POST-MATCH THREAD: Charlton Athletic v Coventry City: Thursday 1st January 2026: KO 15:00
New year, new opportunities… err, does it have to be league-leaders Coventry City? Only a few days removed from the heartbreak of the defeat to Portsmouth, the Addicks looked to kick off the New Year in style with a redemptive performance against the side that’s been a cut above the rest this season. But recent wobbles have shone a light on vulnerabilities that Nathan Jones would hope to exploit.
Unfortunately, whilst the Addicks got off to an energetic start, they found themselves judo-ed into conceding an early goal only some two minutes in. Coventry, employing only the minimum amount of touches, quickly found space when they swung the ball out to the Charlton left flank that left Tyreece Campbell chasing back at full tilt to no avail. The ball was swung into the box, low and driven, to be swiped past Thomas Kaminski and into the back of the goal. It looked like a training ground exercise, leaving the home side, already fragile, looking at their boot laces. Only two minutes in, the pressure now ramped up, the Addicks found themselves having to dig very deep in search of that redemption.
To be fair, Charlton shook off the early embarrassment and worked themselves back into contention. On about 8 minutes, Charlie Kelman’s creative touch turned the ball towards Miles Leaburn who fought his way past his marker and unleashed a decent effort that the Coventry keeper did well to parry away.
It wasn’t until about 33 minutes that the next opportunity came to the home side. The ball pinged around in the box before dropping to Kelman. His half volley through bodies struck an arm, which seemed to me a penalty, but the referee was unmoved and awarded a mere corner.
Some 10 minutes later, Kelman’s quick thinking spawned another chance, when he flicked the ball around the corner putting Luke Berry into space, running into the box, through the centre. As Berry waited for the ball to fall it was taken off his foot and bundled away to clear any danger.
For the most part, Charlton managed to contain the league leaders through the first half, not withstanding the early goal. And the home support, which could easily have turned toxic, stuck with the team by and large, based on what I could hear through the stream. Nathan Jones’ side had their chances but once again, any little luck that could turn those into real fruitful opportunities, proved elusive. Tyreece Campbell was consistently in good places and, out of the handful of opportunities, made a little something of half of them. Charlie Kelman was active and at the heart of some good play in the final third. Lloyd Jones anchored things at the back as usual and Amari’i Bell was the man with time and space to keep things ticking over yet again. The proof was there to see: the back line had kept Haji Wright quiet. Charlton went into the break a goal down but with the sense that something from this game was still available to them.
No changes for either side to start the second half. Only two minutes in Kaminski was forced into a double save and goalmouth scramble that prevented catastrophic symmetry with the first two minutes of the first half. Charlton survived and then went on to pressure the visitors in their end with a period of sustained attack.
On 48 minutes, or thereabouts, a ball was fizzed across the six yard line that Charlie Kelman was just a studs length away from poking home. Then Rankin-Costello produced a bit of magic ball control to maneuver past a couple and get a shot on target that was saved. Then, on 53 minutes, Tyreece Campbell unleashed a long shot that poleaxed Grimes, leaving the man in sky blue prone in the centre of his own box. It looked to be on target and was surely struck with enough venom to count, had it not been blocked away. Coventry were under the cosh!
Changes were made by both sides come 60 minutes. Harvey Knibbs was introduced for the home side, replacing Luke Berry. There was so much action in this second half that it was hard to keep notes while taking it all in!
On 68 minutes Kelman broke out from a harried clearance with only a man or two to beat. He held the ball back as he entered the box, presumably as a way of waiting for reinforcement, before unleashing a shot that the keeper could only parry into the path of the oncoming ‘Top’-Rankin-Costello, who calmly slotted the equaliser home! Just rewards for a fantastic performance, individual and collective.
But it wasn’t all Charlton’s way. On 71 minutes, a wonderous Kaminski save, diving down to his left kept things level. With tiring legs, Nathan Jones looked to his bench. On 83 minutes Sonny Carey was brought on for Rankin-Costello, who had run his legs into the ground. On 88 minutes, Nathan Jones made two more changes, with Macauley Gillesphey, Tanto Olaofe coming on for Tyreece Campbell and Charlie Kelman, presumably to shore things up and see things out.
There were a minimum of five minutes in added time but nothing happened to meaningfully change the complexion of the match. Charlton will be happy with the performance. It was hard fought to say the least. The side with the best away record in the league were matched even despite the early set back, which could have been catastrophic given the context of recent form. While we’re clearly a bit short of real quality to compete at the top end of this division over a long period of time, this performance shows we can hold our own in this league, even against the best. Hold our nerve and I’m sure we can see out the second half of the season with enough points to keep us up. If we have the right reinforcements join in January, anything can happen. Nathan Jones will surely point to the character his side showed today. A good point, needed.
Charlton 1 Coventry 1
Over to you.
Comments
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Still unbeaten this calendar year.
Marvellous.40 -
Great point. Stops the rot with Oxford and Pompey losing.
We desperately need a LWB in. Ideally a left footed player that can overlap and put in a decent ball.
JRC emerging at the perfect time. What a player.39 -
Joe Rankin Costello for England! How have we not seen more of him. He’s been a complete breath of fresh air.
Superb battling performance against the league leaders. Take that performance to Blackburn and we can really build a positive start to 2026.Well done Nathan Jones for sticking with the same team. They did you proud today.38 -
Much better attacking performance in second half.4
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We were the better team for most of the game at Portsmouth. And we were the better team against top of the table Coventry at home.
