Don’t talk to Charlton fans about the magic of the FA Cup after yesterday’s draw with Stockport. KEVIN NOLAN hasn’t completely given up hope, though…
Just one last-gasp corner needed to be cleared for Charlton’s name to feature – unaccompanied by the fateful addition of “or Stockport County” – in Monday’s FA Cup third round draw.
They had been under steady pressure from their League Two visitors but seemed about to stagger over the line to a wholly unconvincing victory and the possibility of a plum tie in the next round. But that was to reckon without their storied inability to manage things through to a routine, undramatic conclusion.
We were in the last of seven added minutes – good to see that time-wasting has been taken seriously as a blight on football – when young keeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer tried desperately but vainly to prevent a deflected shot from crossing his goalline. There was that familiar feeling of foreboding when referee Lee Swabey agreed with this distant assistant that he had failed to do so.
A left-wing corner was duly awarded, which was swung in among the heaving mass of bodies congesting the penalty area in front of Maynard-Brewer and glanced inside his left-hand post by substitute Myles Hippolyte. A sentry guarding the post might have cleared the danger comfortably, but that’s so very yesterday, don’t you think?
A moment of sheer disbelief followed Hippolyte’s equaliser. Behind Charlton’s goal, nearly 800 travelling Hatters paused only to believe their eyes before erupting into unbridled glee. Fewer than 3,000 locals headed for the exits, experiencing no such problem in confirming what they had just seen.
“You couldn’t make it up!” was one of their more printable reactions. But if Monday’s draw sends the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal or Tottenham to The Valley for the fourth round, the language could get slightly more colourful.
Some of the wretchedly poor attendance – your reporter shamefacedly among them – looked forward to being put out of our misery by the exquisite torture of a penalty shoot-out. No such luck. Deputy pitchside compere Dave Lockwood (we wish an indisposed Brian Cole all the best) took almost fiendish delight in informing us that the tie would be settled by a midweek replay at Stockport’s Edgeley Park.
If that prospect doesn’t curdle the blood of Ben Garner and his crestfallen players (no insult intended to one of England’s oldest football clubs), then bless them in their blissful ignorance. They’re about to have their eyes well and truly opened.
County’s belated leveller neatly bookended their spirited performance. There had been only three minutes on the clock when they took the lead in vaguely similar fashion. A right-wing corner was taken short, crossed to the far post and brushed into the net by a stooping Chris Hussey.
It was hardly the start Garner had expected but almost the entire game stretched out before him. How could he know it would end as disastrously as it began?
Charlton were not kept waiting long for equality, which arrived 20 minutes later garnished by a huge dollop of luck. They were indebted to the enterprise and skill shown by left-back Steven Sessegnon, who had Macauley Southam-Hales floundering in his wake as he attacked along the left byline. Confusion reigned as Sessegnon’s low ball found its way into County’s net off – it turned out – the unfortunate keeper Ben Hinchliffe.
Home celebration was muted before a polite ripple of applause was mustered by the few loyalists on hand. It was hardly a classic and, frankly, not many of them had a clue how the ball had been nudged over the line. But they all count and the Addicks were level.
The goal by which Charlton forged in front was as majestic as its predecessor was scruffy. It was created by a gorgeous ball over the top delivered by George Dobson and finished superbly by the deft flick which Albie Morgan dinked over the advancing Hinchliffe.
It’s become a footballing axiom – one supported by extensive evidence over the years – that the longer you go without sealing the deal, the more likely you are to pay a bitter price for a lack of ruthlessness.
The Addicks would need a third goal, we told ourselves, and we were not far wrong. But as County’s second-half superiority went unrewarded by an equaliser, it seemed likely that Charlton would get away with it. Until, of course, one corner too many was conceded and proved their undoing.
To be fair to the visitors, it had been coming for some time.
A December replay on the outskirts of Manchester is scarcely the stuff of dreams. But the reality is that Charlton are still in the FA Cup and are capable of progressing further.
Their incentive – and that of Stockport – will depend on the identity of their fourth-round opponents. A trip, for instance, to Middlesbrough or Blackburn, is hardly guaranteed to fire the imagination. Again, apologies to the likes of Boro or Rovers because no disrespect is intended, but you’ll know exactly what is meant. To be brutally frank, you wouldn’t send your worst enemy (unless your worst enemy is Boris Johnson) to either of those venues on a frigid winter evening.
Mind you, Charlton did once win a momentous replay at Ewood Park, so anything is possible. Once is enough, though. No need for a visit to that particular ploughed ground.
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Clare, Lavelle, Inniss, Sessegnon (Chin 63), Morgan, Dobson, Fraser, Rak-Sakyi (Jaiyesimi 85), Aneke (Blackett-Taylor 67), Kirk (Campbell 85). Not used: Harness, Mitchell, Payne, Kanu. Booked: Kirk
Stockport: Hinchliffe, Southam-Hales, Wright, Camps (Hippolyte 64), Crankshawe, Collar, Rydel (MacDonald 81), Croasdale, Wootton, Hussey (Horsfall 46), Lewis (Madden 64). Not used: Jones, Evans, Okwute, Johnson, Partington. Booked: Southam-Hales, Horsfall.
Referee: Lee Swabey. Attendance: 3,889 (925 visiting).
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