Underwhelming

I took an American guest to see the Brakes in 2-0 against Bedford Town yesterday and maintain their 4th spot in the table and then to the Skydome to see Coventry Blaze win 4-3 in an exciting game against Cardiff Devils which maintained their top place in the table. So I didn't follow the Charlton game apart from getting the result. When I read the posts on the Glynne Jones list this morning, two points were noticeable: first, there were relatively few posts, as is usually the case when we win as it is harder to moan (although some always succeed); second, the impression was of an underwhelming performance.

Well, you have to beat who is in front of you and Charlton narrowed the gap on Leeds who look anything but invicible. There has been a lot of talking up of our play-off rivals in recent weeks, but Huddersfield lost at Gillingham; the Spanners could only manage a draw at Walsall; and Swindon, supposedly the on form team, were beaten 4-0 at home by rivals Bristol Rovers. Colchester play on Monday and Norwich look as if they are powering away to the title.

When I looked at the stats, I saw that we only had 52 per cent of the possession and had just two goal attemps on target, although we led goal attempts by 10 to 7. But perhaps what summed those was an effort by substitute Deon Burton whose headed effort from just inside the box went over the goal.

It's a concern that Jackson had to be taken off, apparently with a hamstring injury. Let's hope we don't have yet another left back crisis. Richardson was below his best, but may be carrying an injury and that may also help to explain what was apparently a disappointing performance by Sam.

Looking for positives, Reid is clearer getting fitter and sharper and it was his cross that created the first goal obligingly scored by Owen Goal. Akpo Sodje gets a lot of stick, but he has now scored five goals in seven starts.