Vale At The Valley

Tuesday night's late defeat to Bristol Rovers perfectly encapsulated the eternal lifecycle of a Charlton fan. A bit of promise, a set back, hope and finally, defeat and despair! Repeat ad infinitum!

Much like Saturday's loss away to Posh we probably didn't deserve to lose but again, we did. And again defensive lapses and a failure to take more than one chance cost us dear.

Leaving Alfie May to battle away without proper support is costing us dear. The difference when Kanu came on was clear and obvious. He simply must start tomorrow.

May was unfortunate not to score but it was good to see him have a couple of opportunities against a high line defence. With one of them it's inexplicable how the defender didn't see red. 

Further bucking the trend of matches to dates was that only 3 yellow cards were issued to players and that a relatively small amount of time was added on in each half. 

The goals we've conceded to date have all been self-inflicted. Payne gave away a needless free kick and the defence pretty much switched off for the second. I'm off the opinion that sadly, AMB was at fault for both.

Whilst he was credit for a decent save from the free kick I felt he ought to have put it out for a corner. There was always the danger of a rebound and a second bite otherwise. Like the second, I appreciate that he wasn't helped by a soporific defence!

We were presented with a decent start to this season and winning only one of our opening 3 games is a missed opportunity. Losing 2 of them is even worse. We have already lost ground and will have to do so much better if we are to achieve even a play-off spot.

Dean Holden faces some more selection headaches. He would be helped by some much needed additions. I trust that work is going on behind the scenes and that he has been given some reassurance in that regard. 

We've just under 2 weeks to finalise the squad and get it to a position to make a decent fist of challenging at the top of the league.

I assume that we are somewhat hampered by the need to rid ourselves of some of the squad. Some of the poor recruitment decisions made under the previous regime hang over us like a dark cloud.

After conceding 7 goals on the opening day Vale haven't let in another goal in the following 2 league games. Clearly they've sharpened up the defence and so we will need to take any chance we get if we are to get anything from the game.

Equally, whilst Vale haven't been prolific scorers if we have more defensive lapses then we'll come away with nothing.

We have a tricky looking trip to Oxford on the following Saturday before we're back at home against Fleetwood with a finalised squad by which time we'll be clearer on how this season is going to shape up.

Come On You Reds!