Charlton Athletic 0 v Cheltenham Town 1

I really feel for those who paid good money to be at the Valley this evening and suffer another 95 minutes of slow torture. Our recruitment failure in pre-season once again haunting us. Not that there were many there - certainly not the 12,566 that Sandgaard is claiming. 

Garner's line-up was surprising. Youngsters Mitchell and Ness were drafted into defence alongside Captain Calamity and we were all left scratching our heads as to why the two striker roles went to wingers Rak-Sakyi and Jaiyesimi. I am guessing it wasn't just the fans either. Daniel Kanu will wonder what he's doing wrong and Chuks Aneke must see that no-one at the club believes he can do more than 20 minutes any longer. 

I spent the first 15 minutes trying to understand the formation. I am guessing Garner would think it was a 5-3-2 but it looked more like a 3-5-2 with the midfielders falling over each other and rotating positions. It didn't help that Rak-Sakyi and Jaiyesimi can't play striker and both of them dropped back into the muddle. 

Rak-Sakyi managed a decent low shot from distance which went through a defenders legs but it was easy enough for Southwood. Inniss also steered a tame header from a corner at him but that was it in the opening half. We managed to dominate possession but do very little with it. Cheltenham actually had the two best chances to score, both courtesy of Ryan Inniss who seems to have a couple of blunders now in every game. We were lucky to survive the first one as they hit the bar and we managed to block a couple of follow-ups. Before the half ended, Sean Clare sucked two defenders in and found Morgan running into the box in acres of space but his shot hit the top of the Jimmy Seed Stand. The debate about how good or how poor he is will be raging this evening but this showing will be hard for his fans to defend.

After the break we saw more possession and forced a series of corners but everything was hit-and-hope and we were too frantic. Cheltenham stood-up to us well enough but their attacking ambition was more limited. As the clock moved on, it was all about the substitutions. Aneke and Kirk came on for our two strikers but we didn't up the tempo. Bizarrely, Aneke was drifting out wide to gain possession and we were all over the place again.

Campbell and Payne came on after 77 minutes (Sessegnon and Morgan) and Payne was involved in creating our best chance of the game by far. Breaking out of defence, he carried the ball 30 yards before squaring to Fraser who floated a cross-field ball over the retreating Cheltenham backline and into the path of Charlie Kirk who clipped it passed Southwood and into the far corner. Sadly, Kirk had strayed offside and the lino's flag was up as the ball went in.

All that was left was for Alfie may to score against us once again with six minutes left. He chased a long punt which McGillivray beat him to but his header only went up and not forward and May was able to hook the dropping ball into the unguarded net. The final whistle was met with a chorus of boos and a rapid exit.

If you are looking for crumbs of comfort, Ness and Mitchell both looked assured and Sean Clare had a decent game. Clare is very good on the ball but he really needs to know what his job is. Too often he wanders about with it, taking the same player on twice when he should be focusing on creating something for someone ahead of him. 

Ben Garner isn't doing himself any favours at the moment and he needs to be very careful in his post-match defence. Sandgaard won't sack him  - he'll leave that to his successor to save money but Ben's problem is that he is beginning to lose the fans. He was dealt a bad hand but he accepted it and the facts are he hasn't played it well. Apart from limited striking options that aren't good enough, we have no leaders in the side and we have won only 5 of 20 league matches. Ordinarily that is sacking form for a club of our size in this league. I can't begin to think how he will explain his line-up, formation or the way we played but he has been making really poor excuses in recent games and he really can't afford many more.