The bright sunny afternoon was in sharp contrast to last week’s washout against Doncaster and it was good to see a full ninety minutes of football.
The day started with tracking down Joe Hall who was responsible for putting together the Valley Talk fanzine to get my copy. I put together a short piece on football club finances and I hope you enjoyed it. As you can tell from my amateurish efforts, I blog for my own amusement and its good practice at putting together short pieces in a quick time frame, Joe on the other hand is a professional and there are also some excellent pieces from a number of bloggers and writers that you might recognise. I particularly enjoyed his interview with Shaun Bartlett and the Chris Powell quote on the back cover, which sums us up perfectly. I hope you managed to grab a copy but if you didn’t then you can pick up a copy from valleytalk.bigcartel.com
Before the game I commented on twitter at the positive vibes and messages of support coming from Charlton fans to get behind the squad, not to boo the board and above all be patient. So it was timely and appropriate that Daniel Webster (@ramblingaddick) had a good piece on the subject in Valley Talk
With the exception of the 3-5-2 formation it was a typical Charlton game with the boy’s taking the lead through a scrappy build up to Morrison’s headed goal (they all count!) to take the lead, Yann’s usual goal against his old team, then holding on for dear life to cling on to the three points despite the Foxes being down to ten men. Even Christ Powell was cringing at times with his hands against his face. I was surprised to see that we had 58% of the possession as Leicester seemed to keep the ball for long periods in midfield without making any impact.
Wiggins and Morrison both had much better games which will be good confidence boosters for them. Personally, I think that Evina is the better player in this formation but Wiggins was looking much more comfortable in this role during the second half as he created a number of opportunistic crosses for the team. It goes without saying that Kermorgant needed no motivation for the game and made the most of it. He’s a real bogey man for the Leicester crowd and as Chris Powell said he’s going to tell Yann that there are 23 other teams called Leicester!
Again, Church worked hard and deserves his place, although he was getting frustrated towards the end but continued to track back when necessary. Stephens has skill but still seems to be a little nonchalant and spatially unaware as the ball comes to him for the first touch. Pigott and Cousins took their chances when they came on, settling down quickly unfazed by the crowds and certainly making an impact during their short stint as substitutes.
While the second yellow for Leicester number 8, James’ inappropriate protests was a stupid one to concede, I feel a little sorry for Leicester as the officials made a number of errors in the second half including a clear goal kick when Church headed off the post. I have a feeling that the assistant on the East stand touchline was struggling with the sunlight and this will only get worse as the sun sinks lower coming into autumn. This can easily be rectified if the assistants swap sides but I am sure that there is a rule that prevents this common sense solution.
Overall, three points thoroughly deserved and having chased down the Foxes all afternoon it only seemed appropriate to finish of the day with a small bottle of Tally-ho from Adnams. I’d not seen it before and thought it was a stout but at 7.2% it’s more akin to a barley wine. One was enough to help savour the much needed victory.
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