Fleetwood At Home

It’s back to The Valley tomorrow as The Addicks face a Fleetwood side buoyed by the acquisition of a couple of new players most notably Jayden Stockley, formerly of this parish.

Fortunes took a dive for Jayden this season with the ever changing manager and perhaps more relevant, his role in the team doing little to help him.

A shame really as he was a committed player and one who is more than capable at this level. I expect him to do well for The Fishermen and his goal on debut will have done his confidence the world of good.

I’m sure most of us have a bet that has him to score at some stage tomorrow!

Adding to the firepower is Jack Marriott who also arrived in the January transfer window. The experienced striker was bought from Peterborough. However, he facing strong competition for a starting place from Omochere who has scored twice in the last two games.

          

Town lost a close game to Burton last weekend but got a good result in midweek as they overcame Wednesday in the cup. They now face a fifth round tie away to Burnley.

Hopefully, that will have taken something out of them and they will have half a mind on that but it’s unlikely.

As for the Addicks, I think that Leaburn needs to be recalled to the starting eleven. Bonne hasn’t looked great for the last two games and Miles makes things happen. We seem to carry a greater threat with him on the pitch.

I’d like to see Campbell start too. Whilst CBT scored a good goal on Saturday he isn’t consistent enough and far too often makes the wrong decision and fails to get his crosses in early.

Our on loan left back has yet to impress to date but Penney, for his faults, faces little competition and will probably hold on to his plaice. ( 2 for the price of 1 there!)

One assumes that Kilkenny will start after his fine debut last week. He is a better bet then Morgan if we’re honest.

The departures of O’Connell and Lavelle means that Inniss is likely to keep his place. He is always a worry as there’s always an error or bad tackle in there somewhere and he plays his games on a knife edge.

Thankfully, Holden has a pragmatic approach in respect of our defenders who are clearly told not to mess about at the back and simply get rid. At times it looks horrible but is way better than the alternative of conceding another soft and embarrassing goal!

Holden has been superb in all aspects of his management. We have a diamond in him. Sadly, whether he goes to Town (quite literally) or not, unless we sort a decent contract for him backed up by sensible plans he’ll not be with us for long!

The silence from Sandgaard and anyone remotely connected with the club’s ownership only prolongs the agony that us fans have suffered for far too long.

If Sandgaard had any real feeling for our club then everything else aside he would have sought out decent owners and made a sensible and decent proposal. Clearly, he hasn’t and worst of all seems desperate to retain some involvement in the club as he attempts, like Liz Truss, to have some relevance…..oh dear!

All we can do is keep supporting the team but only upto a point. When it comes to next season, if things haven’t improved then fans will need to vote with their feet and not buy season tickets as Dave from Drinking During The Game ( https://drinkingduringthegame.blogspot.com ) advises in the latest of his excellent posts.

I didn’t renew this year after nearly 25 years of season tickets. This was as a result of Sandgaard’s ownership, lack of investment and also the ludicrously high price of the ticket itself.

Anyway, in the meantime, I’m looking forward to another good game tomorrow where I expect Stockley to score but us to win!

Come On You Reds!

Breaking The Club To Break Even

No real surprises in the latest lacklustre transfer window. As far as CAFC is concerned there’s no point in being any more specific in stating January as the summer one is always just as bad.

Even to most cynical amongst us could not have anticipated the extent to which players were to be sold or loaned out.

Several players have been shipped out and two moved on permanently. I suppose one should be pleased that Leaburn, Ness or similar have been retained.

Stockley’s departure was no surprise as opposed to O’Connell’s. Jayden wasn’t really getting a look in and was out of form and no where near the player he was last season.

He really wasn’t helped by the changing managers and subsequently formations. He and will no doubt score against us for a now strengthened Fleetwood side who did some good business.

O’Connell’s move is a real shock as he’s been playing well and is certainly better than Inniss and Lavelle although he too moved on.

Those players we did recruit are all only here until the end of May so there’s nothing to get excited about.

Blatantly there has been no attempt to disguise that fact that this was all about cost cutting. No one is stupid enough to believe there is any plan to build for the future.  

The silence from Sandgaard, the recruitment team or even the tea lady tells you all you need to know. I guess Holden will be required to sugar coat things later today.

We are considerably weaker now than we were in December. The season might as well end now. Hopefully we won’t go down although injuries to our remaining centre halves could cause problems.

Comment from Banjo Man about transfers aside we’ve not heard anything more regarding the potential takeover whether it be 80 or 100%. It really is a farce and unbelievably he seems to be doing more damage than Duchatelet.

As we now know Sandgaard isn’t one to admit his mistakes so we can’t expect him to acknowledge his failings and just go quiet in that good night to paraphrase a more astute Thomas by the name of Dylan.

All the euphoria that surrounded the cup game at Old Trafford has long since evaporated. All the good will that could have engendered gone in a flash!

At season’s end we’ll be left with a collection of players out of contract and/or favour with little to no motivation nor reason to stay in S.E.7.   

Potentially we’ll start the 23/24 season with the club in the state it’s perhaps ever been in. We’ll probably be odds on to go down. That is unless Sandgaard does a U-turn and decides to invest both time and money in the club or we get someone with both money and business sense who is keen to do things properly.

At present both those options seem a million miles away. What can we do about it? The ironic answer is sweet FA!

Protesting seems a pointless exercise. Thomas doesn’t bother to come over anymore and does nothing but pay lip-service when he does and his son is equally uncaring despite being employed by the club.

All in all it’s a very depressing scenario but that’s been the case for years now and we should be used to it. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt of course as clearly is does to anyone who cares about our great club.

All we can do is to cling on in the hope that sunnier days lie ahead however long we have to wait for them!