Charlton Athletic 2 Leicester City 1

Felt good didn’t it? Seeing the boys playing like that, with confidence and a fair bit of style. A well deserved and thoroughly enjoyable first 3 points.

The formation with 5 in the middle was the difference, it added some much needed backbone and we dominated that area from early in the game allowing us to dictate the tempo.

We started with real intent and after 5 minutes my mate turned to me and said that this was already a million times better that the Donny match.

It was Morrison who opened the scoring and on his 100th Addicks appearance I thought the ex-Leicester man benefitted from having the experience and towering presence of Leon Cort beside him. The 3rd centre-half Dervite also did some good work and was very neat and tidy.

We went on the dominate the first 45 minutes, the 3-5-2 making us both more dangerous going forward and tighter at the back. The 2nd half began at a furious pace and a quick break away saw Hamer, a little maligned in recent weeks, make a vital one-on-one save and it was a moment that changed the game, causing the sending off and giving us the power play opportunity.

It was Yann of course, that powered home a header to put us 2-0 ahead. Thoughts at that time turned to an end of season game at Upton Park many years ago when Leicester brought thousands to watch what they thought would be a simple march to promotion, we beat them soundly.

Before his goal Kermorgant had a terrific free kick saved by Casper Schmiechel, and later Peter’s son produced one of the best saves I have ever seen live when he somehow kept out another bullet header by our Breton hero.

After our second though City had to throw everything at us and they did, and deserved their goal. That could have caused anxieties, but I was really impressed with way the way we made use of the extra man passing the ball around well using the spaces. There was time for me to see both Jordan Cousins and Joe Piggott before the referee once again made sure we were the last game to finish in the country!

It was a very entertaining game with some good passing on display. I’ve seen some Addicks suggest that Leicester weren’t up to much but I’d disagree. I thought they looked threatening and they have more than their fair share of good players for this level. Sadly some fans can only see the bad in the others and not the good in their own.

In the pub before the game we heard that Solly was missing, which raised a few eyebrows but good authorities say that he is actually injured. Mind you Lawrie Wilson was excellent at right wing-back and Wiggins was much improved, although he didn’t get forward anywhere near as much as Wilson.

I like the three in midfield. Yesterday was probably the best I personally have seen Stephens play. He was aggressive and up for it and Leicester struggled with each one of his dead balls. They all played well, Yann often dropping deep, galvanised the team and the support, Simon Church ran his socks off and although Jackson wasn’t a stand out his authority shone through, which I think is much missed when he his absent.

If I had to pick a man of the match I would award it to Bradley Pritchard, who was literally everywhere and made a valuable contribution to Powell’s new formation.

It was just another game, but it was great being there with my son.

Other Addick Bloggers at The Valley: Charlton Casualty; Drinking During the Game; Blackheath Addick; God, Charlton and Punk Rock; Hungry Ted
Powell-ometer: Despite all that he has had to contend with CP had the players very focused for yesterday’s game and they produced for him in the 3-5-2 formation he experimented with at Huddersfield.
Elsewhere: Despite being overrun in the 1st half by Watford, Tom Ince’s goal gave Blackpool victory over Watford, QPR won again by a single goal at Elland Road, Jordan Rhodes scored twice as Blackburn thrashed local rivals Bolton to leave them bottom and Burnley impressed winning convincingly at Derby. Reading recovered from a midweek cup embarrassment to win at Yeovil, Birmingham and Ipswich drew 1-1 as did Middlesborough and Sheffield Wednesday. Brighton grabbed a late equaliser at home to Millwall, Bournemouth kept a clean sheet on the road to beat Doncaster, Barnsley beat Huddersfield 2-1 and Wigan beat previously unbeaten Forest.