Charlton v Northampton

[EricSabin]

Our first away trip of the season sees us head to the Valley to play a dodgy looking Charlton side who've had a rough start. We went to ET last night so who knows what effect that may have on the side, but we seem to have a good chance of getting a win. I personally will be going to my first away game by boat which I'm looking forward to, and I expect there'll be a boisterous away following.

Are there any protests planned? I'm sure after our troubles of last year we'll be quite sympathetic to the Charlton fans plight

2-1 Cobblers

 

[Bobbin']

There are no planned protests or disruptions for inside the ground but there will certainly be protests outside. CARD who usually organise these things normally announce plans on Twitter around midday for anything special which they have said they will so we'll see what that is.

As for the game itself, we simply cannot be any worse than we were at Bury, hopefully Lookman starts and we get another 1 or 2 in before then. If we start poorly or Northampton get an early goal then I can't see us getting back into it as the atmosphere will turn toxic quickly. We've been awful in the two games so far. As it's still early in the season so I still have some optimism lurking around, so with no real confidence I'll predict a 2-0 win for the Addicks.

Holmes and Ajose.

 

[Indian Dan]

You'll have a chance to make your point at our televised game at the CG on 12 Nov

 

[Bobbin']

Yeah, I imagine something is being planned - carefully I hope. With it being at Swindon I wouldn't like to see any disruption. Incessant chanting and probably some sort of flag unveiling or something.

 

[EricSabin]

There are no planned protests or disruptions for inside the ground but there will certainly be protests outside. CARD who usually organise these things normally announce plans on Twitter around midday for anything special which they have said they will so we'll see what that is.

As for the game itself, we simply cannot be any worse than we were at Bury, hopefully Lookman starts and we get another 1 or 2 in before then. If we start poorly or Northampton get an early goal then I can't see us getting back into it as the atmosphere will turn toxic quickly. We've been awful in the two games so far. As it's still early in the season so I still have some optimism lurking around, so with no real confidence I'll predict a 2-0 win for the Addicks.

Holmes and Ajose.

I'm sure there'll be lots of Cobblers joining in outside the ground

 

[LordJord]

Ill join in 100%, we had support from other clubs when we had our nightmare owner so would happily back up other clubs with the same.

Well looking forward to this one, a new ground for me which is always nice and I fancy our chances for a win.

Has Ricky done anything magical yet in a Charlton shirt? It was pretty much every game for us last season.

 

[Bobbin']

Ill join in 100%, we had support from other clubs when we had our nightmare owner so would happily back up other clubs with the same.

Well looking forward to this one, a new ground for me which is always nice and I fancy our chances for a win.

Has Ricky done anything magical yet in a Charlton shirt? It was pretty much every game for us last season.

Wouldn't go that far just yet but he was comfortably our best player last weekend, as I said in the match thread - he's the only one who could leave with any credit. Difficult to tell from such a dreadful team performance but I think we'll have a good player on our hands.

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Will Ricky play?
If he does, I hope he has one of his quiet games and doesn't rip us a new one like he did to a lot of our opponents last season.

 

[EricSabin]

Over a thousand sold

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Over a thousand sold

Not bad for a holiday/early season match...probably helped by quite a few visiting a new ground with us...

 

[Bobbin']

Will Ricky play?
If he does, I hope he has one of his quiet games and doesn't rip us a new one like he did to a lot of our opponents last season.

Almost certainly.

He came off on Tuesday night with a slight knock to his leg but Slade seems to think it's just a bit of bruising and he will be fit for tomorrow.

 

[LordJord]

I genuinely have no idea what the last game we lost was, I think maybe Pompey?

 

[Bobbin']

What are your plans for the day Northampton fans? Getting the train? Charlton is pretty rubbish for a drink these days.

 

[EricSabin]

What are your plans for the day Northampton fans? Getting the train? Charlton is pretty rubbish for a drink these days.

Getting the 7:35 to Euston, then heading to Westminster to board a boat down the Thames for a couple of hours with 100 other Cobblers fans. Will get close to Charlton around midday, any suggestions?

 

[EricSabin]

I genuinely have no idea what the last game we lost was, I think maybe Pompey?

Yeah in the league it was Portsmouth, all competitions was MK in January in the cup replay. Think we'll go 26 undefeated this week too.

 

[Bobbin']

Getting the 7:35 to Euston, then heading to Westminster to board a boat down the Thames for a couple of hours with 100 other Cobblers fans. Will get close to Charlton around midday, any suggestions?

Had heard about the boat actually, do you know where you are getting off, Greenwich pier?

