Matchroom Mob Snookered

Leyton Orient 1 - Charlton Athletic 3


Possibly the easiest away game of all tonight, at least with regards to travel arrangements.

A combination of Central and Jubilee lines, plus a bus home from North Greenwich meant that not much more than 30 minutes after leaving the Matchroom Stadium, I was opening my own front door.

Anybody with an interest in the game this evening, was probably either i) at the game or ii) watching on Sky television.

For this reason, I'm not going to break down the events, especially as those people who were watching from their sofas would have had a much clearer view of what was happening than me.

My version of events focuses on the 'live' experience.

The Charlton support seemed very loud from within the East Stand, possibly even louder than last season when there were at least 1000 more Addicks in attendance.

I've no idea if this volume was picked up by the television microphones but I really don't think our supporters could have done any more to get behind the team.

The first goal this evening for Charlton, by Alan McCormack, almost caught me out as I was checking a text message and I very nearly missed it.
From what I saw, the Orient defence were being quite charitable with the amount of space they left.

Charlton were to pay Orient back, leaving McGleish unattended to equalise early in the second half.

Only a few moments later, the sending off seemed a little soft at the time.

Without the benefit of any kind of replay, it looked to me as if Dailly stretched to get a loose ball that was probably beyond him.
 His yellow card earlier in the game seemed to be a little unfortunate when he gave away a handball as the ball struck him.

This earlier yellow card was to prove extremely costly as the referee really had no choice with the second card.

Going down to 10 men for the second game running was unfortunate in the extreme.

The team now seemed to go further and further back, playing very deep, hoping to merely hold off Orient and I was worried we weren't going to be able to repel them for the rest of the half.

Luckily, just at the point when I felt Orient were starting to make inroads, Scott Wagstaff cut in from the right and scored the goal of the game.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

The celebrations from the Addickted were beyond joyful.
The feeling was very similar to when Reid scored in added on time at Southend last season.

When Waggstaff cut inside again, with 90 minutes already played, he laid the ball on a plate for Chris Solly who had only just come on to kill time!
Was it his first touch? Perhaps.

A good result for the homegrown players tonight, with both Solly and Wagstaff scoring.

So, we are top of the league, (at least for a few hours).

It was brought to my attention on the way home, that tonight was the first time we've scored more than 2 goals since the home game against Millwall last season.

I'm also pleased that our television hoodoo might have been exorcised, -though Leyton Orient also believe they have a bit of a duff record in front of the cameras so I suppose someone had to have a turnaround.

Other than the sendings off, this season couldn't possibly have started any better.

Let's hope the good results continue.

A Casual Rating.
The Lacoste polo is going to Scott Wagstaff for his performance tonight.
He really wasn't on form last Saturday against Bournemouth but tonight he was fantastic.
His well taken goal changed the game, just when it was starting to look bleak for Charlton.
A special mention must also go to Lee Martin who ran tirelessly and always looked dangerous.

As for the Primark novelty slogan t-shirt, nobody really had a howler, (even the much maligned referee).

If it's possible, the Primark top is going to be awarded to the gods of weather.
It was extremely wet this evening, not that anybody connected with Charlton Athletic cared one jot of course.