In The Bleak Midwinter!

 It really doesn’t come as a surprise now as Charlton managed to concede yet another late goal as their winless run continues. 

It’s no surprise that Appleton post-match chose to ignore the poor defending and late goal as he opted instead to praise the team for its resilience! Yes, really!

A poor Port Vale side managed have 29 shots. That’s shocking and further underlines our current level of defending and lack of desire from a number of our players.

Vale’s third goal was pretty much a carbon copy of Oxford’s late New Year’s Day winner. A failure to close down quickly enough affording their player time and space to fire home from distance.

Week after week the manager seemingly ignores the need to work on our defensive frailties. A number of the team are apathetic about it, they must be as nothing changes.

Why would you worry as a player anyway? Doing things wrong will probably earn you the sort of mild rebuke that Fletcher used to get from Mr Barrowclough!

The one thing Appleton did get right on Saturday was to restore Louie Watson to the starting eleven bizarrely after having publicly criticised him earlier in the week.

One might think that was to gee up the Luton loanee ahead of the game but to do so gives our manager way too much credit. In any case it was uncalled for.

He remains tactically inept and lacks any game plan or game management. Those in charge need to bite the bullet, acknowledge their colossal mistake and get rid!

In the meantime, they are busy fire fighting by getting players in on loan one of whom who’s been injured and requires a gentle introduction in to matches! You couldn’t make it up!

Further to this I note that we’ve supposedly agreed a fee for Clarke-Harris. All well and good but he has yet to agree terms.

It has been shown that improving a team’s position (if not performance) relates more directly to the amount of money spent on salary as opposed to that spent on transfer fees. Therefore, the owners need to back up (to a reasonable extent) the transfer fee.

Despite what Appleton has said about reaching the play-offs we all know that dream has flown. Of immediate concern is the very real threat of dropping into the relegation places. Looking further ahead we need to now try and build for next season.

It doesn’t appear to matter who owns us, none of them ever seems to have sufficient self-awareness to know that talk is cheap.

Premier League in 5 years etc. and all the guff that Scott spouted in one of his first interviews.

In his most recent he acknowledged that it had been an horrendous December in terms of results (he might have included performances in that as it’s not just the former is it?).

On the back of that we’re going to give the clueless one a transfer window! Marvellous!

As ever, in this latest interview Scott isn’t asked if they had considered Appleton’s position or was he under pressure or what the manager intended to do to address the decline.

Growing up in South London propaganda used to mean having a good look at something. These days it refers to the communications coming out of our club!

Whilst Appleton remains at the helm and with the upcoming fixtures starting with Posh on Saturday, it’s hard to see things improving any time soon. I really hope I’m wrong.

It really doesn’t come as a surprise now as Charlton managed to concede yet another late goal as their winless run continues.

 

It’s no surprise that Appleton post-match chose to ignore the poor defending and late goal as he opted instead to praise the team for its resilience! Yes, really!

 

A poor Port Vale side managed have 29 shots. That’s shocking and further underlines our current level of defending and lack of desire from a number of our players.

 

Vale’s third goal was pretty much a carbon copy of Oxford’s late New Year’s Day winner. A failure to close down quickly enough affording their player time and space to fire home from distance.

 

Week after week the manager seemingly ignores the need to work on our defensive frailties. A number of the team are apathetic about it, they must be as nothing changes.

 

Why would you worry as a player anyway? Doing things wrong will probably earn you the sort of mild rebuke that Fletcher used to get from Mr Barrowclough!

 

The one thing Appleton did get right on Saturday was to restore Louie Watson to the starting eleven bizarrely after having publicly criticised him earlier in the week.

 

One might think that was to gee up the Luton loanee ahead of the game but to do so gives our manager way too much credit. In any case it was uncalled for.

 

He remains tactically inept and lacks any game plan or game management. Those in charge need to bite the bullet, acknowledge their colossal mistake and get rid!

 

In the meantime, they are busy fire fighting by getting players in on loan one of whom who’s been injured and requires a gentle introduction in to matches! You couldn’t make it up!

 

Further to this I note that we’ve supposedly agreed a fee for Clarke-Harris. All well and good but he has yet to agree terms.

 

It has been shown that improving a team’s position (if not performance) relates more directly to the amount of money spent on salary as opposed to that spent on transfer fees. Therefore, the owners need to back up (to a reasonable extent) the transfer fee.

 

Despite what Appleton has said about reaching the play-offs we all know that dream has flown. Of immediate concern is the very real threat of dropping into the relegation places. Looking further ahead we need to now try and build for next season.

 

It doesn’t appear to matter who owns us, none of them ever seems to have sufficient self-awareness to know that talk is cheap.

 

Premier League in 5 years etc. and all the guff that Scott spouted in one of his first interviews.

 

In his most recent he acknowledged that it had been an horrendous December in terms of results (he might have included performances in that as it’s not just the former is it?).

 

On the back of that we’re going to give the clueless one a transfer window! Marvellous!

 

As ever, in this latest interview Scott isn’t asked if they had considered Appleton’s position or was he under pressure or what the manager intended to do to address the decline.

 

Growing up in South London propaganda used to mean having a good look at something. These days it refers to the communications coming out of our club!

 

Whilst Appleton remains at the helm and with the upcoming fixtures starting with Posh on Saturday, it’s hard to see things improving any time soon. I really hope I’m wrong.