October might have only just begun, but yesterday’s draw at The Valley showed signs of a bleak winter ahead, writes KEVIN NOLAN.
Still likeable but less loquacious these days, Karl Robinson brought Oxford United to The Valley for what, with tongue slightly in cheek, could be described as a quasi-six pointer.
After only 11 games, Charlton are already more interested in results beneath them in League One than those of the pacesetters at the top end of the table. It’s already shaping up as a grim struggle as winter approaches.
The Addicks are an ordinary team who belong in the lower half of the division. It could get better, but don’t bet on it.
It was touching that Charlton’s matchday programme revealed that Robinson “has made no secret of his love for The Valley” but the news hardly came as a surprise.
As recently as last February, the irrepressible Scouser masterminded Charlton’s heaviest defeat of last season when his unfancied side completed a league double over Johnnie Jackson’s bewildered men. Their 4-0 romp was a fair reflection of the gulf in class which divided them.
Arriving on Saturday in 19th position and only one point behind their hosts, with a game in hand, the U’s started confidently and ominously moved into the lead after just 11 minutes.
Accepting Kyle Joseph’s pass in his stride, Marcus Browne made ground as the home defence showed little interest in challenging him, drew a bead from outside the penalty area and beat Joe Wollacott’s desperate dive with a crisp drive into the bottom right corner.
Though expertly executed by Browne, it was the kind of sloppy concession guaranteed to enrage both manager and fans. No doubt Ben Garner was tempted to add his voice to the outbreak of booing which greeted the setback.
He had his say in an “angry team talk” during the interval and, to be fair, drew the right response. Charlton’s second-half performance almost banished from memory their turgid contribution to the opening stanza. The bar had been, admittedly, set low.
Spared further damage as Marcus McGuane lamely rifled a clear-cut chance wide, Garner and an increasingly mutinous crowd grumbled through 45 minutes of tedium, during which only United’s obvious lack of ambition kept their side in the hunt.
Denied space and time by the visitors’ high press, they struggled to cross the halfway line but retired at the break only a goal behind and still, nominally at least, in with a chance. There was no way of knowing, at the time, that Robinson’s chaps had blown an excellent chance of putting this game beyond the reach of their labouring victims.
An enterprising but unsuccessful attempt to lob Simon Eastwood from 40 yards by Mandela Egbo hinted at a fresh attitude and when Jesurun Rak-Sakyi’s shot struck a defensive hand before trickling to safety off an upright, the previously unruffled visitors were wilting under unexpected pressure.
It was no longer against the run of play when the Addicks equalised 10 minutes into the second half. Rak-Sakyi made the early running with a shot charged down to Scott Fraser, whose instant return was blocked out to Charlie Kirk by Stuart Findlay.
Composed and calm, Kirk’s perfectly chipped cross from the left gave Jayden Stockley the simple task of heading past Eastwood from three yards. It was the skipper’s first goal of the season and reward for Garner’s introduction of Kirk at half-time.
Kirk’s undoubted ability to find room for accurate crossing was seen again to advantage when fellow substitute Miles Leaburn’s clever backheel sent him clear to deliver hard and low from the same position. Sliding in under Elliott Moore’s alert pressure at the near post, Steven Sessegnon steered inches wide of the target.
An end-to-end game had suddenly erupted, with Oxford more than ready to contribute. An heroic, last-ditch block from Ryan Inniss was required to prevent Joseph from finishing Matty Taylor’s cute lay-off, before a late flurry of chances went unconverted during a hectic conclusion to Charlton’s fifth 1-1 draw of this stuttering season.
Second-half substitute Billy Bodin began the sequence of misses by dancing in from the left, leaving the indefatigable George Dobson on his posterior, but shooting inexplicably over the bar from close range.
At the other end, Dobson was sent clear by Diallang Jaiyesimi’s carefully tailored pass but was unable to beat the advancing Eastwood. Which left the last word to Jodi Jones, whose 25-yard curler drew a fine, full-length save from Joe Wollacott when heading apparently unstoppably inside the keeper’s right hand post.
So a draw it was, Charlton’s sixth from 11 starts in a campaign of mounting frustration. Better than losing, of course, but scarcely the stuff of ambition. Seems we’re always stuck in second gear -with the handbrake on.
Charlton: Wollacott, Sessegnon (Chin 68), Lavelle (Kirk 46), Inniss, O’Connell, Rak-Sakyi, Egbo, Payne (Leaburn 46), Dobson, Fraser, Stockley (Jaiyesimi 87). Not used: McGillivray, Thomas, McGrandles. Booked: Dobson, Lavelle, Inniss.
Oxford: Eastwood, Long, Findlay, Moore, Brannagan, Browne (Gorrin 79), Bate (Taylor 63), Brown, Henry (Bodin 63), McGuane, Joseph (Jones 90). Not used: Brearey, Mousinho, Seddon. Booked: McGuane.
Referee: Robert Madley. Official attendance: 12,806 (1,058 visiting).
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