FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.26 – CHARLTON AT HOME

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After we’d drawn at the Valley on 1 October the Addicks got another draw at Lincoln then went on a three game winning streak. That put them up to seventh in the table on 22 points. At the time we were 19^th with just 14 points.

In their seven league games since, they’ve not won and have picked up just three points. Other than Ipswich their other opponents in this run of fixtures has not been the best L1 has to offer. They did though manage a point at home to the Tractor Boys in a 4-4 thriller.

Before kick-off Charlton were two places below us in 17^th and had only won one away game all season.

The bookies fancied us with many offering 3/1 on a Charlton win. About 10/11 were the best odds available on us making this our fourth home victory of the season.

I suspected anything other than the three points coming our way would see the quiet mutterings that have been somewhat toned down owing to that unbeaten run (a run where draws masked deficiencies) turn in to louder vocal protest. Also I suspected at a bare minimum visiting fans would be demanding at least a point given their downward trajectory. Meaning potential for a toxic outburst of sorts from one set of supporters or the other? Charlton have already made a managerial change this season. Ben Garner was sacked at the start of December after just six months in charge. Dean Holden was appointed to the post on the 20^th making him their fifth manager in two years.

Why, when we are only here for another three and a half years?

Oxford United 3 Charlton Athletic 1

So, that outburst came from the visitors not supporters of the Yellows. The turnout of just under 1,000 Athletic fans was decent given their form and I have to say that the support they gave their side even at 2-0 down was very impressive and there seemed to be genuine belief emanating from their section of the North Stand when they halved the deficit. The only real anti chant they came out with was “we want Sandgaard out” although there was a brief piss take with the “we’ve got the ball” stuff.

Sandgaard out? He’s only been in since September 2020. Roland Duchatelet, the previous owner of the football club, still of course owns both The Valley and the club’s training ground. What a mess.

Wait for it though – Charlie Methven is supposedly involved in a potential takeover. Perhaps it would be advisable for someone involved at Charlton to have a word with those close to Sunderland AFC.

Come the final whistle many of the visitors had already departed having had the life finally sucked out of them when we re-established a two goal lead.

I’m not sure what the waving of mobiles with torch lights switched on is all about but the “take your phones and f**k off home” singing from the home end was a little uncalled for. After all it is supposed to be the season of goodwill to all men.

Of course I always want visiting fans to be utterly miserable when they leave the Kassam Stadium but only because that will mean our team has done better than theirs. Nothing personal. And I suppose that in the long run the more clubs that get themselves into a shambles off the pitch, the greater the chances of success better run rivals have. We’re far from perfect but compared to Charlton we’re in a much better place.

All that said I really do feel the pain of their fans and have great sympathy for them. Their older fans have been through a lot. The nomad years and now this. If I’d been a follower of their club and not ours I wonder how I would have reacted at the end of the game. I suspect it would have been one of two ways. A possible quick and silent exit with head bowed down not wanting to converse with anyone or stayed behind and let rip.

There’s no question that when a club gets into the state that Charlton have it affects the players so it’s perhaps unfair to give them grief but when all’s said and done they’re the ones representing the club competitively and it’s an industry that’s all about results. Their supporters were livid that the new manager, who they don’t seem to have any faith in whatsoever, left many of their best players on the bench.

Players will be damned if they do and damned if they don’t when it comes to showing their appreciation to their travelling supporters after another debilitating defeat like this one. As a few white shirts went over on the final whistle they were greeted with a number of two fingered salutes and masturbatory signs and no doubt a whole torrent of abusive language. They didn’t get too close and soon retreated to the sanctuary of the dressing room. Fans have so much anger in them they have to let it out some way although it’s hard to see what good it will do.

I’ve lifted a few quotes from Charlton fans on social media just to demonstrate how bad it is.

