Charlton Athletic 4 Doncaster Rovers 0
Couldn’t ask for much more than that.
Doncaster were poor, but Jacko’s team executed an astute game plan, pressed and harried, got forward in numbers creating loads of chances and ended with another important clean sheet.
Matthews missed out due to injury and Gunter came in at right back but rarely ventured forward, unlike Purrington on the other side who popped up constantly in advanced positions and fully deserved his goal.
The first ten minutes were a bit scrappy, but after Elliott Lee had a goal bound effort cleared off the line the stage was set as we upped the pressure.
Lee then took a free-kick on the left hand side and with pace curled right footed a delicious ball past Stockley’s head and straight in.
The second was important, but to have us in any danger Donny had to first get into our defensive third, which they rarely did, and if they did red shirts just swallowed them up.
George Dobson was excellent again winning second balls, breaking up play and moving us from defence to attack. One lovely little pass put Gilbey away who burst into the area only to get fouled. Washington calmly dispatched the penalty for 2-0.
Washington had a shot saved and Purrington missed a great chance at the back stick similar to last week following a good move.
2nd half started with Donny already looking beaten. Donny’s keeper Dahlberg was the blame for our third when he parried another teasing Lee free-kick onto Stockley and into the net, but to be fair he also was mostly responsible for keeping the score down.
It was game over then as The Valley got in full chorale mode and those of us sat at home put our feet up.
Purrington does get into some really good advanced positions (I always think of the play-off goal) and a deep cross from DJ was headed across goal by him past Dahlberg’s dive for 4-0.
There were more chances but it was left to Jacko to punch the air in delight in front of the Covered End and then four tunnel jumps to wrap up proceedings.
The only negative was Leko going off with a hip injury as the treatment room annoyingly gets crowded again.
Probably the most comprehensive home win for some time, but the pace will get picked up on Tuesday when Rotherham come to SE7.
Jacko: “We did a lot of work on what we look like out of possession, especially when we’re attacking, what do we look like underneath the ball? I thought we had a real good shape about us, even when we were attacking we limited them to very few chances and to go and get the clean sheet tops it off. That’s a really pleasing aspect, too.”
Photo credit: Kyle Andrews
Chicago Addick 
All along I have said Jackson should have been given a chance before bringing Adkins in, who from seeing how the team play for Jackson each time he has taken them, that includes to the two cup games this season, has more or less proved, Adkins was totally the wrong person for the job.
His tactics were of a past era long gone and his swapping players round like a merry go round for each game was a farce and little wonder players never had any time to gel together as a unit and looked more often than not, as though they had never played together. Though that doesn’t excuse certian players who weren’t putting any real effort in and just swanning around doing really nothing to help the team, absolutely no excuses for them on that front at all and they should be ashamed of themselves!
The difference now is clearly seen with all the players on the pitch, now putting a real good shift in and obviously wanting to play for Jackson. In the short time he has so far had, Charlton actually now look like a team, a complete turn around from previously.
Good to see JJ has also now brought Elewere back into the squad as well as Dobson. As Adkins completely dropping him, was a very strange one, especially as he had looked probably the best centre back when he came on and hardly made an error, when all the others were continuely making mistakes?
Up next is a really tough task against Rotherham who are flying and scoring freely, my worries there are Pearce and Gunter, who against pacey front players, can’t really handle them and normally come unstuck, but if JJ can get the team working as hard as the last two games and everyone helping out at the back, we could well snatch a win or at least a draw, which would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago!
Win lose or draw Tuesday, just keep up the good work and move us up the table and the Managers job should be yours and then you will hopefully be able to get rid of some of the dead wood and bring a few of your own choices in, withing the New Year transfer period, to start getting us ready for a promotion push for next season. Unless you can work miracles and get us into a playoffs!
Matches won’t come much easier than that, we controlled the game from start to finish and played with exactly the sort of pride, passion and intensity that Johnnie Jackson demanded in mid-week. Everyone knew what they were doing, they tracked back in defence, linked in attack, kept the ball moving and had an identifiable gameplan. We simply look stronger in the centre of the pitch with this formation and George Dobson’s form makes you wonder why he hadn’t featured much under Adkins. The only thing that stops me saying that it was the perfect performance was that we should have have had two/three more goals. Purrington and Stockley had headers saved that should have been buried and there were a couple of other shots cleared off the line. We will need to be more ruthless going into Tuesday’s game.
All in all JJ is aiming to make Sandgaard’s choice simple – we have three games until the next international break, one league match, an FA Cup tie and the pizza cup thing, win those and I would expect an announcement anointing him in mid-November.
anyone know when the other Danny Murphy left the club?
Just the injuries are piling up and they seemed better managed under his watch…
He left a while ago. I don’t know why. He was heralded when he joined and left with not so much as a whisper.