Time To Steady The Ship

 " What's a pirate's favourite letter? "

" R ! "

" No, a pirate's first love is the C ! "

That remains one of my favourite jokes. We need a bit of humour (when don't we as Charlton fans) as the early excitement has evaporated following two successive defeats.

Tonight we face The Pirates and we need a performance and more importantly result to calm things down.

There's an increasing sense of both frustration and disappointment especially as we were told targets were identified. The need for a striker has been obvious for some time. We've been incredibly patient with the new owners but on this they've maintained a radio silence.

It's annoying as our early fixtures have offered a chance to put down a marker. We can dismiss the cup game, I'm not overly fussed about going out of that. However, had we acquired a half decent striker to support May then we probably would have come away with at least a point on Saturday.

The Posh really didn't impress me much but the one goal they got always looked like being enough given our lightweight attack.

We are so reliant on CBT instigating nearly every offensive action and it's so predictable and easy to nullify. Any aerial cross is usually cut out given our diminutive strike force.

I was disappointed with our approach against Orient given that they played such a high line defensively but I can't recall us playing May in behind them. It seemed the obvious thing to do.

Charlie needs to come out and reassure us that there is a plan of action other than wait for a few more days and we end up shopping at lastminute.com again!

Of course, it's more than just a striker we need. That has also been quite evident for some time. The new rules mean that we will see many more player suspensions given that yellow cards are being handed out like confetti. 

I'm sure the intentions are good but it's gone too far. Players and indeed managers are getting carded for the most trivial things. That allied to our fondness for long term injuries doesn't bode well for our weak and thin squad.

In addition, we are now seeing games last longer than ever. I agree with the aim to reduce the time the ball is out of play but the knock on effect of prolonging games is something that needs attention.

On Saturday the second half didn't kick off until 4.10pm and the game finished at 5.05pm. Not so much of an issue with a 3pm kick off but for evening games it will have an impact of fans travel.

For those of us who live a bit further away evening games mean not getting home until at least midnight. The extra time that will now be added on is likely to push that back even further.

Clubs ought to look to bring forward evening kick offs to 7.30pm in order to help alleviate the travel difficulties.

Tonight's opponents have drawn both their opening league games which is pretty decent when one considers they were against Pompey and Barnsley. We are going to have to be on top of our game and probably need a bit of luck if we are to get anything tonight.

We live in hope and this time last season I travelled down to the Valley for the game versus Plymouth not expecting much. We ran out 5-1 winners and a repeat of that would be very welcome (I can but dream!).

Come On You Reds!