CAFC 0 v 12 Man Millwall 0

Reffing Useless

The signs weren't good. Prior to kick off and Stroud and his assistants engaged in some bizarre warm up sprints that took place in the centre circle of attention. It looked as ridiculous at the officials performances that followed. 

Stroud's intention not to be ignored was made even more clear by the retake of the kick off. It was a pointless  and unnecessary piece of officiating - the first of many. The fool even manged to get in the way on at least two occasions and did a better job of breaking up the Addicks attacks than the lumps in Millwall's back line.

Sadly, he didn't concern himself in dealing with many of Millwall's cynical fouls. Stroud also saw fit not to red card Gregory for an awful foul on Rudd but later thought throwing the ball was worthy of a second yellow for Tex. Strictly speaking in that respect he was right but it overlooks a great deal of provocation.

My thoughts on Morison are worse than our hapless referee. An irritating c... er chap to say the least. He got away with murder. The journeyman footballer who is clearly not good enough to play above League One level is short on ability and long on obnoxiousness.

The draw was probably about the right result given The Loins missed several clear cut chances but the disallowed goal that capped Stroud's dismal display meant that we went unrewarded again. 

Neither he nor the lino could have seen anything and if they'd waited a few seconds the lack of protest from Millwall's players would have told them that there was nothing wrong with it.

All that aside one has to look at overall performance. Again possession was good and we won that stat but not the most important one of course.

The ball was played out from the back more than we've seen in most games this season and certainly anything we saw under Slade who was all long ball to Big Josh. The ball was passed around a lot although frequently still not quickly enough and often to little effect.

The early loss of Josh and Page did little to help matters but I'm not sure Robinson picked the best starting eleven anyway. To give a debut to a player who'd not played for a while in a game like this wasn't perhaps the best decision. We also lacked height against a big physical team.

I think I'd have brought Holmes on ahead of Da Silva who apparently was thought to be a good target for some of Rudd's goalkicks !

Watt was blowing out of his backside almost immediately and in any case is clearly not suited to playing as the one up front in a 4-2-3-1 formation, However, Robinson never saw fit to change things at all. Admittedly his options were limited but he made things hard for himself by not having a fully fit striker, Hanlan for example, on the bench.

My concern over Robinson's inability to have an alternative to his preferred style remains. He needs to be able to change things sometimes but doesn't seem willing or able to. That will be further tested next week not only against better opposition but as a result of suspension and injury.

It seems almost certain that Konsa will need to drop back into defence and one assumes that Ulvestad or Forster-Caskey will come into midfield. 

It would be a major surprise if Watt were to start the game so that leaves Hanlan or a fit again Novak to do so one assumes

All areas of the football club will be busy this week as it prepares to take on the team second from top.