Burton Albion 3 Charlton Athletic 3
Another crazy upside down game which unfortunately glaringly exposed our deficiencies again.
Another draw, we’ve drawn half our games and despite the euphoria of Ipswich and three cup wins in a week, that was another poor display against a team we should be beating.
We even went 2-0 up against the run of play. Burton settled quicker into their pattern of long balls, throws and deep crosses and we were ponderous with our game, short of ideas and looked knackered.
Then, in a blink of an eye Charlie Kirk scored two expertly taken goals to have us 2-0 up on 36 minutes against a team that are bottom, have shipped the most goals in the league with over a 1,000 Addicks behind one goal noisily plotting to be the 12th man.
What could possibly go wrong?
Steve Brown said that Curbs would direct a piercing whistle, whilst pointing frantically to his head at his teams after we’d score in those days, and every player would face the restart like it was the start of the match and quickly take any ardour out of the opposition. Ben Garner clearly needs to practice his whistling.
6 clean sheets in 25 league and cup games tells it’s own story. Our second-ball sorties were atrocious, we were a mess at corners and set-plays and with Dobson and Fraser equally culpable, we regularly parted when attacked like the Red Sea.
Somehow, although sadly to no surprise we went from 2-0 up to 2-2 as the half-time whistle blew.
It got worse 2nd half as Burton scored again and there looked no way back for us as they peppered our box with corners and crosses with only Craig MacGillivray and hapless finishing keeping the score down.
Burton had 25 shots at goal, with 10 on target.
We had just four shots at goal, but three of them were goals, and what lovely goals they were.
Both of the makeshift no. 10’s scored, whilst Stockley never came remotely close. Chuks once again causing chaos when he came on, and doing brilliantly to win the ball just in his own half and put a peach of a ball through to Rak-Sakyi to lob the equalizer.
Whether it was deserved or not is up for debate, but Garner has to work on this team’s weaknesses, which are many.
One last thing. I and all Addicks will hope that Joe Wollacott’s injury does not stop him getting on the plane to Ghana’s World Cup camp on Monday.
Ben Garner: “These players are giving everything, the staff are giving everything and we’re trying to get the maximum out of what we’ve got at the moment. Character and mentality that’s definitely improving all the time. We’ve got to get through to January in the best position that we can and then we have to get reinforcements in and strengthen the squad.”
Stats (CAFC first): Possession – 55% / 45%; Passes – 468 / 375; Accurate passes – 368 / 277; Shots (on target) – 12 (4) / 25 (10)
Chicago Addick 
Agree with you’re post we played a proper pub team and two points dropped. Again we had to rely on our cameo player to get a draw. However on the plus CK’s brace was well taken he seemed to be getting over his bereavement last year. It appears now to be playing out for a mid place league position the big guns are well placed for promotion.
Thought defensively we were a shambles, so was surprised that at 2-0 we didn’t change it to 5 across the middle to stifle the game and help create a boring last 55 mins with little action.
Keep hearing a lot about January, reinforcements and transfers. Hope they have an agreed list now and get a LB and CB (Sess can’t play more than two on the bounce and Lavelle isn’t good enough). AND a striker – and to get a decent one in Jan is going to cost. Trying to stay optimistic
A pretty grim performance all round, even though we ‘nicked’ a point off of a team bottom of the division. Once again the defending was hapshod and our attacking play, even though we scored three which were all well taken, was more down to Burton’s inadequacies than anything planned on the training ground.
Garner said after the game ‘character and mentality are improving, the players and staff are giving everything’……that maybe so, but tactics and ability of the squad is lacking to catapult us out of this league.
Really getting fed up with Garner’s excuses we were running on fumes, with all the matches we have played etc, nothing said about a comletely missing midfield and appalling defence!
As Brown and co said every other team in this division has had to play same amount of games it’s what it is, plus we could have lost that 7-3 with the amount of efforts they had on target, to our three, were it not for MacGilvery!
Speak the truth Garner and stop whinging after the games and the supporters will be with you, as we are aware that too many players are just not good enough, quite a few which you have brought in and we have no real depth in numbers, plus our injury record carries on every year. Which was summed up when Scott asked him what would you like in the next window in January, Brown said some more physios 🙂
Hate to say it again…..typical Charlton, we always struggle with lower placed teams and do well against the high flyers.
Being 2 goals up should give us motivation and adjust our play to ensure a win.
Completely agree with this
At least JFC was involved albeit as a sub. Also Nathan Asiimwe got to be on the subs bench because of Wollacott’s injury so he must have been the travelling reserve which is extremely encouraging.
When I saw the team for the game my immediate thought was that it was very light weight with two small fullbacks and Campbell, Rak Sakyi ,Fraser and Kirk. A team ill equipped to deal with set plays and so it proved.
I understand when JFC plays it costs the club more money.
John – as Thomas admitted this week.
We had a number of players out injured – two central defenders, while both right backs were out, Sean Clare to suspension and Mandela Egbo to a long-term injury. Further up the pitch we were missing McGrandles, Leaburn and a couple of other names.
We are paying the penalty for a thin squad, we need to get in a couple of defenders at least and a striker as Jayden Stockley is unsuited/wasted the way we are set up.
In his post match comments Ben Garner talked as though reinforcements will be brought in when the transfer window opens…but that is six weeks away.
Regarding the match we missed an opportunity to gain on the play-off teams many of whom dropped points this weekend. A win against Burton, while they shouldn’t be taken for granted, has to be nailed down.