In terms of the match, well, for those who saw it, you saw it, for those who didn't, Ellington nicked an equaliser in the 94th minute much to the heartbreak of the home supporters.
What to say....I'm actually gutted... in fact, devastated is more the word.
Upon arriving at the ground I was surprised to see that Parkinson had dropped Weaver in favour of young keeper Elliot... and to be honest he probably chose a decent match to give the lad some match experience. He didn't really have a lot to do during the match but when he was called upon he did a good job, his distribution was good and although he could have done better with the penalty, I think it must be said that Ellington is very good at wrong footing keepers!
I thought this was a good performance from the Addicks, there was some lovely football played, and following a spell of pressure just short of the half hour mark The Addicks upped the tempo with Lloyd Sam picking up the ball 12 yards out following a Derby slip-up and chose to go near-post and had Bywater well and truly beaten, only to be denied by the post.... "Christ", I thought to myself, "it's going to be another one of those nights in South East London".
Charlton were rewarded for all their pressure with Andy Gray slotting home from 6 yards. Lloyd Sam and Jose Semedo linked up well to get the ball into Gray who controlled the ball with some great skills and got the right side of the Derby centre half to slot home.
Before and after the 34th minute goal, Charlton looked the better of the two sides, with Derby struggling to get a shot on target. Debutant keeper Elliot had little to do in the Addicks goal and at half time Charlton had the lead.
The second half started where the first had left off, with Charlton all over the visitors who were still suffering from the blues that plagued their trip down to London (they got caught in the blackwall tunnel after a lorry carrying knickers had shed its load...I shit you not.... Sorry, I had to get that one in there!) Anyhow, I digress.... back to the match.... Bouazza missed a golden opportunity to put the Addicks two up when he let rip....it was a cracking effort, the only criticism is that he could have probably taken the ball on another 5 yards before having a pop.
However, the tide turned. Derby had a goal disallowed for offside, which I actually thought was a good decision. Having seen the replay on tele, it was clear that when the ball was initially played a Derby man was offside and while he may not have been active at the time, he became active a second later.... However, with the doubt about the disallowed goal still clearly in D'Urso's mind, he awarded Derby a penalty after a Jose Semedo "hand ball".... Christ, if I've ever seen a harsh decision, this was one. Either way, the ref made his mind up and Ellington stepped up and slotted into the bottom left hand corner, with Elliot completely bamboozled!
The Addicks responded well, with Lloyd Sam setting up Waghorn for his first goal for the club. He had a good game despite clearly taking a knock early on in the first half. It could have been 3 or 4 for the Addicks, with Bouazza and Sam both having efforts saved by Bywater who kept the Rams in the match.
urghh.... so here we are again....
15 minutes left......
10 minutes left.....
5 minutes left.....
that's it, surely.... 93 minutes gone....
fucking hell ref, when are you going to blow???
94 minutes dead on and the score is 2-2.
Basey flicked the ball on following a long throw and Ellington, off balance, pounced, and put the ball past Elliott. GUTTED. Absolutely heartbreaking in fact.
So what do I take from tonight:
- The crowd were brilliant, in full song and really behind the team. They allowed the team to be patient and to play the game they wanted to. Even at the final whistle they continued to support the lads who were clearly devastated.
- This was a great performance by the Addicks, they were creative, made opportunities and really looked like a team ready to play football. I'm confident they'll recover from this and I'm DEFINITELY confident, there is NO CHANCE that Charlton will be going down this year.
- The negatives are clearly dropping two points.... the positive is gaining one.
- Losing to another last minute goal is heart breaking and its something that needs to be looked at by the coaches to try to help the side remain calm under the pressure and in the last 5 minutes of the match.
I'm looking forward to Norwich on Saturday..... Let's take this match, regardless of the result, and build upon it. The foundations are there, it just needs to be tweaked to get the results that we know we are capable of.
5 comments:
I agree with your overview. This, in effect, despite the heartbreaking last minute tying goal, could effectively be the positive turning point on the season, because this pretty young Charlton side definitely played very well tonight. Had young Basey, who played a really solid game, just managed to head the ball in another direction, no goal! I thought they did keep their cool pretty well, spending a huge amount of time down the sideline, in Derby territory, creating throw-ins and generally killing the clock. It was just that one last "what if?" that cost the two points and it was simply bad luck more than anything else.
If they play in that fashion through the second half of the season, Charlton will be well beyond the relegation spots.
Unlucky not to win perhaps, but I'm afraid I'd be less upbeat about the performance or about what happens next. I think Parky has made a difference but we lack quality in central midfield. Bailey and Semedo really aren't good enough. We need Zheng and Racon fit. In the meantime, perhaps Parky needs to gamble on either Shelvey or Wright.
If I were Parky, I'd be congratulating the lads on a victory tonight , which effectively it was....in the way that Mr Mourinho stated his lot had NOT been beaten in the Carling Cup last season . A moral victory, if you like.
And a great platform on which to build the remainder of the season .The Great Escape starts here . Bring on the Canaries - twice !
Yes it was better but I am afraid the hard reality is we were not good enough to beat a poor Derby side. At crucial points in the game we did not play with our heads. Bouazza is a good example, clearly he is not the brightest and the adrenalin rush makes him do stupid things like when clean through with the goalie to beat going for the top right hand corner of the goal.
I am pleased we showed some fight, the crowd we great but I am afraid I see nothing but relegation for a team that is just too weak in midfield and who in the last 20 minutes went further and further back and conceded possession to Derby.
The only real plus from last night is that at least we are going to go down fighting. Parky is hopfeully going to dispense fully with loan signings and tell our own mixture of youthful and seasoned players to fight for their futures for the remainder of the season. With our current financial plight, i guess that this is all we can ask for.
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