Not good enough

Charlton went down 1-2 to Huddersfield at The Valley last night to give the visitors their first win of the season and it is difficult to complain about the result. We played less well than we did against Rotherham and Huddersfield were better than them.

We were disjointed and once again our play lacked urgency. We need to seize opportunities with a high tempo, rather than allowing the opposition time to get all their players behind the ball.

Huddersfield started the game at a brisk pace that seemed to put us on the back foot. A defensive error by Fox gave them the opportunity to advance and score an early goal. They followed with a second direct from a free kick. We were given some hope when we used a free kick to score, but the half time score line was the final one. In the second half, we were chasing the game increasingly frantically but to no effect.

Possession was 65-35 in our favour, but we were not able to make use of it. We did have four shots on target to their five, but only two corners compared with eight. The inability of the forwards to score is a real concern.

Rick Everitt has provided his analysis of the game, pointing out our inability to recover from having gone behind the last two games. However, he says that it is too early to panic yet: Question of resilience

Player ratings

Pope could possibly have done more to deal with the first goal, the second was a real cracker. His handling of the ball needs some work. Diarra was presumably on the bench because he was not fully fit. We certainly missed him. Sarr looked a bit uncertain as his replacement, although he seized the opportunity to score. Possibly because of the absence of Diarra, Bauer looked less impressive than usual. Solly was given a torrid time by Carayol who was surely man of the match. Why Middlesbrough have sent him out on loan, I don't know, shame we didn't get him. Fox seemed to lack confidence, although he often didn't have an outlet in front of him.

Ba was in a deep holding role, but was not very effective and was eventually substituted. Cousins is not suited to left midfield, he kept drifting out of position. Kashi was fluent, but sometimes found it difficult to find an outlet. Gudmundsson was subdued in the first half, but became more involved after half time.

Watt should stop trying to do everything himself, even his trickery can't outwit four or five opposition players, there are other players in the team. Makienok fluffed two chances to score which is a real worry.

Bergdich made an initial difference, but missed a chance to score. McAleny at least got into positions where he could make an attempt, even if he was off target. Vetokele made no impact when he came on.