Oh Dear.

Southampton 2, Charlton Athletic 1.

Hardly unexpected but still disappointing.

After our early season canter up the league, issues need to be addressed before we find ourselves in peril of a slide downwards with equal speed.

We have now lost 3 games 'on the spin'. Only one was a league game but the rumbles of discontent are already becoming very clearly audible.

Charlton could have been dead and buried in this game way before half time. It was only a mixture of good fortune and bad finishing that kept Charlton still in it, with the score merely at 1-0 down.
Southampton were completely on top.

When Ricky Lambert scored Saints second, it looked as if it was game over. As far as most of us were concerned, it was.
Charlton looked brighter in the second half but still fairly limp. There wasn't much belief on show that the deficit could be clawed back.

It was a big surprise when McKenzie managed to tuck the ball into the Southampton net, as the clock ticked into added on time.
He took his chance well and it became the first goal scored, by a Charlton player, from open play, since the visit of Huddersfield to the Valley.
A fairly exciting final 3 minutes came to nothing and Charlton are now out of all cup action, until the Summer of 2010.

The game this evening ended with Charlton looking like they had remembered how to stroke the ball about. The team had, dare I say it, a little bit of invention.

I hope it continues on Saturday for the visit of Franchise F.C.