The original title I had lined up for New year’s Day isn’t applicable for a fresh Tuesday night in March, so had to dig something else up instead. And I have gone for this 1957 early soul single from the group The Valiants. Which may seem to have no relation to this game, but one of the lesser-known nicknames of tonight’s opponents is The Valiants, and it is a night (nite) game after all.
This is a rearranged game from New Year’s Day when the incompetent ref (I’m sure auto-complete could write those words all by itself quite easily by this point in the season) called the game off due to a waterlogged pitch with eleven minutes to go before kick-off. It should have been the follow up game to the crazy 4-4 draw away at Exeter City and would originally have marked the halfway point in the season.
It is the return fixture from the one at the start of December and the wonderful 2-1 away win at The Valley on a Tuesday night where we took over seven hundred away fans with us, and there was a lot more hope around.
Back when I originally prepared this, I had had two games which had reminded me of old football related quiz questions. I remembered that Charlton Athletic was an answer to another of those questions from the same period, this time, name the five league sides whose full names start and end with the same letter. As with those other remembered questions back in December, the numbers are now depleted as there only the four now as York City are no longer in the league. And the others being Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Northampton Town.
Although not being in the top-flight in the seventies, there were Charlton players in most of the Topps cards series each year during the period, and after using the 76-77 set last time, I’ve gone a year later to get Alan Dugdale.
This is only our second league outing against them after the 2-1 away win earlier in the season. We have also met four times in the various guises of the Football League Trophy, winning two and losing two.
How fortunes have gone in opposite directions since that game at the start of December, after which we were only three points and four places behind Charlton. We go into the game today seventeen places behind Charlton, who are now in the playoff places, and thirty points behind them. So, in just over three months they’ve picked up twenty-seven more points than we have.
We come into the game on the back of the last minute (of normal time) equaliser to get a point against Reading, in a game where another five seconds would have seen us win, but ref was doing his best Clive Thomas impression. We are far from safety and need to win every game now to stand a hope of staying up.
Under pressure manager, Rob Elliot, is returning to the club he supported as a child, and whom he played for between 2004 and 2011. And squad members JoJo Wollacott, Charlie Barker, Panutche Camara, and Armando Junior Quitirna have all played for Charlton previously, with all of them likely to play some part this evening. Former loanee Aaron Henry is on Charlton’s books, but is recovering from injury so definitely won’t be playing tonight.
Not too much of a rush for a Tuesday night game for a change, there with twenty minutes to spare. The club have fixed the broken seat in front of us since the Cambridge game. I’m sure that the speed they have fixed that will lead to questions about the hand driers in the west stand.
Charlton are in pale yellow shirts and socks and black shorts. Almost as if they are a load of highlighters which have been left out in the sun and faded. We are in our all red. Our mate Al the steward was helping people to their seats, but neither he nor the people he was helped noticed that their tickets were for seats in the 190s, and not the 90s they were guided to.
It takes less than a minute for TAFKAL to bellow ‘get on with it’. There was a five-minute spell where he headed off and the Charlton full back didn’t know what to do with himself when taking a throw, but normal service was resumed after the throat operation.
We have an early counterattack and Armando Junior Quitirna wins a corner. It is deep and headed back to Panutche Camara and his shot is blocked at close quarters in the box.
There is a lot of intent going forward from both sides. Charlton look to have a bit more quality up front, but we are attacking well. Right up until the moment of the final ball. Will Swan is offside when played through, and if he hadn’t been, the shot was well wide anyway. Thirty seconds later and Camara plays Swan through again, and he puts the shot wide the other side this time.
A Charlton corner is headed away by Charlie Barker. The throw in is worked across and they get a shot from the edge of the area which goes well over. We get down the other end and win a throw and it is a long one from Barker, half cleared back to him, and he crosses it, it hits an attacker in the box, but it is just a hit and falls to their keeper.
Camara is caught late in midfield and the Charlton player picks up a yellow card for the challenge. We do a bit of fannying about, and then someone slips in midfield, Charlton get a shot off which goes just wide. Toby Mullarkey loses the ball going forward in his own half, Charlton cross to the back post and Ade Adeyemo slips leaving their attacker to be able to get a shot which takes a deflection and seems to go through JoJo Wollacott into the goal and we trail 0-1.
At the other end, an AJQ cross goes right through the six-yard box without either team getting a touch on it. Mullarkey lets a long ball go over his head and bounce and then can’t get to it before the Charlton attacker, but their shot is well saved by Wollacott at the expense of a corner. They work a shot from that, but it goes wide.
