The Valley 100th birthday celebrations were marred this afternoon by Charlton losing 0-1 to Birmingham City, just their third defeat in 26 games, but the Addicks remain 2nd in the table. Lee Bowyer was red carded for leaving his technical area after Birmingham staff threw a ball on the pitch in what he saw as time wasting.
Steve from Petts Wood summed up as being the masters of our own defeat. Our passing was not as crisp and accurate as usual and we certainly missed the injured Lyle Taylor all over the pitch.
Neither side was able to impose themselves in the first half. A diving header on the half hour mark by Tomer Hemed went wide of the post. while Jonathan Leko found space but fired wide. It was just before the break when Dillon Phillips was called into action for the first time, tipping over a Lukas Jutkiewicz header.
But the action hotted up after the interval as both keepers were made to work a lot harder, Blues actually ending up with more efforts on targets than their hosts - 12 to 11. The unmarked 16-year old Luke Bellingham put Blues ahead on 52 minutes. On 65 minutes Phillips had to nudge a shot from Jufkiewicz over the bar.
Charlton then upped their tempo and the visiting keeper was call to make one decisive save from Chris Solly who had a good game. A minute later Lee Camp turned away a low drive by Conor Gallagher. Substitutes Williams and Aneke make a positive difference. Charlton became more threatening and Blues responded with a series of fouls which earned a flurry of yellow cards. Even six minutes added on did not save Charlton, although Dillon Phillips even came up to join the attack.
Report from Louis Mendez can be found here: Addicks lose unbeaten start
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