The Lower League Thread

Didn't look good on the football league show. How many of the players from last season are still with you?

Not many at all mate, I think from the core squad we have about 5 or 6 left with us!

ah Christ always going to be difficult! Conceding goals like you have so far doesn't help though.

Without a doubt! Chris Weale was awful on Saturday and then the first goal we conceded against Gillingham Tuesday! well I felt sick watching that!

God fucking dammit we're shit.

Conor Hourihane two goals in his last two games. The one yesterday was a cracking effort. He's also playing pretty well.

Magath's being admirable by giving youth a chance but they clearly need a bit more experience/ready made quality.

God fucking dammit we're shit.

Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Superb performance in the face of adversity. We've battled and fought and played as a team and been far better than Charlton for the whole 90 minutes.

In the first half we forced their keeper into a string of fine saves and had one wrongly ruled out after the keeper came charging out, made a mess of it, tried to retrieve the situation and found Nahki Wells had nipped in front of him so promptly fell over. Wells put it in the net but the ref, deciding no Huddersfield Town goal could happen if he could do anything about it, had already blown for a free-kick. It wasn't. It was just shit goalkeeping (with a hint of handball outside the box when he was under pressure).

The ref then proceeded to get in the way of our attacks and proved a capable holding midfielder whilst being directed what to do by Charlton's central defensive pairing of Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. He made 3 outstanding interceptions in the game.

His next telling contribution was to send Town defender Murray Wallace off for a tug on whoever the fuck the Charlton number 14 was. He'd knocked the ball ahead (into the path of Joel Lynch, who wellied it away) when he got a tug on his arm and fell over. He was 30 yards out and wasn't in possession of the ball. Two defenders were covering. He was, however, bearing down on goal, if the direction of your run when an opposition player is about to welly it clear matters. When Wallace looked like going unpunished with nothing but a free-kick for a foul which warranted nothing but a free-kick, Bikey and half the Charlton team decided to charge downfield and bully Mr Robinson, who did as he was told and sent Wallace packing, presumably because he'd denied the Charlton player a chance to run into Joel Lynch, a serious offence around these parts.

This was in the second minute of the one added on. There hadn't been any stoppages, but Mr Robinson, listening to Bikey (who's a big, scary bloke when you see him up close) had decided to let the Charlton man ref the game by this point and he hadn't said the first half could stop. The free-kick came to sod all.

Town took the lead with a wonderful bit of play five minutes into the second half. Scannell showed a bit of skill to release Smith, who underlapped and put in a perfect cross for Wells to tap in his fourth goal of the season. The ref looked at Bikey, but even he couldn't find anything wrong with it, and he instead chose to berate his left-back for not doing his job despite the fact he'd lost his man.

An incident which led to nothing but which pretty much summed Mr Robinson and Bikey up came when sub James Vaughan was pulled up for a foul on Charlton's number 20, who had a hissy fit at being closed down. It was a foul, but hardly a serious one, but the number 20 started to demand that Vaughan be booked. Mr Robinson spoke to Vaughan on the number 20's instructions, which the number 20 didn't like and he promptly refused to take the free-kick from where he was directed to do so. Rather than book the twat, Mr Robinson instead called over Charlton captain Jackson to warn him that his team-mates were in danger of getting into trouble if they didn't do as they were told. Bikey, being the referee, also came over to tell Mr Robinson what to do. The free-kick wasn't moved on Bikey's instructions.

After denying Town a goal in the first half, it was only right that Mr Robinson should deny Town the sort of stonewall penalty that makes you think that the only way you're getting something out of this bastard is if one of the defenders sinks an axe into your striker's head, and even then it depends on if the linesman was paying attention. James Vaughan took the ball down as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, turned inside Tal Ben Haim, and, poised to stick the ball in the net from eight yards out, got wrestled to the ground. It was clear and blatant. There are no excuses for missing it beyond being registered blind, and even then I'm pretty certain Stevie Wonder would have given it. Mr Robinson, who was 10 yards away (you couldn't say he missed anything because he was behind play, he was right up to speed all match), waved it away. Charlton went up the other end and promptly scored.

The last one, more than any other, has to go down as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. There isn't a decision to make. It's a penalty and a red card. Vaughan is about to score and Ben Haim pushes him over when off-balance. We might miss the penalty, but this is the crux: that is the decision that has cost us the points we deserved. If he gives it they don't go down the other end and score. If he does his job we have three points. If he had a backbone Charlton would have seen their own players dismissed.

His 'performance', bullied my men in black, is the only downer. We were magnificent. Better from first to last. Even with 10 we should have scored more than we did. Charlton created one chance against ten men and took it.

Worth mentioning that prior to the penalty, Mr Robinson had fallen out with Vaughan. If that was his reason for not giving a penalty he should be sacked and banned from football for a long time. Because it's cheating. It's favouring one side over the other because of personal biases. Bad enough that he was from 20 miles away from Charlton, but that makes it worse.

Thought you should have had a clear penalty and based on this you were very unlucky

That's what I thought myself, when I saw your lot playing yesterday. You need to get rid of Sheridan, he's destroying the club