Charlton Athletic 0 v QPR 1

A disastrous week was capped today at the Valley with the poorest performance of the season and an embarrassing defeat by bottom-of-the-table QPR. Once again Charlton produced a stadium-emptying display for a watching nation on Sky television.

QPR were good value for the win and they should have had the winner even earlier in the second half having missed a penalty and an open goal. They were hardworking but their win was handed to them on a plate by a disinterested Charlton side. Varney and Iwelumo mis-fired throughout and our midfield was all over the place. Reid was subduded on the left in the first half and failed to up the tempo when he came into the middle after Semedo was substituted. Lloyd Sam had a poor game on his return from a three match ban but did come closest to scoring for the Reds with a second half free kick which Lee Camp pushed out.

The back four were again a major disappointment. Alan Pardew at least took some positive action after the midweek display by dropping Bougherra and starting Sodje at the back with Fortune for the first time. He also gave Grant Basey a debut at left-back and he was probably the only Charlton player to emerge with any credit. Sodje made two superb last ditch tackles but Fortune cantered through the game and again made several howlers, worst of which was his mis-timed tackle which gave Rangers their penalty. Turned inside out he waited until his opponent got into the box before bringing his man down. The resultant penalty was slammed off an upright by Rowlands and that should have been the wake-up call Charton needed but no-one looked that bothered and you knew what was coming.

Minutes later and Danny Mills, who looked more interested than the rest, was far too casual in the box and lost the ball to a Rangers player who amazingly failed to hit the target. They didn't have to wait too much longer though, another raid on the left saw Vine curl a deep cross which Weaver came for but never looked like getting. Weaver collided with Sodje and Nygaard, and went down looking for a free-kick as the ball fell to Bolder who fired home. There was still plenty of time left but we hadn't shown any urgency all day and continued at a pedestrian rate.

Alan Pardew should be furious after this performance but it's hard to see what options he has. Thomas came on for Semedo but failed to create anything and Izale Mcleod didn't touch the ball after coming on for Iwelumo with a good 15 minutes left. What we need is an international break but the last one doesn't seem to have done us any good. Two away games now look very difficult and we face running out a mid-table side in the next home game. The bubble has well and truly burst and we have a lot of hard work to do to turn this around.