Thursday 21 April 2011

Gasheads not looking forward to Saturday

Relegation threatened Bristol Rovers are not looking forward to their encounter with Charlton on Saturday whom they rate as a quality side with quality players. Read more here: Rovers

I've been commuting up and down to London this week so I haven't had much time to read the post mortem on Huddersfield, but broadly speaking there are two schools of thought. One was that it was a quality performance and that we just got caught out by the set piece. The alternative view is that it was two mediocre sides and that it's points not performances that matter.

Looking back to the Curbs days, everyone remembers the Wembley triumph and the automatic promotion and forgets the long years when we were building up the side and sometimes clinging on by our fingertips to what was then Division 1. Apparently the new board has a seven year plan and that's what it's going to take.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A seven year plan for what?
Promotion to the Championship?
Or winning the Champions league?

Anonymous said...

To return to the PL would be a realistic, if a little optimistic plan.

Wyn, I don't recall us struggling to stay in Division 1 under Curbs. We were always safe, even if barring 95-96 we weren't challenging for play offs.

One of the major changes from Curbs' div 1 days to modern day team is the turnaround in the squad over the past 5 years. Under Curbs we had Charlton players at the club, players we could relate to, grow aa affinity towards. Even if they were rubbish at least they tried most of time and were commited to the cause.

Currently the squad has no real identity. All the good young players leave, the old heads are here for a couple of years and there's a huge turnover in the players caught inbetween. The only real player the fans have a song for is Semedo.

Indicative of the instability at the club over recent seasons but it is difficult for fans to relate to players or care about them at all when the squad is rehauled every year. This also makes it far easier for the fans to boo the players after a poor performance. Who cares if they're offended, they're not 'our' players, they'll probably be someone else's players next year. All we're left with to support is the club badge and the ground (oh and Semedo).

Anonymous said...

Very true 'nony'
It seems the chairman wants Powell in for the long haul (let's face it, at any other club his record would have got him sacked)
So he needs to build a team for the long haul.
Oh for the days of Robbo, Hunt, Newton, Rufus, Kinsella, Brown, Kiely, Mendonca.
They were 'proper' Charlton players
................ ;(

Wyn Grant said...

When I checked back the final table positions in the Curbs era were better than I remember which perhaps suggests a pessimism bias! But I do rememmber some nervous moments during seasons, on one occasion a 3-2 win over Wolves was key. As for the seven year plan, I am uncertain what the destination is.