Charlton outplayed

One can talk about the curse of the football for a fiver game, but Charlton were simply outplayed as they went down 0-2 to promotion chasing Blackburn Rovers at The Valley this afternoon. Some of the defending was woeful.

The other relegation league clubs had a mixed day, with the stand out result being bottom club Barnsley's 3-0 defeat of Fulham at Craven Cottage. Luton Town won 1-0 at Boro and Huddersfield equalised at Derby. Stoke went down 4-2 at QPR after being 2-0 ahead and Wigan drew at Cardiff after also being ahead.

Sheffield Wednesday could soon be joining the relegation league. Not only did they lose again today, 0-3 at home to Reading, but there is talk of a 21 point deduction.

Without Jonny Williams who picked up a slight knock in training, Charlton started well in the first 15 minutes. A Hemed shot was deflected and Walton in the Rovers goal pushed it away.

On 26 minutes Pearce made a great intervention to stop a Rovers chance. However, the BBC thought he should have been red carded and Blackburn awarded a penalty. Three minutes later poor defending saw the visitors go ahead with a deflected shot from Buckley.

Charlton fans were blasé about the weather before the game, but Rovers may have been helped by the strong wind blowing towards the Covered End. On 37 minutes they were awarded a free kick for no apparent reason. Fair or not, you still have to defend it and the defence was awful with Adarabioyo making it 0-2.

On 39 minutes Taylor forced Walton into a good save. Richard Cawley commented, 'Charlton had early momentum, but Blackburn grew into the game. Charlton didn't seem to be playing with their usual intensity which could be due to the big shift they put in against Forest on Tuesday.'

Charlton were better, or at least not as bad, in the second half, but Walton coped well with anything thrown at him. Pearce was replaced by Smith at half time and the Addicks switched to 4-4-2. A Taylor free kick was punched away. Hemed was replaced by Green on 60 minutes and Bonne replaced McGeady on 69 minutes. Charlton came closest to scoring on 84 minutes when Cullen forced a super save from Walton.

Attendance was 25,363 with 2,063 from Blackburn. Charlton remain 19th, ahead of Huddersfield on goal difference and five points above Wigan in the first relegation place.

The report from Louis Mendez is here: Beaten at home