Charlton Athletic 2 Brentford 0
It was an ugly win but it was fine by me as I was at The Valley yesterday to see us collect another 3 points. I had the pleasure of the company of Dave of Drinking During the Game sat high up in the East Stand equidistant from the chaos in the Upper North and the gaiety of the South Stand.
In truth we never got going and we conceded a lot of possession in midfield with Jonathan Douglas pulling the strings for the Bees but thinking back they carried little goalscoring threat.
I like the look of Pritchard and he instinctively tries to bring the ball down and pass it, but better and more powerful midfields would have overrun him and Hollands yesterday and I think Hughes still has an important role to play in the second half of the season and I have one eye on Hillsborough when I say that.
Jackson was okay and got another 80 minutes. He also showed us his prowess in front of goal when he headed against the post during our best part of the game after the break. Green did score but generally suffered a frustrating afternoon.
We talked amongst us at how difficult a player Kermorgant must be to play against and in a mostly withdrawn role he chased and harried everyone and everything and had an excellent game and almost scored with a header. BWP looked lacking in confidence but no one could knock his work rate. As for Leon Clarke, the less said about his, albeit brief, debut the better.
As far as I can see, Clarke hasn’t played a competitive game since December 10th and I don’t know where he has been training because it hasn’t been with Swindon. Nevertheless we certainly didn’t buy him for his pace and his awkward running style reminded me of Laurie Abrahams (one for the oldies there!).
With Matt Taylor rested, Leon Cort came in perhaps underlying Powell’s intention to buy him. As opposed to Russell and Ephraim, who were nowhere to be seen. Cort did well, particularly in the 2nd half winning almost every header that came his way. Morrison was excellent again, nodding his 3rd goal of the season over “England’s number one” Richard Lee to set us on our way.
Hamer was getting some stick from the 1,100 travelling Bees and flapped at crosses once or twice to again make it more nervy than it really was, but the full backs were once again superb, particularly Solly and without a shadow of a doubt this is the best pairing since the halcyon days of Reid and Humphrey.
All in all a good day at the office and great to see us bounce back from the Orient defeat a couple of days ago.
Fellow Addick Bloggers at The Valley: God, Charlton and Punk Rock; Charlton Casual; Kings Hill Addick; Blackheath Addicted; Deepest Darkest; Drinking During the Game
Powell-ometer: He made a couple of changes and Cort and Pritchard both gave him good performances. I’d like to have seen him bring on the subs earlier though.
Elsewhere: Sheffield Wednesday jumped rivals United after they beat Tranmere 2-1 and United lost at Carlisle, who move into 7th just behind Stevenage, who lost at home to Leyton Orient. It was Boro’s first defeat in 13 and Lee Cook got the O’s winner. Huddersfield were held at Notts County 2-2 but MK Dons beat Colchester 1-0. Bournemouth beat Wycombe 2-0 and the west country derby between Exeter and Yeovil ended 1-1.
