The long nightmeire continues

Charlton played their eighth match without a win this afternoon after they lost 1-2 to Gillingham, although they managed to stay 9th in the table.

Rumours had been circulating that former CEO Katrien Meire was going to Burton Albion. There was a clue there as Burton beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 this afternoon at Hillsborough. Meanwhile, the Owls expressed their delight at the appointment of Nightmeire as their CEO.

She did get one thing right. She said that her appointment was a massive one at a massive club and Wednesday are known as the Massives. However, they may have made a massive mistake.

SWFCC Supporters Club commented that it had been clear for some time that the club required a CEO to assist the inexperienced chairman, so the club appointed someone who had fans rioting in the car park at Charlton.

The game could be characterised as one of two halves. In the first half Charlton simply did not turn up. They were out muscled (as often happens), not least by the Gillingham No.9 and their No.14 (Parker). As the Charlton defence collapsed, Gillingham were able to score through two tap ins (although the second one looked offside).

A lively start from Steve the Hills side saw Eaves denied by Ben Amos after three minutes before the striker set up Parker, who duly converted with 11 minutes played. Gillingham doubled their advantage after 32 minutes when Eaves was able to poke Luke O'Neill's cross past Amos.

At half time Karl Robinson made a double substitution, Joe Aribo and Leon Best coming in. Best admittedly lasted only seven minutes and may have picked up a bad injury. We may not see him again at The Valley.

Forster-Caskey as captain had not looked match fit in the first half and was certainly no leader. Charlton were revitalised in the second half and at times laid siege to the Gillingham goal, but only Joe Aribo could find the back of the net from a Ricky Holmes corner. It is perhaps worth noting that we had eleven corners which shows how good we are at making use of them. The six minutes added on were wasted. Some credit should also go to Gillingham's tall keeper: one wonders why they have been so far down the table.

Josh Magennis did glance a header against the crossbar before the keeper denied him from point blank range after 80 minutes.

To give credit where it is due, Mark Marshall was one of the few Addicks to have a decent game DaSilva also once again played well. But there was too much emphasis on feeding the ball to Holmes who is not at his best. Possession across the match was 60:40, but there was little creativity in the final third. At times the midfield seemed to be missing.

Karl Robinson has promised a signing to arrive by Thursday who will 'excite' fans. We shall see.

After the game, I heard a fan saying 'He's got to go.' It's no good changing the manager if the players aren't good enough.

To cap it all, a suspect package on the line at Kings Sutton meant that I didn't get home until 9 p.m.