 

[EricSabin]

Had heard about the boat actually, do you know where you are getting off, Greenwich pier?

Charlton has been buzzing with anticipation of the Northampton massive coming down the Thames then? Yeah get off there

 

[Bobbin']

Charlton has been buzzing with anticipation of the Northampton massive coming down the Thames then? Yeah get off there

Always nice to hear of some football fans being able to enjoy themselves.

You can't go wrong with Greenwich in all honesty, once you're off the boat you are a couple of minutes walk from the Wetherspoons, you can then just work your way up Greenwich high street towards the train station to get on a train to Charlton. Couple of good pubs on the way, The Mitre, The Lost Hour etc.

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

I genuinely have no idea what the last game we lost was, I think maybe Pompey?

Yes it was, my last home game...

 

[LordJord]

Im missing out on boarding Boaty Mcboatface so will be driving down. Many Boozers near the ground/places to park? Or better off going elsewhere before hand.

 

[LordJord]

Just seen the letter that a fan got sent by the club saying he has to get collect his season ticket in person and has to sign a behavioural code thing because he posted some negative things on social media, crazy!

 

[Bobbin']

Im missing out on boarding Boaty Mcboatface so will be driving down. Many Boozers near the ground/places to park? Or better off going elsewhere before hand.

I'm not an expert regarding parking to be honest but there are side roads nearby that you can park in, there are a couple of retail parks that are a 5/10 minute walk too but I'm not sure how long you are allowed to park there. Given the fact our home attendances have dropped by around 7,000 you should be ok with street parking.

If you go straight to Charlton, there are a couple of options depending on where you park. If you park at the top of the hill you can go to The White Swan which I believe allows away fans. If you're at the bottom (where the station and ground are) your best bet is probably just The Antigallican which is the designated away pub, you could walk 5 minutes toward the big M&S where you'll find The Rose of Denmark which is away friendly.

As always though, I always recommended drinking in or around Greenwich, plenty of boozers and close to Charlton.

 

[Bobbin']

Hmm, not sure on the starting line-up, Slade putting his trust in young Ezri Konsa at centre half and is sticking with the ageing midfield that played last week at Bury.

The subs bench looks a lot stronger though with Lookman, Botaka and Novak on it. Depending how the game is after 65-70 mins, I wouldn't want to be a tiring Northampton player and see Lookman and/or Botaka coming on.

See that Sonupe is on Northampton's bench, had him on trial in pre-season so he's bound to come on and score.

 

[Lamby]

How we didn't win that I'll never know, we absolutley battered them.

How their goal wasn't ruled out for offside in the build up I'll never know. If Northampton perform like that all season they'll finish bottom.

 

[Bobbin']

The fact you don't know anything comes as no shock to me.

We didn't win that because we only bothered to turn up for the second 45 minutes. The Northampton goal wasn't given offside because it probably wasn't. Granted, I wasn't there but there was no mention of offside on the radio nor was it mentioned by anyone else on Twitter.

If we play like we did at Bury all season, we'll go down.

The first half sounded awful and painfully similar to last week at Bury, no energy or creativity in midfield, with Crofts and Foley being particularly bad, only two games in but it's becoming clear quickly that these two are not going to be good enough. Hopefully at least one will be dropped on Tuesday with Jackson moving into the middle.

Second half sounded much better and as if there was some positive signs and does sound like we were a little unlucky not to win in the end. Hopefully, the equaliser and the better performance brings a bit of confidence for Tuesday night, we need a win to get our season going.

Good numbers from Northampton, hope you enjoyed your day and thanks for those who joined in with the protests before the game.

 

[Lamby]

Why are you commenting then when you weren't there? Leave that for the loyal fans

 

[LordJord]

Really enjoyed the day. Great ground and all the people around were sound. Certainly didn't play as well as we could. Looked very disjointed going forward. Why potter played centrally and beautyman wide I'll never know.

Can't see where our goal was supposed to be offside. Considering how on top Charlton were second half I can barely think of smith having to make many saves. Hope Charlton get all their owner issues sorted, seems a shame for so many fans to be kept away.

Oh and that makes it 26 undefeated in the league for us now.

 

[EricSabin]

How we didn't win that I'll never know, we absolutley battered them.

How their goal wasn't ruled out for offside in the build up I'll never know. If Northampton perform like that all season they'll finish bottom.

For 45 minutes you were absolute turd mate, which is why you didn't win. We could and should have been 2 up at half time.

We dropped deeper second half and the players looked absolutely knackered, although we could have nicked it late on.