Saturday’s draw at The Valley left the Addicks on course for their worst league finish since 1926. KEVIN NOLAN hopes the club’s captain will be back in August to lead a resurgence…
George Dobson is one horse of a player, a potent mixture of creative energy, unstinting effort and total commitment.
His many talents do not, however, include goalscoring, as a record of just three goals in 137 Charlton appearances prior to Saturday attests. But when he does score, he makes it both special and meaningful.
A match-winning long-range rocket at Rotherham; a breathtaking added time equaliser in a scarcely believable 4-4 draw against Ipswich Town; a close range finish which edged out Leyton Orient in this season’s opener.
And on what may well turn out to have been his last game for the Addicks, he demonstrated uncanny timing in notching possibly his swansong goal in the famous red-and-white.
Richly appreciated by the vast majority of Charlton supporters – those who can differentiate between a footballer and a turnip, that is – word has it that the club’s technical director doesn’t rate George.
The TD’s name doesn’t matter here but his opinion is critical and, if the rumours are accurate, he rarely sees eye-to-eye with the captain. Most fans wouldn’t recognise Andy Scott (oops!) in a bus queue but apparently he directs technique, whatever that is.
As the”will he go?/will he stay?” debate has raged on, Dobson has maintained a dignified silence and continued to produce a string of outstanding performances. To be honest, he knows no other way but 100 per cent effort. This wasn’t his best game for Charlton but he made opinions irrelevant by coming up with a superb equaliser in the opening minute of the second half.
The first half of Charlton’s 20th draw of this drab season (11 of them 1-1 nonentities) was totally dominated by Shrewsbury, who walked all over their clueless hosts but retired for the break only one goal to the good.
Nathan Jones’s men were frankly awful, unable to string more than one pass together, second best in the tackle and lucky to be still in contention at half-time. Town’s solitary success, netted by top scorer Dan Udoh after neat work from Tom Bloxham and Tunmise Sobowale, was a poor reward for their superiority.
The Addicks had admittedly ridden their luck before Udoh scored when Jordan Shipley’s cross was headed against a post by Morgan Feeney,rebounded off Sobowale, hit the same post but somehow failed to cross the goal line.
Less than a minute after resumption came Dobson’s goal, though, which punished the visitors’ failure to punch home their overwhelming advantage. And a beauty it was, too.
May’s usual hard graft won the ball for Connor Wickham, whose astute pass released Dobson through the middle of the Shrews’ shredded rearguard. Confronted by Marko Marosi, the skipper held his nerve, neatly sidestepped the despairing keeper and slotted calmly into his vacated net.
It was a finish of which Jimmy Greaves would have been proud.
Manager Jones was effusive in his praise for the goal and Dobson’s wholehearted contribution through some difficult times. The equaliser stretched his side’s unbeaten streak to 14 games, the downside of which is that only four of those games have been won.
He is entitled to expect his backroom to strain every sinew to hang on to this inspirational player. There’s this question of a contract agreed with a Hungarian club which might entail some small expense but Dobson’s exceptional services are surely worth a little persuasive negotiation.
Back on planet Earth, the Addicks might even have won this game of two different halves, with their visitors clearly intent on clinging on to the point which ultimately guaranteed their immunity from relegation.
With Town shaken by the unexpected turn of events, the Londoners pressed for an unlikely winner. Conor Coventry shot narrowly wide before Karoy Anderson missed a clear-cut chance to filch all three points.
Thierry Small’s pace and trickery were a growing thorn in the visitors’ right flank and it was Small’s precise cross which Anderson headed wastefully over Marosi’s bar from close range. Lively substitute Daniel Kanu set up Kayne Ramsay to test the suddenly busy keeper and Chuks Aneke muscled his way through but shot into the sidenet. But a draw it was and a 1-1 draw it stayed – no surprise there then.
It remained only to interpret George Dobson’s body language as Jones’s squad milled around after the final whistle. Alongside two irresistible kids, he was either acknowledging the fans’ standing ovation or bidding us goodbye. Being the most popular player in SE7 is hardly an assurance that he’ll stay.
The contentious departures of Alan Curbishley, Chris Powell and Johnnie Jackson besmirched Charlton’s reputation as a family club. Your veteran reporter recalls returning from National Service in Cyprus back in 1957, to learn that the legendary Jimmy Seed had been fired.
If you could treat Jimmy Seed that way, all bets were off. The suits wielded the power – that was the harsh lesson taught to one returning soldier, and it made a cynic of him…
Charlton: Isted, Thomas, Hector, Gillesphey, Edun (Ramsay 46), Coventry, Small, Anderson, May (Kanu 63), Dobson, Wickham (Aneke 63). Not used: Ward, T Campbell, Edmonds-Green, Lua Lua. Booked: Isted.
Shrewsbury: Marosi, Benning, Anderson, Feeney, Winchester, Udoh, Sobowale, Bennett, Bloxham (Bowman 77), Dunkley, Shipley. Not used: Burgoyne, Sraha, Hinchy, Price, Bayliss, O’Brien.
Referee: Daniel Middleton.
Kevin Nolan will return in August. Thank you to Charlton fans who have supported our home match coverage this season.
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