In a hard fought match at The Valley last night a goal by Lloyd Sam gave Charlton three points. A two goal win would have put Charlton ahead of their opponents Stoke City rather than level on points with them. I thought the match would be a tight one and selected 1-0 in the pub jackpot beforehand.
From early in the game it was evident that Stoke were out to defend and to employ time wasting techniques to help them. Their keeper approached goal kicks as if he was contemplating the fact that the ball was a spherical object for the first time in his life, while throw ins involved elaborate wiping of the ball.
Ambrose managed to give the ball away, but Sam was able to recover. Charlton were able to exert some pressure. On ten minutes a Stoke throw in led to a corner, but it was unproductive.
Gray won Charlton a corner and a header came in that was just wide. An effort by Sam was deflected for an Addicks corner which was taken short. Ambrose put in a shot, but it was fiercely booted out by a Stoke defender. Addicks reject Ricardo Fuller put in an effort that was just over the bar.
A free kick led to a Charlton corner, but Ambrose put in a poor corner. Ambrose won Charlton a corner and for a moment I thought the ball had crossed the line. The referee awarded a second corner when arguably the ball was in play or had crossed the line.
Weaver had to make an excellent save on the goal line. The referee added on three minutes. Charlton were awarded a free kick but instead of playing it forward Ambrose hoofed it over the bar.
Half time: Addicks 0, City 0
Nicky Weaver had to make a save early in the half. Iwelumo was manhandled to the floor. Ambrose won a throw in by the corner flag. Fuller was given space to advance on goal and put in a dangerous angled shot that went just wide of the far post. Gray advanced on goal but shot straight at the keeper. A Charlton ball went across the front of the Stoke goal, but no one was able to connect.
Iwelumo was replaced by Varney. Stoke won a couple of corners in succession. Darren Ambrose came off in favour of Jerome Thomas. A Charlton corner was taken by Thomas. Luke Varney was one on one with the keeper but hesitated and lost the opportunity. There was a penalty call when Zheng Zhi was fouled in the box.
It looked as if Luke Varney had lost control of the ball by the goal line, but somehow he was able to get it across to Sam who headed it into the net to deliver the long awaited goal. He was taken off shortly afterwards and replaced by Semedo. Carl Dickinson was taken off by Stoke and replaced by Jon Parkin.
The referee added four minutes on. Following a Stoke throw in, Weaver had to make a superb save to deny Stoke an equaliser. After a nice move by Youga, a blatant foul was executed (I'm not sure by which charm merchant from the Potteries) and the referee finally got his book out. There was some afters with McCarthy running up the pitch to express his views and Fuller was spoken to by the referee.
This was a gritty, determined performance by Charlton against a very physical side who would be torn apart in the Premiership. Our final ball still disappoints and I would like us to be a bit more confident in front of goal and hesitate a little less. This was an important win.
My cup runneth over as Leamington went to Staffordshire and inflicted a 2-0 defeat on FA Cup heroes Chasetown who are serious title rivals.
Match analysis
Ivy the Terrible has awarded the Silver Bone to Nicky Weaver for two vital saves that ensured that Charlton got the three points. Paddy McCarthy once again put in a solid performance. Bougherra made one error which gave Fuller a goal scoring opportunity, but also made a good run on goal. Youga was very much in evidence, going forward well, although he seemed to be hanging back more in the second half. Moutaoukil had some excellent touches and shared his delight at the result with the fans afterwards. Holland had an excellent workrate, although perhaps tiring towards the end. He did have some half chances to shoot which he should have taken but hesitated. Ambrose once again had a rather disappointing game. His corners were generally disappointing. Sam deserves all credit for the goal, but to up to then had had a rather mixed game, sometimes failing to get forward enough to create opportunities. Zheng Zhi was very active but his contribution was somewhat limited. The partnership of Gray and Iwelumo does not seem to work too well, too often they were in the same space. Of course Iwelumo was subject to the usual shirt tugging and fouling with no intervention from the referee. Whether Gray is a natural goal scorer remains to be seen.
Varney made a difference when he came on, not least in terms of creating the winning goal. Thomas had some runs forward, but did not make a decisive impact. Semedo looked as impressive as ever when he came on.
Juneau the Soccer Cat gave the Hiss of the Match to gutless referee Mark Harwood. Until this season he was refereeing in Leagues 1 and 2 and it is a shame he didn't stay there. He failed to deal with the early time wasting tactics of the visitors, although he and his officials were alert to foul throws. Above all, he failed to stamp down on constant fouling, only awarding one yellow card late in the game.
Crowd rating: The Addickted were in excellent voice. 8/10.
4 comments:
I felt this was one of our best performances of the season. We had 70% of the play. Although the goal was a long time coming we never gave up. Some of the passing was good stuff,and the defence was reliable. Our biggest weakness was our attempts at goal, not enough and not enough on target. But overall a confidence boosting win.
I thought the Ref. probably 'favoured' us somewhat, though he should have dealt better with the fractious last 5 mins.
He didn't address the time-wasting as it happened. But added 3 mins at the end of the first half. Yet no subs. had been made, nor had the trainer(s) been on the pitch. So i think he noticed it!
Agree the finishing was poor and at time the build up play over elaborate. We need to look at the amount of passes that go astray, and can we return to 8.00pm kick off.
A less detailed report than normal! Does that reflect how exiciting the game was and that you didn't have a chance to write notes!!! It was the best game I'd been to for a long while and I really enjoyed it. Funny though, I was chatting with someone one the train going back trying to figure who was man of the match... there were many candidates but we went for Zhi. And, anticipating reading your blog today, I thought the hiss would go to the East Stand official. He was awful! The reaction of the covered end at the end of the game, suggested that they agree with your choice though. Fingers crossed for more performances like that... especially with Palace and Watford coming next at home.
I did take fewer notes although I also had less time to write them up today as it was a working day. In part it was because it was an exciting day but in a sense it was also relatively lacking in incident: there was a lot of fluent passing on our part, but relatively few real chances - reflected in the score.
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