Yesterday’s lunchtime kick-off was one to forget as the Addicks ground out a goalless draw. KEVIN NOLAN put his shoulder to the wheel at The Valley.

The puzzling conundrum of Charlton’s poor home form appears to have stumped even new manager Nigel Adkins, who put a brave face on this latest disappointment and declared “we’ve got the feel of the place…it’s the first time for me, playing at home at The Valley. It gives me an understanding of where we’ve got to try and keep improving on moving forward because it’s a big, big pitch.”

If he felt the merest hint of frustration, Adkins was at pains to hide it but thousands of fans who coughed up a tenner to endure this scrappy, frankly awful game were under no such constraint. To a man and woman they had burned while Charlton fiddled their way through 90+ minutes of scruffiness.

A game as insipid as this one can be redeemed in only one way – by the winning of it – and that proved beyond the reach of Adkins’ Addicks.

There were times indeed on this sun-drenched Saturday, not least during a torrid opening quarter hour, when out-of-form Ipswich threatened to pinch the point which leaves Charlton hovering just outside the play-off places, two points behind stuttering Portsmouth with a game in hand.

Fortunately, the Tractor Boys’ ambition stretched no further than a draw and they departed for Suffolk as happy as sandboys.

Forced to make one change after Ian Maatsen limped off injured at Sunderland, Adkins recalled Liam Millar in the loanee youngster’s place and deployed his personnel in an attacking 4-3-3 formation. The intention was to carry the fight to the visitors, who responded by dominating the early possession and coming within a whisker of grabbing an early lead.

Ben Amos was forced into immediate action to keep out a fierce header from James Norwood, who met Andre Dozzell’s setpiece at close range. The wrongfooted keeper received stout support from his skipper Jason Pearce, who blocked Keanan Bennetts’ follow-up on the goalline.

As the Addicks struggled to gain a foothold in a game they were expected to control, it became evident how much they miss Conor Washington, whose wholehearted willingness to chase lost causes, run the channels tirelessly and play off the shoulder of target man Jayden Stockley, made him invaluable.

The Northern Irish international’s goals arrived at vital times while, during his absence, they have dried up for the unsupported Stockley. Charlton’s forwards have hit a wall, with the slack picked up recently by unlikely scorers in Maatsen, Alex Gilbey and Diallang Jaiyesimi, all of whom opened their account for the club. Those priceless wins at Doncaster and Sunderland were won by doggedness and guts; Atkins can only dream of resounding victories by three or four-goal margins but no doubt he will deal with it.

It’s surely a matter of time, meanwhile, before Ryan Inniss adds his name to the list of all-time scorers. The opening goal at the Stadium of Light was down to his massive influence on setpieces in the opposition’s box while, against Ipswich, he was foiled only by a sharp save by Thomas Holy after meeting Jake Forster-Caskey’s outswinging corner with a firm downward header. The Czech keeper was less impressive in fumbling Ben Purrington’s deep cross but was bailed out by Mark McGuiness’s goalline clearance from Stockley’s attempt to bury the loose ball.

If this begins to sound like an end-to-end ding-dong, well, to be fair, it staggered along those lines for a while.

With possession exchanged like drunken sailors, it was Town’s turn to go close when Teddy Bishop burst into the penalty area and presented an onrushing Bennetts with a perfectly judged cutback. Staring the gift horse in its mouth, Bennetts kicked it into what would have been an appreciative North Stand. By now it was clear that clinical finishing didn’t feature on the agenda of either side.

Neither Jaiyesimi’s header, forceful enough but directed straight at Holy after being set up by Stockley’s flick, nor the unconvincing shot from Liam Millar routinely saved by Holy, disturbed that impression.

A fine effort from Forster-Caskey narrowly cleared the bar before Purrington created a last chance from which Stockley’s low drive drew a capable save from Holy before this discouraging, disheartening game fizzled into richly-merited obscurity.

It was then time to check elsewhere what damage had been done by Charlton’s failure to beat the misfiring Tractor Boys. And reassuringly, the Addicks are still in with a solid chance of crawling into the play-offs.

