Charlton Athletic Online

Bristol City 2 Charlton Athletic 1

In some ways, you could lift any match report for this game pretty much from that of the similar result at Burnley on Saturday; one up at half-time, Charlton fell under pressure to not only hold onto their precarious lead, but to gain any points at all.

This time, City’s two second half goals came soon after half-time (unlike at Burnley, where at least the team hung on till the last quarter of an hour), both courtesy of Dele Adebola. It does seem that Matt Holland was unable to cope with Adebola’s strength in the air, but I guess that is to be expected from a make-shift centre back.

Tom Soares scored the Addicks goal, heading home a Nicky Bailey cross.

The positive news, which is what Phil Parkinson will no doubt be using, is that Therry Racon played well (until being sacrificed to save him from tiredness and also as he had already been booked). Darren Ward also had another solid game at centre back, and coped again with huge amounts of pressure, and Chris Dickson again impressed up front. The negative aspects are that one or two players got very bad press from the radio commentary, particularly Yassin Moutaouakil (for giving up on a ball), Lloyd Sam (for not chasing back) and Darren Ambrose (for arguing unnecessarily).

Personally, although last week’s victory was very important, I did not feel that Charlton would gather any points from these two away games, so for me, the position is the same. What must happen though is that the improved Valley performances must continue, and that has to mean that we do not lose to Cardiff at home on Saturday, provided the game does go ahead (which it may not if more snow arrives as expected on Friday).

Labels: Bristol City, Charlton