Charlton Athletic 5 Plymouth Argyle 1
Well, no complaints about that. A very enjoyable watch.
The team slightly tweaked from Saturday and including Jesurun Rak-Sakyi burst with energy and creativity and it was a great bounce back from the Wednesday defeat when attacking moments just didn’t quite click.
Tonight both wide men were a constant menace, in fact Charlie Kirk had a great game, and fully deserved his goal.
Scott Fraser was more central to the performance, and combined with the superb passing from Albie Morgan and the enterprise of Kirk and Rak-Sakai, Jayden Stockley instead of being an outsider to Garner’s game, played a pivotal part.
Stockley’s goal came from the spot, and I actually thought the Plymouth player was unfortunate to see red as well, but no one could deny that we were already in full flow by then.
Sean Clare’s goal was a thing of beauty and to have Miles Leaburn, who has poise and strength beyond his years, score the 5th was the icing on the cake.
A word for debutant Rak-Sakyi. That was a very exciting display, and he seemed to enjoy every minute. Charles Claydon should also be very proud of his performance.
Nice one Ben, I like the way you conduct yourself and I am beginning to like what you are attempting to. There was a lot of very good individual performances tonight, but overall it was the team as a whole including the substitutes that impressed me the most, and that is all down to Ben Garner.
Ben Garner: “I’m really pleased for Kirky, he’s been brilliant since I walked in during pre-season. It didn’t probably go the way he wanted last season but he’s been great”
Stats (CAFC first): Possession – 63% / 37%; Passes – 575 / 343; Accurate passes – 510 / 268; Shots (on target) – 8 (4) / 4 (2)
Chicago Addick 
And if that man doesn’t put his hand in his pocket and buy a striker after that i’m never going again. 😂😂😂
Sadly LP, I suspect that result makes a new striker less likely ………
Nice to see the wide players getting onto the scoresheet (even though one of them may be on his way out the door!!) cos Stockley isn’t going to get the amount of goals required for promotion on his own……and now Aneke has yet another injury setback !! Leaburn will get better and better hopefully, but we still need competition and options for that number 9 spot.
maybe I judged Miles too quickly, he looks an adequate replacement for Chuks as cover for Stockley and with the revitalised Kirk on one side and JRS on the other, Albie being a creative force, and Fraser at his best, the first 11 can match any team in the division, my issue comes when we get key injuries, like Stockley, Innis and either of the wingers.
Chuks Aneke winners and losers.
Winners – Birmingham City and of course Chuks himself, trousering £30k a month for 3 years, a bit of light training now and then and the (very) occasional game.
Losers – Well just us, or rather TS for tossing £300k down the drain
I don’t want to see Clayden as cover for a loanee left back, I want to see him as one of the front three if Kirk is sold ( or on loan). Maybe he will get another start on Saturday if Clare’s injury prevents him starting, as Sessegnon can switch to the RHS. A positive for me last night was that neither CBT or DJ were in the starting line-up.
The situation regarding Aneke is beyond pathetic. Who was behind the decision to resign him. Surely Gallen must have had some involvement and it does him no credit.
I said this after I watched Miles score at Accrington. If he gets 10 goals before Christmas then TS will cash him in during January. Let’s watch..
Allegedly was purely a TS decision to sign Aneke, as was the signing in January of the now infamous loanees from the PL.
Not exactly covering himself in glory.
You mean he didn’t even take advice from his ex-football star son?
A cracking game where everything came together and the shots went in rather than just wide or thudded into a defender.
I’m reluctant to praise or criticise any manager until they’ve had a few games to make their mark but I can see what Ben Garner is trying to do and he and the players are on the same wavelength. We had 60% possession and created a host of chances, the match could easily have finished six or seven – one. The only problem I have is not knowing who should be man of the match, Dobson for his quietly effective workrate, Morgan for his passing and assists, Stockley for his captain’s performance, Kirk for the goal, the assist for the penalty…
We can now see why there’s so much hype around Jesurun Sak-Rakyi, the defenders dropped off him and gave him space. That’s usually a sign that they’d rather mark space than try and mark him out of the game and get found out if he gets away from them. With pace on both wings we have some attacking options. The club deserve a bit of credit in waiting for him and Palace to send him to the Valley. We’ve needed that bit of extra quality upfront and they could easily have lost patience and looked elsewhere.
It might have been me but Charlie Kirk and Sak-Rakyi were playing less as wingers and more as inside left/right forwards and a bit tighter to Stockley which stretched Plymouth’s defence out. Both were in the right place – not just for their goals but to create other chances. They could easily have had two/three goals each.
Perhaps we need to evolve the build up from the goalkeeper approach, while retaining the ball is the objective it can get predictable and encourages teams to play the high-press against us. Inevitably there will be a mistake that leads to a soft goal, I’d like to see the occasional longer throw out by Joe Wollacott, even if it’s just an occasionally different way to distribute the ball.
“It might have been me but Charlie Kirk and Sak-Rakyi were playing less as wingers and more as inside left/right forwards and a bit tighter to Stockley which stretched Plymouth’s defence out. Both were in the right place – not just for their goals but to create other chances. They could easily have had two/three goals each.”
Shadow – exactly as I saw it. And for me Kirk is much more of an inside left (wrote that on the Blog somewhere before) than an out and out winger. Stockley was far more central to the team as he had Kirk and Sam-Rakyi bouncing around him. Was good to watch.
As I have said for some time Stockley needs a player(s) in close support which to me doesn’t really work with 2 wingers of limited technical ability. Kirk, Rak-Saki, Payne, Leaburn and Clayden should be the options to use and Leaburn can also cover for Stockley in the central role. The downside is that with the support players for Stockley tucking in, more is expected of the full backs who need to be high energy players in the wide channels.
You will notice I have not mentioned Aneke.!!!