Plymouth Argyle 2 Charlton Athletic 0

Wake up call..

Karl Robinson complained on Tuesday that our second string should have had the game wrapped up by half-time and back in Devon it was the same story today with our first XI as we went down to our first defeat of the season in front of a good turnout of Addicks at Home Park.

1st half we played well, good possession, attacked well and Luke McCormick performed heroics, but we should have been ahead at the break. Back from injury Josh Magennis had a couple of golden opportunities, and Clarke had a shot cleared off the line. Nonetheless it was a good half and a decent match at the break.

Second 45 we paid for those chances as the Pilgrims worked out our plan A, frustrated us, grew in confidence and took the lead, and in remnants of past seasons once we went behind we never looked like getting back into the game. Plymouth wrapped the game up in the dying minutes of normal time.

The end of Watt

At Charlton at least. According to Rich Cawley the enigmatic Scottishman travelled to Belgium today to sign for 2nd Division side OH Leuven. Watt is in his last year of his Addicks’ contract and it is unsure whether Charlton can cash in with a fee or the 23-year old goes on a season long loan leaving him a free agent in the summer.

This will be Watt’s third time in Belgium and his 9th club and this stop off in Flanders has to be his last chance to form some sort of prolonged career for himself.

Shambles

Another farcical Carabao Cup draw last night, with our tie and three others home and away venues being mixed up. We were drawn at home to Norwich, but then it was apparent that we should have been away.

Norwich were seeded, as were Brentford, Crystal Palace and Watford and they each had their ties around the wrong way. Among the confusion the dopey TV hosts also appeared to forget that both Newport and West Ham were meant to play away due to home ground issues.

Exeter City 1 Charlton Athletic 2

Come on the 10 men..

Dirty old Charlton turned around a 1-0 deficit to beat a good League Two side 2-1 last night with seven academy graduates on the field.

There were some excellent performances from some of our youngsters as we played some fine attacking football, which should have really had the game done and dusted before City took the lead. But sub Billy Clarke equalized and then one of the young guns 20-year old Regan Charles-Cook calmly slotted in the winner.

A whole new eleven

That’s what Karl Robinson said on Saturday for tonight’s Carabao‎ Cup game down in Exeter. By the way I thought a Carabao was a water buffalo, but in fact a Carabao‎ is a Thai energy drink. Who knew.

Anyway a whole different eleven is not easy to do, and only two will travel that were involved on Saturday, but I will have a try before Karl does his video nasty in an hour or so.

Charlton Athletic 1 Bristol Rovers 0

Plucky little Charlton..

Three words to warm your hearts. A well deserved victory yesterday where despite being down to 10 men from the 7th minute, Charlton battled like soldiers but continued to show attacking intent with Tariqe Fosu and Ricky Holmes outstanding. Billy Clarke ran his socks off as Robinson decided against replacing Novak like for like, but instead Ahmed Kashi and Jake Forster-Caskey allowed Clarke, Holmes and Fosu to play further forward preventing the age-old Charlton problem of sitting back on the lead that Patrick Bauer gave us in the 38th minute.

Christmas Eve

In the Karl Robinson house, but of course all football fans understand that analogy very well.

This is easily the most positive pre-season we have had in the Duchatelet-Meire era, not that it’s difficult, but keeping faith in Robinson was a positive. He is marmite of course and can’t stop talking, but one can’t fail to see his commitment to the club and his passion and energy. 

Words are easy, and actions do speak louder, but when we’ve been used to a complete lack of communication and when we were spoken to, we were given mostly lies, or we had head coaches not able to make any connection with fans whatsoever.