"He's not happy there mate"

I’ve put off writing anything about Charlton for quite some time now as frankly even the thought of it has pained me. My last post was a preview of the Southampton game and sadly it really has been all downhill from there. I can’t delay any longer however, so here are some thoughts on the past three matches and past three weeks.

To start, how predictably frustrating was the Southampton game? Having secured an excellent result away at Plymouth, it was so very Charlton to put in such a half arsed and limp display against a very poor Saints side. It’s a bit harsh to put attribute too much blame to Darren Randolph for his blunder because frankly we should have had about five at the other end. Remarkably it was still mathematically possible for us to reach the play offs after that game although you certainly wouldn’t have thought it if you were at Loftus Road the following week.

I have to say, I wasn’t overly optimistic on the Central Line on the way to the ground. Loftus Road seemed like quite an enclosed and intimidating ground to go to. However, with a play off place still within reach (just about), I was looking forward to an energetic and gritty performance from the Addicks in attempt to plunder a victory. How wrong could I be. What I witnessed was arguably the worst ninety minutes of football I have seen from a Charlton Athletic side for quite some time. There was absolutely nothing there. The formation was wrong, the players attitude was wrong and the desire to win was almost completely absent. It was quite a sad sight watching Matt Holland try and rouse some kind of energy and motivation from the rest of the players. Kelvin turned round to me during the match and said he would struggle to name one Charlton player who had a decent game and it was difficult to disagree. I enjoyed the warm up and the half time competition more than I did the game.

Saturday’s result at Barnsley was grimly inevitable and frankly the season can not end soon enough now. Lita back to Reading, Cook back to Fulham and time for Pardew to go back to the drawing board. A trip to SE7 on Sunday seems almost entirely pointless, but as my Dad said ‘you’ve paid for the ticket, you may as well go’. So I imagine I will be there with a few other mugs watching us put in the kind of display that will make me not want to renew my season ticket. Credit to the board to extending the free season ticket offer into next year, but they must have made the decision without being too worried at the thought of actually having to cough up having watched our displays this season. I will prolong looking ahead to next season until this one is officially over, but Pardew better have a brilliant plan to make up for the shit awful football he’s made us watch this season. Roll on 4pm Sunday.