Lincoln City have inconveniently pulled themselves together, Sunderland lost to Blackpool but probably have enough points already while the Seasiders have hit form at the right time. But here’s a reason to be cheerful… Milton Keynes 1 Portsmouth 0, which leaves Pompey two points ahead of us in sixth place but with one more game played.

But wait up, there’s Oxford United to worry about as well. They beat Gillingham 3-2 in the last minute and leapfrogged us into sixth place, two points ahead. But we have two games in hand on them. Still with me?

Charlton: Amos, Matthews, Inniss, Pearce, Purrington, Pratley (Watson 61), Jaiyesimi, Forster-Caskey, Gilbey, Millar, Stockley. Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Gunter, Oshilaja, Famewo, Shinnie, Schwartz. Booked: Jaiyesimi, Watson.

Ipswich: Holy, McGuiness, Ward (Kenlock 70), Woolfenden, Edwards, Norwood (Jackson 25), Bishop (Sears 70), Bennetts, Downes, Dozzell, Vincent-Young. Not used: Cornell, Chambers, Skuse, Dobra. Booked: Dozzell.

Referee: Craig Hicks.

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“HERE’S JOHNNNNEEEEEEEEE!!!” The Charlton Champion’s KEVIN NOLAN cheers Johnnie Jackson’s thrilling managerial debut and doesn’t find himself pining for the previous incumbent.

The King is dead. Long live Johnnie Jackson. Actually, belay that, the king isn’t dead. He’s very much alive and was spotted in the St Andrews district of Birmingham. Had his agent with him, if reports are accurate. But long live Johnnie Jackson anyway.

You know how football works. It’s like show business: the show has to go on. It waits for no manager. No more than 48 hours after Lee Bowyer was carried shoulder high out of The Valley – figuratively at least – he was supervising training at Birmingham City and assuring the blue side of Brum that “I’m absolutely delighted and it’s great to be back”. It seems he was always one of them, not one of us.

For their part, City can’t wait to benefit from his “man-management skills and motivational qualities”, Er, good luck with that, chaps. He can be like a bear with a grudge. And he’d been borrowing time for several weeks before he bailed.

Another of football’s enfant terribles arrived in charge of Bristol Rovers on Tuesday evening, hoping to benefit from Charlton’s obvious disarray. Joey Barton must have thought it was the perfect time to be playing the Addicks and during an opening half hour of defensive chaos, he saw nothing to discourage that belief. The Gas sliced through their bewildered hosts and in addition to compiling a two-goal lead, they went uncomfortably close to doubling their advantage. It threatened to be a nightmare start to Jackson’s tenure.

The 18th minute penalty which began Charlton’s problems was of the avoidable kind which has frequently blighted this disastrous season. Jonah Ayunga was persistent but not especially menacing as he squeezed between Ian Maatsen and Jason Pearce into the area. But the unnecessary shove in the back he received from Maatsen was all he needed to hit the ground and earn the penalty correctly awarded by referee Madeley. Left back Luke Leahy made easy work of drilling his spotkick down the middle as Ben Amos dived fruitlessly to his left.

Jackson’s sinking feeling, one which Bowyer would have recognised, was all too familiar. A sharp intake of breath united homebound fans and their caretaker as Ayunga beat Akin Famewo to a long ball, sensed that Amos was off his line and chipped cleverly from the right flank. On one bounce, his effort drifted, happily for the horrified hosts, inches wide of his target. They were still exhaling when Sam Nicholson slipped through their ranks to shoot on the run. Amos’ desperately deployed right leg kept the midfielder’s effort out, not that Rovers had long to wait for a second breakthrough.

Former Addick Brandon Hanlan was proving an awkward handful and it was his short pass which persuaded Ed Upson to try his luck from fully 30 yards. Completely deceived by the flight of the shot, Amos flopped and flapped as the defender’s long range potshot beat him.

Poker-faced on the sideline, Jackson almost instantly received the boost he urgently needed before despair set in. His own good judgement in restoring Andrew Shinnie to the starting line-up was rewarded as the Scotsman reduced the arrears two minutes after Amos’ howler. The scorer was part of the build-up with a shrewd pass which Conor Washington chased before crossing from the left byline. Upson’s headed clearance was chested down by Shinnie and brilliantly volleyed past Joe Day into the bottom right corner.

