BFTG - Charlton

[Hound]

Don’t agree on Rino - the midfield has been a lot better with Pele/Ejaria/Swift. I’m taking the second half today as a blip

Do agree on Baldock however. The other 4 strikers are all ‘bustlers’ who bully their way through. Baldock’s more intelligent runs and movement would be a genuine different option

[Royality creeps In]

Personally I think it was complacency and I am guilty of that. We have played pretty well recently and we all thought (Players included) that we had to turn up and win with ease.
Problem was Charlton were up for the fight. We should have been out of sight at half time but what with good goalkeeping and a bit of luck somehow they found themselves winning
At the end of the day that result was a bit embarrassing (they weren't that good) and I hope that we learn from it and move onwards and upwards

[Hound]

Yep definitely a bit of that as well

[retro royal]

Agree with most points I've read, thing that's stood out a few times under Gomes, we just totally lose any shape at times and never seem to get it back, even before the subs. I would have subbed Pele at halftime, he was looking chewing for a red card at halftime, maybe that didn't help our second half performance.

All that said fair play to Charlton, I personally thought we'd be a step too far for them today, they defended well and we simply couldn't get through, they looked like a team that knew where to play and their roles, unlike us unfortunately.

[Snowball]

I suspect Bowyer told the team " 94.5% of Reading fans
say they are going to hammer you..."

[Snowflake Royal]

So let me get this straight, Puscas hits the bar, fires wide, and gets through on a one 2 one forcing the keeper to make a good save, and is being branded has dreadful, while Joao does the sum total of fukk all and he`s being marked up higher that Puscas, what strange fans we have.

Yes, as others have said, missed chances, didn’t do much else. Dreadful today.

Left very isolated. I'll take a striker who can get on three top chances a game on an off day for sure.

At least he looked up for it, unlike Joao who had that one shot and then a few nice dribbles that ended in nowt.

They'll win us games though.

[Oilroyal]

Just back from the game.

I waked into the stadium and sensed our fans were reserved. I’m not sure if that was down to us being quietly confident or just apprehension. I got the exact same feeling from our players. Just like our fans who failed to out-sing Charlton’s away support so gave up, our players did much the same as they tried and failed to outsmart Charlton.

Credit to Lee Bowyer who had us sussed. Even though I thought we still had enough quality to pull something out of nowhere, even a draw. The problem was, today not one Reading player was on his A game. Not one of them.

Omar, Pele, Yiadom, Tom Mc and Morrison all with 6’s
The rest: 5's
Thought Joao had a poor game: 4 (4 because of his half-arsed attitude)

Left the stadium thinking that maybe this performance will do Jose a some good in the long run.

[Ascotexgunner]

Just out of interest, why do so many on here have it in for Club 1871?
They've been brilliant all three home games I think. Just seems odd to criticize your own fans who are trying to make a difference.

[Bristol Paul]

Just out of interest, why do so many on here have it in for Club 1871?
They've been brilliant all three home games I think. Just seems odd to criticize your own fans who are trying to make a difference.

Can’t see any negative comments about them on here, just that they were out sung, which they were by a larger Charlton section.

[OldBiscuit]

So let me get this straight, Puscas hits the bar, fires wide, and gets through on a one 2 one forcing the keeper to make a good save, and is being branded has dreadful, while Joao does the sum total of fukk all and he`s being marked up higher that Puscas, what strange fans we have.

[Zip]

So let me get this straight, Puscas hits the bar, fires wide, and gets through on a one 2 one forcing the keeper to make a good save, and is being branded has dreadful, while Joao does the sum total of fukk all and he`s being marked up higher that Puscas, what strange fans we have.

So let me get this straight. Puscas misses two sitters and does oxf*rd all in the rest of the game and you don’t get why he he gets branded as dreadful today. I’m not sure we are the strange ones here.

[Lower West]

I felt that had we scored that game would have been ours, I wasn't happy with the substitions as it just felt like we lost our shape and Meite was so desperate to score from RWB it was just too predictable.

Would have preferred to swap Puscas for Rinomhota and gain some solidity through the middle but would have been unpopular given we were a goal down. We can't expect Ejaria to play with this much energy all season either!

We miss Rinomhota’s drive and energy. He really needs to start against Boro

The 5-3-2 formation is perfect playing away. Need to be a bit more adventurous at home.

[Zip]

I felt that had we scored that game would have been ours, I wasn't happy with the substitions as it just felt like we lost our shape and Meite was so desperate to score from RWB it was just too predictable.

Would have preferred to swap Puscas for Rinomhota and gain some solidity through the middle but would have been unpopular given we were a goal down. We can't expect Ejaria to play with this much energy all season either!

We miss Rinomhota’s drive and energy. He really needs to start against Boro

The 5-3-2 formation is perfect playing away. Need to be a bit more adventurous at home.

Yes especially as we catch teams on the counter when we are away from home. Not so easy to do this when are playing at home.

[Stevie G]

Just out of interest, why do so many on here have it in for Club 1871?
They've been brilliant all three home games I think. Just seems odd to criticize your own fans who are trying to make a difference.

Can’t see any negative comments about them on here, just that they were out sung, which they were by a larger Charlton section.

