Shrewsbury Town 0 Charlton Athletic 1
Who knew. You can actually score from a corner!!
Even though we failed to inspire any away win is a good win and supported by another clean sheet the Addicks move up to 2nd in the table.
We started the game really brightly and had the early chances. Small and better still Coventry tried their luck from outside the box before Shrewsbury grew into it.
The Shrews were the better team by the break though with us unable to build any periods of possession and getting forced back into our third defending some tricky crosses.
Yet again however, we were defensively solid but we had to be better in the 2nd half.
And we were taking the lead on 49 minutes from, wait for it…. A corner.
Coventry’s deep corner kick was headed back towards goal by Lloyd Jones and Adhame bundled in for his first Charlton goal.
Mannion made a very good save from Shrewsbury’s best chance, which was good to see. Kanu then had a shot deflected and Godden’s header was rightly disallowed, but once again we saw the game out without any panic.
Any away win is valuable, but I thought today it pretty important to win all three points against a team that will in all probability struggle this season. Nonetheless our record there in recent season’s has been poor.
We are still not pulling up any trees though and once more the attacking performance left a lot to be desired. It ain’t pretty, and although defensively we are transformed, offensively we need to quickly proffer more variety other than playing the margins.
Jones knows it, but we have to start seeing more depth and creativity in our attacking play.
Anyway, the table looks pretty tonight.
🎙️”I don’t care who scores as long as we score one more than the opposition then that is all that matters to me.” – Nathan Jones
⭐️ Gassan Adhame
🏟️ 6,171 (679 Addicks)
📸 Kyle Andrews
It looks as though the set piece coach has earned his pay as did the defensive coach.
The shot was going in but Gassan Ahadme did nothing wrong in making sure and I’m pleased that he’s off and running for the season. He had a decent game to be fair.
All in all it wasn’t a pretty watch, but then many games at this level are like that. We’ve screwed up on these sort of matches before – switching off at the wrong moments and surrendering the points, we kept the intensity level high and other than the save by Mannion Shrewsbury never had a good opportunity.
We’re averaging just over the two points per game that we need and we’re way above where we were this time last season.
By all accounts another scrappy mess of a performance. At least it ended in victory. Had we been playing one of the better sides in the division, things could have been different.
However, the win is good and sitting in the top two is encouraging.
Wouldn’t it be nice though if we could produce some entertainment and dominate a game and bang in two or even three goals. At the moment that seems most unlikely.
Yesterday’s performance wasn’t exhilarating, it’s true. But I thought the second half wasn’t that bad. Obviously our defence is much stronger than our attack, but there were glimpses of improvement from all four strikers involved. And Miles is coming back. Great performances by Ramsey and Docherty!
It will be interesting to see the teams that are put out in the BM cup and the 2 U21 games this week. Hopefully Dixon will be involved in the BM cup and maybe Leaburn, although he looked a bit sore when he went off in the U21 game on Friday.
I hope NJ gives Zach Mitchell and Harvey Kedwell some minutes in the BM cup as they are playing well at U21 level and deserve a chance. Kedwell plays as the defensive midfield and if he does well could provide cover for Coventry, Taylor seems out of favour, but seems to be the only option at present.