An equally fine equaliser extended Charlton’s spirited rally four minutes before the break. Preferred to Chuks Aneke up front, Jayden Stockley was ruthlessly chopped down by Jack Baldwin two yards outside Rovers’ penalty area. With the angle favouring Jake Forster-Caskey’s left-footed skills, it was he rather than Shinnie who stepped up to curl an absolute beauty into the top left corner. Charlton are well served in attacking midfield by Shinnie and Forster-Caskey; a conclusion Jackson reached without resort to Bowyer’s often needless rotation.

The second half initiative belonged to Jackson’s resurgent Addicks. Inspired by Washington’s insatiable appetite for work, they ran Rovers ragged until they ran out of, er, gas. Still, the relegated haunted visitors came within four minutes of departing with a precious point until rubber legged and out on their feet, they succumbed. A hit-and-hope lob from Shinnie was weakly headed back by Alfie Kilgour to Day but intercepted by Washington en route to the advancing keeper. The forward’s instinctive low volley hit the right post but rebounded kindly to be tapped into a vacated net. Day’s added-time dismissal for clobbering substitute Chuks Aneke outside his penalty area made lighter work of managing what remained of Jackson’s triumphant debut.

Victory over one of League One’s weaker entries is, on the face of it, no cause for excessive celebration. It will be remembered, nonetheless, as the evening on which Johnnie Jackson emerged from Lee Bowyer’s shadow and took control of Charlton for the first time in his own right. We won’t have long to wait before Thomas Sandgaard decides whether his appointment is made permanent.

Bowyer has seen fit to move to Birmingham. Better him than me. In Jackson, meanwhile, Charlton might have traded up.

Time will tell. But only if this genuine article is given time.

Charlton: Amos, Gunter, Famewo, Pearce, Maatsen, Forster-Caskey, Shinnie (Pratley 90), Morgan, Washington, Millar (Jaiyesimi 66), Stockley (Aneke 73). Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Oshilaja, Watson, Schwartz. Booked: Shinnie, Morgan.

Bristol Rovers: Joe Day, Leahy, Upson (Van Stappershoef 90), Westbrooke (Little 82), Hanlan (James Day 82), Nicholson (Hargreaves 65), McCormick, Kilgour, Ayunga, Baldwin, Williams. Not used: Ehmer, Martinez, Walker. Booked: Upson. Sent off: Joe Day.

Referee: Robert Madeley.

The Addicks slumped to another home defeat last night, this time to bottom-of-the-table Burton Albion. KEVIN NOLAN wonders what happened to their play-off push.

It was on November 24th last year that Charlton’s bright start to the 2020-21 season began to unravel. Their unbeaten run of eight games was brought to a shattering end by bottom-of-the table Burton Albion, who ruthlessly exposed their victims’ defensive posturing and brushed them aside on their way to an emphatic 4-2 victory. The Addicks’ demoralising defeat set in motion the patchy form that has left them hanging on by their badly chewed fingernails in the promotion play-offs race.

Almost precisely three months later, the Brewers arrived at The Valley still statistically the worst side in League One and did it again. Winners only five times in 27 league games, they reduced Charlton to nerve-shredded losers, for whom the final whistle came as a huge relief. As it was to countless disenchanted Valley Pass customers, who found their team’s feckless, spiritless, ultimately pointless surrender hard to stomach. If there’s such a sound as a barrel being scraped, it was heard in SE7 on Tuesday evening. It makes an ugly noise.

For 20 exhilarating minutes, to be fair, this season-defining result seemed highly unlikely. Making a bright, vibrant start, Charlton swarmed all over their visitors. As early as the 3rd minute, Jayden Stockley climbed high to meet Deji Oshilaja’s precise cross from the left to bullet a header which was goalbound until Ben Garratt spectacularly fingertipped it on to the bar before batting the rebound to safety. Stockley’s disbelief was palpable but he hadn’t long to wait for better luck. Timing Andrew Shinnie’s outswinging corner with stylish ease, this time he gave Garratt no chance with a firm, downward header.

