Preston Dead End

As half-time approached, I turned to the fellow sufferer next to me (who was well-aware of my NYA alter ego) , and declared, "I'm glad I don't have to watch this every week."

When you have only seen seven games in the flesh this season, but they've included those at home against Scunthorpe, QPR and now Preston (Total points: 1), one is torn between two opposing conclusions.

Either those performances (and presumably several more like them), are a damning indictment on Alan Pardew's ability to maximise the potential of such a strong squad, albeit on paper only. Or perhaps alternatively he should be warmly congratulated for having managed, despite being let down with such regularity by his players, to keep us firmly in the top six essentially all season, and not allowed us to tamely fall away like say, Sheffield United.

Yesterday's result could have been considerably worse. After all, Tamas Priskin had already wasted a golden chance before his compatriot Chris Brown scored, whilst the Hungarian was thwarted superbly by Nicky Weaver early in the second half. Meanwhile one could argue Paddy McCarthy's slightly fortuitous equaliser was Charlton's only meaningful chance of the game.

The first surprise occurred before the game had even started. As expected Leroy Lita started, but most would have presumed his ideal strike partner would be Andy Gray (or perhaps Chris Iwelumo), but certainly not Luke Varney, an eager channel-runner, but hardly a target man. Meanwhile, as a result of reverting to 4-4-2, Darren Ambrose was returned to a position on the left-flank from which he has never impressed, and did not do so again today.

However given that Varney did start alongside Lita, it presumably was not in the gameplan to hoof hopeful long balls in their general direction, rather than seek to exploit their pace in a more subtle fashion. Unfortunately it seems Greg Halford (total transfer value: £5.75m) in particular must have missed the teamtalk.

Inevitably we failed to retain any sort of quality possession, the ever-enthusiastic central midfield pair of Zheng and Holland were threatened with neck strain as the ball sailed over their heads, whilst Ambrose and Sam/Sinclair were rendered redundant. It really was one of the most dreadful first half performances I can recall seeing, and whilst the booing was hardly helpful, the blame lay squarely on the pitch.

We looked better (all relative of course) when Andy Gray had replaced Varney at half-time. Whilst the Scot has yet to open his scoring account, there's something about his style that suggests to me he will be a big asset next season if we remain in the Championship (an ever more likely outcome at this point). Not only is he also called 'Andy', but he looks like our former hero Hunt, and plays an awful lot like him too. Fans will recall meanwhile that he also took time to settle, before catapulting us to a Championship title as top scorer in his second season.

It was poetic justice of sorts when Brown's brilliant second goal killed off any hopes of a Charlton victory, that would have been totally undeserved, but for a minute or so was not entirely off the cards. We had shown a greater inclination to pass the ball in the second period, but the frequency with which promising situations were curtailed by miscontrols or crosses that failed to beat the first defender, suggested that any goal we scored would ultimately be a messy one, and so it transpired.

I am reluctant to list my player ratings for fear of wearing out the '4' button on my PC. Suffice to say that Weaver and Holland in particular were largely blameless, whilst Pards needs to swifly learn how to say, "Zheng, please play for us next season" in Mandarin. Leroy Lita meanwhile should be commended for showing considerable enthusiasm, even if he was surely tempted to call Steve Coppell at half-time and beg for parole. He needs to start alongside Gray for the remainder of the season.