Charlton Athletic Online

Scunthorpe United 1 Charlton Athletic 0

Oh dear. Just when everything seemed to be going well and heading in the right direction it is back to earth with a hard bump.

Charlton lost this game thanks to a single Scunny goal on a bitingly cold and blowy day. It wasn't a good move or anything: it was all the fault of one person - Yassin Moutaouakil. A long cross was swung over to the far post after an hour. The right back was alone but tried to do the sensible thing and knock the ball behind for a corner and safety. Sadly he missed the ball with his better right foot and simply saw the ball bounce off his left peg straight to Scunthorpe’s leading scorer Paterson eight yards out. Paterson buried the ball into the corner of the net giving Nicky Weaver no chance.

Yassin also wasted Charlton's best chance wastefully shooting wide from 12 yards with an open goal at his mercy when the scores were still level. It wasn't his best game by a long chalk.

Moots wasn't the only defender to make a mistake but his were crucial. Why the errors crept back into the teams play is anyones guess - Weaver and Bougherra both fell in clearing the ball and, though hurt, were lucky not to be punished. McCarthy’s distribution was awful and Youga as trying too hard against his former club and kept running down lines that led nowhere.

This should not take anything away from Scunthorpe who just deserved the win. Sad to say they even accomplished it playing with ten men for the last 20 minutes after Butler was sent off for a second bookable offence - this time tripping Ambrose.

Both Addicks wide men - Sam and Ambrose - were poor but it was the right sided players consistently terrible free kicks and corners which had most impact.

The only bright spot was the continued form of Matt Holland who once more gave everything when others were having off days. Zheng Zhi seemed to have this weeks travel plans on his mind or maybe it was Butler's horrendous two foot challenge in the first half which was playing on his mind most.

In attack Pards started the Gray/Varney partnership but they had so little protection from the poor referee and barely mustered a shot between them.

Late pressure was applied but shots by sub McLeod and Holland didn't really trouble the home keeper.

My mood wasn't helped by the whinge-ing supporter sat beside me who kept up a constant commentary of the bitingly obvious. He wasn't wrong - I just wish he hadn't bothered trying to get me and others to acknowledge all he was moaning about.

This was a real blow after the excellent midweek win and puts added pressure on to win all remaining home games.

A brief word about Scunthorpe, as it was my first visit there - very suburban with lots of arched windows and plenty of stained glass, and not the semi-industrial town that the steelworks image depicted.

At least it didn't snow...