“We are 100% going down. This is not a knee-jerk reaction, but an honest assessment based on what I am seeing – an absolute dogshit squad and a succession of no-mark managers – not to mention the shit show behind the scenes.”

“I really can’t remember a worse team in my 61 years of watching us. No skill, no fight, no idea. I think the bottom of League two would beat us. I don’t see how we can arrest this slide. A very real chance of League Two football next season.”

“You’ve got to question the mental state of any player who voluntarily joins us in January.”

“Time to start planning those away days to Carlisle and Rochdale. Can’t wait.”

“Joke of a club, that ‘team’ isn’t CAFC, that ‘team’ is a disgrace, an embarrassment, nicking a living!!!”

“Cannot remember ever seeing the amount of dross before in a Charlton team.”

“The club is rotten from top to bottom, thanks Roland, thanks Thomas.”

I think the game can roughly be split into three distinctive parts. The first ten minutes or so, the rest of the first half and then the second half in its entirety.

In the opening period we didn’t look together as a team, appearing to have poor shape and any running with the ball seemed on an individual basis. Following on from our 3-0 spanking at Ipswich that little pessimistic voice started to whisper here we go again. That was ridiculous though because Charlton are not Ipswich and most teams have a good spell in most games.

In the 12^th minute Cameron Brannagan was clipped right on the edge of the penalty area. We delivered our trademark free-kick which by now opponents probably know all about but still find it very difficult to deal with.  Brannagan taps it a yard to his right, Billy Bodin stops it dead and Brannagan curls an effort at goal. Ashley Maynard-Brewer the Charlton keeper was beaten all ends up but the crossbar kept the game scoreless.

This incident sparked us into life.  We kept the ball, moved it quicker, had players who had the beating of their opponents and had pace and were finding space. That sets a team up nicely as long as they can finish.

At half time we were full value for the 2-0 lead we had established.

The first arrived on 20 minutes. The move started when Elliott Moore won a defensive header. He almost always comes out on top in such situations when he gets to the ball. A massive strength. Lewis Bate picked it up on his chest and then found Brannagan who moved it on first time to the feet of Marcus McGuane, dissecting two white shirts as he did so. We’d suddenly got Charlton on the back foot and they had players chasing back to get into defensive positions. With his second touch McGuane moved the ball on to Josh Murphy on the right wing. The ball in was one of those that defenders hate. Do they try and get a touch on it or not because if they do there’s a risk of an own goal? As it happened it evaded all three defenders and Matty Taylor at the near post but not Bodin at the far post. It was basically an open goal but as we know from three days earlier the most open of open goals can be missed. BB didn’t, he thrashed it into the roof of the net from a bit of an angle.

It was only four minutes on before we’d got another. Playing like we were at the time we look a very good side. The battling Ciaron Brown aided by Bate, one of many yellow shirts helping out, snuffed out a Charlton attack in the D. Bate passed to McGuane who let the ball run past his body then burned past Sean Clare and Aaron Henry before cutting back on himself and giving it back to Bate. This time our loanee from Leeds popped it to Brannagan who gave it back to McGuane. It was beautiful to watch. A team fully functioning with the ball. As soon as a player had made a pass they were looking to get themselves into a position where they could get it back again. The ball then made its way to Djavan Anderson on the right via our captain. A full back he is not but he certainly is something and I hope Karl can use him for what he is and we don’t end up with a falling out and little game time. Anderson has this ability to hit speed from a standing start. Defenders hate that. He goes past players in a way you rarely see in L1 but with that comes a risk of losing the ball. Not so worrying if your role is that of advanced winger but a major concern at right back. Here Anderson evaded the challenge (phew!) and then fed Murphy who played a square ball into an area where we had both Brown and Bodin unmarked. The latter took it on and after a step over hit a shot goalwards from a couple of yards outside the box. Taylor wheeled away claiming the goal. I’m far from convinced it’s his. If it is, it was a mere brushing of the back of his shirt. As much chance of an own goal I’d say but if I was a judge on the dubious goals panel I’d give it to Billy. Not worried though – a goal is a goal whoever scores it and I really want our number 9 to properly start firing again.

