Appeal

It was good to have the kids with me for a City home game for the first time this season and they seemed to appreciate being about ten rows closer to the action than we have been for the past two seasons.

Since my last view of them a couple of weeks ago, City have changed head coach for the third time this calendar year. This was therefore David Hopkin's first home game and he received a warm reception. The team is still looking very unfamiliar, and for 10yo and 14yo there were more recognisable names (two) in the former City players in the Charlton Athletic squad than in our own, but I expect new favourites will eventually emerge.

Unfortunately Charlton took the lead inside three minutes, and City were chasing the game thereafter. This was a much improved performance: more zip and passion and better quality in the build up play, but plenty of territory and pressure didn't translate into goals and when Charlton scored a fine second in the last ten minutes, that was it.

Overall this was a more positive display and hopefully the new head coach will start to turn things around. City have slipped into the bottom four on the back of this result but showed enough here to suggest they can pull themselves up a bit.

Thing might have gone differently had the penalty appeal (main image) mid-way through the second half gone City's way. But it didn't. I've posted a few more images on Twitter.