Charlton Athletic 2 v Notts County 4

Dave has asked me to compile the report of todays game. An honour sir, an honour (sort of).
Dave himself was off in Dublin to watch the egg chasers in the forlorn hope of witnessing a Scotland victory. As I'm writing this at 1045 in the evening, I know he has faced the double disappointment of defeat for both of his favourite teams.
Can't say I took enough notice of todays game to be honest, so as usual, my report is based on my opinion of the quality of the entertainment on show and not on the tactical nous shown by the respective managers or the subtleties of the cut and thrust of division 3 football.
Haynes in for Green in an otherwise unchanged side (I think), I missed Tuesdays defeat by the way as I was otherwise engaged in  La Belle France, so I wasn't sure whether Green played in that game.

After 12 minutes or so, Haynes was replaced by Waggy, I'm assuming through injury. Now waggy's not my favourite player, and I'm sure it could only be coincidence that within five minutes of his arrival we were two down? I'm being unfair of course in suggesting any blame could be laid at his door, especially as I missed those County goals, having been distracted by questions from Dave's stepdad and nephew respectively. Not looking good so far, but things were to get worse when a mix up between Hamer and Morrison on 35 minutes, led to County's third. I was just contemplating whether to leave to meet my wife in the Retail Park so that we could travel up to Stansted to pick up her father, over from Tenerife for the week, when zap! in goes the fourth on 40, with Forte getting his hat-trick to add to the opener by Judge. A chance at the away end for Wagstaff with an overhead kick that fell tamely into the keepers arms, and not much else to report in the first 45, except to say that the best defence in the league was looking anything but. Midfield not effective and BWP again being unable to read Kermorgant's intentions. It was only the fact that I had bought a couple of draw tickets that I stayed for half time. Well, not the only reason, I also thought that given our season so far we may just be capable of staging the greatest comeback since comeback's were invented.  Just an aside, but I saw Glen Tilbrook at half time , what the bloody hell is that beard all about? Is he auditioning for a remake of Catweasle? Apologies to those youngsters who don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

On to the second half and the first ten minutes we huffed and puffed and all the football was played in County's half but we gave no indication that we that we were capable of doing the impossible until some neat work down the rightt ended with Waggy crossing for Bradders to score with a neat overhead kick. Five minutes later and roles reversed as BWP crossed for a goal from Waggy's head. I was beginning to feel glad that I'd stayed and did actually believe for a little while that we may just get to parity and may be capable even of snatching something more. Suffice to say that the huff and puff continued , but the end product was sadly lacking in quality. We had a couple of reasonable penalty shouts turned down, , but to be honest our performance, especially in the first half deserved nothing more than a defeat by two goals. We seem to make a habit of going one or two down before we start playing, but FOUR!!, ridiculous. Chrissy spoke in his programme notes about how we bounce back from defeat, in the past we have shown character, today we just looked tired and really not up for it.

Notts County played some neat passing football, albeit without any pace, and we should have been capable of getting something from this game. Once again we were susceptible to being pressed when in possesssion and gave the ball away too easily, without being able to apply similar pressure ourselves. No need for panic stations of course, but we must be careful that we do not let this type of performance end up defining our season, we've seen to many similar showings at home, luckily without the disasterous consequences we experienced today.

Dave, hope you had a good trip, despite the result at Landsdowne Road. Thanks for asking me to compile this report, but when you next text me to do so, please leave off the little kiss at the end of your message, I know I'm a good looking boy, but methinks you may have been knocking back a little to much of the black stuff. Night night!
 
Peter