Bolton Wanderers brought a reality check to the Valley following the Addicks’ recent revival. KEVIN NOLAN was there to report.
Charlton’s three-game winning streak in League One was brought to a sobering end by tough customers Bolton Wanderers, who proved savvier than their mid-table hosts and won far more comfortably than the scoreline suggests. Dean Holden’s boys battled gamely but were put in their sub mid-table place by Ian Evatt’s more
streetwise men.
Making four changes from the side that beat Barnsley last time out, Holden fielded another bespoke starting eleven presumably geared to combat Bolton both physically and tactically. To which end, he handed a second full debut to Macauley Bonne and preferred new signing Matt Penney to Steven Sessegnon as a replacement for injured left back Todd Kane. Elsewhere, Albie Morgan took over from Jack Payne, while Corey Blackett-Taylor returned at the expense of Tyreece Campbell.
Still unsure of his best side, Holden’s latest tinkering met with mixed success. Bonne struggled to escape the ruthless clutches of gigantic Trotters skipper Ricardo Santos, his efforts to elude his no-nonsense marker compromised by a first touch charitably described as “rusty” but more unkindly as “concrete.” An eager Leaburn would surely have fared better.
Penney, meanwhile, soldiered through an awkward, nervy first appearance. His understandable desire to make a favourable impression led to errors, none of which impacted on the result but hardly inspired the confidence of his new colleagues. The excellent Sessegnon, whose presence on the bench must surely imply his fitness, is the club’s best left back and should be a regular starter until his form dictates otherwise.
In midfield, Morgan did more than enough to earn Holden’s approval. His passing was sometimes erratic, at other times spot-on but his contribution not only included a brilliant equaliser but the creation of an “on a plate” chance for Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, which the Crystal Palace loanee contrived to bungle from no more than four yards, with the scores level. If the winger had scored, as he should have done, Charlton might have stolen this game but, of course, “if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no work for tinkers.”
From Evatt’s contented point of view, the best way to begin what he agreed was a perfect away performance, was with an early goal. This was duly delivered in the fourth minute by Aaron Morley, who bent a 30-yard free kick beyond Ashley Maynard-Brewer’s reach and in off the keeper’s right-hand post. It was a strike of sumptuous quality, made possible by the arbitrary decision of referee Carl Brook that will o’ the wisp Shola Shoretire had been tripped during a mutually scruffy skirmish.
Urgent and elusive, Shoretire was a persistent nuisance to the home side. Soon after Morley’s opener, he skilfully set up scorer Dion Charles with the formality of finishing from point blank range, an outstanding chance which the prolific striker botched by hitting first Maynard-Brewer’s outstretched leg, then the crossbar as the ball ricocheted upward. Charles’ jaw-dropping miss rivalled Rak-Sakyi’s in waywardness but Dion wasn’t easily discouraged and would be heard from again before the end of hostilities.
Before the interval, the Trotters piled on the pressure, in search of an all-important second goal. Gethin Jones’ crisp daisycutter whizzed narrowly wide, Morley prodded Kyle Dempsey’s pass inches off target and Charles forced a smart save from Maynard-Brewer, The one-way traffic was interrupted only Rak-Sakyi’s solo run and crisp shot which James Trafford scrambled to safety at the foot of a post.
Less than a minute into the second half, the Addicks were level. And an outstanding goal it was, the result of intricate passing on the edge of the visitors’s penalty area, which culminated in a fast exchange between Morgan and Rak-Sakyi. Given only fleeting sight of goal near the 18-yard line, Morgan made the most of the brief opening by drilling an unstoppable low drive into the left corner. A dramatic change in fortunes seemed feasible but Rak-Sakyi’s clumsy miss rather dampened The Valley’s burgeoning enthusiasm.
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Slugging it out on a more even basis by now, Charlton were grateful for Maynard-Brewer’s agility as their young Aussie keeper spectacularly tipped another rocket from Morley over the bar. At the other end, Trafford had the somewhat easier task of stopping a swerving free kick from Morgan. The issue was delicately balanced until an all too familiar defensive mix-up handed victory to the grateful North Westerners.
The question of responsibility for dealing with what was no more than a hopeful ball lifted over the top rested principally between an advancing Maynard-Brewer and Ryan Inniss, whose vulnerability in similar circumstances is a matter of record. The centre back’s weak header was pounced on by Dempsey, who nodded past the committed keeper. With the home defence in hopeless tatters, Charles was left with the simple task of finishing into a yawning net. Shame the league’s nosey parkers couldn’t have left well alone and banned him instead of Elias Kachunga following last week’s cock-up against Forest Green Rovers but even the most curmudgeonly of Charlton fans (and I take some beating) would have to admit justice was done.
Results like Morecambe’s demolition of Bristol Rovers, not to mention Burton’s win over Oxford, in the shorter view, leave Charlton looking anxiously over their shoulders at the relegation quagmire below them. Those three wins on the spin take on a new importance. The 2022-23 League One season… you can have my share of it. It’s a bloody nightmare! And you may quote me…
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Clare (Leaburn 76) Inniss, Ness, Penney. Dobson (Henry 88), Rak-Sakyi, Fraser, Morgan (Payne 88), Blackett-Taylor (Campbell 67),
Bonne. Not used: Harness, O’Connell, Sessegnon. Booked: Bonne.
Bolton: Trafford, Jones, Santos, Johnston (John 46), Toal, Lee (Sheehan 82), Morley, Shoretire (Adeboyejo 56), Bradley, Dempsey, Charles (Jerome 83). Not
used: Dixon. Isgrove, Williams. Booked: Lee, Trafford.
Referee: Carl Brook. Att: 14,458 (1,511 visiting).
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