Absolutely agree with the general sentiment that we need not panic. Yet, anyway!
The first half yesterday was pretty bad, let's be honest with ourselves. Recent performances, if not results, have shown a tired and perhaps slightly complacent group of players.
Notts County really did a job on us in the first half. Their players movement off the ball was everything ours wasn't. Tireless, intelligent, well drilled and disciplined.
Besides the high tempo start to the second half and our two goals that tempted us all in to believing a come back was possible (for the first ten minutes of the second half we looked like the side who swept all in front of them aside early season) we did run out of legs and ideas and resorted to the long ball route one style that we always seem to when on the back foot.
What really struck me was the lack of players arms going up and actually calling for the ball. The 'sameness' of some of the passing patterns that were simply not working. On more than one occasion both Wagstaff and BWP made incisive runs into very good unmarked positions but the ball was continually played across the midfield in the same predictable way.
We still have a very credible lead over second and third, providing the blip does not become a slide we should pick up enough points (I hope) between now and May to ensure Championship football next season.
In the event that we do go up we will certainly need to strengthen to ensure we don't drop straight back down into this horrible division.
It would be unfair to single out any individual players for their performance yesterday. First half we were all, to a man, dreadful. Hamer looks nervous post Colchester, Stephens has not looked at all the real deal for several games now and BWP despite getting his first ever hat trick recently is still miss firing.
I'd be looking for us to sign two midfielders, a wide man and a central midfielder, a striker to offer BWP some real competition and maybe a defender who again can actually push the back four for a starting place.
My opinion would be for the Scunthorpe game get Hughes or Pritchard back in, give Waggy a starting place with Green on the bench. I'd still start with BWP and Yan up front. I don't think either Clarke or Haynes really have many goals in them. I'd even look at the possibility of recalling Hayes back from Wycombe as a proven and possible realistic alternative to Wright Phillips.
It's never easy being a Charlton supporter. And I'm sure we will see some more twists and turns on our journey back to The Championship, but ultimately I just can't see us dropping out of the top two. A lot will become clearer after the next two games. I just hope that if we don't pick up the four points we'd all expect that the board don't have a rush of blood to the head a la Huddersfield/Sheffield Wednesday.
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