Charlton Athletic 2 Wigan Athletic 1
Absolute dominance for 84 minutes then it all got a bit panicky.
For the first half and almost the entirety of the second we played like a juggernaut running downhill, we were quality, but we weren’t able to completely snuffle out our visitors who had a new manager in the dugout.
The miss/save right after the break might have signalled a rampage, but following that we were content to control the game at our pace and plan.
Their goal came after we went a little gung-ho trying to get the third. Lloyd Jones at one point moved himself up front, but following that we defended well, with Leaburn twice heading away late corners.
The first half we were excellent though. It really was one way traffic and Godden scored two perfect striker’s goals supported ably by Berry, who had a very good game.
Edwards was obviously more than just knackered, and I felt that Small and TC were often working in the same space, so Small especially was less effective.
Tennai Watson did very well playing his first real minutes since October, but struggled a bit later on as Wigan’s late threats came from his side.
One other piece of really good news was that Conor Coventry saw out another game sat on 9 yellow cards. The threshold for a ban now extends to 15 bookings.
Coventry has been brilliant in recent week’s especially knowing he had that hanging over his head. I also thought today his passing was bolder. Docherty put in a good shift as well, back in the side after welcoming a new baby.
Helped by my son taking 7 of his mates, The Valley was busier and noisier today. Great to see.
🎙️“Apart from the last six minutes I didn’t see us losing the game but that is what happens if you don’t kill games off and take the odd liberty, which I felt we did late on. I’m just delighted with the win because that is the most important thing.” – Nathan Jones
⭐️ Matt Godden
🏟️ 16,491 (596 Wigan)
📸 Kyle Andrews
A slight wobble in last 10 minutes didn’t reflect how dominant we were for most of the game.Jamie Carragher was in the away end supporting his son in the Wigan team.We didn’t suffer from the new manager bounce from Wigan players and the new manager has work to do with his defence.It was great to see a big increase in fans attending and supporting the team.
Sniffer dog did the business…
The first half was one of our best displays all season, two clinically taken goals, our defence was solid, Wigan didn’t even have a shot on or off target, in midfield we were dominant. And then TC and I think Matty Godden had that chance just into the second half. TC’s strength in holding off the defender and then his pace took him clean in on goal and somehow he allowed the keeper to make a save…
What should then have been a relatively stress free afternoon got nervy as we settled to defend our lead and in the process we let Wigan get back into the match. The last few minutes were nervy but we controlled things well enough.
While we’ve been playing good football over the last few months but our inability to properly kill games off might just hurt us. Only twice have we scored three goals or more in that time.
Still we consolidated a play-off spot and kept the pressure on the two teams immediately above us.
I wouldn’t be critical of Watson as he hasn’t play at first team level for some time, he has had a game or two in the U21s but those games do not reach the pace of a league game. I would have thought that 60-70 minutes was correct for his situation. I am glad there isn’t a midweek game before next Saturday as the high pressure game we have adopted since the new year could lead to burn out of players like Campbell. This should mean making more use of the squad to keep things fresh. Luckily we have more depth than previous seasons in defence and attack but midfield options are limited.