This one will be on radio and the internet. I hope I get the chance to listen. Should be the debut of Smertin. And the preseason debut of big Herman. Again, it will be interesting to see the combination of players Curbs puts out there. It is obvious that he likes the versatility of Ambrose for either wing. I wonder if he will ever put him in the middle. I wonder what it would be like to have Smertin sit in behind Rommedahl, Ambrose and Thomas across the middle of the pitch. Speed and feed. Bent and Jeffers up top. A little help from Young and HH or even Powell. Now there are some attacking options. One would have to think that Holland and Murphy know they are playing for one spot, if even that. Talk about competition in practice! This is all good. Whomever is in form should play. On the Brentford side is Michael Turner, a former Addicks center back. He was well received at Brentford last year and played well for them. I hope he has another good year for them and helps them gain promotion. They made the playoffs last year. Go Addicks!
Addicks lineup: Kiely Young, Fortune, Spector, Powell Ambrose, Holland, Hughes, Thomas Jeffers, Johansson. Subs: Andersen, Hreidarsson, Perry, Kishishev, Murphy, Smertin, Euell, Rommedahl, Sam, Bent. That would most likely put Smetin with Murphy in the second half. It will be interesting to see if whom Bent comes on for. Will Jeffers get the full 90? JJ? Or we will see Euell get a chance at forward rather than midfield?
Brentford 0 - 0 Charlton Athletic Disappointing if all you look at is the score line. Here's how the lineup went: Kiely, Young (Kishishev 66), Fortune, Spector (Perry 46), Powell (Hreidarsson 46), Ambrose (Sam 74), Holland (Smertin 46), Hughes (Euell 46), Thomas (Rommedahl 46), Jeffers (Murphy 26), Johansson (Bent 23) Jeffers seemed to lose his head a bit with all the physical play. I guess the referee was letting it go. JJ had to leave with a head knock. With other strikers unavailable, Curbs goes to the 4-5-1. I'm glad to see it didn't work well. We seem to be working much better as a team in the 4-4-2. With only Bent up top, we only challenged but didn't finish. We cannot score in that formation. It is great to use as a drop back when you have a two goal or more lead. I must add, though, that if Curbs is really giving Euell a chance, why doesn't he play him at striker. That is his given position. He has done well at times at a midfielder, but it isn't where he is best at performing. All in all, we had some good play. We didn't quite seem to be in synch. Brentford is another club, like Wellington, that is ahead of us in training time. It showed early on. And yet, we were the club with staying power. That's why Curbs should have pushed Euell up front. With two at the top, we might have actually finished one of those late chances against a defense that was pretty gassed. Thoughts?