Swindon Town 1 Charlton Athletic 3
Friendly, kick-about, run out, cup tie.. whatever you call it, it was a nice confidence booster for Lee Bowyer and his team today.
In front again of Thomas Sandgaard plus his family, Bowyer put out a team capable of winning the game but it still included 17-year old Charlie Barker and 20-year old James Vennings.
Ben Amos started in goal with Ashley Maynard-Brewer on the bench with Dillon Phillips told he either commits to the club or doesn’t play. The Addicks lined up in a fluid 4-3-3.
And we won, remember that? Charlton progress to the next round of the League Cup for the first time in three seasons. Macauley Bonne got a cracking opener to have us lead at the half. Swindon improved after the break when Jonny Smith came on for the Robins, and he equalized for Swindon midway through the 2nd half.
However substitutes Alex Gilbey and Chucks Aneke swung the game back our way, and young Barker capped an impressive display when he headed home an Aneke flick-on from a free-kick and then Aneke himself slammed home after in the final minutes after a nice passing move set him away into the box.
Whatever we called today, a win was a much welcome shot in the arm as Bow works out how he can add some players and Thomas Sandgaard extends his UK stay in his pursuit to complete the purchase of the club from the array of thieves, charlatans and no-marks.
Chicago Addick 
Very encouraging performance which indicates that with a number of well selected recruits we may have a good season ahead. Young Barker has impressed and has a good future, he surprised me because I have only seen him a couple of times in games where our U18s were well in control so our defence was not under pressure so limited chance to judge his ability. The Swindon goal highlighted the limited aerial abilities of both Purrington and Oshilaja.. Our central defence lacks height which could be important particularly at set plays. Barker is about 5’11” and his strength is defending on the ground so we need a tall central defender as a priority.
Gilbey impressed as did Aneke. In the short term we need Aneke to augment our defence at set plays as Leaburn did very well when Rufus and Balmer were our central defence.
I think Lapslie has the right attributes to make a decent full/wing back and I hope he gets a run in that position if we miss out on Matthews. Dempsey may also do a decent job in that position, Things are not so bleak as many people may think as the most promising U23s that have not appeared in league fixtures before have had to be side lined because of the stupid squad rules applied by the EFL.
A personal gripe, the club does not release any information relating to U18 andU23 preseason games. A Chelsea blog site recently mentioned that their U23s had played our U23s and their report understandably did no did give any Charlton team information. Similarly yesterday we appear to have played Arsenal U18s according to an Arsenal related blog. I think while the pandemic is prevalent and supporters like myself will not be able to attend U18 and U23 fixtures that the club make a determined effort to keep supporters informed. My support for Charlton over the last sixty plus years has always included 1st ,Reserve (now U23s), and U18s teams.
A good run out and three team goals scored.
Word is Joel Lynch has trained with the club ahead of a deal – a 6ft1 physical CB with a lot of experience could be what we need and as far as I know we still have Adam Matthews still in training, both presumaby waiting for the takeover before signing on. Speaking of which TS gave an update – although not a done deal he has supplied the EFL with a lot of the OADT data and is still in town and hopefully the deal will get over the line and the EFL will pass him off as legit.
On the negative side Alfie Doughty might be on his way out along with Dillon Phillips.