Going into tonight’s game the simple objective was take three points and if other results went our way – two of the three above us had tough games against promotion candidates and the third was not in action - move up to 12th in the table (with the two below us not in action we couldn’t fall any further). We didn’t win, stayed 15th, and after a bright start played out a poor game which will only be remembered for two moments: one of rare quality which saw us take the lead after the other, one of utter madness.
With Gilbey not available, the main interest in the team selection focused on who would replace him. Could Forster-Caskey be chosen to start? Would one from Lee, Morgan, Watson, even John, slot in? Or might Clare be pushed back into midfield and Gunter or Famewo take his place in the back three? In the event JJ decided to put JFC in from the start, and made two other changes, with Lee and Jaiyesimi coming in for Fraser and Blackett-Taylor, both given a break on the bench, alongside the returning Inniss.
We did start brightly and totally dominated the first 15 minutes and should have taken the lead. Stockley saw an overhead attempt blocked by a defender running back to his own goal, then the big chance came when a ball into the box dropped for DJ only for his shot to be well saved by their keeper. All Charlton at this point, but no goal. And as we slackened off Wimbledon, almost surprised to still be in it, started to compete, not really threatening but seeing more of the ball and at least probing.
We really did tail off through the rest of the first half, relying on long balls forward to Stockley which became progressively ineffective. And with Wimbledon looking like a side low on confidence it made for a pretty dire spectacle. Lee did work himself a good position on the right side of the box but his cross was too near the keeper, with a similar story from Matthews. Just before the break a long ball out did find Washington in a bit of space, but unlike against Burton the ball sat up too much and his chip-come-shot went well over the bar.
At the break the feeling was we needed to pass the ball better and work harder at breaking them down, pulling them out of position. But you also felt that if we could do that, and score first, the points were there to be won. That feeling persisted even though early in the second period Lavelle stayed down after conceding a free-kick and was taken off holding his arm/shoulder. Inniss replaced him and we started to think of set pieces at their end; his first touch was to deftly direct a dangerous ball in behind for a corner.
Unfortunately Inniss’ second meaningful touch was to badly overhit the ball bringing it into their half. Just what then went through his head only he can know as he accelerated towards the ball in a desperate attempt to retain it, with absolutely no chance of doing so, and scythed through their guy late and recklessly. The ref had the red card out immediately and absolutely nobody thought otherwise. Steve Brown on Charlton TV was to later comment that he’d never seen a player lunge so far for a ball. If Gilbey’s sending off on Saturday had been inane this was just off the scale.
It meant we would play the final 35+ minutes with 10 men. Not surprisingly Wimbledon smelt blood and redoubled their efforts and, with Forster-Caskey sacrificed for Famewo, we were hanging on. MacGillivray was forced into a fine save with Famewo scrambling the rebound clear.
Just after the hour CBT came on for DJ, who had done his defensive work well enough but not threatened their goal. The difference was underlined as Blackett-Taylor picked up the ball just outside our box, pushed it past the first guy and beat him for pace, kept going and did the same to the next one. It ended with the ball bouncing off him for a goal-kick, but the message was sent. And it seemed as if Matthews heard it loud and clear as down the right he took on their guy in a foot race. He didn’t get away from him but kept just ahead and delivered a peach of a cross which Stockley moved onto and planted his header into the net.
At that point Wimbledon must have felt that the fates were truly against them. But there were still over 20 minutes left and that man advantage was still there. To their credit they eventually picked themselves up and put us back under pressure. And eventually it told. It took until there were only around five minutes left, but a corner was headed out but not cleared, the ball played back out to their right, and a delightful cross in was met by their guy a couple of yards out.
We had been indulging in a little time-wasting, there had been the sending off. But when the sign went up for eight minutes of stoppage time we feared the worst. But we did manage to hang on, helped by some excellent Famewo blocks, to at least leave with a point.
How much that point has cost us will only become clear over the next day or so, since added to the Lavelle injury and the Inniss three-game ban it appeared that one or two more were walking wounded at the end. Not an ideal preparation for Rotherham on Saturday, but at least we have numbers in defence to cover. What we don’t have is the return we expected from two games against teams below us in the league, hastening the feeling that, while for sure we want to finish the season strongly, we cannot complain about being in a false position.
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