Charlton 0 Burnley 3 (Barnes 38, Vokes (pen) 55, Kightly 90.
Kevin Nolan reports from The Valley.
A barrage of merciless statistics, frequently derided as lies but in this case damning Charlton with the truth, threaten to drag them down to League One. Stand by for a mini-blizzard of facts and figures, which make for gloomy reading.
Of Charlton’s paltry total of 25 goals from thirty four league games this season, ten have been scored by recognised strikers, half of which were contributed by the recently departed Yann Kermorgant. Since January 1st, they have managed two from open play in eleven tries, adding two more from last gasp setpieces, for which unexpected bounty they may be ultimately grateful.
Leading the all-competitons scoring charts with seven goals is Simon Church, only three of them in the league and the last of which helped the Addicks to a 2-0 victory over Doncaster Rovers on November 26th. Marvin Sordell has chipped in twice and that’s the long and short of a sorry saga of charitably titled strikers.
There is no intent to pillory the wholehearted Church in zeroing in on the Welshman’s 24th minute miss but it does typify the pop guns that the Addicks are bringing to bear against the heavy artillery available to the likes of Burnley. Church hardly bore sole responsibility for this predictable defeat but had he converted his solitary chance then….well, it probably wouldn’t have mattered but we’ll never know.
Wresting possession from a hesitant Michael Duff some 35 yards from Burnley’s goal, Church advanced on his target, elected to shoot from outside the penalty area and powderpuffed a feeble effort at Tom Heaton. That an unmarked Jonathan Obika was a better option for a squared pass to his right is immaterial. The real point is that few, if any, of Charlton’s long suffering fans expected Church to score.
An almost embarrassing total of thirteen goals in seventeen Valley games justified their pessimism. And when, a quarter hour later, the visitors took the lead, there was already a familiar air of inevitability about this result.
In fairness, the Addicks were coping well until Ashley Barnes, a capable deputy for the totemic Danny Ings, made the breakthrough. Moving between his markers Michael Morrison and Dorian Dervite at the near post, he firmly headed Junior Stanislav’s perfect left wing cross, delivered right-footed after the wide man stepped inside Lawrie Wilson, into the top left corner. The grisly figures trotted out above made it highly unlikely that the Addicks would recover, though a superb double save from Ben Hamer at least kept them interested before the interval.
Reacting instinctively to Chris Baird’s powerful angled drive, Hamer parried to apparent safety but seemed helpless on his line when Scott Arfield’s pinpointed centre returned the rebound to the far post, where Barnes stood poised to double his tally from no more than five yards. The ex-Brighton forward’s header was a certainty until Hamer bravely contrived to claw the ball to safety. The keeper’s heroics deserved better than the glum reality that they would prove inconsequential.
As if to ensure that an improbable rally was out of the question, the Clarets removed all doubt ten minutes after the break. Brought down by Dervite just inside the area, Sam Vokes efficiently beat Hamer from the spot, his 20th goal of a prolific campaign placing him just five behind Charlton’s total. We’re tripping over those damn statistics again.
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Church’s abortive effort apart, there was little else to concern Heaton, whose only genuine save dealt capably with Astrit Ajdarevic’s dipping free kick at his left post. The resurgent goalkeeper, whose career looks likely to proceed from relegation last term with Bristol City to a Premier League spot with Burnley, was relieved to watch a curling drive from Ajdarevic, a halftime replacement for paperweight Danny Green, skim his crossbar but was otherwise underworked.
On a routine afternoon for the upwardly mobile Clarets, a third goal in added time had significance only for its dubious scorer, Michael Kightly, and for Charlton’s potentially vital goal difference, into which hard-to-shake-off Yeovil Town are making worrying inroads.
Working a short corner on the left, Kightly nutmegged Wilson on the edge of the penalty area before taking a punt on a shot-cum-cross which was probably heading wide before a deflection off Johnnie Jackson’s knee helped it find the opposite corner. Possibly an own goal but Charlton’s redoubtable skipper won’t be claiming it.
Alongside the blameless Hamer, mention must be made of 18 year-old Diego Poyet who, in the midst of this desperate relegation battle, continues to excel. Constantly in the thick of the action, he passed, moved, covered and above all, tackled as if it mattered. He might still be a kid but his fighting spirit should be the touchstone for his struggling colleagues. New boss Jose Riga, meanwhile, is finding out the hard way exactly what meagre resources the poorly backed and treacherously betrayed Chris Powell was asked to juggle in his bid to survive. They can only dream, for instance, of replacements like Barnes and Kightly for strikers who seldom if ever strike.
So the situation grows more serious, mitigated only by the convenient weaknesses of Charlton’s relegation rivals, three of whom might well prove to be even more hapless than themselves. An upcoming fixture list confronting them with three consecutive away games, the first two of them against promotion candidates, offers little immediate comfort. Should they come through that little lot relatively unscathed, they might be a good bet.
Charlton: Hamer, Wilson, Morrison, Dervite, Wiggins, Green (Ajdarevic, Poyet (Sordell 76), Cousins, Jackson, Church (Ghoochannejhad 54), Obika. Not used: Thuram, Wood, Nego, Fox.
Burnley: Heaton, Baird, Duff (Long 90), Shackell, Mee, Arfield, Jones, Marney, Stanislas (Kightly 75), Barnes, Vokes. Not used: Cisak, Lafferty, Wallace, Edgar, Treacy.
Att: 16,113 (1,865 visiting. Referee: Oliver Langford.