Pressure's on

So we find ourselves 14th in the table instead of 6th. We go to Palace on Tuesday looking to make up ground on the teams above us rather than consolidate our position in the play-off places. That difference might well have an effect on the game and how Palace approach it. If we had done what we should have yesterday and beaten Sheffield Wednesday, we would be looking to open a 10 point gap on third-bottom Palace. As it is, they can get to within a point of us if they can win at home for the second time this season.

Alan Pardew has pretty much said all that could have been expected in the circumstances. He's disappointed and angry. He's threatening to make changes in midfield although I find his comments that he has "three or four champing at the bit" and that "we have a lot of strength in midfield" to make changes baffling. Nicky Bailey had a poor game yesterday and looked like he'd stayed up too late on friday night drinking with his prospective in-laws in their Forest Hill pub. Matty Holland, in contrast, ran his lungs out to compensate, and was eventually switched to centre-half to accommodate substitions. Lloyd Sam was again ineffective in the first half but he earned his corn in the last forty-five. Bouazza was slightly better first half but not as effective as Sam in the second period. So, I am struggling to see where Pards is going to make the changes. Darren Ambrose is obviously in contention because he came on, but his contribution was hardly telling. Basey was used but as  left-back and his midfiled cameos of late have hardly offered promise of anything better.  That leaves Jonjo Shelvey and I am guesisng he may come into the plans for Palace and Ipswich. 

For me, the most obvious change at the moment is Youga. Don't get me wrong here, he's a decent player and technically very good but he is taking too many risks at full-back in a defence that needs to be playing no-nonsense football.  I would rather play him on the left wing in front of Basey. Maybe Todorov will get another go at Palace from the bench this week but he was disappointing yesterday. I know he's been out for a long time but he's had two months in the reserves and he should have looked a good bit sharper than he did.  Maybe our reserves aren't all that good since Mark Robson was shown the door? After all, it would appear that the step-up from the stiffs is to the second division if Alan Pardew's justification for loaning Stuart Fleetwoood out to Cheltenham is to be believed.

Palace on Tuesday it is then and maybe this will be another "typical Charlton" display that nets us three points when least expected and has you saying "what if?" Whatever happens, any hopes of fortress-Valley have well and truly disappeared. You now find yourself looking at the Swansea game and saying we should maybe have lost three at home already. Ipswich is another potential banana-skin now and it will take something special now to record two results this week which looked likely a week ago. If we don't come out of the next two games with three or four points, the presure on Pards will build and we'll be back to large-scale booing at the Valley.