Whilst the talk this morning is of a lack of fitness against Charlton, which resulted in Town surrendering their single goal lead on Staurday.  There was more to this defeat than fitness, exposing an awful lot about Wilson and the squad.

Austin looked very tired and despite working hard as usual, couldn’t be his typical attacking threat.  Wilson was too late to substitute him in the 82nd minute.  Perhaps the substitution was left late as Pericard, the obvious and only real replacement, wasn’t on the bench due to injury.  As a result, Wilson had a lack of attacking options and opted to bring on the enigma Macklin.

Making the substitution that late, let alone sending Macklin on, was a bizzare decision considering Charlton had brought on Burton as an extra attacking player about 15 minutes previous.  From that point onwards they looked a completely different team and were dominating play.  Their dominance forced Town to slow down the tempo, drop deeper and deeper to cope with the pressure.  Only to then send aimless long balls for the front two to tirelessly chase.

Macklin, who was as ineffective and wasteful as ever, was unable to provide any meaningful link up play with Paynter, JP, Ward and Ferry.  He made runs straight into crowded spaces with no hope of breaking past, ignoring the channels and failing to pass to his team mates.  The fact that our supporting players were pushing forward to help Macklin only allowed Charlton to exploit the swift counter attack.

With Timlin and Easton warming the bench, one of these experienced players would have been a much better choice to bring on than the young Macklin.  This would have allowed 5 across the midfield to serve to help to counter the extra attacking player, but will also allow Town to keep possession with more options for a shorter passing game without recourse to the searching long balls, often over-hit, into space.

In the end it was a counter attack that did it for Town.  Deon Burton controlled the ball well for the in-running Bailey who had the time to control and place his shot past Lucas.

So many times this season, I recall 6 times, that Town have conceded in added time surely must make Wilson rethink his use of substitutes.  But most importantly he needs to add depth to a predominately young and inexperienced bench to give us any chance of finishing in the top six.