Mick's Comments

Dear SAFCSA Coxhoe Branch

It was a mixed performance.

Charlton are an accomplished Premier League outfit and for 30 minutes their shape caused us problems.Not that their first goal came from that - we gave the ball away.
We matched them for a spell before half-time and got back in it but we never got a chance to see whether the man advantage would work in our favour.
We didn't mark well off a throw, we gave away a sloppy free-kick and Danny Murphy did what Danny Murphy does. It knocked the stuffing out of us.
They defended well with 10 men, stuck eight men behind the ball and we never got a chance until the last 10 minutes.

We put in a couple of good crosses at the end and might have scored.
We were hit with a sucker punch at the end but I'm not too concerned about the third goal. We'd still have no points had we lost 2-1.

I was delighted with their [the players'] efforts. The lads worked very hard. It was our first game and it's a case of suck it and see. It's a learning curve.
It's going to take a little while for the team to settle but I hope not too long.
We knew it would be difficult and we knew any mistakes would get punished. That happened today.

We were good in patches and instances. People don't want to hear a positive spin when we've lost. We played some good football at times and it gives me encuragement. We'll get better.
There are 37 more games to go. West Brom won one out of 23 and still stayed up.
Had we won today would we be a top Premier League side? Probably not. For 20 minutes before half-time we more than matched them. We were certainly not overawed.
The Premier League is a big thing for us. I said to the players afterwards, 'Do you thing you were outplayed'. They said no.

The fans were brilliant - absolutely brilliant. They responded well when we were down and I was thrilled with them today.

Mick