1871 are a credit and are the loudest part of the homebase, but the stadium noise was dominated by Charlton pretty much from the start less a handful of brief spells. Their drummer's tempo appeared to be a bit of a lead for them, quite often banging on between spells of chanting.

"94.5% of home fans expected a win" and Adie, who anticipated a walk in the park.

So much negativity on the radio afterwards. Please lighten up, today was still part of the stellar improvement that's been made over what's been served up for the last few years

[Singing Defective]

Taking off your defenders replacing them all with strikers isn’t a plan B.

+10m
Jesus H Christ what a sh!t show. Even Swift gave up in about the 87 Minute carrying the “team”.

Ah well, probably we’ll escape relegation again.

Oh, and Meite, we know we know you’ve had a rough deal. But..

[Singing Defective]

Just out of interest, why do so many on here have it in for Club 1871?
They've been brilliant all three home games I think. Just seems odd to criticize your own fans who are trying to make a difference.

Can’t see any negative comments about them on here, just that they were out sung, which they were by a larger Charlton section.

1871 are a credit and are the loudest part of the homebase, but the stadium noise was dominated by Charlton pretty much from the start less a handful of brief spells. Their drummer's tempo appeared to be a bit of a lead for them, quite often banging on between spells of chanting.

"94.5% of home fans expected a win" and Adie, who anticipated a walk in the park.

So much negativity on the radio afterwards. Please lighten up, today was still part of the stellar improvement that's been made over what's been served up for the last few years

Can I have some of what you’ve been smoking, pretty please?

[Royal_jimmy]

Now I've calmed down somewhat here's my take.

1) we lost to a limited but hard working and co ordinated side

2) we showed little in our play that we did our homework on Charlton

3) why the oxf*rd did we let an away side bring a drummer into the ground? We're never allowed drums at away games. It gave Charlton an atmosphere and clearly made a difference. The club should never do that. Others clubs don't so why should we? Thought it was ridiculous.

4) we were poor. Not one player did well really bar maybe Rafael. Who got a 6. Everyone else 3-5s

5) Charlton won't be anywhere near the top 6.

6) Reminded me of Bolton except they'll be mid table at best. They had no quality whatsoever. Not to take anything away from them. We had more class. We just showed up expecting to win and were sucker punched. Their negative anti-football tactics won them that. We weren't outclassed. Just had a poor day at the office. They'll be found out with those tactics and I think they'd have lost 3-4-0 against a better side like Leeds, Swansea or West Brom.

7) we aren't a top 6 team. Mid table would be a good achievement. Just need to keep our best players.

[Bristol Paul]

Now I've calmed down somewhat here's my take.

1) we lost to a limited but hard working and co ordinated side

2) we showed little in our play that we did our homework on Charlton

3) why the oxf*rd did we let an away side bring a drummer into the ground? We're never allowed drums at away games. It gave Charlton an atmosphere and clearly made a difference. The club should never do that. Others clubs don't so why should we? Thought it was ridiculous.

4) we were poor. Not one player did well really bar maybe Rafael. Who got a 6. Everyone else 3-5s

5) Charlton won't be anywhere near the top 6. Reminded me of Bolton except they'll be mid table at best. They had no quality whatsoever. Not to take anything away from them. We had more class. We just showed up expecting to win and were sucker punched. Their negative anti-football tactics won them that. We weren't outclassed. Just had a poor day at the office.

6) we aren't a top 6 team

Agree with all this

[fred sharpes nose]

First game of the season for me

First half - very impressed - held the 3/5/2 shape well, high energy and confidence, thought we were the better side but Charlton contained us where in mattered in the box. Clearly 9 of 11 players looked very good. We seemed to get more frustrated at things not happening as the half progressed and ended the half worse than we started IMO

Half time - me confident of victory, my point was either our front two Joao and Puscas were poor today, or our midfield/wingbacks are overplaying and not bringing them into the game . Result - the front 2 were disconnected with each other (not the Kitson /Doyle patnership yet) and importantly the rest of the team. The pair were not making it happen for each other either

Manager Team Talk Bonus - Gomes clearly lost this one to Bowyer

Second half - sloppy start (how often has this happened) and downhill thereafter. By the end I was really really unimpressed with Joao and Puscas - looked unfit and beaten well before the end. For all their good attacking play the wingbacks need to make it count more - especially Yiadom. Ovie and Swift need to be less fancy and more swift (no pun intended) with the strikers offering more movement

Subs - both entrants ok - Joao and Pusacas should have been hooked. By the end our shape was ramshackle and we got overrun - everyone playing up front created space they exploited and then game over

This was a game we let slip away - Gomes got some big decisions wrong - question marks over some attitudes/egos, but a talented bunch. Top 10 should be possible if we become a real effective team - we are not there yet; 2 or 3 players need to get their heads in gear

[Jackson Corner]

Fairly even first half second half all charlton they were better with and especially without the ball did not give us anytime on the ball pressing high up we could not cope. And just gave the ball away time after time. Agree about the strikers Puscas was dreadful please god not another big money flop. While Joao showed why he warmed the bench at Sheffield Wednesday useless.