CHARLTON 1 (Taylor 45p) COVENTRY 2 (Bakayoko 81, 90+1)
Attendance: 11,743 (1,879 Coventry)Charlton Steer, Dijksteel, Pearce (c), Taylor, Fosu (Ward 84), Reeves (Lapslie 75), Aribo, Grant, Solly, Sarr, Cullen.Coventry Burge, Willis, Davies, Kelly (Hiwula 56), Doyle ©, Chaplin, Brown, Sterling, Clarke-Harris (Bakayoko 56), Bayliss, Thomas (Shipley 87).
Summary
As 'Charlton' as you could possibly get. Well in control of a game yet with only a narrow goal advantage, Charlton somehow contrived to lose the game as Cov, roared on by an excellent vocal away following, netted twice in the final ten minutes to snatch an unexpected victory. Really don't think much has gone for Charlton in the last couple of games, but following the equaliser the injury time winner would not have surprised too many well-weathered Addicks.
Post Match comments
Bowyer:
“We just switched off. Maybe they think it is too easy because we were in full control of that second half. We attacked when we wanted. We were solid underneath the ball. We contained everything that they tried to throw at us and then all of a sudden they go bang, bang and take the three points.
“The first half we have to take our chances again. In the second half we had a few chances. We can’t keep doing that. The football at times is great to watch, they are playing so well. This last week, obviously Luton, Scunny and today, they’ve played well in every game and we’ve got one point. One point from winning today to see the game out. Scunthorpe score three away from home, play really well and we just had a mad day at the office defensively. You add another six points, which we should have had over the last two games, then we’re sitting second. It sounds crazy but it is a fact.”
"Not one team has outplayed us, no-one is out fighting us and that was our problem last season. Before I took over teams were outfighting us and we were just a bit weak. Now we’re competing and we’re playing and all of a sudden we’ve started conceding these poor goals. That’s not us, that’s not what we do. We keep clean sheets and you might concede one in two or three, not nine! Nine in three we’ve conceded, it just shows what a big miss Pat (Bauer) is. He’s a big part of our back four.”
STATBANK Player Marks
Taylor = 7.53
Cullen = 7.01
Reeves = 6.87
Aribo = 6.85
Solly = 6.61
Sarr = 6.50
Fosu = 6.34
Pearce = 5.99
Grant = 5.76
Dijksteel = 5.57
Steer = 5.42
Team Average = 6.40
At the game...
@AFKABartram :
Hugely frustrating afternoon with an outcome to match the depressing weather. The disappointing thing is we can say without arrogance that we are by far and away a better attacking and footballing team than Coventry City. Indeed, compared to most in this league.
However, we are not a good defending team and Coventry worked their balls off to stay in the game and push for it in the second half. Their subs made a big impact when they come on.
The lack of left back with Page injured is a huge loss. We’ve no natural wide-playing left mid either so everything we do going forward is funnelled central. Solly is no longer an exceptional full back and is clearly taking one for the team on the left. Djiksteel looked a bit naive at times and collectively we had a back four that looked like they could be pulled and stretched. They put a lot in from wide.
We have lots of very nice aesthetically pleasing footballers, but if you don’t kill a game off then the outcome we had always remains a possibility. Disappointingly, we looked like we really went down a gear in terms of trying to stretch the lead further from about 65 mins. Even when we won a free kick on 67 Pearce kicked the ball back behind himself to waste an extra 30 seconds.
Mentally there looked a desire difference halfway through the second half. Would love to know the amount of blocks Coventry defensively out in around the box.
All in all a miserable afternoon. Not sure how much crowds influence games but can’t help but notice that the home sections looked painfully empty today, even the North Upper was largely deserted. Down the other end the Cov fans were the loudest we’ve heard for quite a while and vocally stayed with their team all through the second half. Their team clearly responded and fought to the end.
Can’t finish a post without mentioning Lyle Taylor. Absolutely outstanding once again. What a delight to see such a great striker with a workrate and desire to match.
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