I said I was still confident after Pompey (because IMO we were the better team despite the result) and I got questioned for it. Today was a perfect example of why that confidence is there.50 -
Great gritty performance to earn a point, and to be honest I feel like we should have won it.
Some quality and composure from any of Leaburn, TC or Tanto and that would have been 3 vital points.
JRC oozed class today. Bell quality again.25 -
Great result which I would have totally accepted before the game.Actually now frustrated we couldn’t get the win but very pleased.12
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Get in
deserved, might have won it if we weren’t so ragged and basically shit around the final 3rd, the quality of their attackers Vs ours do palpable, that bit at the end from Carey and Knibbs, olaofe as well in some good positions and always woeful
thought Leaburn and Kelman both excellent today
JrC showing Pompey wasn’t a fluke, looks very classy one of the few players we have who seems to have a real brain, just does the simple things which we so often fail at well, nodding short lay offs and headers to our own players in space - great awareness basically. Hope it continues
bell and Burke make a huge difference for us
well in lads
dont know what will occur on Sunday they’ll all be effing knackered after that16 -
Very good. Gave them a game and could/ should have won really. Bit more discipline on the break and 3 points would have been on. Coventry didn't go up the gears like many may have expected and seem to their own issues to worry -didn't impress like other top sides have. Plenty to work with there and just maybe we are going to be fine too.0
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There is no such thing as tough / easy games in this nuts league. And today tells me that on our day we could beat anybody at home.
Get Ramsay and Edwards back plus one or two loans and we can stay up.
But never think we can’t win a game. Today shows that anything can happen…. With the chances we had we could have easily got three points which would have been well deserved.
Next week is now huge. You got it - MUST WIN.7 -
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Could have won but it’s a really good point. If we’d lost you could have said that we’d lost against the league leaders and Oxford and Portsmouth also lost so it’s a wash, but we got the point and it puts up one closer to the target of 50. If we’d not had that weird collapse against Portsmouth we would have said it had been an effective couple of games but I think we’ll have that one on our minds until we get another win. Beat Blackburn away and things will look a lot better. Some very tough games after7
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Only tuned in on about 35 mins but that was much closer to our early season form. A slightly
more helpful referee and a bit more of a cutting edge and we would have beaten the league leaders4 -
Very proud of that performance after Pompey, Thought we outdone a Coventry side, that tbf I wasn’t impressed with. JRC the absolute catalyst for that performance, incredible.
Well done the boys.10 -
More positive and we looked, after the first 20, to really want to get something out of the game!
We did huff and puff, without much ability or efficiency - and did rush alot of decisions - but Charlie Kelman chasing and wining the long ball proved dividends!
JRC to kick on now, and hold down a place in the squad with Cov - leaving Knibbs Carey and Berry to fight for that CAM role. Bree better today defensively, but still so so poor attacking wise - set pieces still evading us, in times where we are desperate for them to be effective!
Bell and Jones did well, thought Burke looked well at times but often shaky. Kaminski kept us in it.2 -
Well played boys. Deserved that and probably more.A few sensible additions in the window and we’ll be fine.3
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We had 105 passes in the final third, they had 52. We had 35 touches in their penalty area, they had 26.19
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Great point!
costello was great.Kaminski good saves (although always parries it back into the danger area)
kelman also great.Surprised leaburn didnt come off as was holding his hamstring early into second half and, i thought, was generally ineffective.10 -
Massive point and we showed great character to not let our heads drop going 1-0 down so early on. If we continue to play like that we will stay up.6
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Following a couple of disappointing results I was fearing the worst against a top of the league Coventry.
But the fight we showed in the second half shows that this side is still up for the fight.
Rankin-Costello deserves to play far more than he has,and proves we do have other options.
I watched the Blackburn game earlier and they looked really poor
Play like we did today especially 2nd half and I'm confident we will get a result on Sunday.
Feeling far more positive than I was following the Pompey game.
As always onwards and upwards.4 -
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We’ve go to start beating these mediocre teams like Coventry.16
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Strange game.
I feared the early goal for coventry would open the floodgates. But that never happened, we got better and better and a really good second half display. If only we had more quality up front and players who could pass the ball more accurately at the vital moment and we could have nicked it.
Some good saves from Kaminski and good performances from Bell and Burke considering they must be far from fit.
Onwards to Blackburn. Please just don't eff it up again against a fellow relegation contender.10 -
Great performance against a very good team. Onwards and upwards.1
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A good point.
On we go.1 -
A great point after a great 2nd half performance.
Rankin-C proved he can play today, but Bree and TC can be infuriating at times. TC lacks composure when in threatening positions and what has happened to Bree’s delivery from corners, etc ?
We could have won that today.1 -
I did find myself worrying that Kaminski was going to spill chances to Coventry with his one handed ‘saves’. That aside we were decent and deserved the point.Follow up with a win next and it will seem a lot better.1
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A thorough team performance. Proud and really looking forward to Sunday at Blackburn.1
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They weren't 'saves', they were saves ffs. I'm a harsh judge of keepers but he's had an absolute blinder today, about 3 where it was massively in favour of being a goalvalleynick66 said:I did find myself worrying that Kaminski was going to spill chances to Coventry with his one handed ‘saves’. That aside we were decent and deserved the point.Follow up with a win next and it will seem a lot better.20 -
Much needed point.
More importantly a performance that we can take a lot from. Showed some heart and decent bits of quality. Deserved something from the game. Plenty of decent performances. Miles is learning how to be a different type of striker but is getting better. JRC and TC excellent in the second half.
Need to build from this and go into this tough run of games with a bit of confidence.6
