Musings On A Season Past And A Season To Come

Like others I’m sure, I’ve been reluctant to think about next season, until it was certain we would be staying up. Until we beat Hull there was that lingering thought. Would Swansea away on the last day be like Notts Forest away in May 1989 - when we were safe in the top flight for a fourth season under Lennie Lawrence with a game to spare, lost 0-4 and couldn’t care less – or like Blackpool away in 1972 – when we were trounced 0-5 and saw Fulham jump above us out of the final relegation spot? Thankfully it proved to be the former.

Before drilling down into what we need to do for next season, who might stay and who might go, there has to be an overall assessment of how we did this campaign. We stayed up because we took 23 points from our first 15 games. Over a full season that would have given us 71 points and a shout for the final play-off place. In the subsequent 30 games we have secured 30 points – and it doesn’t require a calculator to work out where that would have left us. It has been relegation form for more than half of the season. We kept our heads above water thanks to the seven-points week (three games), and we did strengthen sensibly in January (with four loan signings in key areas), but on prevailing form if the season had gone on another 10 games we would have been likely to get relegated, the excellent win against Hull notwithstanding.

I can’t agree with Jones the Boss when he says that we should have had significantly more points than we did in the run-in. Sure, in the seven-game winless run we didn’t get the breaks, results were always tight. But in plenty of others before them we had. Not just winning at Middlesbrough (great performance but if that game was played 10 times we probably would have lost six and drawn three), we were getting mullered by Sheff Utd at The Valley before they shot themselves in the foot and had two sent off before half-time, and who knows how the game at Leicester would have gone if they had not been reduced to 10 (and failed to convert a second-half penalty). These things do usually even out. Since Christmas Portsmouth have done the double over us and we failed to win at Blackburn (when they were in the mire), Oxford (getting a vital point via a truly gifted penalty), West Brom, and Sheff Wed. We ended up where we deserved to be.

It has been a strange season for the division (perhaps it always is). While we were flirting with the top six and thinking Jones truly had a Midas touch, Southampton, Sheff Utd, Norwich – teams expected to be competing at the top – were floundering around the bottom. They turned things around, usually by replacing their managers, and fair play to them. Fair play also to Portsmouth (pleased for them for their behaviour over Headphones Norm), West Brom and Blackburn, they got their act together when it mattered, just as we were faltering. Give Oxford credit too, they seemed buried but ended up getting close to survival. We stayed up because Sheff Wed were doomed from the start, Oxford couldn’t pull off a great escape, and Leicester proved to be the fall guys we needed, simply imploding.

So given the start we had, what went wrong? Certainly injuries took their toll. Losing Edwards was a massive blow (especially as nobody thought when he hobbled off that would be the last we’d see of him for the season). Not having Godden available until the end also cost us, Knibbs’ season was prematurely effectively ended by a dreadful tackle, while periodic injuries to Ramsay, Burke and Bell disrupted the defence. Perhaps we simply took advantage of other teams’ slow start, then playing with the intensity required took its toll (we were defending like dogs and scoring the occasional goal) and proved unsustainable, and perhaps there was a mental aspect, that when we fell away from the top group we had nothing left to play for but to avoid relegation – although that would be unfair on the players, who never lacked effort and determination. Perhaps the answer – in addition to an element of all of these things – was that we lost confidence during winless spells and didn’t have the quality to be able to counterbalance that.

Our poor results in the run-in must give Jones and the owners food for thought, as must being aware that the switch away from playing the target man up top resulted in improved displays and suddenly goals from open play (after the series of goals only from long throws or other set pieces). I’d suggest there are other areas to ponder too.

Of the new signings last summer, overall to date you have to say the marque ones have disappointed. Kelman has shown flashes of what we might expect from him, his goal against Hull gave the impression he has learnt from Godden, not for the strike but the aggression to win the ball. That hasn’t always been evident and at the start of the season we would have expected more appearances and more goals from him. Hopefully that will be the case next season. Olaofe and Apter have failed to make a mark so far (Apter not least because we don’t play with wingers and anyone who thought he could be a wing-back needs their bumps felt) and went out on loan, Knibbs missed much of the season through no fault of his own. Carey was the exception, for a while providing our main goal threat and ending up as leading goalscorer from midfield, although it has now been a while since he found the net.

The signings having the greatest impact were the experienced ones, players already known to Jones. Kaminski had a decent season (as did Mannion, who bided his time and was ready when the chance came, although of course there were mistakes from both). Burke and Bell either started or were in the squad when available, only problem being their injury records (which we knew about before they arrived).

