Kevin Nolan's Match Report: Charlton Athletic v Barnsley

Charlton 0 Barnsley 1 (Cywka 64).

Kevin Nolan reports from The Valley.

Nursing many a nasty withdrawal symptom, a bumper crowd welcomed football back to The Valley following the international break. Warts and all, it’s still the people’s game and the heartwarming response to Charlton’s latest football-for-a-fiver initiative proved again that a groundswell of local affection, if not recession-squeezed wallets, exists behind the club. Pity about this result but there’s something to be said for fans who can accept defeat with reasonable grace, swallow their disappointment and keep a stiff upper lip. Their restraint was admirable as the Addicks were comfortably beaten by visitors Barnsley, who turned in a textbook away performance. More about that in a minute but let’s digress first.

In its self-destructive way, football seems determined to squander the goodwill it enjoys at grass roots level. But before bringing grapes to its sickbed, take a look at rugby, so often held up as the model of self-discipline to which its implied social inferior should aspire. Bloody cheek. A glance at Paul Rees’ round-up column in the Guardian (15-10-12) might convince you that its author reported, not from a touchline, but from an embedded war zone.

In matter-of-fact terms, and with no hint of disapproval, Rees begins with a fist-and-knee assault on a grounded player by an opponent enraged by no fewer than three attempts to eye-gouge him (it’s all the go, apparently), as evidence of which his club offered post-game photographs. He continues with details of citations for biting (!) and stamping, before wrapping up his catalogue of villainy with a casual mention of a “dangerous tackle” which, in this context, seems positively Corinthian. Unless, of course, you were its unfortunate victim.

So while warring footballers swat away unconvincingly at each other like demented field mice, rugby’s bouncers get straight down to the maim event, then mitigate it by proudly pointing out that its perpetrators scrupulously help the referees to gather dental impressions, measure bootprints and take DNA swabs. While not disputing so much as one of their decisions. You have to admire their respect for authority.

Having said all that, though, the vast majority of yesterday’s magnificent attendance might willingly have swapped places with the gilded few enjoying rugby’s usual mayhem in the shires outside London. All but 1,227 hardheaded Yorkshiremen, who know a bargain at five nicker when they see one, suffered as the Addicks were handled with consummate ease by Keith Hill’s scandalously underrated side.

For this was no smash-and-grab raid. The Tykes were picture-perfect visitors, who kept their shape, passed crisply and intelligently, restricted their opposition to no more than a couple of half-chances, efficiently took one of their own and enjoyed a handy slice of luck, when referee Russell, though ideally positioned, sanctioned Chris Dagnall’s trip on Chris Solly inside the penalty area. They won virtually every second ball, kept on the right side of the law while running the clock down and left The Valley with three richly deserved points.

Ninety five minutes of largely ineffectual effort provided Charlton with no more than occasional scraps on which to feed. The first half fled by with only free kicks from Dale Stephens and Abdul Razak troubling Ben Alnwick. Stephens’ effort was pawed away with difficulty, while Razak forced a spectacular save from the flying keeper.

Barnsley were themselves only sporadically dangerous, with Ben Hamer stopping Craig Davies’ low drive, then awkwardly smothering Dagnall, as the forward made a mess of Davies’ dangerous cross. Fine blocks by Solly and Leon Cort, both on Davies, at least served notice that Charlton’s customary defensive defiance was intact. Their attacking options, meanwhile, seemed enhanced by the interval substitutions of Bradley Wright-Phillips (for Razak) and skipper Johnnie Jackson (for Danny Hollands).

Beaten four times previously this season, each time by a single goal, the Addicks survived until the 64th minute before succumbing. There seemed only minimal danger until Danny Green’s miserable failure to cut out Scott Golbourne’s pass allowed Polish midfielder Tomasz Cywka to cut in along the left byline before curling a superb shot across Ben Hamer into the top right corner. Some goal to settle a humdrum game.

Shortly after Cwyka made his dramatic intervention, Charlton’s best chance for equality disappeared in the instant that Russell decided that the typical forward’s challenge made by Dagnall, from behind on a flying Solly, was legal. It seemed an open-and-shut case for a spotkick to everyone else, including a mortified Dagnall, but Russell critically disagreed. Apart from a wild goalline scrimmage, during which Jackson almost bundled Lawrie Wilson’s cross past Alnwick, the struggling home side offered little, though substitute Bradley Pritchard’s snapshot brought an alert save from Alnwick.

A late booking issued to Wilson for diving and the potentially long-term injury sustained by Ricardo Fuller, after all three subs had been used, crowned a wretched afternoon for baffled boss Chris Powell. And, no doubt, persuaded many of those attracted back by the fiver deal that they’d been overcharged.

Charlton: Hamer, Wilson, Cort, Morrison, Solly, Green ( Pritchard 68), Hollands (Jackson 46), Stephens, Razak (Wright-Phillips 46), Kerkar, Fuller. Not used: Button, Evina, Hulse, Dervite. Booked: Stephens, Solly, Wilson.

Barnsley: Alnwick, Stones, Wiseman, Foster, Golbourne, Mellis Etuhu 89), Perkins, Cwyka (Hassell 90), Dawson, Dagnall, Davies (Harewood 90). Not used: Steele, Done, Rose, Kennedy. Booked: Golbourne, Dawson.

Referee: M. Russell. Att: 26,185.

Kevin Nolan’s Match Report is brought to you in association with , 294 Burnt Ash Hill, London, SE12 0QD.