Charlton Athletic Online

Charlton Athletic 2
Manchester City 5

The Charlton defence was once again left in tatters, as City's forwards ran riot at The Valley this afternoon. Andy Cole (2), Darius Vassell, and Trevor Sinclair are all experienced players and have played many games in the Premiership. I doubt that they would have collectively enjoyed many afternoons work as much as they did today. All scored, and all combined well - movement, pace, skill - in a way that was way too much for this Charlton defence to cope with.

Alan Curbishley had made three changes to the team that lost so dramatically in midweek to Blackburn, recalling Matt Holland, Jonathan Spector, and Chris Perry in place of Talal El Karkouri, Chris Powell, and the suspended Radostan Kishishev. It didn't make much difference to the outcome though...

Cole opened the scoring after an opening half an hour where Charlton had rarely seen the ball. Without the suspended Kishishev, the centre of defence looked very un-protected, and lacked enough will or skill to regain possession. Sinclair was giving the recalled Jonathan Spector a torrid time, and setting up chance after chance. Darren Bent then scored an unlikely equaliser (see top picture), before Sinclair decided (just thirty seconds later) to reclaim City's lead with a solo goal where he left Spector trailing in his wake (see left). Darren Ambrose had blaised over Charlton's only other chance of the half when well placed to score. In all honesty, 2-1 was an unfair reflection on the play; Charlton hadn't coped at all well with the City play, and they were lucky to be just one goal behind.

Alan Curbishley did make a half time change, but instead of bringing on Chris Powell for Spector, he chose to play Jerome Thomas wide left and give the anonymous Matt Holland an early chance in the shower. Hermann Hreidersson was given the added responsiblity of protecting Spector, but this only served to further weaken the central defence as the half progressed. Twenty minutes in, a Sinclair cross was handled by the Icelander, and Joey Barton took a weak spot kick. Unfortunately for Charlton fans, Dean Kiely, with the only save he made in the whole game, presented the ball back to Barton who scored gleefully to end a traumatic week for him (his brother jailed for murder) on a high note.

Sub Jay Bothroyd came on for Jonathan Johansson, and soon scored from a free kick; enough to prove that one Jay is better than a JJ! It was similar chance to that he scored way back in the early months of the season against Hartlepool, but this time he kept it low and near post but with similar power, which was enough to beat David James. 3-2 and the watching TV audience must have been enjoying the goal spree.

Hope for Charlton wasn't to last long though; Darius Vassell broke the offside trap to race through to score the City fourth and, though James made a great save after a long run and cross from Thomas, Cole wrapped up the scoring five minutes from time, after Chris Perry had messed up a back header, by practically walking the ball into the net.

The boos rang out at the end; you wonder what it would sound like if many more of the crowd stayed to the end of the match these days - I reckon only about eight - ten thousand remained at the final whistle.

Another embarrassing home defeat - Fulham and Wigan must be kicking themselves as the only clubs not to win at The Valley this season!

The blokes behind me were in heaven, criticizing all and sundry, wondering why El Karkouri wasn't playing, why Hermann was, who that Dane who used to take our free kicks was, and why we haven't had anyone since who could take one well - wonderful stuff. Not! Unsurprisingly, they missed the fifth City goal, having left well before to catch the early train back to Tottenham-land. The best comment though came from in front of me, and advised David Sommeil (left) that he should have gone to Specsavers!

Next week we play Sunderland, who have lost about nine on the trot. Something has to give, as neither side can continue their run of consecutive Premiership defeats. I just hope that Charlton are the team that gets back to winning ways...