The first half was as poor a half as I've seen at the Valley.
It was a collapse that will long be in the nightmares of all connected to Charlton Athletic.
Our defence has been rock solid over the season.
Throughout the first 45 minutes today it was clear that Hamer was having another off day and the back four were joining in by playing like they were strangers to each other.
Forte was just too good.
His hat trick in just over 20 minutes was a fantastic demonstration of the strikers art.
He played like BWP played in the period up until his mini goal drought started in November.
Every time he went near the ball he looked ridiculously dangerous.
He was helped by some extremely sloppy defending but he made his own luck by exploiting a defence that was coming apart at the seams.
Forte built upon the excellent long range strike from Judge that found the back of the net after around a quarter of an hour.
Up until that moment, I had been pretty impressed with our efforts to shake the midweek defeat to Colchester from our memory.
Haynes had looked lively but came off just before the first County goal, presumably due to an injury.
4-0 down at half time.
I joked we'd come back to win 5-4 but it was all just hot air.
I didn't believe a word of it.
Charlton started the second half like a team on a mission.
Within ten minutes BWP had scored a peach of an overhead goal and Haynes replacement Waggy, had scored a diving header.
The comeback was on!
It was at this point our hapless referee (Bugsy?) Malone got involved and killed the Charlton momentum.
How in EARTH he failed to give the penalty for the foul on BWP I still fail to understand.
It wasn't even debatable.
It was as clear a foul as you are ever likely to see but he just wasn't interested.
Perhaps, looking at his physique, he had been over indulging in the festivities of the last few days, part of British Pie Week?
Maybe he just wasn't up with play enough to spot it?
Whatever the reasons, he must have realised he'd made a cock up, yet when he had the opportunity to redeem himself, he again denied the Addicks.
A goal bound Kermorgant effort was stopped by an arm and again, our tubby official seemed oblivious.
Notts County had done far too much in the first half to be pegged back today.
They did go down with rather a lot of fake injuries and their time wasting was especially annoying but I'm pretty sure our team would have done something similar in the circumstances.
I did find it odd that the referee didn't make a point of speaking to the 'keeper, especially when we look back on the yellow cards Hamer has received for supposedly time wasting this season.
So, another game ticked off and still ten points clear at the top of the league.
It's hardly panic stations.
Last season Brighton started having some odd results around this period but still cantered on to win the league.
Let's just keep calm and keep the faith.
Today was a bad result but the team showed their quality after a dismal first half.
Notts County deserved their win but we are so far ahead of them, we can quickly put the result to one side and concentrate on next weekend.
A week without a midweek game may be the tonic the team needs.
They've looked fairly tired for a while now.
COYA!
A Casual Rating.
A poor first half from a Charlton perspective and total dreamland from a Notts County one.
They won the first half with ease and we won the second.
County were so worried about a comeback they started to waste time with 30 minutes still to play.
The theatrics while pretending to be injured wouldn't have looked out of place in a sixth form Shakespeare production.
The award of a Lacoste polo isn't going to a Charlton player this time.
I'm presenting it to Forte for his tremendous hat trick.
Any chance he fancies a move to South London?
The dreaded Primark novelty slogan t- shirt isn't being awarded today.
Instead, there's going to be one of those rather stupid rugs that the Sunday papers seem to advertise to people who want to wrap up on the sofa.
Our defence can have one for their collective shambles in the first half.
I expect them to all sit on a bench at Sparrows Lane, wrapped up snugly as they sit through a DVD of their woeful first half display!
Ref Watch.
My criteria for deciding if a referee has been on form or not is thinking about how his decisions shaped the game.
He had absolutely nothing to do with Charlton going 4-0 down. That was purely our players who let that happen.
However, his refusal to give the penalty at a critical time certainly did effect the game.
For that reason, he's getting a 3 out of 10.
As ever, a third rate referee for the third division.
Nobody should be surprised.
I agree Marco.
ReplyDeleteNo need to panic. County were cruising in the first period but our team could and probably should have got a point.
We have nothing to fear.
We are going up!
Dunno where you sit Marco but none of 3 of us in the upper west block L saw anything like a foul on BWP for the incident which might have given us an opportunity for a swift 3rd goal. As far as we all saw BWP pretty much fell over his own feet as the ball came over. The view of the (substandard) East stand lino was obscurred by players.
ReplyDeleteHard to know what sort of view Tubby Malone had - I don't suppose he was really very close cos his excess weight certainly kept him a tad too far behind most of the game. My guess is he was happy enough with County's play acting and time wasting cos it gave him much needed breathing space. My abiding concern was with SCP's refusal to make 2nd half subs. Russell or Clarke certainly wouldn't have guaranteed improvement but some fresher legs at least could have added impetus after the rush of the 2 goal burst had blown out.
Anybody know why Green wasn't in the matchday squad? He's no better than Waggy but it's odd to drop right out of the 16 after consistent selection.
10 points clear the juggernaut rolls on, a week between matches for the first time in a month will provide refuelling time. COYR
I sit in the East.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed a pretty clear cut penalty from there. It wasn't just the people who appeal for everything, even the quieter members of the crowd near us were up and couldn't believe it!
I'm ashamed to say I let myself down with some rather industrial language too!
I believe Green had a shoulder injury.