Stunned. From my position on the side of the pitch, I was roughly level with where Naby was and saw the whole car crash happen. Even at time I thought the backpass was rather firmly hit, but after that it was a horror show as Dillon desperately tried to get back after his howler
Was gutted BUT also aware that it was early doors and only a 1-0 deficit, and genuinely confident that we could get back into the game. Especially as Sunderland are the kings of 1-1 draws.
VERY concerned though during the next 15 minutes that we would concede a second, as we were looked a bit shell shocked on the pitch.
Denial - jaw-dropping, head in hands, shaking head in disbelief, stunned - looking for a flag, anything to say it hadn't happened. Looked up at the scoreboard to hope I was seeing things. Anger - a few expletives. Negotiation - please don't let this be the way we lose. Depression - oh, well, there's worse teams to lose to than Sunderland, I suppose it's payback for '98. Acceptance - I just laughed at my mate and said, 'oh well, my nightmare was that we'd cock something up but at least it's in the first five minutes.'
Was more worried over the next ten minutes when we went to pieces. My mate, was totally confident we'd win - he's relatively new to Charlton! - and then we just seemed to settle, like they knew they'd got that nightmare out of the way and could focus.
After that first 15 minutes I was sure we'd win. What a great day, yet again.
Weirdly, I didn't feel too bad about it. Partly cos I was watching at home, and Sky nearly missed it, so the initial reaction was "WTF happened there?" followed by a small amount of concern that after so much good work this season, Naby was going to revert to early form. But it wasn't like we'd conceded due to being sliced open by a great piece of skill or better tactical nous, we'd just gone and shot ourselves in the foot, so it didn't feel like this was the start of a massive Sunderland onslaught, just a bad start we were going to need to overcome. And that impression was cemented by the good low save from Dillon a little while later.
Because I was watching on my phone on a bus I was about 10 seconds behind, so had the horror of a score alert from OneFootball telling me what was about to happen. I immediately turned all alerts off then got a text from my brother announcing the equaliser ten seconds before that went in.
I didn't know what to think. I felt gutted that we'd worked so hard to get there and that we may have just blown it in one tiny moment. Sunderland had looked strong defensively in the two Pompey games and I was worried that would be it. Just stood there in silence with 40,000 other Addicks. As soon as we equalised though I thought we'd win it.
Disbelief as I watched it happen, and the ball went steadily slowly but surely towards the goal. But I decided that mentally ‘going down the Winchester to wait for the whole thing to blow over’ was the best approach. And it all turned out fine in the end
I was pointing out to my dad that Jackson had got out of his seat to shout at the start we'd made so I missed the backpass until Dillon slid after it. It was a pretty nasty moment but I wasn't that worried. It was just too early to score for a team who have set records for sitting back and letting teams level up games against them. I was pretty calm up until we scored, at which point I resumed fretting. Weird game football
I must admit I was distracted and not looking at what was happening on the pitch, mainly because we had possession and Sunderland weren't doing much. Next thing I look up and see Dillon running back to try to stop the ball rolling into the net. I thought the ref must have blown for something as everyone else was standing still and then I heard the Mackems roar for the goal. Praying for some kind of infringement to disallow the goal but then see it was Sarr's OG.
All the wind had left my sail and I thought we might be on the end of a drubbing. But as the fella next to me said, better this happens 5 minutes from the start rather than 5 minutes form the end.
I just prayed we get a goal before HT. I think I might be a religious man now.
So many people infront of me missed it and didn't believe the missus when she was telling them what had happened. Some didn't believe Sunderland had just gone 1-0 up. On another note, a bloke infront of me went to get beers in the 93rd minute! Missed it all.
So many people infront of me missed it and didn't believe the missus when she was telling them what had happened. Some didn't believe Sunderland had just gone 1-0 up. On another note, a bloke infront of me went to get beers in the 93rd minute! Missed it all.
Fair play to that fella, without these kinds of sacrifices we might not have won
Strangely confident. Only one of our group had been to Wembley before and it was Arsenal Wigan in the FA Cup final, he was in the Arsenal end with a mate and they went 2-0 down after 9 mins so he reckoned if either team conceded early they'll go on to win it.
Confused. I didn’t see Naby kick the ball but saw it heading towards goal. Wasn’t sure if the ball was just being kicked back for Dillon to take a free kick so effectively a dead ball and it didn’t matter.
The sound from the Sunderland end seemed to grow and eventually it said 0-1 on the big screen. Gutted.
I turned to my daughter and said ‘that will just make everyone more determined to play now’ but inside I kept thinking ‘this is going to be a final score of 0-1 now and we’re not going up.
