Charlton Athletic 1 Leyton Orient 1 (3-4 on penalties)
Hmmm, well lets move on from that. The CAFC Player service wasn’t working, ironically after I have just paid for it and the price went up. Funny eh? No.
Therefore I followed it sporadically on a combination of online media and it didn’t come across very well. Those at The Valley, home fans anyway, didn’t seem to be impressed but it is important to recognise the importance that Powell put on the game.
He picked a 2nd XI and didn’t actually introduce a sub until just before the end of the first period of extra time. He did however manage to get sent off by a referee, who by all accounts, gave a similar inadequate performance than those wearing red.
Leyton Orient have been a little bit of a bogey team and used as another run out for mostly squad players, in a diamond shape, this was always going to be a tough game. I don’t know what people expected, although those that showed up clearly deserved better. This was the Cup after all. Us and the Cup do not mix. Period.
The season starts Saturday and it’s going to be a slog, and Powell knows that.
Moving quickly on….
Addick Bloggers at The Valley: Kings Hill Addick (comment below); Ramblings of a Football Fan; Addicks Championship Diary; Doctor Kish; And Nothing Else Matters;
Powell-ometer: He would have found out tonight that his 2nd string is not good enough and the worry will be when injuries force changes. Better quality in the squad is required.
Elsewhere: As well as us Millwall, Derby, Bristol City, Brighton and Cardiff joined Huddersfield and Blackpool in going out in the 1st Round.
Chicago Addick 
CAFC player worked fine for me. Wyn.
I don’t normally like to disagree with my fellow fans, but I thought we played well last night. Clearly Wagstaff is not an out and out goal scorer and, sadly, Smith wasn’t able to be a dominant as he might have liked.
However, Smith won most things in the air, and managed to direct them all to a player in red. Kerkar looked a good player for the first twenty minutes before he was marked more tightly. Wilson looked very impressive and Cook was outstanding. His run and pass for our opening goal was real quality; his confidence on the ball and his ability to get a pass or a cross over with three men on his was very promising.The rest of the players made good contributions, and they are, we should remember, the nucleolus of the side that played in the same division as Orient last season.
This was also with Solly, Jackson, Stephens, Kermorgant, Morrison, Haynes and BWP rested.
By the time Orient scored their goal at the end of the first half we had dominated and, even with our first choice three strikers nowhere near the pitch, we should have had put the game to bed. I am tempted to think that the inclusion of Wagstaff up front was as much about giving him 90 minutes in the same game as Green as it was about looking at his ability as a striker. If BWP and Kermorgant had been playing we would have gone in at half time at least two goals in front.
The penalty that Mooney ‘earned’ and missed was a dive, and despite having a few chances in the second half I didn’t think Orient ever looked like winning the game in open play. We had, by far, the better chances in the second half and extra time. If we had to play Orient again with the same teams I would imagine we would beat them four times out of five.
As I wasn’t too bothered about winning in all honesty I found the evening to be highly entertaining, and exciting. I’m not aware that we picked up any injuries; many players had a really good workout; a few of our stars had a fifteen minute run before the big kick off; and we managed to exit a cup competition that none of us really want to be in with grace, respect and our heads held high.
A great night’s work, if you ask me.
Thanks KHA, I appreciate the time you took to write that. Not having the commentary was annoying but equally I wasn’t that bothered. Trouble is you are left with half-arsed comments from people that are mostly not there on CL or the ‘live text’ which doesn’t tell you anything about the flow of the game.