A Critical Week

Pompey at home on Saturday then. Should be a cracking fixture. I ought to be so looking forward to it with an air of expectation and excitement but I don’t! 

Previous owners have somewhat numbed the joy of watching Charlton over the years but at least you could feel some sense of excitement and real association with a Chris Powell team or a Lee Bowyer side on its way to the play off final and beyond. 

Sadly, with a new and decent owner and many aspects of the club in better shape than for some time the old buzz hasn’t completely returned.

The matchday experience is a mixture of various factors. Meeting up with friends and relatives. Having a few beers. Having a laugh (a sense of humour is a pre-requisite for the Charlton fan). Cheering the team on. Celebrating good football and quite often, the bizarre!

This season, even after all that Covid deprived us of, I still don’t feel like I did. I have to say that is largely down to the awful football I’ve seen from us.

I’m sitting in the most expensive seat in the league and the football doesn’t match it.

It’s like going to the Ritz, being charged their prices only for the waiter to bring you a McDonalds meal! I just want to see some decent and entertaining football. We do have the players to deliver that. 

Even with the backing of Roddy there clear evidence of where we are in the league won’t save Adkins as patient as Thomas is. 

Our owner won’t want to lose face but more importantly he won’t want to nor can he afford to lose a small fortune. Adkins isn’t immune from the tin-tack. 

The performance tomorrow is important more so than the result to an extent. If players are giving 100% but fall short then fine. A poor display and a defeat and things could get toxic. 

That wouldn’t be pleasant and no one wants to see that. 

There little point in trying to guess the starting eleven since we’ve had 6 and 7 changes respectively in the last two games. All of which suggests that the manager still doesn’t know what his best line up is. 

As confusing as that is for us fans, it must be just as bad for the players. In particular, the constant changing of the defence won’t help at all. 

One senses that we are even further into last chance saloon territory. 

A minimum of four points from the next two games against Pompey and Bolton would go a long way to giving Adkins some leeway. 

Come On You Reds!