Pretty much a unanimous response from angry Charlton fans to yesterday's F A Cup surrender by Lee Bowyer. Having just had a blank weekend and with no game for another week, Bowyer's decision to put a fully second string out with no back-up from the bench back-fired unsurprisingly when Doncaster Rovers progressed to the third round proper with a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Bowyer's comments after the match were careless and he should know better than to throw out a line like "missed opportunity? What, of winning the F A Cup? We're never going to win it." The 3,000 diehards who turned up yesterday didn't do so expecting to win the Cup Lee, they only wanted to progress to the 3rd Round for a change and perhaps get a crack at a club like the one we used to be. If you weren't up for it, you might have been better saying so and then perhaps only 300 or so might have had their time and money wasted.
If that's Bowyer's attitude, why did he field a stronger side in the Mansfield replay? We had even less chance of winning the F A Cup at that stage.
At any other club I would expect Bowyer to feel some heat from the owner but Roland Duchatelet probably has heard the result yet and presumably isn't interested in the details given how little he cares about Charlton Athletic, let alone football. There is an argument that we could have collected another £50k in prize money from progressing but given the losses in hosting a fixture where the gate is small and you have to give more than half of it away, I wouldn't be surprised if Duchatelet already made it clear that Cup matches are an expense he isn't interested in (despite their possibility of becoming lucrative money-spinners in later rounds). He really isn't interested in speculating to accumulate. It's a bit like his whole league philosophy where the lower the cost-base, the smaller his annual operating loss and the better his chance to break even or even turn a profit through player sales.
However, the heat from fans on Twitter and the Internet has been voluminous and loud and I wouldn't be surprised if someone at the club feels moved to have to attempt to defuse the situation in some way although I am not expecting one of Duchatelet's classic bracketed rants. Whatever happens, the memory of this will be rekindled next Autumn when our next F A Cup misadventure is upon us - what are the odds we will struggle to get 3,000 for our next home F A Cup match? Another in the wearyingly long list of new club lows under Roland Duchatelet's disastrous regime.
Lee Bowyer's mistakes here have managed to crash a lot of the goodwill he has created and for many he has now piled the pressure on himself to deliver a promotion that I believe is beyond us at this point in time and which will be impossible after the January transfer window closes. In the meantime, join with me in hoping Donny pull a plum tie in the Third Round draw - they deserve it for putting out a competitive side and going for the victory away from home.
Yeah I cant understand it, why not try? But generally hes been doing well.
ReplyDeletePreston away doesn't seem like much reward for Doncaster. I have to confess that, at this stage, I am not disappointed at not having to play them (North End).
ReplyDeleteIf Sunderland fail to win their replay it will also mean one of the biggest games of the season staying an a Saturday, rather than a midweek game - which I tend to miss these days due to child care duties.