AJQ has another cross which sails through the box and still we can’t get a body on the end of it, you can hear and feel the frustration from the crowd. We can’t get on the end of a decent final ball at all. There is one added minute at the end of the half before the half time whistle goes with it 0-1.
The second half takes a while to warm up, it’s a few minutes before there is any hint of an attacking threat from either side. We win a corner from a Kamara Doyle shot which is blocked wide. It comes in and is easily caught by the keeper.
There is some indecisive defending in our own box and Charlton get a shot on target which Wollacott saves at the second attempt. And the timewasting has started in earnest. Their number 16 is down at the other end of the pitch injured, what from no one knows. Perhaps he is missing TAFKAL bellowing at him. AJQ picks up a booking for a dive in the box. Not convinced that was a dive.
After more Charlton possession we break down the left wing, Camara plays it to Swan, and he cuts inside but the shot drifts wide. Not convinced that was his best option with two in the box, but the chances of a final ball actually finding one of them would probably have been slim to none anyway.
Charlton have another shot from the edge of the box which is saved by Wollacott. We attack down the left and Doyle gets a cross in. Swan jumps for it and misses but it bounces to Max Anderson and his attempt is blocked away for a throw. A long throw comes in from Barker and it is headed for a corner. Taken short to AJQ who cuts in and shoots, his shot is saved, and it comes out to the edge of the area and Camara tries a blasted shot only for it to be blocked and nearly play a Charlton attacker in on our own goal.
We break again and Camara plays it to Doyle, who passes it on to Swan and his cross / shot goes for a corner. It’s Camara’s last involvement as he and Anderson are subbed off with Tyreese John-Jules and Louie Watson coming on to replace them. The corner is worked well with the two subs and AJQ and we win another corner. That gets to Adeyemo, and his shot just curls wide.
Charlton have a right-wing attack which cuts us open easily, Adeyemo slips again, for about the eighth time, he needs some longer studs. The shot comes in and Wollacott saves, and the ball is bundled out for a corner which Barker heads clear again.
And in almost an action replay, Adeyemo is beaten again by their right winger and ends up on the floor, and they are through on goal but shoot wide. Thankfully. But at the other end Adeyemo stays upright and gets a cross in and it is just flicked headed over Swan by a defender. Barker’s long throw on the other side is flicked on and tipped over the bar by the keeper. It is taken short, and the cross misses everyone in the box and it comes back out to Watson and his shot goes just wide.
Barker picks up a booking on the far side for stopping their left winger at pace, though he is protesting the winger dived. But we break down the left and Charlton get a booking for a pull back on TJJ.
There are more substitutions, Liam Fraser and Adeyemo come off to be replaced by Bradley Ibrahim and the return of Jeremy Kelly from injury. And after a couple of Charlton subs, a minute later we make our final substitution with Mullarkey going off to be replaced by Gavan Holohan.
Doyle puts a cross in and it won’t fall for anyone and is half cleared to Ibrahim who attempts to follow up his goal of the month contender from last month, but it spins off the outside of his foot and goes high and wide.
There are five added minutes, during which Charlton have no intention of doing anything but professional shithousery. And they do it very well. An AJQ cross gets to Swan, but the ball is blocked and falls to the keeper. A Doyle cross goes for a corner, which comes in and see a Crawley player down in the box, for which Charlton get a free kick. One of their players is stood over the player on the ground taunting them, but Barker is having none of that and some handbags kick off. Which continues all over the pitch with Charlton players deliberately throwing and kicking the ball away from where the free kick should be taken. And then again down in the far corner, Barker is squaring up again to more shithousery.
The full-time whistle goes to put us out of our misery for this game. It is a 0-1 loss, which on the whole seemed a fair, if very frustrating, result. As it has been for most of the season, that final ball quality isn’t quite there, and the finishing isn’t great. There will be moans about the lack of shots on target, and I will say again, we have a lot more shots on target than we get credit for. If a shot is on target and hits a defender, it gets counted as a blocked shot. Only shots that go in or are saved by the keeper get counted as on target, which is a bullshit way to keep stats.
Cambridge lost as well, so we stay twenty-second, but as they lost to Bristol Rovers, we are now even more goal difference and the nine points from safety. It looks as if it will take the recuperative powers of Lazarus, Captain Jack Harkness, and Wolverine to prevent relegation now. But it isn’t mathematically impossible. Yet. Next up is Huddersfield Town away on Saturday.
Come on you reds.