Matchday Megathread, Charlton Athletic v Barnsley

That’s the concern. Every time we bring in players they’re generally worse than the ones they’re replacing. Been that way for the last 2 years now at least. DKD is the obvious exception and I can see some serious bids coming for him in the summer.

 

We have got some quality players though which makes it even more sickening, tonight was so frustrating.

 

If anyone can point me in the right direction to make a complaint, I'd be very grateful. Thanks.

 

They certainly don't seem to want their season extending a few extra weeks.

 

Yes, that was our reaction too.

 

Let’s be honest we haven’t been convincing all season and personally even when we were in the top six i never thought for one minute we looked like a promotion winning team.

 

The "pat down" took place once inside the turnstiles. The supervisor wanted us to leave the camera in the turnstile kiosk!!!

 

fans@cafc.co.uk should do the trick.

 

After a bright enough start soon fizzled out, no doubt partly due to the horrendous goal conceded, it was another vapid, insipid performance. And it's not about defeat. I also appreciate we're suffering with injury, suspension, blah blah blah. But that was a tough watch. Uninspiring football served up for the umpteenth time this season. I have a headache after watching that second half. Because I couldn't fathom what we were trying to achieve. Nothing made sense, except the Roberts long throws. Wang it in and see what occurs. I got that. But the rest of it? Mind-numbing stuff which had me questioning what I was doing with my time.

I accept that the window was a bad one. It reeked of failure and desperation. Like many of my nights out in the early noughties. I also know that the players should take their share of responsibility. But that second half display stunk of cluelessness. No ideas. No belief. No chance. You've DKD and Watters on the pitch for 45 minutes together and absolutely nothing was created for them. One of Clarke's bright ideas was to swap a left wing-back for a right wing-back and move the other right wing-back to left wing-back. The striker we'd 'tracked for a long time' didn't get on. When 1-0 down.

Charlton didn't look special. But they didn't need to. They must have wasted 15 minutes with various tactics. Again, they didn't need to. I was fully expecting the fourth official to signal 12 minutes of added time, just to prolong the f****** torment.

My player of the match was DKD. Again. His first half display looked like that of someone who cared, who believed. And his mazy run was the only highlight of the night. I see my mate Humphrys reverted to type alongside him. He's as bad as Cosgrove. There was some wally on here the other day telling me he's better than Devante Cole, who was lazy. I kid thee not.

Stats to follow. Dunno why.

Tykes x

 

Stats

Touches:
Roberts 72
Connell 71
McCarthy 69

Aerial duels won:
Roberts 10
McCarthy 4
Phillips 3
Benson 3

Tackles won:
Russell 4
Barratt 4
Lembikisa 3

Pass completion percentage:
Russell 88%
Benson 86%
O’Keeffe 83%

Shots:
Connell 4 (none on target)
Keillor-Dunn 3 (2 on target)
Humphrys 2 (none on target)

Best three players from WhoScored:
Roberts
Barratt
Keillor-Dunn

Best three players from Opta:
Connell
Keillor-Dunn
Roberts

 

I agree with Opta I thought Connell made 3/4 wonderful passes and we did naff all with them, Phillips in particular wasting 2 beautiful ones with absolute shocking crosses.

Shout out to Barrett, thought he did well all things considered - I know he belted it out maybe 1 or 2 times when we could have kept possession, but as I say, given the circumstances, no issues with it. No major problems from him - well done lad.

 

Andy Mac has it spot on there. They never looked like they needed to shift up a gear.

I know we’ve had a right old moan about it but none of what we saw tonight can be said to be surprising. We’ve turned in performances like that throughout the season.
We know what the shortcomings are, though they seem to be growing by the week, and chose not to address them in January - even though we’d had 6 months notice to do so.

It’s that last point that tells you everything about where we are as a Club.

 

Roberts needs to learn to throw the ball as high as possible into the air, so that it gives him time to run under it and head it, as he is our best chance of a headed goal.

 

That’s appalling CT. The Charlton stewards have gained a reputation in recent years that is matched only by SY Police.

 

I’d just like to ask Clarke why there is constantly such a drastic drop off in performance in second half of games and I’m talking about losing our shape and any patterns of play seems to go out the window and we look totally clueless.

 

You wouldn't believe that was a team that had just won 3 on the bounce. There was absolutely no belief in that performance at all. They played like they don't believe they are good enough for the play offs. They should have been full of self belief but they displayed none.

 

That was a frustrating watch. But useful to compare against Charlton.

Although they didn’t create tonnes, they had threat. They had more energy and strength and in Small and Campbell they had direct wide threat which should be the base of any Barnsley side.

Aside from the pockets of play where Dunn wants to, and nearly manages to take on the opposition we just look a rabble. No shape, no intensity and little idea just hoping for a break rather than creating a chance.

I did think Barratt showed promise though. Just a pity there are around a dozen centre halves ahead of him in the pecking order!

I’ve seen us play worse and at the end of the day we’ve lost to a single soft goal, but again, I think that papers over the very significant cracks.

 

Many thanks, Wuz.

 

Flatman said in his Lincoln programme notes that season ticket prices will be out in the next couple of weeks.