Recent setbacks after taking early leads have made cautious nonbelievers of their supporters but, Charlton briefly seemed capable of making easy work of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s struggling side. They came within inches of doubling their lead when Edwards fouled Liam Millar and Shinnie cannoned the resultant free kick off Garratt’s bar. A second goal might have made all the difference but you know what they say about ifs and ands making pots and pans. It can’t be done.

As it turned out, Charlton’s bolt had already been shot. As good as they’d briefly been, they quickly degenerated into a leaderless rabble, incapable of delivering the simplest of passes to its intended destination or winning the most innocuous of tackles. Their early confidence quickly dissolved into hesitancy and uncertainty, with every decision an energy-sapping effort. There’s a word that covers it all but as you probably witnessed this debacle, you might wish to use your own. In the 24th minute, Albion’s equaliser punctured their pretensions and ended their illusions though, ironically, it could have been stopped almost at source.

It was no secret that a routine throw near the tunnel was intended for Jonny Smith but Diallang Jaiyesimi reacted sluggishly and showed little appetite for the ugly but necessary elements of the game. Smith was allowed to escape to the byline and cross dangerously. Too strong for the posse of Addicks’ defenders surrounding him, Mike Fondop rose imperiously to bully a header past an indecisive Ben Amos. The writing was written clearly on the wall for Charlton and it made depressing reading.

It took the Brewers less than ten second-half minutes to complete their comeback and secure the points they desperately needed to climb off the bottom of the division. And if a slice of good fortune attended their winning goal, it also received a helping hand from the possession Adam Matthews carelessly conceded inside the home half. Substitute Danny Rowe took up the running and tried his luck speculatively from the left. His optimistic shot caught a treacherous deflection off Ben Watson’s hand, changed course and beat Amos’ frantic effort to keep it out of the top right corner.

With more than a half hour remaining, you might suppose that the visitors came under intense pressure to hang on to their lead. Well, you would suppose wrong. The Addicks came closest to equalising when Ben Purrington, their best player on a dreary, demoralising evening, turned on Stockley’s back header to shoot right-footed but was foiled by Garratt’s smart save. Millar’s pass then sent Chuks Aneke through but Edwards’ diligent tracking enabled him to whisk the ball off the big substitute’s toe.

Burton expertly dallied and dillied to the final whistle as Charlton lost their way and didn’t know where to go. Chances are they’re going nowhere; neither up nor down but in stodgy mid-table, grateful for the 44 points they already have.

Charlton: Amos, Matthews, Pearce (Schwartz 72), Pratley, Oshilaja, Purrington (Maatsen 72), Shinnie, Watson (Smith 85), Jaiyesimi (Aneke 56), Stockley, Millar. Not used: Harness, Famewo, Washington.

Burton: Garratt, Hamer, Carter, Bostwick, Gallacher (Brayford 68), Smith, Edwards, Wallace (Rowe 38), Clare, Akins, Fondop (Mancienne 75). Not used: O’Hara, Powell, Varney, Broom.

Referee: Chris Pollard.

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Charlton’s poor run of form behind closed doors at The Valley continued with defeat to Gillingham. KEVIN NOLAN suffered on the sofa.

Three magnificent strikes, any of which would have graced the Premier League, proved one hurdle too many for Charlton, who replied twice but finished on the short end of another Valley thriller.

Needless to say, falling behind to frankly moderate opposition invites disaster but recently the Addicks have made it their business to lend a hand to any side with a hard luck story. Still in a parlous plight near League One’s relegation zone, Gillingham performed with the edge they customarily bring to the so-called “A2 derby”, a fixture they tackle with added bite, before heading back into Kent with three priceless points.

Their victory was secured by an 86th minute winner, scored against 10-men hosts who proved yet again vulnerable to the curse of the late goal, having already invented a new wrinkle by conceding an opener while the game’s time clock was still ticking off seconds rather than minutes.

