Charlton returned to action at the Valley this weekend in hopes of continuing where they left off against Birmingham before the long international break. Some enforced and some elected changes to starting eleven were made, but the new box midfield formation persisted.
Charlton got off to a shaky start but found their rhythm in the first few minutes. But that was short lived, when a catastrophic bit of defending saw a long, looping ball bounce into the box, with Gillesphey wrestling his man and Mitchell unable to deal with it, Mannion barreled through the centre of the mélé and, ultimately, straight through the Stockport centre forward to concede a penalty after only 11 minutes. Once the penalty was scored, Charlton had a hard afternoon’s work to come back from a goal behind against a resolute and well organised Stockport team in good away form.
It was Charlton that had the better of play after the restart, with Terry the Taylor measuring crosses (and particularly dangerous set pieces) and stitching together things in the centre of the pitch, and Tyreece Campbell running at hapless defenders and creating chaos across the Stockport back line. Though there were a number of chances, the quality needed to see them through was once again lacking. To compound the frustration, Kayne Ramsay went down with a serious-looking knee injury that saw him replaced by Rarmani Edmonds-Green just before halftime.
Things continued Charlton’s way in the second half, with Stockport legs tiring early. Charlton piled on the pressure, until Edmonds-Green got on the end of a rebounding Tyreece Campbell shot and knocked home the equaliser. With the bit between their teeth, Charlton pressed on looking for the winner, whilst Stockport looked dead on their feet, taking every opportunity to waste time and force breaks to the Addicks’ rhythm. Miles Leaburn entered the game and immediately caused havoc. There were multiple opportunities towards the end of the match, but a lack of finesse and even a small touch of luck meant that there was not to be a winner. Kaheim Dixon came on in the last few minutes and made a bit of an impact as well.
My man of the match for the Addicks was Terry Taylor, who made a major contribution in place of the suspended Conor Coventry. We quite obviously still short of the necessary quality to make an impression at the very top of the table and this was a case of two points dropped, rather than one gained.
Charlton Athletic 1 Stockport County 1
Over to you.
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Comments
Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. Deserved more from the game, and there were some positives, for sure.
Lloyd Jones was a massive miss. Without him we’re aerially vulnerable at the back.
We also really lacked that big man up front, and we looked a different proposition when Miles came on. Going forward, if he can stay fit, I can see us scoring a lot more goals. He looked dangerous every time he got the ball, and could have scored a hattrick in the relatively short time he was on the pitch.
And another big positive for me was Karoy Anderson who is growing as a presence on the pitch with each game. I thought he was excellent today.
Btw, did Stockport set a record today when they started time wasting in the 12th minute? Had they won, I think I’d have been on the pitch.
But again you look at it as a missed opportunity because we are allergic to scoring. Can't blame anyone else for not winning really, we had more than enough chances to kill the game off but couldn't.
Extra word for REG who I thought did very well going forward when he came on for Ramsay.
Questions do need to be asked about why our best attacking moments happen when some of our best midfielders (Coventry, Campbell and Docherty) weren't on the pitch. Coincidence or?
TT delivers great set pieces.
If Jones and Ramsey are out for long, we'll suffer defensively.
Frustrating we can't stay fit. Frustrating the manager doesn't play players in their best positions.
The midfield just looks confused most of the time.
All us really. Rue the missed chances, but top notch work rate. We really need Taylor on a regular basis. Someone who can actually stick the ball where it's needed makes such a difference. Ramsay's injury a concern, but think REG did well stepping in.
Oh and timewasting and shit refereeing, sadly just seems par for the course these days.
Frustrating that we defended poorly for their goal, penalty or not, and then just failed to capitalise on the chances we had.
Im not disheartened by that game at all, and considering how tight the league currently is, I think if we continue to match the performances of the last couple of games we will be alright.
But there lays the problem, can we keep it up.
TC should start out wide. Wasted as a striker.
Dixon looks handy.
Not unpopular...just stupid.
OK the football wasn't quite the passing game we see in the PL every week (which frankly sends me to sleep sometimes) but just glorious blood and thunder lower league football that was incredibly exciting!
And how on earth we never won it, Lord only knows.
Good to see Leaburn back - if he can stay fit he will be a real bonus for us - and a lovely little cameo from Dixon. And Taylor finally proves that there is someone at the club who can take a free kick properly.
But oh my Lord, that referee. An understatement to say he was hopeless. And not just for us but for Stockport as well.
Enjoyed that!
Disappointing result, and a game in which we’d had enough chances to win it but loads to be encouraged by, in my opinion.
Firstly, it was a similarly dominant showing to what we did to Birmingham. The question pre match was “was the Birmingham performance a one off?”, well today we showed it wasn’t against another decent side that have started the season very well.
Secondly, Taylor was very good and we didn’t miss Coventry because of it. Pllus he added some attacking threat with some incisive forward passes and dangerous set pieces. Can they play together at the base of the box?
Thirdly, Leaburn looked well up for it and made a difference coming off the bench. More to come from him as he gets sharper.
Finally, and the biggest positive, there was some pattern to our play in attack and we opened them up a few times.
The run of wins at the start of the season were great but we were too often asking ourselves “how did we win that?”. Today we are saying “how did we NOT win that?”. Results are the most important thing but over a whole season you can’t consistently get good results from poor performances so I am hugely encouraged by the performances we’ve put in either side of the international break. They are much better omen that we can challenge for something this season.
Now the big conundrum for Nathan Jones to solve is: how get that bit of quality into the final third? The final ball needs to be better at the key moments, both in terms of picking the right option and then the sharpness and accuracy of the passing/crossing. If we can get that right we’ll potentially be a very good side but it’s not an easy problem to solve.
Keep up that kind of performance and with Coventry back into contention, we will climb the table, one thing was obvious, we missed Jones at the back greatly, and Gillesphey is just not the answer, what a difference it would have been should Zach have been available...
Apart from the penalty Barry was anonymous, REG did well coming on for Ramsay, TC gave their defenders nightmares, Leaburn looked dangerous, Edwards solid, TT’s delivery excellent and Dixon had a terrific bit of skill to set Leaburn up to nearly win it.
Another day and that’s a comfortable win. Similar performance again on Tuesday and Saturday and we could come away from the week with 7 points
Taylor put in a performance that had me wondering why he hasn’t been anywhere near the starting line up.
I think NJ will always be on the point of blowing emotionally. He is full of passion and it’s hard to manage. But I also honestly think he simply has to get these players in the play offs and he knows it.
With Leaburn back that side shouldn’t be missing out.
Only negative is Ramsays injury - which concerns me greatly.
Ahadme 8 games, 8 starts,1 goal, 0 assists
Kanu 6 games, 3 starts, 0 goals, 0 assists
Godden 10 games (4 starts) 3 goals, 1 assists
It's a very poor return for a side that wanted to change our play and sold the Divisions top goalscorer.
Our midfield doesn't help at times but Godden aside the 3 supporting attacking players have not contributed enough quarter of the way through the season.
Edit: I thought Taylor’s delivery from set pieces was the best we’ve seen for years