This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict’ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Charlton Athletic suffered another major setback to their season with 4-1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers at the Valley on Tuesday night under lights.

The Addicks started the game in the right fashion as they aimed to build on the draws they secured in their previous two matches in League One. Josh Davison’s second goal in as many matches gave them a much-needed lead inside the opening 12 minutes.

However, Charlton were not able to maintain their lead and instead were pegged back before halftime. They then went on to ship three goals inside the final 20 minutes to lose for the sixth time in the league already this term.

Nigel Adkins is now under major pressure in terms of his job at Charlton with them sat second bottom of the table and now 11 points adrift of the top-six and four points even from safety.

The Charlton boss has though insisted to London News Online that he wants to be given the chance to fight for his job and help to turn things around the Addicks.

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However, with Charlton slumping down to second bottom in League One after ten games, we asked some of our FLW writers whether they feel the time is right for him to be moved on…

Adam Jones

He has 90 minutes to save his job.

Arguably, he should go after such a dire result at The Valley, regardless of how they played. There may have been a huge amount of expectation on their shoulders after losing just one of their latter 15 fixtures of the 2020/21 campaign, but they had to be doing better regardless of that and they have more than enough quality and depth to be pushing up the table.

The international break doesn't really apply to League One - but sacking him now would leave a caretaker/potential new appointment with just a couple of days to prepare for their upcoming fixture against Fleetwood.

If they lose against Fleetwood, he's out. It's a shame, because he's a decent individual and always conducts himself well, but it just doesn't seem to be working out in the capital for him for some reason and a defeat would probably bring the curtain down on his career there.

This upcoming game could prove to be crucial for Adkins though, so as mad as it may seem, one more game with him at the helm would still leave them with plenty of time to get out of trouble and would give a potential new appointment more time to prepare their side for their following league fixture against Rotherham next week.

 

 

Ben Wignall

I think now is probably the time if any for Adkins to depart as it looks like nothing much is changing at The Valley.

Thomas Sandgaard backed him in the transfer market this summer by making exciting permanent and loan additions, but something just isn't clicking.

The Addicks had a lot of momentum off the back of last season where they just missed out on the play-offs and it was expected that they'd start the 2021-22 campaign strongly, but it's gone the complete opposite way.

For the strength of the squad they have, Charlton should definitely not be in the relegation places and not even Adkins who has a fantastic record generally in League One can probably turn this sinking ship around.

The players are to blame as well of course but in this industry it is managers who cop the flak and many have ran out of patience with Adkins and after this latest heavy defeat it's surely the time to move in a different direction.

Chris Thorpe

I’m always all for giving a manager a chance but I feel like he is hanging by a thread now.

Charlton have high expectations after the money they invested this summer and it will surely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

For one reason or another Adkins hasn’t been able to galvanise what is a very talented squad and for that reason he probably has to go.

Charlton are already cut well adrift in the play-off race and it will take a big effort to get back on track after this poor start.

The players are there to stay but I don’t think the manager is.