Oldham Get What They Came For.

Yawn.

The first 45 minutes of the encounter, (yesterday), with Oldham Athletic was possibly one of the dullest halves of football I've ever had the misfortune to witness.

The opposition had obviously done their homework, padding out the midfield, closing down quickly, keeping Sam man marked by a minimum of 2 players at all times and starving Burton of any form of supply.

The fact that Shelvey looked knackered after the first 5 minutes and Frazer Richardson was finding it impossible to pick out players wearing red made the home teams task all the more difficult.

Well played to Oldham for coming with a game plan and sticking with it but it made for a tedious afternoon.

Unfortunately, Charlton have now been 'found out' and we can expect other teams to try and stifle the game, while hanging on for a point after creating very little.

It could have been the most unbelievable upset if a 'goal' had stood but Oldham had broken some rule or other in the build up, - impossible to tell from my seat but a teenage know all who was keeping a running commentary throughout the game seemed to think it was for a trip. The game had stopped before the ball was crashed into the net anyway.

More likely to send us home with a defeat was the fairly blatant penalty Oldham were denied after Richardson chopped down a forward advancing into the area.

The referee Horwood, waved that the ball had been taken but it was very clearly not the case.

At half time, I said to Crispy that the game had 0-0 written all over it but the second half actually could and should have sent Charlton away with the 3 deserved points.

A 'Mack Attack' from McLeod and McKenzie changed everything for the final 20 minutes. The team went 4-4-2 and started producing wave after wave of chances.

Kelly Youga almost scored the goal of the season with an overhead bicycle kick which bounced back off the crossbar, only for our forwards to have a moment of "After you Claude", only awakening to the chance when the defenders were well placed to block.

Big Mig Hatman Llera showed off his new padding, (now in red), with a powerful header which also hit the crossbar.

Unfortunately, yet again, Izale McLeod had an episode of the Luke Varneys.

Within 5 minutes of entering the field of play, he had managed one complete air shot, missed an absolute sitter with a sliced effort that really should have broken the net from 8 yards out and managed to mistime a jump at the far post, so that instead of heading the ball into the almost unguarded net, he managed to entangle himself with the post.

Oldham had tried to waste time all afternoon and the referee added 5 extra minutes to the 90. The Latics defended resolutely and it was clear we weren't going to score, even if 50 minutes had been added.

It just wasn't our day. The 3 points should have been ours but too many lines were fluffed at the critical moment.

I returned home, passing groups of people chanting "Boring, boring Oldham" near to the railway station.
 After only about 5 minutes of faffing about, I managed to locate a free link for the England against Ukraine game.

I lost interest fairly quickly, -watching football on my MacBook just doesn't feel right.

I soon retired to bed with the mother of all headaches.

Bloody football.

Casual Rating

The Lacoste polo shirt goes to Kelly Youga. If anyone deserves a goal it's him after his efforts in the last few weeks. Yesterday he was one of our most successful creative outlets. Well done Kelly!

The Primark novelty slogan tee shirt goes to teenage Motson. Leave it at home next time will you? At least until your voice breaks properly.