Sunday 4 August 2013

AFC Bournemouth 2 v Charlton Athletic 1


WiFi has been down in my Lanzarote villa all day, so I have been stewing on yesterday's result. A double by ex Millwall and Palace striker, Lewis Grabban, did the damage yesterday on the south coast although we did manage a superb sounding equaliser through Yann Kermorgant after 49 minutes. I was having a drink with Robbo-on-the-wing yesterday and we had to watch the updates on Sky. We left the bar with a couple of minutes remaining in the vain hope that we would wake this morning to news of a dramatic late point.

 Anyhow, it sounds like we played the wrong team at the wrong time. The Cherries were certainly up for it and cashed in on first-dayitis. We need to nurse this defeat and ensure we respond by beating Boro on Saturday and inflicting a double defeat on them rather than risk a losing double ourselves. I am confident the boys will be gutted enough to ensure we get a response and we might even see it on Tuesday night against Oxford although I expect us to follow form and play a B team for the League Cup. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the League Cup and as far as I am concerned, the sooner we are out of it the better. I will still be in Lanzarote but wouldn't be attending even if I were at home. Our club has made it perfectly clear in recent years that it has no interest in this competition and I have given up as a consequence. I think the gate on Tuesday will reflect a similar view.

 Andy Hughes will have been bitterly disappointed yesterday to have played on his first ever losing Charlton side. I have to admit being slightly surprised by his starting pairing with Mark Gower. Johnnie Jackson is apparently injured but I thought Stephens or Hollands might have started, if not Pritchard in he middle. I support the view that Pritch is not a wide player and I don't understand why he's preferred to Green who is a natural on the wing. His untimely sending off yesterday will mean that Green gets an early chance and he needs to take it or will return to the stiffs. Rubbish article in the Super Soaraway Sunday Sun today quoting Charlton for sale at £40m and saying that the entire squad is up for sale. Not quite sure of the logic here when we are only weeks away from the transfer deadline and have only last week reshuffled the deck to strengthen the squad where needed. The figure of £40m is plainly ludicrous bearing in mind the fact that the club was bought for £1 two years ago and all we have managed since then is to move from League 1 to the Championship. The clubs assets probably don't cover the debts, so any material purchase price is highly unlikely. Mr Jiminez and Mr Slater may fancy themselves as wide boy chancers but no-one is going to fork out £40m when the club faces the real prospect of Administration if they bide their time. The pricing looks desperate and if there is any grain of truth in it, it's reminiscent of the over-valuation of Dale Stephens which lost us an unexpected windfall a year ago that might have improved our fortunes in the meantime. The article also says that there are believed to be five separate interested purchasers. We should be so lucky..

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