Youngsters overall failed to make an impression as far as the first team was concerned. The obvious exception was Fullah, Gough also featured, but others who had been on the fringes last season either went out on loan or stayed with the U21s/U18s. Anderson went from a first-team starter to on loan at Blackpool in a short space of time. He sits at the front of a large group – including (but not confined to) Asiimwe, Laqeretabua, Mitchell(Z), Enslin, Rylah, Casey, Dixon – on which decisions will need to be made regarding whether they can be expected to be involved in the first-team squad next season, while Kanu and Mbick picked up plaudits and awards (an in the case of the latter transfer interest) out on loan but have yet to be tested at Championship level.

Finally, we have a couple of enigmas up front: Leaburn and Campbell. Leaburn has had a disappointing season, not managing to get a run in the side and delivering mixed performances when called on. The jury for me is still out over whether he is, like his father, just waiting to flower into a fully-fledged central striker or whether he is more Marcus Rashford than Alan Shearer. He still has plenty of time on his hands (he, like JC, is 22) but either Jones views him as a regular starter for next season or, if he is pushed down the pecking order by new signings, a candidate to go on loan to get regular football.

TC gets a lot of underserved flak. He’s often called on to play three, even four, positions in a game, including being pressed into service as a wing-back. For me he remains a very effective winger, one capable of improvement in that role. When selected to play alongside another forward he does all his good work out wide, which is fine if you have a consistent goalscorer to feed off him (and/or midfielders like Berry to get into the box to assist). He is not going to contribute many goals as a second striker, he is not a poacher inside the box and needs the ball to feet outside it.

So overall we are a mess if you view things from a perspective of what is on the table for next season, one which will most probably see us compete in a tougher league (Wolves, Burnley, West Ham/Spurs, Cardiff). There is a great deal of work to be done – including decisions on a large number of players as well as on who we might look to sign. We ended this one with four loan players (Clarke, Chambers, Coady, Fevrier) in the starting XI for Swansea, five if you include Dykes (whose contract only lasts until the end of the season). We can have no idea if we will see any of them again in a Charlton shirt. We had out on loan no less than nine of the first-team squad - Mitchell(A), Asiimwe, Anderson, Taylor, Apter, Olaofe, Kanu, Mbick (albeit injured), Ahadme (apparently also injured) – and several youngsters.

As things stand, what do we know?

It’s reasonable to expect that next season Kaminski and Mannion will continue to contest the goalkeeping spot, unless someone else is signed as a number one to leapfrog them – in which case one of them would probably leave.

In defence, unless someone comes in with a good offer for Jones or Ramsay, and allowing for us to possibly let some go, and potentially some with contracts expiring, we will have on the books Jones, Ramsay, Burke, Bell, Sichenje, Gillesphey, Mitchell(A), Mitchell(Z), Gough, Asiimwe, and we all very much hope Edwards. If we started next season with Ramsay and Edwards as wing-backs, Sichenje/Burke, Jones and Bell/Gillesphey as three central defenders, we’d probably feel confident in that set-up even without new faces, but light again for the wing-backs. Everyone’s probably assuming Plymouth will buy their player of the season Mitchell(A), but let’s not forget he’s only 24. Of course if we switched to four at the back we’d be even better covered. If we stay with wing-backs I’d like to see us try to keep Fevrier, who I think was a breath of fresh air.

In midfield as things stand we have Docherty (still another year on the contract), Coventry (also another year left I believe), Rankin-Costello, Anderson, Carey, Knibbs, Fullah, and Apter. Berry’s contract expires and the assumption is he will head off with our gratitude and best wishes; Taylor I think is out of contract in the summer and will presumably be let go. If we stick to the current formation, with Carey and Knibbs, possibly Fullah, to contest the more forward position, unless Anderson comes back fired up you have to assume we will need to strengthen with greater pace and power if we have ambitions to do more than avoid relegation.

Up front it’s a wing(er) and a prayer. Kelman, Leaburn, Campbell, possibly Godden (he did enough for me to offer him another year but who knows), Ahadme (he still I believe has another year to run on his contract and let’s face it nobody’s going to shell out money for him), plus the returning Kanu and Mbick. Opinion in my group of Addicks is divided over whether we should try to retain Dykes, who may well attract interest from elsewhere especially if he features in the World Cup. I’m in the camp that hopes we do keep him – unless of course we bring in somebody better. I’m confident Kelman will have a better season, but what we can expect from Leaburn, Campbell and Kanu, possibly Mbick, is really for Jones and his team to decide (of course if we switch to playing wingers we would have TC and Apter).

All ifs and buts at this stage. I don’t know when the club will announce the retained list and give insight into who else stays or goes, and what are the priorities for new signings. I guess ahead of that it’s time for putting the feet up and taking a break, with mild interest in whether we can look forward to playing West Ham or Spurs next season (I still hope it’s Palace as long as its mathematically possible, which it still is) and the fun of the World Cup to come. August seems a long way off at present, but no doubt the time will pass quickly. I just want Jones and next season’s team to have the same sort of start to next season as we did this.

