The boos rang out round The Valley last night after Charlton's disappointing 1-1 draw with Rochdale. It was a salutary warning about the dangers of reading results off the table. As Chris Powell noted in the programme, relegated sides have their own reason for battling for points.
And battle Rochdale did. Their Hungarian keeper, on loan from West Ham, made two excellent saves that denied the Addicks goals (they could have used him at Upton Park where Green was sent off) and centre backs Amankwaah and Barry-Murphy intercepted ball after ball.
Nevertheless, it was a lacklustre performance by Charlton. The side was weakened by the continued absence of Johnnie Jackson and, even more important, unbalanced by the absence of Chris Solly.
Solly is a key player, but even so we should have taken the game to Rochdale more. Particularly in the first half, we let them impose themselves on the game. Perhaps reflecting the number of matches we have played recently, we needed to up the tempo, but many of our players seemed to lack the required energy. Rochdale should have been pressured more, as then they started to make mistakes, as was evident in the second half.
Just as one can't read results off the table, one cannot generalise from this result to that against Stevenage. This performance should serve as a wake up call and we may well play better against a better side, or at least show more motivation and interest.
Transport difficulties on the way to the game are also a bad omen. First our normally reliable local bus service failed to turn up and I had to hoof it to the station. Then when I got to Marylebone the tube station was closed. When I arrived at the ground Steve from Petts Wood informed me that Solly was ill and unable to play. Possibly we should have simply slotted Hughes in at right back.
The quiet start to the match was not a good sign and there was relatively little to note down in the first half. There was a half chance on eight minutes and then Bradley Wright-Phillips put the ball wide on twelve. In a subsequent attack he should have passed the ball to Green who was free on the left rather than forging forward. Charlton were getting caught quite often by the offside flag, although possibly the West Side lino was a little zealous.
A black cat was seen running in front of the control box, but it was not a good omen. Bradley Wright-Phillips won the first Charlton corner on 35 minutes. I was relieved to get to half time with the scores even.
Half time: Addicks 0, Dale 0
The inebitable hapened on 52 minutes when Adams went on a run and scored for the visitors. Given our difficulty in scoring from open play, or indeed making much a corners, we needed a free kick in a promising position. Kevin Long duly obliged in an incident with Kermorgant and was shown the only yellow card of the game.
A Charlton corner was caught by the keeper. Stephens put in a shot from distance that was just wide. Green was withdrawn in favour of Wagstaff and then Clarke came on in place of Wright-Phillips.
We started to win more corners, but were unable to do anything more with them. Evina off and was replaced by Cort. An effort from Pritchard nissed the target.
We had two more corners in the three minutes added on, but they were unproductive.
Match analysis
Ivy the Terrible awarded the Silver Bone to Bradley Wright-Phillips who was lively and trying to make things happen. Hamer did not have a lot to do and I doubt whether he could have stopped the goal. Morrison was very much involved, particularly in the closing phase. Taylor conceded an unnecessary free kick in the first half, but otherwise was solid. Evina did well, showing some pace and an ability to get forward. Wiggins did not adapt to his enforced role well, but even when he switched back he made a mistake that gave the game to Rochdale for five minutes. Pritchard was energetic as always, but does he have the guile needed at this level? It was not a great night for the midfield, Stephens sending the ball way over when he could have put in a decent cross and Hollands was not that involved. Green can put in a good cross but he tends to wait for the ball rather than chasing for it. Kermorgant provided an excellent free kick to score. I had hoped that Wagstaff might unsettle Dale when he came on, but he was a disappointment. Clarke chased well, but did not make a real difference. Cort had a cameo.
No complaints about the officials and none of the Rochdale players were obnoxious. Reg has given the Hiss of the Match to the Bloke Behind Me for his non-stop monologue of complaint. We could see that Charlton were not playing well without his commentary.
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