Charlton Athletic 1 v Lincoln City 2

Another bad day at Black Rock. A performance that in many ways typifies this season. Wasteful upfront, stretched at the back and woeful in the middle. One more pathetic double conceded to a side we should be getting something from at home. Alex Gilbey cost us the game with a first-half sending off that was simply unprofessional. 

I am going to focus on Gilbey because he simply shouldn't play for us again. On his game he is good enough but we see it only in patches and the bookings he collects are an insult to the coaching team and the supporters. He was booked against Wimbledon back in February for knocking the ball from the hands of an opponent who was about to take a throw-in that he had conceded. Wimbledon weren't in a dangerous position and the delay to the throw-in gave us absolutely nothing. It was a mindless booking that he followed up on with another in the Bolton game three days later. 

Does he learn? No he doesn't and the first yellow for a deliberate shirt-pull yards from the referee smacked of him winning a bet to earn the 100th booking of our season - another indictment. The bloke behind me shouted out that it was a terrible decision. When I said it was a clear foul and them's the rules he added "I hope he's gonna book everyone who shirt-pulls." We didn't have long to wait before the ref made another booking for another deliberate shirt-pull and it was your clown again, so off he went. We cannot afford to have players in our team who care so little about the result of the match and who are so stupid as to pull an opponents shirt after being booked ten minutes before for the same thing. Committing a foul in  tackle can be accidental or unintentionally bad timing, but reaching out, grabbing an opponents jersey and hanging on to impede him is never accidental. Gilbey shouldn't play again this season and he needs to be moved on in the Summer. 

If I sound pissed-off, it's because I was and I left early in the second-half. A very rare occurrence for me (unless we are three-down) but I knew the game was lost and I thought I'd enjoy myself more downing a few pints in the Radical with a mate, which I did (drinking during the game indeed).

The other news yesterday was the club's new season ticket deal and it was predictably dull and uninspiring. A "prize freeze" has been announced until May 9th. That's it. Amid a cost of living crisis, following the worst season in living memory and a ongoing furore about freebie tickets that has undermined the value of the season ticket, the lateral thinkers in the inept commercial team come up with the same inducement as every other year. I will do what I have done for the last four or five years and wait until August to see how encouraged or not I am by the Summer signings. This year, of course, I didn't renew because of the disastrous Summer recruitment. Almost as important this Summer, sadly, will be seeing who we get rid of, because there is a squad of them who have to be gone if we are to have any chance of finishing in the Top 6.