Fulham 3 (Cairney 31, 79, Madl 59) Charlton 0.
Charlton fans who couldn’t -or understandably wouldn’t – attend this latest exposure of Charlton’s shameful ineptitude will find it easy to mentally recreate the routine course it followed. But it might complete the picture for others if we skim through the familiar process by which they shipped their sixth 3-0 hiding of this miserable season.
It began, as usual, with an opening period during which the Addicks were clearly “the better side” but couldn’t quite crown their spurious superiority by actually scoring. Check. Almost on cue around the half hour mark, they instead conceded the lead by failing to defend a left wing corner. Check. The interval arrived with the opposition “unjustly” 1-0 up. Check. After an hour, a second goal, again from a poorly defended left wing corner, put paid to any thoughts of an unlikely comeback. Check. Twenty minutes later, believe it or not folks, yet another left wing corner caused still more chaos and Charlton collapsed under a third goal. Check. Complete the necessary documentation and submit to the Football League. Check…and out. Any questions?
Network boss Jose Riga was succinct in his evaluation of this latest battering. “We concede three times from setpieces” he revealed, “so that was the main problem today. But I still believe.” You don’t say, Jose. It’s hard to slip anything past you.
Riga was razor sharp if patently obvious in identifying his side’s chronic vulnerability to corners as the main problem but it was hardly the only one. A failure to score in three successive games, two of them against fellow relegation strugglers, could count as another reasonably significant weakness as might the soft underbelly so regularly not to mention contemptuously ripped open by even the most modest of opposition. It’s impossible to make a silk purse fom the sows’ ears he has been handed but the suspicion persists that Riga is himself overrated and is merely the best of a bad bunch of so-called managers floating around Roland Duchatelet’s mediocre network, who work cheap on short contracts. That’s apparently their best recommendation. You rack your brains to think of another.
But back briefly to Charlton’s “purple patch”, during which, to be fair, they played some neat stuff and carved out one or two reasonable chances. The first of them was created by Zakaraya Bergdich’s electric dart to the left byline followed by his accurate cutback to set up a crisp first-time shot from Callum Harriott which brought Andy Lonergan down low to his right to save. The visitors continued on top with Fernando Amorbieta’s foul on Harriott conceding Johann Berg Gudmunsson’s free kick blocked by Fulham’s wall back to Gudmundsson, who volleyed wide. A fine ball from the left by Morgan Fox was then whisked from under Gudmundsson’s nose by Luke Garbutt. Their efforts amounted to no more than mild pressure before the Cottagers put them in their place on the prescribed half hour.
A carefully worked short corner between Ross McCormack and Garbutt led to an awkward low drive from McCormack which Stephen Henderson alertly scrambled to temporary safety at the foot of his right post. McCormack swung in the second flagkick, the outstanding Scott Parker smashed it against the crossbar before Tom Cairney, with his weaker right foot, blasted Fulham’s opener into the top left corner. An uncharacteristically glaring miss from 12 yards by, of all people, McCormack, spared the Addicks more damage before the break, encouraging the misguided notion that they’d somehow been unjustly treated by the 1-0 scoreline.
Still lively enough, Harriott opened the second period by stinging Lonergan’s palms before the West Londoners again found another gear to double their lead. A more orthodox corner from McCormack was simply headed past Henderson by half-time substitute Michael Madl, whose clever movement earned him those mythical “acres of space” in which footballers operate. Irritating cliche, that one. My apologies for using it. Won’ t happen again, which might be more than Charlton can promise.
Operating alongside McCormick, meanwhile, young Academy graduate Moussa Dembele had been subdued until he cut loose from 25 yard and all but shattered the bar. Cairney also came close with a more sedate effort which he dinked over the advancing Henderson but also over the bar.
Fulham were not kept waiting long for the statutory third goal, fizzed fiercely home by Cairney after the latest of McCormack’s inswinging corners was scuffed out to him on the edge of the penalty area. The standard 3-0 drubbing had been completed and was not destined to be affected by Harriott’s dreadful miss shortly before referee Kevin Friend drew the embarrassment to a merciful conclusion.
There is no wish to victimise Harriott in describing his largely irrelevant miscue, other than to spotlight Charlton’s pathetic record of 26 goals scored in 32 league games and to make the observation that a natural finisher, in preference to the baffling acquisition of reluctant imports, has been their pressing need all season. A trawl through the domestic lower leagues seems a more sensible bet. That Paddy Madden at Scunthorpe United for instance. Is he worth a look? Can we afford him? Has he, or any other potential marksman, ever appeared on Roland’s blinkered radar? Is it true that our owner has short arms but deep pockets? Does he have a clue what he’s doing?
And Harriott’s miss? Until he subsided along with the rest of his colleagues, he was among the better performers. But when Simon Makienok expertly cushioned Fox’s excellent cross on to his favoured left foot, nobody really expected him to hit the target. Last seen, his hilariously skybound shot was seen bouncing around that marvellous Spanish Civil War memorial at the far end of Bishops Park. Until then, a short pilgrimage to pay our respects had been the only redeeming feature of a thoroughly depressing visit to Putney. We won’t be returning in the near future.
Fulham: Lonergan, Fredericks, Burn, Amorbieta, Garbutt, Cairney (Tunnicliffe 84), Parker, O’Hara (Baird 46), Kacaniklik (Madl 46), McCormack, Dembele. Not used: Richards, Smith, Lewis, Hyndman. Booked; Amorbieta, Burn, Tunnicliffe.
Charlton: Henderson, Solly, Teixeira, Lennon, Fox, Poyet (Motta 67), Ba (Lookman 67), Gudmundsson, Harriott, Bergdich (Ghhochannejhad 79), Makienok. Not used: Pope, Yun Suk-Young, Fanni, Johnson. Booked: Fox.
Att: 16,565 (1,776 visiting).
Referee: Kevin Friend.
Peter Cordwell says
Things are looking bad.