Untied

For thirty minutes or so, we looked pretty comfortable tonight. We were still useless going forward (our only half-chance offered by Ebra's slip) but United offered little more, a free-kick aside.

But then for the final quarter-hour of the opening period, they began to open us up at will with Giggs and Ronaldo going mightily close and you just knew it was going to be a case of 'when' and not 'if' they would score, and sadly fortune didn't favour Fortune on 49 minutes and the game was over as a contest. Thereafter, United were pure class, with the brilliant Ronaldo invariably at the centre of things. The booing died down pretty quickly - perhaps the fans realise a fabulous talent when they see one, and also began to appreciate his 'crime' hardly made him into a Portuguese Ian Huntley.

I've talked before about whether Charlton's cup is half-full or half-empty. The optimists will argue that tonight's defeat was entirely foreseen, and Saturday's was down to an inopportune sending off.

The pessimists meanwhile (which sadly now include me I'm afraid) will point instead to two performances frankly lacking any spark whatsoever and littered with defensive errors. More worryingly, I'm concerned that the players we have in the squad (and admittedly we haven't seen all of them yet) are doing their best but just aren't up to it.

We can't run away from the fact that we are a team with problems. We have not created a single noteworthy chance from open play in three hours of football, and have a midfield so lacking in creativity that this is hardly surprising. This need not be a recipe for disaster if you have a rock-solid defence but as the photo shows above, we defended like a pub team tonight (Carson excepted).

Dowie's post-match comments suggested that he would ideally have started with Sorondo and Reid, so I accept that was an unfortunate turn of events. However he has made it abundantly clear that he prefers Holland and Hughes to Kishishev, which a) is ridiculous, but also b) shows how desperate our options are in central midfield right now (Kish after all is the ultimate opinion-divider).

I genuinely believe that Bryan Hughes is one of the worst players, if not the worst, that I've seen in a Charlton shirt in the context of the level at which the team is playing. In other words, I fully appreciate that say Jamie Stuart, Paul Bacon and Kim Grant were worse, it's just that the team was a lot worse then too. We're now competing in the Premiership, and if we're honest quite possibly with a relegation battle on our hands, and we have a left-winger (who then becomes playmaker for the final ten minutes) who can't cross, shoot, dribble, tackle or pass. Occasionally you find yourself checking the internet during the game to see if he was substituted when you popped to the loo such is his irrelevance to the action. What am I missing here?

It's just gone midnight, I'm tired and we're moving apartment tomorrow, so maybe I'm just feeling a bit cranky, so sorry Bryan nothing personal mate. But then again the team I love is bottom of the Premiership so I'm entitled to have a rant now and again.