The second period was a different story. Changes had been made by both teams. Charlton looked all the better for theirs but not us. Murphy didn’t come back out. We’re told that he’s not yet ready for 90 minutes which is a massive shame as he looked absolute quality and was involved in most of our eye catching play. The same has been said about his replacement Yanic Wildschut. I can see that. I thought he looked leggy throughout his time in the action.

We didn’t look the same team and were not keeping the ball as effectively as we had been earlier plus there was no doubt the visitors had improved.

Anderson as a right back began to look a “no, no, no”. We needed to change that quickly as he was starting to switch off at the other end of the field too.  When Taylor played a pass to him he just stood and watched it instead of stepping towards the ball and taking it. Jack Payne didn’t. Charlton were then away with the dangerous pacey sub Corey Taylor attacking down the right flank. Instead of hastily getting back to the area of the pitch he should be protecting Anderson followed Payne which meant that Moore had to come across and when he’s forced out of position facing players who are quicker than he is, that ain’t good. Thankfully their Taylor’s shooting was wild but that was a warning sign.

Even players who are playing well make the odd mistake and Bodin lost the ball near the halfway line in front of the dugouts. There was actually a pull on his shirt but as per it was ignored. Anderson was again nowhere to be seen as far as right back was concerned. The Charlton Taylor ran half the length of the pitch with Moore predictably unable to stop him getting to the by-line. The pulled back cross was bulleted home from close range by another sub, Miles Leaburn.

I’m placing no blame on Eddie McGinty for this and will add that he looked pretty competent throughout – not that he had much to do. There may be a deep self-belief that will stand him in good stead as his career progresses whatever level that may be at.

For a while we looked all over the place. The Charlton subs very nearly created a second. On the right hand side Taylor set up Leaburn with a neat reverse pass. It looked for all the world a goal but somehow it wasn’t. Referee Ben Toner signalled for a corner. I’m still trying to work out how that could have been, given that the ball passed to McGinty’s left then just wide to the right.

If that had gone in it would have been a very different game and quite likely the Charlton faithful would have been, at least temporarily, feeling of a different mind-set. Fine margins and all that.

They’re poor yes but I don’t think they’re the worst we’ve seen in OX4.

We were never going to rest easy without a third and that had not looked much like coming but it did with eight minutes of the 90 remaining with us having reverted to playing the ball about as we had done when kicking the other way.  It involved lots of first time passing which is so effective when done with accuracy. A slick McGuane pass with the outside of his foot transformed a move going backwards into the opposite direction. Bodin’s ball was aimed for Gatlin O’Donkor but our young forward could not take it on. As no defender could cut the ball out either it made its way to Wildschut whose low shot was a reasonable one but which should have been dealt with by Maynard-Brewer. It appeared to go straight through him and almost come to a standstill inches from the line. As he attempted to get a hand on it and claim it as his own, the alert and strong O’Donkor had toe-poked it home.

Photo, Simon Jaggs

Although Charlton still tried to come forward that was it, game over.

We’d played very well as a team for a bit more than a third of this game but throughout there were some very impressive individual performances. Sam Long would probably have been my man of the match. He did a job at centre-half then right back. Bate got the actual motm award and I would not begrudge him that. Murphy’s contribution in the 45 minutes he had was noted by the commentator on iFollow, “Oxford look a better team when he’s playing”. On the day very much so. McGuane, quietly influential and still improving. Bodin too and Brown mostly gave us what we’ve already become accustomed too. When at one time it looked as though Brown’s legs had gone he dug deep and ignored any fatigue. There were others too. Okay let’s say just about all of them.

There are still though missing players we could very much do with. I’m of the opinion that if we’d had a fit Kyle Joseph the win would have been a more comfortable one.