Stunned but not angry or annoyed, just calm. I just thought there was nothing anyone could have done about it, it's just a mistake which is part of football, as a keeper I know too well that it can easily happen. I always felt like we were going to score still and just thought to myself 85 mins is plenty of time to at least get an equalizer.
It was actually the next 10-15 mins when I started getting really annoyed and angry when we were getting dominated and playing so badly. That's the point where I thought that's it then. No chance are we going to get anything playing like this. I was sure with the way the game was going at around 15th-20th minute we were going to concede a second which I think would have been game over.
Thankfully, we just got better and better. Just relieved Phillips redeemed him self from the mistake with that excellent save. Like I say, if we conceded that I doubt we would have come back and won.
Thought they would just shut up shop and we would lose 1-0.
Thats what Sunderland did do and going by their forum is what they've done all season - Bloody stupid because time and again they've left a side door open for teams to sneak in and take advantage, its why they didnt go up automatically as feels like they barely bothered to kill sides off
i.e. till we equalised we were there for the taking, yet they didnt put pressure on Phillips whenever he got the ball (they should know from tapes his kicking is a weakness)
I didn’t see it. I was looking at something to my right when my pal has nudged me and said ‘oh shh..’ and I’ve glanced back to see Dillon chasing the ball back into be net.
It was weird but for me the worst feeling in a match is watching the opposition score, so knowing I had missed the actual moment I actually felt really calm about the whole thing.
Stunned but optimistic about coming back. Sunderland were very ordinary. No one to come on and try and change it - McGeady clearly not fit and couldn't influence the game like Williams did when he came on for us.
Shocked at first, went straight down to the concourse and just walked around a bit then went back to my seat. After that I think I was the calmest I’d been all day, that was a once in a lifetime goal to concede for Dillon and I knew he was mentally strong enough to get past it which I think he done very quickly. The next 10 minutes were a bit nervy but then you could tell we were back in it and I just had faith that we’d still do it.
Comments
Was gutted BUT also aware that it was early doors and only a 1-0 deficit, and genuinely confident that we could get back into the game. Especially as Sunderland are the kings of 1-1 draws.
VERY concerned though during the next 15 minutes that we would concede a second, as we were looked a bit shell shocked on the pitch.
Denial - jaw-dropping, head in hands, shaking head in disbelief, stunned - looking for a flag, anything to say it hadn't happened. Looked up at the scoreboard to hope I was seeing things.
Anger - a few expletives.
Negotiation - please don't let this be the way we lose.
Depression - oh, well, there's worse teams to lose to than Sunderland, I suppose it's payback for '98.
Acceptance - I just laughed at my mate and said, 'oh well, my nightmare was that we'd cock something up but at least it's in the first five minutes.'
Was more worried over the next ten minutes when we went to pieces. My mate, was totally confident we'd win - he's relatively new to Charlton! - and then we just seemed to settle, like they knew they'd got that nightmare out of the way and could focus.
After that first 15 minutes I was sure we'd win. What a great day, yet again.
I immediately turned all alerts off then got a text from my brother announcing the equaliser ten seconds before that went in.
But I decided that mentally ‘going down the Winchester to wait for the whole thing to blow over’ was the best approach.
And it all turned out fine in the end
But they sat back and gave us the reprieve we needed.
All the wind had left my sail and I thought we might be on the end of a drubbing. But as the fella next to me said, better this happens 5 minutes from the start rather than 5 minutes form the end.
I just prayed we get a goal before HT. I think I might be a religious man now.
Fair play to that fella, without these kinds of sacrifices we might not have won
The sound from the Sunderland end seemed to grow and eventually it said 0-1 on the big screen. Gutted.
I turned to my daughter and said ‘that will just make everyone more determined to play now’ but inside I kept thinking ‘this is going to be a final score of 0-1 now and we’re not going up.
It was actually the next 10-15 mins when I started getting really annoyed and angry when we were getting dominated and playing so badly. That's the point where I thought that's it then. No chance are we going to get anything playing like this. I was sure with the way the game was going at around 15th-20th minute we were going to concede a second which I think would have been game over.
Thankfully, we just got better and better. Just relieved Phillips redeemed him self from the mistake with that excellent save. Like I say, if we conceded that I doubt we would have come back and won.
I said at at half time that I was 100% certain we’d score just needed to keep them out.
I said roll on Monday, I should have said roll on the start of next season!
i.e. till we equalised we were there for the taking, yet they didnt put pressure on Phillips whenever he got the ball (they should know from tapes his kicking is a weakness)
It was weird but for me the worst feeling in a match is watching the opposition score, so knowing I had missed the actual moment I actually felt really calm about the whole thing.