The journey continues
Talking Point 🗣️
Just as the blood pressure has returned to some kind of normality, thoughts turn to another week of expectation, excitement and nerves.
They were two highly competitive, tight and stressful games against Wycombe, yet on Thursday in a cacophony of noise we perservered and have put ourselves in with a shot of the ultimate goal.
I watched the game in a pub in Bermuda, always a bit surreal when all around you people are having a quiet drink, and there you are a gibbering mess staring at a TV. Fortunately my Charlton mate was a calming influence.
At the end I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and jubilation. The Valley must have been, well I know it was, electric. Most people I know say it might have been the nosiest ever.
A few thoughts on Thursday. It was a better game than Sunday’s 1st leg, but Wycombe are a combative side and it was hardly a spectacle.
They began both halves better, but we grew into both periods, and as time ticked on it was always going to come down to one moment. Thankfully that moment was Godden’s.
Small made a big difference, his substitution surprising but it didn’t knock us out of a lengthening stride and all three game-changers contributed.
The back five were all fantastic again, and those two Ramsey blocks were, as Godden said, as good as a goal. Before our goal I was also pleasantly surprised to see Kone taken off, I wasn’t sure or bothered to know why.
The midfield trio were all far more involved than they were in the away game. Godden’s goal was textbook Godden, and although my heart rate wouldn’t concur we were pretty untroubled after.
Finally, Nathan Jones deserved his moment of crazed celebration. Give me authenticity and substance over a bloke with his hand in his pockets any day.
Onto next Sunday then, and it looks as if I will be one of many overseas Addicks making the pilgrimage to Wembley as well as tens of thousands of home-based supporters. I have my ticket and booked my flights.
The rush for tickets has again been extraordinarily, and I just hope that everyone that should and wants to go gets one.
Let this journey continue.
Just one more thought about the Wycombe second leg.
I looked at other Charlton forums afterwards to guage opinions and was astonished to see criticism and low player marks for Tyreece Campbell.
He is our only attacking outlet (we badly need another speedy winger) He carried the ball forward more than anyone else. He may not be the polished article we all would love, but without his endevour, I can’t see we would have won.
Going down with cramp near the end of normal time, right in front of where i sat, he was visibly upset to leave the action.
He gets 9.5 from me.
As I have not been attending games regularly the last three seasons, partly due to the uninspiring dross of league 1 and partly some health issues. I’m almost at the bottom of the pile for Wembley tickets, I hope there are some remaining Tuesday.
I completely understand the reasons for the method of distributing the tickets and my position in the list is justified. But offering four tickets to anyone and everyone is IMO over the top. It will make my chances less and I may be replaced by ‘day-trippers’ who couldn’t find Charlton on a map.
I was one of the people who commented on Tyreece Campbell’s performance over the two legs of the play-offs, as his performance in both games was under par from what we have seen throughout the season from him. But, it was not a criticism of the lad himself, as he was bullied and marked by a seasoned professional defender. I was more concerned about the fact that it left us light up front, and there was no ‘out’ from defence, hence the ‘hoofball’ in the first leg. The second leg was better as the support of Small was there. It’s a learning curve, and hopefully he has learned something from those games.
Also TC was marked by Wycombe’s best player by a mile and arguably MoM in both games (although it’s difficult to take that status away from Kayne in the 2nd leg as he absolutely immense!)
TC has become a marked man, and has been roughed up in the last few games including three against Wycombe, but he still provides a valuable outlet and drags other defenders to him.
He needs to keep learning and mix up his threats a bit more. A wider pitch at Wembley will suit him.
TC was man-marked out of both games.
The thing is we made Wycombe change their formation and strategy – in the Easter Monday match our high press squeezed the life out of them and contributed to mistakes which lead to goals. They weren’t going to make the same mistakes again. So, TC and Godden were given no room to move or take a second touch where possible and elsewhere Wycombe’s defence were obviously under orders to put boot to ball and welly it up the pitch. Their back five became a back four which meant that Grimmer was able to go directly up against TC and some of the attention he received from him was just on the side of what is acceptable, a poor referee in the first leg allowed a bit too much contact.
In the first leg we lacked width on the other wing so we had no balance to the attack, Tennai Watson is really a right-back who sometimes gets forward but doesn’t look comfortable in the wing-back role, Thierry Small however can play RWB and was able to ask a few more questions and nearly scored when recalled.