Watford 5 - 0 Charlton

8th December 1984 we lost 5-0 at Oxford. Oxford were second in the table when we went there and they had won seven and drawn one of their eight home games at that stage in the season. They went on to win the division with a home record W18 D2 L1. Quite formidable. Oxford scored five goals on five separate occasion that season, and they scored four on another four occasions. Our 5-0 defeat was one of two by the same margin.

Today we lost 5-0 to a Watford side with a home record of W6 D3 D3 at home this season.

There is little positive that can be said about this result, nor the performance. The farce about Luzon not being granted his visa is covered by Chicago Addick here but even if that was to have an impact on the players it doesn't justify the result or the performance.

I am, now, very concerned that the reports about players being unhappy about the choice of manager are both true and part of the reason for the performance today. I'm not suggesting that any of them are behaving unprofessionally, but let's remember that players can move on. Those that are best placed to help us get out of this mess are very unlikely to be kept at the club should we be relegated.

The squad is small and short of quality and experience, but it has been all season and until today Fulham and Ipswich have scored three goals against us and the former has some outstanding players and the latter is very much in the chase for automatic promotion. Thus the weaknesses in the squad can't be blamed for the terrible run we have had in isolation.

We were led to believe, mainly from leaks from the club, that Bob had fallen out with many of the players - punch ups have been hinted at. After the way the club have handled the selection and appointment of the new manager I'm reluctant to believe all that I hear coming out of the training ground, but it doesn't look like removing Bob has had much of a positive impact.

The big question is just how bad is it going to get? If Luzon is as good as the Chairman seems to think he is things might turn around and anything at Wolves followed by a bright start at home to Rotherham at the end of the month might, just, get us back on track for a mid-table finish. However another defeat at Wolves and Rotherham becomes a proper must win. Rotherham are five points behind us and are 4th from bottom.

I wasn't at the game so I'm not going to comment on it except to say that we conceded a very late goal, again. Our goal difference has gone from -5 to -10 today and that leaves us marginally better than the teams around us, but not much.

On a positive note, we are only three points off Notts Forest in 12th so if Luzon can come in and light a fire under the players backsides we only need a couple of good results to climb back into the mid-table position that, I believe, was the target this season.

Time will tell.

Up the Addicks!