Spring is coming but the mood over The Valley is still gloomy. KEVIN NOLAN assesses yesterday’s defeat to the league leaders.
The first of Charlton’s outstanding 15 fixtures of a gloomy, beige-hued season brought table-topping Sheffield Wednesday and their usual full complement of passionate support to The Valley on Saturday. Not surprisingly, League One’s champions-elect departed with all three points following a deceptively narrow win over Dean Holden’s men, who at least stayed in contention until erratic referee Benjamin Speedie called a halt on six minutes of added time.
Wednesday’s profitable afternoon received a further boost with the news that their closest pursuers Plymouth Argyle, who began the day on the same number of points (68), were hammered 5-2 by play-off chasers Peterborough United. Affable Owls manager Darren Moore smiled even more widely than he normally does. He has a game in hand to cheer him up even more.
Far removed from attractive issues such as promotion but still with a wary eye on the desperate relegation struggle below them, Charlton must amass at least 10 more points to ensure their safety. Solidly embedded in a no-man’s land of their own creation, their problems are intensified by the awkward reality that almost all of their upcoming 12 engagements feature opponents with urgent agendas at one end of the table or the other. Even mid-table mediocrity is a prize bitterly won.
The next two assignments make the point succinctly to Holden and his under-achieving charges. On Tuesday they travel to buoyant Peterborough, a venue where results have been disappointing to say the least. In their quest for a play-off spot, Posh will be fancying their chances against visitors they might assume have far less incentive than themselves. They will be led by Johnson Clarke-Harris, scorer of their goal in the 1-1- draw at The Valley on Boxing Day and two more against Plymouth. If Johnson doesn’t get you, chances are either Clarke or Harris will.
Four days after popping up to Peterborough, the Addicks will face Plymouth down in deep, dark Devon, where their hosts will no doubt be spoiling, not only to make amends for their spanking by Posh, but to avenge their 5-1 humiliation at The Valley back in August, at a time when Charlton were getting ideas well above their station.
Looking a little further ahead, the fixture list features game, at a more modest level, against Accrington, Morecambe and Cambridge, before none other than the ambitious Wycombe Wanderers visit HQ. All four of those games promise to be grimly contested but
perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Let’s report ’em one at a time, as wisdom advises, and deal first with Saturday’s defeat by Wednesday.
Rank outsiders to upset Moore’s high-flying Owls, Charlton fought stubbornly but with little realistic hope of defying the odds. In fact, had their visitors converted several clear-cut first half chances, the issue, such as it was, would have been settled by half-time. Wednesday’s profligacy encouraged hope of a second- half recovery but indifferent finishing of their own settled the Addicks’ hash.
Superbly organised by Scottish maestro Barry Bannan, a mysteriously unpopular figure in these parts, the South Yorkshiremen moved smoothly into gear and made clear their aggressive intentions when Bannan curled an early effort against the left post. They remained level for just five more minutes before veteran defender Liam Palmer shot them into a lead with, improbably, the only goal of the game.
On the end of a fluent, passing sequence, which Jaden Brown completed with a sharp delivery to his feet, Palmer’s position of total solitude no more than eight yards from goal, will inevitably be the subject of heated debate at Sparrows Lane before the Peterborough trip.
It’s enough to note that his splendid isolation justified, for once, that frankly irritating cliche about “acres of space”. Palmer made the most of them and finished calmly past Ashley Maynard-Brewer.
The same Brown-Palmer combination sliced Charlton open again a few minutes later. An even better chance was laid on by Brown but, from the penalty spot, Palmer remembered who and where he was, causing him to shoot meekly at a grateful Maynard-Brewer. There was no way of knowing, at the time, that his jaw-dropping miss wouldn’t matter.
In total control, meanwhile, the visitors still needed a second goal to seal their superiority. They were denied by Lucas Ness’s critical challenge, which denied Josh Windass at point-blank range; then by Maynard-Brewer. who narrowed the angle to save brilliantly from Dominic Iorfa. The interval left the issue unresolved.
Having failed to trouble keeper Cameron Dawson during an opening session of utter subjection, the Addicks improved after the interval. Their first chance was created by Sean Clare, who won a shuddering challenge, before slipping Miles Leaburn through the inside right channel. The youngster’s first touch was perfect, his second pulled a low drive wide of Dawson but also wide of the far post. It was hardly a glaring miss but the kid should have, at least, employed the keeper.
The 57th minute introduction of Chuks Aneke for a subdued Gavin Kilkenny lifted local spirits and it was the newcomer who delivered Charlton’s first shot on target, an effort which caused Dawson little trouble, Nor did a drive by Clare, which passed harmlessly wide and it was left to Corey Blackett-Taylor to genuinely test the underworked keeper. Cutting in from the left, the winger’s powerful right-footed shot brought him down to save smartly at the foot of a post.
Before he departed on a stretcher with worrying hamstring trouble, Aneke forced a second save from Dawson, with Leaburn’s full-blooded attempt to net the rebound splendidly smothered by Iorfa.
But there was little else to prevent Wednesday from breaking a club record of 20 consecutive league games unbeaten. They’re a real football club with history and pedigree stretching back to 1867. Shame we’ll probably be parting company at the end of this soul-destroying season. Let’s hope we’ll be divided by one, not two divisions, when the dust settles.
After all, there’s only so much misery a man or woman can be expected to endure and League Two is too ghastly to contemplate. Ten more points – should be a cakewalk with 42 still at stake.
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Clare, Hector, Ness, Inniss, Kilkenny (Aneke 57, Payne 81), Rak-Sakyi, Fraser, Dobson, Blackett-Taylor, Leaburn (Bonne 75). Not used: Wollacott, Sessegnon, Morgan, Henry. Booked: Blackett-Taylor.
Wednesday: Dawson, Palmer, Brown (Adeniran 63), Vaulks, Iorfa, Bannan, Windass (Dele Bashiru (90), Byers, Famewo, Smith (Gregory 78), Flint. Not used: Stockdale, Bakinson, Hunt, Alimi-Adetoro. Booked: Palmer, Iorfa, Smith, Dawson.
Referee: Benjamin Speedie. Official attendance: 16,729 (3,153 visiting)
The Charlton Champion 