Midlands media moan at Baggies' bad luck

It's always interesting to see how the Midlands media handle matches between Charlton and a team from the 'Heart of England'. I remember that years ago when times were hard and beating Port Vale 2-0 away was a result (you could even buy the video), Central Television complained that 'Charlton were anything but athletic'.

Yesterday was apparently a hard luck story for the Baggies, denied by a win by a [far from] dubious offside decision and the bar getting in the way of Gera's shot. My view is that a draw was a fair result. West Brom are a better side than us, but we battled away (well, most of the team most of the time anyway) and, although it was far from perfect, we did attempt to play football.

At least Pards held his hands up in the programme and had the decency to admit that in his search for automatic promotion he 'muddled with the team and have now put our play-off position in jeopardy. I take full responsibility for that.' I think that many Charlton fans would have settled for a play off place, but now we may not get that. Thanks, Pards. However, I think that he deserves another go next season. The 'Pards out' crowd forget how much money it would cost to get rid of him and it is not clear that there are good replacements available (the notion that Allerdyce would come to Charlton seems like a fantasy to me and if anyone is long ball, he is).

When we came past Deptford Creek it seemed to be half full and half empty which confirmed my intuition that the game would be a draw. It was good that the team had shooting practice before the game as they have difficulty in finding the target, but it was indicative that Ambrose blasted over.

At the start of the game Thatcher defended well to avert early danger. Then Lita burst through. He should have scored, but was muscled off the ball. Thomas actually fought for the ball. The Addicks had a free kick but Deano saved. Semedo casually gave the ball away, provoking a spell of panic defending. But then a Baggies corner was defended well.

A Charlton free kick created the opportunity for Halford to head the ball in the net at the far post. As Joe the Saint commented, Pele is an ex-Saints defender so no wonder they were in a mess. Also, Deano did not anticipate well.

Thomas snatched at the ball and sent it well wide. Hard man Darren Ambrose committed a foul and gave the Baggies a free kick. The lively Thomas won Charlton a corner but it was unproductive. Lita won the Addicks a corner, but the Baggies broke from it and won a corner for themselves. It was taken short and when the ball was played back in, Sodje defended well with a forceful kick out of danger.

Hard man Ambrose fouled again and was given a long talking to by referee Mr Friend (who was studuiously neutral). On 41 minutes Phillips, who always has an eye for goal, seized an opportunity and the ball bounced in off the bar to make it 1-1. I thought that Weaver could have positioned himself better.

Gera committed a cynical foul against McCarthy, who was obviously a barrier to his ambitions and left him on the ground. Referee Friend let Charlton play on to win a corner and then awarded a yellow card against the Baggies charm merchant. From the corner, Sodje had a chance to score but blasted the ball over. However, he is a defender. In the two minutes added on, referee Friend awarded two more yellow cards, one to a Baggie and one to Semedo.

Half time: Addicks 1, Baggies 1

The referee actually picked up a foul throw which is unusual. There was good work from Holland. An effort from Lita went wide. Matt Holland won a Charlton corner. Gray turned provider for Thomas and his sizzling effort was just off target. Weaver spilled the ball and nearly landed us in trouble. Charlton won a corner through good work by Thatcher and Sodje's effort was just over. At the other end, Halford provided good defensive work.

The Baggies won a corner, but their attempt on goal went over. The Baggies put a dangerous ball across the face of the Charlton goal. It all went off in the Covered End. I wasn't quite sure what happened, but the stewards piled in. An error by the East Stand linesman on an offside decision enraged the crowd and a screwed up paper ball just missed him.

Semedo was taken off and replaced by Zheng Zhi. A run by Thomas won Charlton a corner. A Charlton free kick went over. Lita was replaced by Iwelumo, encouraging the long ball. The Baggies pulled off Miller and brought on danger man Bednar. The Charlton midfield started to disappear. The Baggies started to open us up as both sides searched for the winning goal, but I thought that it was more likely to go to the vistors.

