Saturday 18 April 2015

To the Londoners 2-1

It was a case of Belgium overcoming Italy at The Valley this afternoon when Charlton beat Leeds United 2-1. The Addicks are now 10th in the table.

Leeds started with plenty of possession and they were carving through our defence too easily in the first half. Vetokele did divert an effort from Ben Haim on to the post. Tal Ben Haim conceded a penalty, but Henderson pushed it on to the post to keep the scores level. The visitors then went ahead on 37 minutes with a volley after Murphy's corner found Morison in space: Henderson got a hand to it, but could only tip it into the net.

Gudmundsson came on at the break and Charlton looked brighter. After what seemed like an age, the unmarked Watt put the Addicks level on 75 minutes, making use of a Gudmundsson cross. Four minutes later Taylor spilled an effort from Gudmundsson and tripped Vetokele winning us a penalty which Buyens dispatched emphatically into the net to make it 2-1.

The referee seemed oblivious to handballs by Leeds and any infringements by the visitors were dealt with by a talking to.

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Stephen Henderson deservedly received Man of the Match in the lounges afterwards and warm applause from the East Stand. It was another assured performance from Joe Gomez. The Premiership clubs watching him will be thinking about their offer. Tal Ben Haim lacked assurance at times, but raced back into defence when needed. Solly was solid and dealt with Mowatt well. Fox had a bit of a struggle with Byram and his decision making was not always the best, but he did make a couple of decent deliveries into the box.

Eagles ran himself into the ground in the first half and was active in attack and defence, but not to great effect. Diarra had to go off early after an injury and that did unbalance us for a while. Bulot had a bit of a disappointing game, summed up by a ball in that was neither a cross nor a shot. Buyens is named by the Football League Paper this morning as our best player. Far from sure about that, but once again he took the penalty well.

Vetokele looks knackered and is way below his form from the early part of the season. Watt was a constant thorn in the side of the Leeds defence. Justifiably pleased with his goal, but got booked for his over enthusiastic celebrations.

Cousins didn't have much of a rest on the bench and once again got involved. Gudmundsson once again used his pace and accuracy to great advantage, unfortunately I don't think we will be able to hold on to him. Church had a cameo.

9 comments:

MrLemon_CAFC said...

Nice comeback to win.
Like to see us try for 9th place finish which would be a good end to a tough season and set us up ready for the next one...

Unknown said...

I see that several u 18s have been released so seth has said on charlton life out go mumms,osbourne,cumberbatch,browne and osbourne good luck to them hope they find local clubs are you watching welling?

Unknown said...

I also think the following will be sold in the summer

1.ventokele 4m-5m
2.nego
3.polish pete
4.Harriott
5.church offloaded to millwall on a free
6.pope to villa 800k
7.gudmondson to stoke 4m
8.gomez to arsenal 4m


please also note that charlton will have some money comming in with west ham and liverpool in a bidding war for carl jenkinson i have been told we will get over 1m comming in if this is the case -also shelvey is attracting interest from london clubs down south as he lives local so i wouldnt be to suprised see him move to likes of a spurs or west ham come the summer does anyone know if a sell on clause is on shelvey still?.

on players comming in i would like see darren bent and scott parker arive on frees for nostagalgic purpose and paul konchesky also come back he be a good player to snap up and is out of contract this summer as well.In all im looking forward to the ins and outs at the club and hopefully next year we can push for at least a play off slot

Finkle said...

There will be no room for nostalgia when it comes to transfers for the Belgian owners. It's going to be more like a moneyball approach.

I don' think there's a problem with this. There's little value in signing 30 somethings in the twilight of their careers.

Unknown said...

sorry re typo error above lol

Martin Cowan said...

If the club have aspirations to progress, I am sure we will be keeping Igor, JBG and Gomez.

Unknown said...

heading back to europe igor from what i gather a bid of around 5m poss will come in for him leige want him badly so i see a straight swap involving the beast or mpoko in the summer

Unknown said...

if silly money comes in for them then can u see the club holding on to the likes of gudmondson,igor and gomez i cant-prem clubs are being forced to buy english players so they be sniffing around most of the championship clubs offering silly money the likes of deeney,arter and ritchie be all sold from other clubs during the summer as likes of rhoades and a few others with clubs selling their best players might give us a chance next year

Unknown said...

Benoit ekotto and jermaine jenas on a free transfer this summer along with joey barton toughen up the midfield what reckon?