great. if we play badly then lets accept that and look to correct the mistakes. but lets not start writing the team/manager/season off after a handful of games.

I concur. I dont think anyone is writing the season off like. We have a lot of new players and we need to give them time.

Gibsons Beard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:03 pm

MadJohn wrote:

Grave wrote:

The majority of our meaningful attacks come from free kicks from Behan and we struggled to get the ball into the box otherwise

OK, it's obviously one of those "watching a different game" moments. For me most of our best opportunities came from open play. The break from Behan/McSweeney in the first half; the chance created by Behan's flick from McS's pass that Boyd rushed and hit straight at the keeper; Sweeney's burst through the middle spoilt by a heavy touch; McS's diving header from Monkhouse's cross; McSweeney cutting in from the right resulting in Sweeney's chance that their keeper produced a very good save from. (thinks: McSweeney was involved in all our best stuff). Of course there was Behan's free kicks as well, and Collins's throws (agreed he has clearly been working on them, we were talking about this at MK) but it was hardly our only threat or even our main one. We created enough chances to make it a very different game; we just didn't take them. As a result we lost a game of football to a solid and well-disciplined side. Since then some of the over-reaction on here has suggested Pools were shite and Charlton are the best side we've played in years. Neither is true.

fair enough, I had forgotten about some of them opportunities. There has been I think, some overly negative and some overly positive opinions re Saturday. The truth is always somewhere in between. We were probably 'ok' but beaten by a better side ultimately.

JohnnyMars · **Joined:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:24 am **Posts:** 2478

I thought we might have been due a reality check on Saturday and so it proved. As somebody has already said our midfield was a bit lacking - Sweeney and Monkhouse were poor, McSweeney slightly better and Fredriksen very industrious and hopefully will improve his touch as he gets used to the pace of it over here.

There were plus points though, notably Behan who was far better than I had expected. Even though we got beat 2-0 I still thought our defence looked improved on last season. All in all I'm slighly more optimistic than I was before the season started.

Snowy · **Joined:** Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:18 pm **Posts:** 37634

The Charlton view is irrelevant, I think we'll have to give them time to get to know each other and bed in. I'm not even gonna start worrying about our performances till September's out.

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