Cheltenham Town v Charlton Athletic

[Si Robin]

Didn't hear who won motm, Am hoping it was Jordan Thomas as he was the only one who lifted the mood

He did win it.

I don't understand the reticence to 'protect' Thomas or ease him in gradually.

He's been playing in the National League South so does not have the transition from Academy to mens football problem that we often have with loan youngsters. The rough and tumble should not be a shock to him.

And he's not that young. Only a year younger than Lloyd and Bonds and we don't seem to want to nurse either of them. And he's a full FIVE years older than Jayden Danns who Klopp thinks is old enough to scoring in front of the Kop.

Let's play him.

Judging by what DC said after the Burton game, it's not so much protecting him as him not being up to the relevant fitness levels as he's come from part-time football.

[Jim]

Felt we lacked any control last night, especially in the first half. As DC said in his post-match, it was chaos at times and we couldn't get to grips with the game. We were much better 2nd half for spells, but I didn't understand some of the selection decisions. I'm sure DC has his reasons, i.e. he wanted more pace in the back three and didn't trust Smith from the start, but moving Long and using Kinsella at RWB didn't work IMO.

I thought Bonds was pretty poor again, especially on the ball. He seems to need a second or two longer than any other player and gets caught too regularly. If not caught, he hurries a wayward pass and gives away possession that way. Kinsella needs to play the rest of the season in CM, he's the only one with real energy.

I thought Pett was good again, not just his usual deep-lying playmaker stuff, but tracking back and putting in some great last-ditch tackles. Definitely my MoM.

We somehow need to swing our performance levels back to where they were a few weeks ago, but it's hard to see how especially with the added injuries. It looks like the Nuttall gamble hasn't paid off so we potentially only have 2 strikers who have a grand total of 2 goals all season.

Bonds is best as people say, when he is destructive. Ratting around tackling and breaking up play. Pett has almost taken up that role. Whether we swap and push Pett further up, or we go 4 2 3 1 and they both shield the defence as a 2. But getting a bit late to experiment. Harrop, Sercs Thomas and Kinsella could rotate in the 3.

But as many managers say performance isn't about the formation.

We may have to go for a one up front with injuries. 4 at the back could be an option too, especially with Ferry out who struggles to fit into a 4-3-3 type system. Something like Southwood; Long, Davies, Freestone, Williams; Pett, Kinsella; Thomas, Sercs, Harrop; Lloyd. That are we keep the 5 at the back and use two 10s (Sercs and Harrop/Thomas) behind one striker. Only DC knows, but he might need to get creative with the squad looking threadbare if Ferry and Taylor are out for a while.

[horlickfanclub]

Didn't hear who won motm, Am hoping it was Jordan Thomas as he was the only one who lifted the mood

He did win it.

I don't understand the reticence to 'protect' Thomas or ease him in gradually.

He's been playing in the National League South so does not have the transition from Academy to mens football problem that we often have with loan youngsters. The rough and tumble should not be a shock to him.

And he's not that young. Only a year younger than Lloyd and Bonds and we don't seem to want to nurse either of them. And he's a full FIVE years older than Jayden Danns who Klopp thinks is old enough to scoring in front of the Kop.

Let's play him.

Judging by what DC said after the Burton game, it's not so much protecting him as him not being up to the relevant fitness levels as he's come from part-time football.

Looks like he could run about for an hour and get us ahead.

[1985CTFC]

Looking back in hindsight. They came at us fast and furious. That is how N Jones has them playing at least for the last 4 games. Ran us ragged until they scored. As mentioned in hindsight maybe we should have tried to weather the storm and kept our shape better and defended deeper.Not DC's ethos but if we could have got to halftime 0-0 and then had a go like we did do after the break things may have been different. To late now I know and hindsight is wonderful. Just wonder whether we were expecting their high tempo start.
Always a dilemma when in our situation, full guns blazing approach or caution and try and nick one.
At least Oxford are not pulling up trees at the moment. Barnsley are.
Pressure on Oxford as well to get a result.

[paperboy]

It would be a dereliction of duty if we're not looking to see if we can sign a short term deal for a striker.

Surely we can tempt someone with 2 months wages plus a League 1 status brucie bonus.

[Fuller]

It would be a dereliction of duty if we're not looking to see if we can sign a short term deal for a striker.

Surely we can tempt someone with 2 months wages plus a League 1 status brucie bonus.

Is there a cut off point for signing out of contract players? I did think it was the end of February but can’t find any info.
Probably no money left in the budget anyway.
How we wish Street had stayed fit and we didn’t need to sell Goodwin. And could have kept Thompson.
Oh well.

[Si Robin]

The deadline is mid-March, though I can't find an exact date.

[Fuller]

The deadline is mid-March, though I can't find an exact date.

If Matty is out for a while, will we take a punt?
Doubt it somehow.
As Wardy often said. “ We’ll go with what we’ve got.”
But we haven’t got much.

[Braziliance]

Evening again Robins, Chartlon fan in peace.

Just wanted to share my thoughts and link my vlog here for anyone interested. I ended up speaking with Nick Jordan through pure chance and what an absolute gent he is, and by all accounts sounds like a total legend.

I think you're unfortunate in the timing of playing us, we are on a bit of a new manager bounce and have a lot of players avaliable. Had we still had the incompetent Appleton, there's no doubt in my mind we would have lost that game.

I truly wish you the best in staying up and hope you can do it at the expense of the Salops. Still think you have a chance with Clarke who's a very decent manager at this level, and you have some decent players despite the injuries. I reckon you'll finish 20th and avoid the drop. At least I hope that's the outcome as I feel we really owe you one for May, hopefully we can beat the teams you need us to beat at the very least as some compensation, as 250k for May was a steal.

Link to the vlog is here: https://youtu.be/9-czHssx5i8?si=vvMeTJokg4Mix5RA

For those interested. There's a bit of light hearted banter in there but I'm not to be taken seriously, I just like to try and make the vlogs entertaining if the game is going slow.

All the best and will of course follow your results. Have a nice week Robins