Everything fell neatly into place on Saturday as our team ended up in fourth place and earned the club a semi-final tie with Wycombe who are the least in-form of the play-off contenders.
When their manager Matt Bloomfield left in mid-January to take over at Luton, Wycombe were in second place. He was replaced by Mike Dodds (a coach with no career as a professional footballer) and, with three games of the season proper remaining, they were still in second place. To an outsider this might look like a highly successful transition but a poster on a Wycombe message board recently offered the following contrary opinion:
"In case you are not up to speed, here is a summary of our season:
- Our legendary most-capped player of league era turns out to be an excellent manager, and has us top of the league playing champagne football.
- Behind the scenes, our new billionaire overlords had told him he was not wanted before a ball was kicked, but wanted a bad run of form to sack him (I assume for the “fan optics”).
- He never had that bad run, but with his employees being sacked from under him and him being told he was not wanted repeatedly, he applied for any Champo jobs that came along.
- After he left, we bought loads of new players (most of whom we didn’t actually need), breaking our transfer fee twice for Danes who have barely played a minute.
- We remembered we needed someone to coach them, and saw a picture of Mike Dodds hugging Jude Bellingham (evidently) and did not look at how awful he was as an interim at Sunderland.
- Dodds turned out to be a nice chap who believes in not just parking the bus, but buying a bus depot and placing the goal carefully exactly behind it.
- We go from smashing teams to 0-0, 1-0, 0-1 and 1-1s for most of the rest of the season.
- Somehow we play you (Charlton) with it still in our own hands. Spoiler: None of the score lines above came into play.
- We lose our final two games to the other two playoff teams, just in case Orient or Stockport are struggling for any confidence too.
- On top of all this, our fanbase is divided because some know how badly our club legend was treated (it goes way beyond the summary above) whereas others think he deserted us."
So it would seem that, even before recent defeats to us, Leyton Orient and Stockport, confidence and belief have been low in Buckinghamshire and we understand there are still plenty of unsold seats for Sunday's game in the stadium home areas. Their record against the top six is hardly inspiring with two wins and eight defeats. That 5-0 win at Stockport in November must seem a long time ago now.
There is some disgruntlement among Charlton fans as well at the moment but it concerns ticket purchasing administration rather than on-pitch performance. Those who have been able to get tickets for Sunday will be travelling with a spring in their step and plenty of optimism but Nathan Jones would shudder at any complacency. Our 4-0 win at Adams Park three weeks ago was comprehensive but it will count for nothing when the teams kick off and we shouldn't forget that we beat Shrewsbury 0-2 away a month before the play-offs in 2018 but never looked like getting past them when it came to the real thing.
Wycombe still have some good players. Garath McCleary may be 37 but he is still a creative danger. Loanees Bradley, Taylor and Simons bring Championship experience. Although he hasn't scored for two months, Richard Kone has 18 league goals to his name with an average of a goal every 153 minutes. That is quite prolific but it doesn't match Alfie May at 147 minutes or Jay Stansfield at 142 and it is decidedly pale compared to most prolific scorer currently in League One - Mattie Godden who scores every 140 minutes.
Nathan Jones is giving nothing away about his team selection for Sunday. Charlton fans will be hoping that Lloyd Jones, Luke Berry and Thierry Small will be available although we know that Chuks will not be able to renew his acquaintance with Luke Leahy until the second leg.
Jones was interviewed by Richard Cawley this week and spoke about coming through adversity and having the courage of his convictions:
“If you are showing weakness or flitting backwards and forwards with the system or training – your behaviour becomes erratic – then people see that. People feed off that and it’s when uncertainty sets in. We’ve got good people here at the football club. Even my assistant Curtis Fleming is experienced and I lean on Paul Hart. People like Jim Rodwell are around here regularly."
The full interview:
If you couldn't get a ticket for the game don't forget that it will be shown in The Fans Bar. Full details:
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/live-screening-wycombe-away-game-valley