Holidays over and, aside from a few minutes of action from the Bristol Rovers game on a mobile while in Italy, my first chance to take in a game this season. The backdrop wasn’t especially encouraging – three games (leaving aside Newport) decided by the odd goal, each having seemingly been capable of going either way, but three points out of the first nine on offer, plus clear indications that a good deal still needs to change before we can be confident of being in the promotion mix. Nothing that a thumping home win couldn’t address. Instead we had it seemed more of the same: further evidence that we are very much a work in progress, that more needs to be done before the transfer window closes, and that it is probably going to take time for new players to bed in and partnerships develop as well as for what is a material injury list to be reduced.
The result was undeniably awful, especially on the back of the Bristol Rovers defeat; the performance I’d say had positives but overall disappointed. There was certainly no shortage of effort and commitment, rather – even leaving aside the individual errors for their goals - a lack of composure, perhaps compounded by the fact that in all areas of the pitch we had players pairing up for the first time in a real game. In addition there was no evidence of any kind of winning mentality. In the end, despite having been very poor in the first quarter of the game, Port Vale had, in Chislett, the game’s outstanding player, and they made the most of our errors. Another game we might easily have won but can have no real complaints that we ended up losing.
The team showed three changes from Bristol Rovers, with Ness and Payne dropping to the bench and Camara injured, joining Fraser and Campbell (as well as Leaburn and Aneke of course) on what was a material unavailable list. In front of Maynard-Brewer was either a 3-5-2, a 4-3-3, a 4-1-4-1 (according to the BBC at the start), a 4-1-3-2 (as the BBC now says), or even a 4-4-2. It proved at least to be a back four, with Hector recalled to partner Jones, with Asiimwe and Edun as full-backs. Along with Dobson in midfield would be debutant Taylor and Anderson, while Blackett-Taylor operated pretty much as an outright left-winger, leaving May and Kanu up front. It meant no outright forward option from the bench; indeed, with the bench containing McGrandles, Kirk and Jaiyesimi it seemed there might have been a ‘for sale’ sign above it.
We all know by now how the game panned out. We dominated the first quarter against what seemed very flat and limited opposition (their only weapon being it seemed the long throw), taking the lead curtesy of a questionable penalty. Having been pulled back outside the box Kanu was then released to get to a ball first and to nick it past their advancing keeper. There seemed to be minimal contact, with the keeper doing his utmost to avoid any. But down went Kanu and the linesman gave the decision. May went for simplicity and drilled the penalty down the middle to open his account for us.
We might have made more of our early dominance, with Blackett-Taylor showing he could skin his marker for pace (and having a shot cleared off the line) while Asiimwe, often in tandem with Anderson, was getting joy on the opposite flank. Indeed, CBT was the focus of the half’s second real talking point after May found him with a ball out of defence to send him on his way to their goal. You assumed that nobody would catch him. But with their closest defender on his left side for some reason he played the ball forward in a fashion which opened the door for a challenge. Looking at it in real time I thought there was no foul as the ball was there to be claimed; on further watching I’m still uncertain whether or not their guy went through CBT to get to the ball. Either way, with the linesman on the blind side and the ref some way behind play I don’t see how it could have been given as a foul. If it had been a red card would surely have been the result.
That aside, as the half progressed, Port Vale came more into it and started to create chances, none clear-cut but enough to suggest that the game might not be the walkover we hoped for. Some wayward shots and a late header from a decent position actually meant that at the break Port Vale had had seven attempts on goal to our six, albeit with only one on target.
The second half started in a similar fashion, but any complacency went out of the window in a minute. First Asiimwe perhaps rashly put in a challenge on the edge of the box and conceded the foul. Chislett put in a deft ball over the wall, one which just evaded Edun and was flicked by their guy over Maynard-Brewer. And before we had the chance to regroup Hector made a complete hash of a ball out of defence, failing to make contact with it. Chislett (and another) had been moving forward and suddenly found himself with the ball in on goal. He shot unerringly beyond Maynard-Brewer and we were behind.
With this before the hour mark there was no reason to panic. And we did play our way back into the game. When Blackett-Taylor cut across the box and then delivered a reverse chip met by Kanu to head home we looked the most likely winners, especially as Port Vale’s substitutions, including the replacement of Chiswell, seemed to have weakened them. We had made no changes until the 72nd minute, when Jaiyesimi replaced Taylor, followed by Thomas coming on for the impressive Edun. In the final 15 minutes or so of normal time we had a series of half-chances, none of which provided what we would have assumed to have been a winner. Nothing seemed to quite drop for us. And we paid the price. As we camped in their half a long hoof out of defence saw Asiimwe exposed, having to deal with a ball dropping under pressure from one of their guys. He failed to connect properly and their guy took it on past him to bear down on goal. Maynard-Brewer seemed to have saved the day but the rebound was collected and squared for a tap-in.
With nine minutes of stoppage time we might still have claimed a point, culminating in the last-gasp arrival of Dobson at the far post only for his not fully controlled header to go wide of the post. Just wasn’t to be, again.
For me there were positives. Asiimwe is a really exciting prospect. As was stressed by the Charlton TV time after the game, he really should have been taken off before his error as he was running on empty. Edun looked good, both in defence and bringing the ball forward. And both May and Kanu scored. Taylor played some perceptive passes forward, although it’s too soon to be drawing any conclusions, while Anderson had a decent game too. I’d give a mention too to Jaiyesimi, who had a good cameo. And there is Blackett-Taylor, capable of being a match-winner on most days and a constant threat. Against this, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Charlton team with so little aerial ability outside the back four, which will surely be punished by better teams than Port Vale, and we coughed up goals with mistakes.
When it comes to away at Oxford, although no doubt we go there with a plan to win the game, that plan has to be based around defending better. Aside from the mistakes we often didn’t look comfortable when dealing with routine attacks. I can’t say what the best combination of defensive options might be, or which formation we might adopt (my personal beef at the moment is not to go with 3-5-2 if that means Blackett-Taylor having to operate as a wing-back; he terrorises defences so let him focus on that). Perhaps after now three of four games all decided by the odd goal going against us we could use some luck. We will after all be going to Oxford as the underdogs, perhaps that will help.
No comments:
Post a Comment