The Addicks blew a two-goal lead yesterday to come away from The Valley with just a point. KEVIN NOLAN looks back at what went wrong.
In surrendering a doggedly-won two-goal lead when the hard work seemed to have been done, Charlton inflicted new levels of frustration on their long=suffering fans, who thought they’d seen it all but were introduced to new levels of defensive ineptitude.
Hardly for the first time, they were mute witnesses to the soft centre which makes the Addicks powerless to protect a lead to the bitter end.
Manager Michael Appleton appears no closer to solving the problem, if his post-game comments are any guide. “It was little details that let us down at the end,” he mused, “we can’t allow a free header from seven yards. You need your smaller and less physical players to be a little bit more aggressive and not allow free headers.”
He didn’t explain what those smaller, less physical players could and should have done to prevent Gassan Ahadme, six-foot-three if he’s an inch, from heading George Thomas’s outswinging corner home with eight regulation minutes remaining.
Obviously, Appleton has a point, but it’s a point which eluded most of us.
Ahadme had been a lanky nuisance to the home defence and having halved Charlton’s lead, he stepped up to the penalty spot and equalised in the sixth of eight added minutes. Tayo Edun’s foul on substitute Jack Lankester was indisputable but there seemed considerable doubt whether it was committed inches inside or outside the home penalty area.
Referee Thomas Kirk’s verdict was instant and brooked no argument. From the Addicks’ point of view, however, two previous decisions had already eroded their faith in the official. His tolerance of United taking a free kick, for offside given against Alfie May, from inside Charlton’s half was incomprehensible, as was the blind eye he turned to Danny Andrew’s correctly-taken throw-in, which was caught by a teammate and re-taken with Kirk apparently blind to the clear handball.
The free kick and the throw-in were presumably among the “little details” which undid Appleton’s men. They certainly didn’t justify the familiar panic, however, into which they descended in the immediate wake of Ahadme’s first goal.
Appleton also has a case to answer concerning two of the three substitutions he made with the score at 2-1.
His like-for-like replacement of a hobbling Corey Blackett-Taylor by Tyreece Campbell was understandable while taking off talismanic bundle of energy Alfie May in favour of recently-recalled Deji Elerewe was, to put it mildly, questionable. But his 88th-minute introduction of 17-year-old Micah Mbick for Chem Campbell defies explanation. Perhaps blameless young Micah was detailed to man-mark Ahadme, a task which proved beyond him.
Whatever the root cause, Charlton’s latest collapse put a severe dent in their hopes of making inroads into the growing gap which separates them from League One’s promotion play-off contenders. Their dramatic post-interval improvement over a passive, mercifully forgettable first half, appeared to have earned a coveted home win until, so it seemed, the very possibility of success unnerved them.
Though marginally the better side, Cambridge contributed almost equally to a charmless first period. A series of dangerous corners delivered by left-back Andrew created untidy goalmouth scrambles but clear-cut chances were thin on the ground or, indeed, in the air.
Ahadme’s head met an inswinger from Andrew but Ashley Maynard-Brewer saved capably while, at the other end, May breezed past Jubril Okedina to shoot narrowly over the bar. Charlton’s target became to survive until the break, a modest ambition which they realised comfortably enough.
A revitalised home side re-emerged and within sixteen second half minutes moved two goals ahead. Almost inevitably May claimed the first by seizing on Okenina’s weak clearance of Daniel Kanu’s hard, low cross and drilling a low shot inside Jack Stevens’ right-hand post.
Kanu had taken over from an out-of-his depth Henry Rylah and made an immediate impact with his skill and industry. The contribution made by centre-back Michael Hector, in pinpointing him with an unapologetically long ball from the back, also demands mention.
Blackett-Taylor, meanwhile, had been subdued as his side toiled in the doldrums. He came alive, though, when Scott Fraser’s long, raking pass put him into mano-a-mano confrontation with reluctant right-back Liam Bennett. There was only one winner of their showdown and Bennett was helpless as Blackett-Taylor accelerated past him to the left byline. The chipped cross was perfect as was the header bulleted past Stevens by the rampant Chem Campbell. It was the kid’s first goal for Charlton and some goal it was.
As the Addicks boisterously celebrated Campbell’s strike, there was hardly a cloud on their horizon. The defence had coped efficiently enough and there was plenty of running left in their legs. A third goal was not out of the question but when the visitors reduced their arrears, they imploded.
Still, with two more minutes to see out, there was no excuse for their disastrous descent into chaos or for the crazy challenge made by Edun on a menacing but far from clean-through Lankester.
It begins to look like yet another season in the soul-destroying nether world of League One. And none of us are getting any younger!
Charlton: Maynard-Brewer, Tennai Watson, Thomas, Hector, Edun, Dobson, Fraser, Blackett-Taylor (Tyreece Campbell 90+2), Chem Campbell (Mbick 88), May (Elerewe 90+3), Rylah (Kanu 46). Not used: Walker, Louie Watson, Asiimwe.
Cambridge: Stevens, Liam Bennett, Andrew, Digby (Thomas 68), Morrison, Brophy (Lankester 80), Kaikai (Gordon 68), Okedina, Kachuga (May 90+8), Ahadme, Cousins. Not used: Mannion, Ryan Bennett, Haunstrap.
Referee: Thomas Kirk.