Charlton beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at The Valley tonight to end their run of 19 games without a league win in front of a crowd of 20,627, leaving the Nigels and Nigellas to find their way home with their play off hopes having suffered another setback. On 14 minutes a cross from Lloyd Sam fell to Spring who sent in a fierce volley past Speroni in the Palace goal.
Phil Parkinson had failed to follow the fans' advice and started with Gray and Burton up front with Dickson on the bench (he came on after 75 minutes). One telling statistic is that both sides had five shots on target whereas Charlton have generally fallen way behind their opponents in recent matches.
A Dickson cross late in the game was not met by anyone, whilst Elliot in the Charlton goal made a cricial save from Palace sub Moses in the second half. Elliot was booked for time wasting on the 90th minute, as was Youga on 67 minutes while Dickson picked up a yellow card for dissent.
Fortune was replaced by Holland on 60 minutes while Basey came on for Sam on 84 to shore up the defence.
The result may be a letdown for those who were hoping to demonstrate after the game against the board and Parkinson. Even the expressions of displeasure at the annual general meeting tomorrow may be a little muted. Nevertheless, while evading relegation is perhaps not yet mission impossible for Charlton, it remains mission improbable.
7 comments:
Parkinson had them well organised defensively in the second half, and the players showed good discipline to keep their shape and avoid getting caught on the break by bombing forward. There seemed to be a good spirit amongst the team, even Gray (who is ordinary at best) tried his damnedest. Parkinson can only work with the players he's got. We're never gonna be a big threat going forwards as we lack decent strikers. At least Burton held the ball up and kept their back 4 busy. If by some miracle we can keep Shelvey, maybe a partnership can be formed there... We're not down yet, changing anything now isn't an option. It's time for everyone to stand together and fight. Tonight was a great start.
A highly charged atmosphere for the Palace game and at least we were up for it. I didn't like the team selection (and still don't get Burton and Gray together). A very good opening 30 minutes (as usual)and then we were on the back foot. The game was crying out for Shelvey at HT or at least someone in the middle of the park. Soares started off very brightly but seemed to fade. Quite a few heavy tackles went unpunished but the useless baby faced Ref (his second half performance was a disgrace)wanted to give yellow cards for time wasting and dissent but not fouls. When that thug Lee came on, poor old Johnny boy had to go off (previous history tells me I was looking forward to their clash)
Murty got injured, again. Hudson was struggling and Matty H came on and looked pretty solid at the back. That looks like a priority position as Fortune may be out for some time and games are coming thick and fast. Forgot how many forwards Place played in the second half but we just kept pumping the ball back to them until Chris D came on. Burton was caught offside at least six times, not good enough.
Ps where was everyone?
I'm not even sure there were 20,000 even there last night. Shows what a difference a year can make, Packed out for the same fixture last year.
Pembury Addick
Didn't little Matty Holland do well as a makeshift centre back? He won loads of headers against the much taller Lee and Kuqi. Like Keane was meant to do at Utd, he could extend his career by playing there regularly; he may even get his chance now with Fortune out for a while.
Beating the Nigels is always uplifting. Witnessing a whole hearted performance is always satisfying regardless of the result. Spirits should indeed by higher today than yesterday.
Of course the situation is still parlous: Saints & Norwich drew, Watford, Forest and Doncaster all won. Charlton are still distantly adrift. Hudson played with a knock, Forch is now out for the forseeable, Murty copped another whack and for periods last night it really showed, Youga's got a suspension coming, so defensively Charlton are well and truly in the klahtz with 2 away games in a week. Could Murray and co loosen the pursestrings? Would competent defenders even be available?
I'm staying positive, our crop of codgers and crocks at the back will grit their (remaining) teeth through fixtures dosed up to their eyes on cortizone and NSAI's; our newlook midfielders will run and harry and Burton plus one other will feed off scraps, we may even get the odd penalty or freekick near the box.
Whether that accrues at least 10 more points than 3 other sides over the next 17 games remains to be seen but it might be more entertaining to watch than anything else since September.
Keep smilin'
At AGM this morning Murray said they hopedto get two players in before deadline.Central defender and striker.Also denied Administration is imminent.Cuts of 10M will be made to playing staff and other posts.Weaver likely to go at seasons end as out of contract and Josh Wright to go on loan after clash with Parky.
Also Murray said that Parkinson,Kinsella and Chappell have not had new contracts and remain on same money as under Pardew.
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