Use of Agency staff at CAFC

It was an excellent result today – but if we want to get promoted we will need a Jimmy Melrose or a Mark Bright as an impact goalscorer to push us over the line in January as we have in previous promotion years.

My blog tonight is about the use of agency staff behind the bar and on the food stand in Legends. I’m not opposed to the use of agency staff and I don’t want to be critical of the individual staff who try their hardest. It’s just that week after week after week after week no one knows how to work a till, pull a pint, work those hand held credit card machines or indeed catch the eye of a prospective customer. It’s Groundhog Day every Saturday.

Ive no idea whether Charlton actually care about the bar and food stand revenues if they’ve outsourced the lot , revenues and costs then maybe not – but I ( or anyone who really knew how to organise staff)  could increase revenues by at least 50%, probably more. It’s a shambles and needs to be sorted.

One night in Walsall

as the song goes- is like a year in any other place

Well OK maybe not but what fun we had on Tuesday night. A magnificent performance from the team, somewhat Barcelonaesque  I thought full of lovely passing and flowing movement. I wore every piece of warm clothing that I could locate only to find that it was unseasonably humid and I was sweating more than the players.

You have to say that when the team is on a going day they really are a pleasure to watch. Apart from the train service back from the Bescot to New St – what genius planned a train in the 90th minute followed by one 45 mins later- it was a great night out.

Its hard to believe that there are even 2 better teams than us in this division let alone 6, but consistency has been the problem and the injuries to Igor and Josh Cullen are bad news. Cullen in particular was brilliant on Tuesday night. Also its no coincidence that since we paired Pearce and Bielik we haven’t let a goal in for 3 games.

I can recommend the Eggs Benedict breakfast in Virgin 1st class ( senior railcard discount) back to Euston on Weds morning. Very tasty.

Bielik is imperious

Far be it from me to criticise our Lee and we all make mistakes but I can’t imagine what he was thinking when he put Pratley at centre half at Rochdale and Bielik in midfield. Bielik is a monster in the making – he was imperious yesterday and together with Pearce they make a fantastic central pairing. I’m a bit worried about young Djksteel. He’s going to be a fabulous player but at the moment he has a worrying tendency to give the winger on his side of the pitch too much space.

An excellent cameo from the ‘eskimo’ ( left out in the cold) Marshall and another great shift from Joe Aribo. I thought both Reeves and Jamie Ward played well so grounds for optimism everywhere.

Anyway, all that aside, an excellent performance yesterday but the injury to Taylor is concerning – holding the ball up top will be more problematic without him. Let’s hope Karlan and Igor step up to the challenge on Tuesday at Walsall.

I agree with Lee that the team is better than last season but they need to find some consistency from somewhere and win a few games on the bounce.