Wednesday 13 August 2008

And so it starts ...

Oh dear. I didn't go to the game last night and was out all evening so didn't end up finding out the result until this morning. My radio alarm woke me up to the news that seven Championship teams had been knocked out of the Carling Cup, including Charlton who were booed off at The Valley after defeat to Yeovil Town. I hit the snooze button and hoped it was all part of a dream. Alas, when I was finally awake the news remained the same.

Mixed reports of the match although not too many positives to take away. A very strange line up by Pardew. Why was he playing Bouazza as a second striker whilst Dickson only came on as a substitute (and Fleetwood didn't come on at all)? Bouazza by all accounts is an out and out winger and Luke Varney really is not a lone striker. I can understand why he chose to rest Hudson but at the same time it only served to highlight the complete lunacy of our lack of cover at centre back with Youga asked to step in on this occasion. This was compounded when Fortune got injured, being replaced by Semedo and thus leaving us with no recognised centre halves on the pitch. There is absolutely no way we can allow this to happen in the league and reinforcements must be sought in this position.

Regardless of the performance, it was disappointing to hear that the booing has resurfaced so quickly. Is it really helpful to a (largely) young group of players who are trying to gel as a team after many of their senior counterparts have departed? It is early in the season and if we're losing faith already then it's going to be a very long and depressing nine months. Now is the time to give the team a chance and show us what they can do. Hopefully Pardew will pick the right eleven to enable them to do this.

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