There were, in fact, 45 officially elapsed seconds when Ollie Lee made space for a wonderfully-struck drive from outside Charlton’s penalty area which bent away from Ben Amos’ full length dive and found the right corner of the keeper’s net. The record shows that Lee, son of, er, Rob Lee, aka Robert Lee of this parish, was set up by John Akinde. But it was work born of his own sublime inspiration.

Some 85 minutes later, with the scores level at 2-2, Lee made a significant contribution to Gills’skipper Kyle Dempsey’s brutally struck match-winner. Charlton had been driven back into their own half by mounting pressure, made more intense by the 70th minute dismissal of Chuks Aneke, whose rat-a-tat yellow cards were deserved for careless rather than malicious transgressions. The depleted Addicks appeared to have clung on to a useful point when Lee shuddered the crossbar with a resounding drive but the rebound was recycled through a rattled defence for Dempsey to smash past Amos from a difficult angle. Impressive though Dempsey’s strike was, it qualified in the bronze medal position alongside the visitors’ first and second goals.

To their credit – and Charlton did emerge with some credit from this sickening setback – they fought back with spirit and not a little imagination.

They came agonisingly close to equalising on two occasions; first Aneke flicked Liam Millar through to round Jack Bonham but the winger’s effort from the left byline was cleared off the goalline by Jack Tucker. Then Aneke ghosted past Tucker and Robbie Cundy but crashed an acutely angled shot off the crossbar; he was unlucky to hit the woodwork again following Millar’s clever set-up. His persistence was rewarded three minutes later when Millar’s short cross reached him near the far post. A quick change of feet enabled him to finish with his less favoured left foot. Charlton were level and were good value for equality.

With Gillingham faltering, only Bonham’s splendid, sprawling save from Darren Pratley’s vicious volley kept the startled visitors on terms. Their brief wobble was summarily ended by a wonderfully volleyed goal from left back Ogilvie. His contender for Goal of the Season exploded past a comprehensively beaten Amos from 25 yards and punished several half hearted attempts to clear either Dempsey’s hopeful cross or Lee’s nudged assist.

Panic seems the default setting among a defence capable of caving in under the most modest pressure. Clearances are hurried, possession is surrendered, mistakes have become routine. It’s all a far cry from the tightly-organised rearguard which kept six consecutive clean sheets back in October. The spirit remains intact but a punishing injury list has apparently sapped confidence and resolve. Gillingham were the latest opponents who seemed capable of scoring every time they crossed the halfway line.

It’s only fair to point out that the Addicks are tasty enough going forward. In Aneke and Stockley, they have a lively pair of front runners, who were well served by Andrew Shinnie, Millar and, until his untimely departure on 26 minutes, by the constantly improving Jake Forster-Caskey. Both forwards scored, with Stockley’s fine equaliser shortly after the break inspiring hope that the initiative had been seized by Lee Bowyer’s resurgent side; hope that was extinguished by Aneke’s needless dismissal, at which point the pendulum swung decisively back to Steve Evans’ Medway men. It couldn’t have settled in less popular hands but Evans knew what to do with it.

The Addicks’ second leveller was less spectacular than any of Gills’ goals but it was thoughtfully designed and coolly executed. The creativity was supplied by Shinnie, whose tailored cross from the right practically demanded it be treated accordingly. Timing his jump expertly, Stockley headed deliberately back across Bonham into the right corner.

The Gills were now sitting ducks, with Evans a particularly plump target, oven-ready to be picked off. But thanks to Aneke and Dempsey, it all went wrong again. We should have known better…

Charlton: Amos, Gunter, Oshilaja, Pearce, Purrington (Schwartz 82), Millar, Forster-Caskey (Jaiysimi 25), Pratley (Morgan 90), Shinnie, Stockley, Aneke. Not used: Maynard-Brewer, Harness, Matthews, Smith, Watson. Booked: Purrington, Aneke (2).

Gillingham: Bonham, Jackson, Cundy, Tucker, Ogilvie, Dempsey, O’Keefe, (McKenzie 59), Lee, O’Connor, Oliver (McDonald 90), Akinde. Not used: Bastien, Morton, Willock, Johnson, Maghoma. Booked: Jackson, McKenzie.

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