Charlton report (of sorts)

[Rupert]

First half good, second half not so good.

On entering the ground I spent a few moments admiring the new roof on the Johnny Haynes, does this make me a sad, sad man or what? Anyway, after tearing my gaze away I wandered all the way down to the Riverside without realising we have a new scoreboard installed at the Hammersmith End, so you might want to bear my observational skills in mind as you read this.

Diddy David was there and in good spirits. I asked him to say it wasn't so, but he confirmed that this will be his last season doing the MC role. The new scoreboards (they've replaced the old one at the Putney End too) are very upmarket, they showed footage of goals and other action from the Nice game on them, then an interview with Jol previewing today's game (probably the same one as is on the official site). I couldn't tell how well the sound came across as I was still on the touchline when it was being broadcast and I got echos from several stands there.

There was a small crowd present. I saw David Lloyd from TOOFIF outside, asked him if he was blagging his way in as a reporter, he said that some of the supporters trust people were allowed in, hence his presence.

The teams came out, Schwarzer in goal, Riise, Hangeland (capt), Baird, Riether, Diarra, Ruiz, Duff, Dembele, Kacaniklic, Petric, as well as eleven bods in red shirts.

The game started brightly enough. The players seemed very confident, passed the ball around sharply and there was lots of movement in support of eachother. Duff took his goal well, a few quick passes giving him a look at the goal, and he rarely misses those types of chances. Diddy had a problem at that point, the bloke pressing the switches in the control room got a few things wrong, first indicating it was 0-1, quickly correcting the score to 1-0, but forgetting he was supposed to turn the microphone on, so poor old DD didn't get credited until half time.
For the rest of the half we were restricted to half-chances, Charlton defended well, but we were always well in control, their most dangerous moments came from a couple of well taken corners, one was headed clear by a defender, the other headed over the bar. Our corners were a little disappointing, we only really got one right, and it flashed wide.

The second half started the same way, Fulham in control without really threatennig to score again. We started to go closer but some good last-ditch defending usually snuffed out the danger. Then Charlton had a few sniffs of the goal, Mark made a decent save from one. Up to this point I would say that everyone had done well, nobody looked out of place, we just lacked a bit of a cutting edge. The stand-out performances had been Damien, Moussa and Brian, our Costa Rican has definately toughened up and was difficult to knock off the ball while DD was giving Charlton kittens every time he marauded forward and Moussa simply owned the middle of the pitch.
Then things got a bit niggly, a couple of biting tackles went in on Moussa, and he reacted to one of them, cue whinging from the Charlton player who could dish it out but was unhappy to get it back. The ref intervened to calm things down and then another heavy challenge went in, at which point Jol took the sensible decision to take Moussa off, he had nothing left to prove and we didn't want a card or injury.
Unfortunately, this did seem to knock the lads out of their stride, and Charlton took advantage, though the manner of their equaliser was down to player stupidity. They passed the ball to a player who our defenders decided was offside, so they did the time honoured thing and stood there with their hands up, instead of what they should have done, tackle the sod and trust the lino to flag if he was offside. So, while they stood like a bunch of five year olds wanting to go to the toilet, the Charlton lad scamped in and scored. Smashing.
We seemed to get it back together after that, but aside from DD showing another defender that he still has it in him, we didn't have much penetration, Ruiz almost went clear, but was brought down just outside the box. The resulting free-kick was bent around the wall (Petric, I think, but don't quote me) buit their keeper had anticipated this and beat it away.
The winner was actually a very good goal. The ball went to one of their players just outside the box, our defenders did their usual late match trick of giving him a bit of space to have a shot, and he did. It flew in, Mark never had a chance with it.
Sidwell, Briggs and Rodellega came on as subs at various stages, Sidwell struggled a little at first before finding the game's pace, Briggs seemed comfortable, Rodellega didn't really get enough service.
The scoreboard had another job, crowd 310, or as one of my mates said, season's best so far. I doubt if it will stand as the record for more than a week.

So, no Dempsey, obviously he's being sold, no Hughes, obviously he's being sold, no Senderos, obviously he's being sold, no Davies, obviously he's...oh, you get the picture.

One friendly is not enough to judge a season on, but I would say we lack a bit of a cutting edge, though this may have been because it was "only a friendly", most of the rest is okay. We do need to cut out the stupid defensive errors, but that hasn't changed over the last three or four years and probably won't for the forseeable future. We could have some interesting times ahead, but I think the team looks strong enough to keep us safe.
Let's see what the next two and a half weeks brings.

[zzamora]

Fantastic report- thanks!

How did you get in?

[jarv]

Thanks. Good job. Given the tackles you described, probably why it is better to go abroad than play a lower division team. The Euro teams have nothing to prove.

[SouthfieldWhite]

Didn't go myself as my scouts meeting got cancelled and was told only a few people with high loyalty points were allowed in so not sure why people from the supporters trust were allowed in

Anyway think your report reflect what my mate Chris Powells text  to me after the game, he said he was delighted with his boys but we did play some nice stuff first half

I'm not reading too much into this game, just like I didn't when we beat Nice

The main stuff starts next Saturday and hopefully we will have a good display and 3 points to go with it

[btings]

Good report!

[ScalleysDad]

Thanks for the report. Actually sounds quite disturbing in that our corners are still away with the fairies and we lack an edge to our game. I had hoped that with Murphy gone we would vary the corner takers and the ball would get into the six yard box and cause total chaos leading to goals. Seems not.

[cebu]

Thanks for the report, Rupert. It wasn't a great result - but still better than Newcastle, who were sunk 4-1 by Cardiff.

[HatterDon]

thanks for the writeup. Can't wait until Saturday.