Dean and Ashley extend as Addicks hold mighty Stanley

Starting with the good news. Dean Holden and Ashley Maynard-Brewer have signed contract extensions until 2026. 

Maynard-Brewer has been superb since coming into the side and establishing himself following Joe Wollacott's broken finger. He is young and looks like we might do well to still have him with us when his new deal expires, so a three year deal was low risk and a no-brainer for me.

Holden has had a decent start although we were one point from the last twelve prior to today but he would have been confident of more than a point from Accrington Stanley. I hate to say it, but his overall record following today's draw is not looking quite so great and I am a little concerned that he now seems unable to get much of a tune out of his players. However, we all know the squad is poor and we have some alarming deficiencies, particularly upfront, and have yet to find a defensive formation that can avoid regular howlers, so he has his work cut out. We also know that he gets the club and it's supporters and that will carry him some way without footballing success.

I certainly hope that Dean Holden hasn't accepted a new deal based purely on better money and three years security, although given Sandgaard's desperate Breakeven project and the fact that he may no longer pull the strings this time next month I suspect there has been no commitment to any investment, let alone this Summer's much-needed rebuild.

Now for the bad news. Today's performance was another that simply isn't good enough for this club. Another failure to beat a side below us in the table and from what I saw of it (I was cutting back and forth from the rugby), we looked fortunate towards the end not to lose it. Clare was at fault for Stanley's opener on 28 minutes but his left-sided partner, Steve Sessegnon, scored a spectacular equaliser five minutes later from nearly forty yards out with a curling effort. That was pretty much it. 

We finally went back to four at the back with Ness and Hector in the middle but failed to start with two upfront once again which kind of negated the defensive change. Holden will have to sort this out but it is unacceptable to play a relegation favourite at home and only create three efforts on target. Our manager is very supportive of his players and rightly tries to accentuate the positives but he is running out of credit and some of his players aren't helping him at all. He said before the game that he was looking forward to watching an exciting first team selection take on Accrington Stanley. The poor gate (never 11,000) and limp atmosphere probably didn't help but his team looked anything but exciting for much of the game. 

We need an absolute minimum of three points from Morecambe (Tuesday) and Cambridge next Saturday, although both are away from home and our record on the road isn't inspiring. Neither is it great against the division's strugglers. With a nine point advantage over relegation-placed Morecambe and 12 points on Cambridge, these really are six pointers and two wins would leave us with little more to do in securing our place in League One again next season. Lose them both and it will be panic stations once again. Holden really needs to get his players psyched up for these two games to restore a little bit of the lost confidence.