Results tagged “Nick Martindale”
Charlton Athletic 4 Coventry City 1
By Nick Martindale at The Valley
After a season that promised much but delivered little, Charlton fans at least had something to smile about last Saturday.
This long-overdue victory was of little practical value other than avoiding the ignominy of finishing in the bottom half, but it did represent the end of an era at The Valley.
By Nick Martindale
Long after all the evidence suggested otherwise, Alan Pardew continued to hope against hope that Charlton could somehow make a late charge into the play-offs.
Against QPR last Saturday (April 19), the Addicks boss resisted the temptation to blood youngsters while making the top six remained a mathematical possibility.
But that message didn’t seem to filter through to the players, who produced the kind of end-of-season performance that spoke volumes for their own belief – or lack of it.
By Nick Martindale
Five years ago, the then Charlton manager Alan Curbishley heralded Southampton as a role model for clubs looking to consolidate themselves as Premier League outfits.
They were, he said, the team his own club had to emulate. Three changes of manager and two years later, Southampton were relegated and have never recovered, missing out on both promotion and the play-offs in their next two seasons.
By Nick Martindale
If Charlton are to return to the Premier League next season it will be through the lottery of the play-offs after two defeats finally ended their distant hopes of automatic promotion.
Barring a cataclysmic collapse by the four sides above them – two of which have at least one game in hand on the Addicks – their season will come down to three all-or-nothing clashes at the end of a long and turbulent campaign.
That’s assuming they finish in the top six, of course, which is itself far from certain.
Somehow Charlton’s back-to-back defeats have seen them retain fifth place in the Championship, although the likes of Hull City, Plymouth and Burnley are now all no more than a point away.