Came A Cropper As We Opened Up

This was always going to be one for the road. For us, could we get up to the dizzy heights of 17th with a win and other results, or dip to 21st and finish as the team closest to the bottom three? For Swansea it was a case of up a place at best, to end a respectable 10th, possibly down a couple. But no doubt they wanted to send their supporters away happy. We had our celebrations last weekend, so while you couldn’t say there was nothing riding on the game it was thankfully not the nailbiter we had feared.

We lost, but ended up holding onto 19th place in the table thanks to defeats for Blackburn and West Brom (both against relegated teams). The story of the game in some respects reflected our season. For an hour we were generally second-best but hung in there, defending well. We made changes on the hour and they made it a much more open contest. We looked more threatening, scored, but also conceded three.

Just what team Jones would put out depended on injuries and whether he wanted to experiment a little. Turned out there would be four changes from last Saturday, with Docherty given the rest of the season off after his sterling efforts of late (OK he was injured), Sichenje not available, presumably Bell too, while Carey and Kelman moved to the bench. In came Burke, Coventry, Chambers and Dykes, with Campbell not in the squad, presumably to rest a niggling injury. The website indicated no change in formation, with a central defensive three of Burke, Jones and Gillesphey, Clarke and Chambers as wing-backs, Coady and Coventry the holding midfield pair with Knibbs and Fevrier either side of Dykes. Just how that would work out was anyone’s guess.

The first half was a truly dull affair. Swansea predictably enjoyed the bulk of possession and looked good moving the ball around, until they reached our box. And aside from one put away but given offside, and shortly after that a decent chance, as a ball into the box from their right was met well enough by their forward, bringing a decent save from Kaminski, they didn’t really threaten. Neither did we, although we were back to causing havoc with long throws into the box. One on 27 minutes led to a Jones ball back in to the far post. We did have one decent move as Chambers did excellent work to play in Knibbs down the left, but with players in the box he horribly overhit the cross.

The stats at the break showed Swansea had 71% possession with five shots and just one on target, against four and two for us (neither of which caused their keeper any bother). Quite frankly if the ref had called it quits then we at least would have been happy.

Swansea did put us under greater pressure early in the second half and we found it more difficult to keep possession or find a good out ball. And on the hour Jones the Boss decided to throw the dice. On came Rankin-Costello, Carey and Leaburn, for Burke, Coady and Fevrier, switching to a 4-4-2.

Immediately the game opened up and we did look a threat. Rankin-Costello found Leaburn and his cross was put behind for a corner, then Dykes was fouled just outside the box. You thought ‘step forward Gillesphey, your time has arrived’. But the position didn’t favour a left-footer and instead he dummied a shot and instead tried to set things up for Carey with a short pass to the right. But the pass was poor, Carey stretched for the shot and put it over the bar.

Instead, on 70 minutes we almost went behind as we lost the ball and Swansea broke, ending with a guy shooting well over. And a few minutes later we did go behind. Swansea camped around our box for a while and created the space for a guy on their right. His low ball into the box was swept home.

Still a long way to go and with Berry on for Knibbs we did threaten. Leaburn flicked on a ball and Dykes just failed to reach it, in his last effort as he was then replaced by Kelman, then Rankin-Costello found Leaburn and his low ball across was somehow not converted, put behind for a corner. No matter as from that we levelled things. It looked like poor defending as the ball was swung in and Leaburn headed home from close range pretty much unchallenged. And probably it was. But looking at the replay seemed that Leaburn ran around RC, who stood his ground and blocked off Leaburn’s marker.

No matter, we were level. Only a little over 10 minutes of normal time left, let’s settle for that. Instead on 80 minutes we were behind again. A Charlton attack broke down and as Swansea broke we were clearly in trouble. A ball across was struck goalwards by their forward. It might have been goalbound anyway, but hit Gillesphey in the face and was diverted into the net with Kaminski wrongfooted.

We might have equalised again, but on 87 minutes the game was settled as Swansea made a better fist of their free-kick outside the box than we did, after Coventry fouled. An excellent strike curled enough to go in off the post. And that was that.

No point in trying to draw conclusions from today. We had four loan players in the starting XI, five if you include Dykes (whose short-term contract now expires). A lot of decisions to come on who goes, who stays, who comes back from loan to feature next season, and who is bought. Those are the problems of others. We can enjoy the World Cup and have a rest, like most of the players. Everyone has, I think, earned it - although it is of course still fingers-crossed for the womens team!