Iwelumo was held in a wrestling hold. If that happened in ice hockey, it would mean a spell in the sin bin for the offender. Ambrose was at last pulled off and replaced by Cook but what that amounted was replacing our ineffective player by someone else's. The Baggies continued to press with two corners and in our desperation we played a Youga air ball. Then menace Gera hit the bar with a fierce shot from distance. In the four minutes of time added on we continued to try to press forward but Deano was up to anything we could throw at him.

Joe the Saint texted in to say that we still looked good to him. Well, it was better, but I doubt whether it will get us promoted.

Match analysis

Ivy the Terrible had some difficulty in picking the winner of the Silver Bone as she felt that no one player was really outstanding, She thought it might go to the Feesh on the big screen, but after phoning a friend in the form of senior match analyst Hooch the Pooch she decided to give it to Paddy McCarthy for a dogged and solid performance which shows devotion to the cause. I thought that Weaver was looking below his best, spilling the ball at one time and taking risks in coming way out of his area. In contrast Deano seems to have learnt to come off his line and, although he was at fault for our goal and his positioning was dubious on other occasions, he played with great confidence in the last quarter hour of the second half. Sodje was solid in defence but missed at least one golden chance to score. It's ironic, of course, that we rely on our defenders (McCarthy, Halford) to get the ball in the net. I thought that Thatcher was very competent. He doesn't get forward as much as Youga, but at least he does the required job in the defence. Halford is a favourite target for moaners. The row behind were shouting that he was useless and should be taken off when he scored a well taken goal. Quite frankly my mum knew more about football than the lot in the row behind me (although admittedly her speciality was shouting abuse at the ref). I also thought that Halford showed some nice touches in the game, once brilliantly playing the ball across the pitch and evading opposition defenders to shouts of 'you don't know what you're doing' from behind me. I don't know what to make of Semedo. He had to be taken off both because he picked up a knock and was in danger of being sent off. Up to then he had had a bit of a mare, but the performance of our midfield deteriorated sharply after he went off. Thomas remains an enigma. With the cameras on, he put himself about more and showed the real skill that he does have. But he tends to fade out of the game and this became more pronounced as the game went on and the midfield seemed to have been swallowed up in some chalk cavern left over from the history of The Valley. Holland cannot be faulted for commitment, but sometimes the quality is not there. Ambrose was a waste of a place in the team, shame that Racon was sent to Brighton. Ambrose has talent, but he is hopelessly lightweight. Gray showed a few nice touches, but was not really influencing the match. I would give Lita credit for really playing his heart out. For example, he would storm over to try and prevent the Baggies building up an attack. We looked worse after he went off. Zhi is probably looking forward to his visit to Kunming - my favourite Chinese city - but he added nothing when he came on and looked completely knackered. I have to attribute my comment on Cook to equine magnate John Window: 'Bryan Hughes with gloves on and not half as good.' I am afraid that the arrival of Iwelumo confirmed the view of those who think that he is Leaburn without the skill.

Hiss of the Match

Juneau the Soccer Cat gave the Hiss of the Match to the inept East Stand linesman (in contrast, the West Stand lino was exemplary). She also thought that the referee was good on the whole, picking up on a foul throw and not being afraid to use his cards. Inept linos have been a real problem this season. The ProZone analysis from the Ipswich game showed that all three of the disallowed goals were onside (certainly Sky Sports thought the first one was at the time). How differently would we be feeling (and placed) if we had won that match? I know that it's supposed to even out over the season, but I am not sure that it does. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would believe that the officials had been told 'we don't want Charlton to go up this season, make sure that every marginal decision goes against them.' In reality, I think that some of them are just inept.

Crowd rating The Addickted did their best to get behind the team after recent disappointments. There were fewer Baggies than I expected, although they were giving it large at London Bridge later with the incest song. 7/10.