Saturday 26 December 2015

Bristol City 1 v Charlton Athletic 1

Under normal circumstances there is no such thing as a poor point away from home. Indeed, a last minute equaliser usually feels like a victory. The mark of how apathetic and despondent most regular Addicks have become, is that many are expressing disappointment that we stole a point at Ashton Gate.

The general feeling of many, and I share it, is that we would rather take our pain all at once in a bid to get shot of Fraye and ultimately Duchatelet and the leech Meire. A draw gives a false semblance of competitiveness that Meire sees as success and it enables Duchatelet to procrastinate for another match, hoping Fraye throws a double-seven. The facts from this afternoon's match was that City were all over us and only woeful finishing preventing them from putting the result beyond any doubt long before our last gasp equaliser. They even managed to miss a penalty.

Karel Fraye was forced to make more changes again today with Diarra partnering Lennon in central defence. With Cousins and Jackson in central midfield again (our weakest pairing) it allowed Fraye to pick four strikers. It's all a bit 12 year old schoolboy tactics. Vaz Te and Lookman walk the striking roles but when you contemplate playing Makienok and Reza as well you are going to struggle to get any genuine width or keep formation. Almost inevitable then, that our goal came from a centre-half.

Not sure if I can be bothered with Monday. Friends beckon and my Mum was taken into hospital this morning. Perhaps I will have a better time holding her hand than suffering what I suspect will be the icing on another miserable footballing Christmas. Bah humbug.


2 comments:

  1. Hope your Mum is OK Dave. We'll be thinking of her.

    Pembury Addick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks PA and those of you who have emailed me. Mum's been Stage 4 cancer for four years and she should be ok at the moment but you never know. Hospitals are a joke at the weekend so nothing much has happened so far. I'm praying she gets some proper attention from someone who knows what they are doing today. I despise Jeremy Hunt but what he's trying to do to turn the NHS into a seven day service rather than five days will save lots of lives. If you have had anyone ill for any length of time who is in hospital frequently, you will know what a joke weekends are. On Saturday night my Mum and the others in her ward were kept awake by the staff arguing with each other for hours about whose turn it was to respond to the next patient. There are really great people working there too but far too many people without the care and compassion the job demands. Climbing off the soapbox now.

    ReplyDelete

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