To say it was a pleasure to be back at The Valley on Saturday would be an understatement. Most enjoyable pre-match drinks with fellow Addicks followed by an entertaining first half, a win and the three points, and more fun after the game. There were only two downsides. First, the forwards once again didn’t manage to find the back of the net, and there were chances; second, a subdued second-half performance, one not revitalised by the subs, gave the Covered End nothing to cheer about (until the final minute) and enabled Sheff Wed to get a foothold back in the game and the chance of a point when at the break it appeared all was set up for us to go on and win the game handsomely, even allowing for their recent record for comebacks.
The game really was remarkably simple: play it in the Wednesday half and we would score goals, with their back line looking highly vulnerable and all at sea for second balls, in front of what seemed a flaky keeper; play it in our half and they had decent enough players to cause problems, even nick a goal, as they did. The first half was a fairly even affair in terms of possession and where the game was played and we won it 2-0; in the second we barely mustered an attack and ended up with a 2-1 win despite having just 40% possession for a home game.
For that it’s fair to give Wednesday some credit – although none should go to their 29, whose main contribution to the game was trying to wrap his arm(s) around Kaminski at every set piece. We all know and sympathise with their problems and wish them well. Like us when we were suffering with Duchatelet, the priority is getting a change of owner and then start the rebuilding process, in whatever division.
We have to focus on our own issues – which are of course entirely relative, we are all delighted with where we stand in the Championship. As I’m writing this back in Givry, having flown back from London on Sunday, there’s no point in a formal match report, just thoughts on the game.
First, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the best chance of the game before we scored went to them, a guy who should have buried a header from close range – after he’d shoved Coventry aside - instead of putting it straight at Kaminski. So the first half was not some walkover, we might have gone behind before scoring.
Second, we might easily have scored more than two in the first half. The first came curtesy of Campbell, who for the one and only time received the ball in space. He opted to draw defenders and play it inside for Carey, who netted the rebound after his first effort had been saved. The second was down to Burke timing his run better than his marker to get on the end of a very inviting Bree set piece delivery. In addition, Kelman might have notched a couple. He failed to get on the end of a very inviting ball into the box, then managed to get goalside of his marker and seemed to be through on the keeper, only for that defender to get back in time and block his shot. Got to give the crowd some credit here as they sang his name when he was substituted; he will come good in front of goal, just needs to get off the mark. More generally, although Wednesday had the height in defence to usually win the first ball up to forwards or into the box (especially when Iorfa was still on the pitch), they seemed to panic very easily when it came to the second, looking very uncoordinated.
Third, what exactly did go wrong in the second half? Their manager said they made small changes at the break, perhaps the substitutions improved them, perhaps it was just a case of nothing to lose and them raising their game. However, watching the game you couldn’t avoid concluding that we really fell off the pace, perhaps thinking that the game was won, or to be more kind that sooner or later we would score a third without having to do too much. The absence of action in their half kept the Covered End pretty muted and all the initiative was with Wednesday. We were taking it to the corner flag with some time left to play.
Our substitutions – Olaofe and Leaburn for Kelman and Campbell, then Knibbs and Ramsay for Carey and Burke, finally Rankin-Costello for Bree – failed to change the balance of play, although Leaburn may well have won us a free-kick on the edge of the box, the ref waving play on (I hope he’s not getting a reputation among officials for going to ground a little too easily), and Olaofe did ensure the game ended with a flourish as he was taken out by their keeper after nudging the ball past him – even if it did take intervention by the linesman to persuade the ref that a foul had been committed, quite absurdly he was playing on. There was no doubt at the time and the replays just underline the point.
On substitutions, I thought at 2-0 there was a case for getting Apter and/or Hernandez on the pitch. We were causing them no problems and needed a spark. But that, and Jones’ more understandable reluctance to risk opening things up more at 2-1, only underlines how difficult it is at the moment to get either onto the pitch. Apter has to be for Bree and once Olaofe has replaced Campbell that’s the other side taken care of. I think – with the full benefit of hindsight – that there was a case for replacing Campbell with Hernandez (assuming he’s been good in training) and going just for Olaofe to replace Kelman.
But what does it matter? We won. Perhaps the players had one eye on another tough game tomorrow night at Ipswich. If the second-half display left us with more in the tank for that one, so be it. We will find out.
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