Charlton 4 (Kermorgant 47,51, Obika 79, Jackson 85) Bristol City 1 (Reid 59).
Kevin Nolan reports from The Valley.
Love ’em or only like ’em, the end of season play-offs have proved visionary and have made just about every league game important. The traditional mid-table bore (usually scoreless) eked out by teams with no incentive left is nowadays little more than a ghastly memory in the minds of dinosaurs like your reporter. It disappeared along with Cup Finals regularly ruined by injury in pre-substitute days and teams having to do without key players because the FA duffers habitually scheduled international fixtures to clash with full league schedules. It’s a brave new world now and none the worse for it.
On Saturday, Charlton came as close as it gets to rolling back the years to the good old bad days. Their play-off aspirations had vanished at Middlesbrough a week earlier; their visitors, Bristol City had already been relegated. Their old-fashioned, seemingly meaningless clash fell somewhat short of mouthwatering.
Come the interval, it seemed that our worst fears were well on their way to being realised. This was no rollicking end-to-end fiesta of football though the 13 year-old grandson we’d brought along with us was out of order to start reading a newspaper. He got told, stand on me. Can’t have that sort of disrespect. No telling where it might end.
The only incident worth mentioning in 45 sleepwalking minutes was the premature ending of left back Rhoys Wiggins’ campaign due to another hamstring niggle. His unfortunate departure at least gave Chris Solly the opportunity to show that he is as adept a left back as he is a right back. Lawrie Wilson capably stepped into Solly’s boots on the right.
There must have been something slipped into Charlton’s half-time tea because they re-emerged to set about poor old City as if their parentage had been questioned. Within six explosive minutes, the bewildered visitors had been blown apart by two goals – both of them claimed by unstoppable Yann Kermorgant – and were facing a humiliating rout.
Man on a mission Kermorgant opened the scoring while the Robins were shaking off their first half torpor. Mobile co-striker Jon Obika’s raking pass found Mark Gower on the right, the experienced playmaker pinpointed a venomously struck cross on to the penalty spot and the burly Breton detonated a sideways-on volley powerful enough to threaten goalkeeper Tom Heaton’s health and safety on its way into the roof of the net.
Heaton was still contemplating his narrow escape when the Addicks doubled their tally. Slipped through to the left byline by Callum Harriott’s carefully judged pass, the overlapping Solly stood up a perfect cross to the far post, where Kermorgant headed forcefully home.
It was suddenly carnival time and Charlton generously included the Westcountrymen in their celebrations. A catastrophic lapse in concentration by Michael Morrison allowed bright spark Bobby Reid time and space to reduce the arrears by skilfully lobbing over the advancing David Button. While attempting to claw the ball off the line, unlucky Button sustained an injury which allowed highly rated young keeper Nick Pope to make an unplanned league debut.
As the home side wavered, Pope rode his luck with Albert Adomah screwing Ryan Taylor’s clever lay-off wide and Louis Carey making a mess of converting Neil Kilkenny’s quickthinking free kick. City’s bolt was just as quickly shot and put into context by another two-goal salvo.
Doing almost as he liked, Kermorgant’s uninhibited chip from outside the penalty area was adroitly measured to beat Heaton but, by annoying centimetres, not the crossbar. From close range, Obika gratefully helped himself to a simply headed rebound.
It was by now riveting stuff, rounded off by a wildly popular fourth goal five minutes from time. Growing in influence as his career cobwebs cleared away, shrewd playmaker Gower’s penetrative pass sent workaholic Bradley Pritchard haring to the right byline to drill over a hard, low cross, which Johnnie Jackson slid in from beyond the far post. Much to Kermorgant’s barely concealed irritation, his iconic skipper again tops the scoring with 12 goals. That deflected strike taken away from him at Watford must still rankle in Brittany.
The Addicks end 2012-13 in sound shape. This side has improved steadily; an eight-game unbeaten run, featuring four consecutive home wins, provided evidence that painful lessons had been learned; the agenda for next term must surely target a better return from local derbies than the single point gained this time around. Singlehandedly, Charlton saved Millwall from relegation and boosted Crystal Palace into the play-offs. That won’t do. Charity begins at home and there’s none to spare for either of them. So that’s over to you, Chris. They ain’t all that much anyway.
Charlton: Button (Pope 71), Solly, Dervite, Morrison, Wiggins (Wilson 15), Pritchard, Gower, Jackson, Harriott (Wagstaff 79), Obika, Kermorgant. Not used: Hughes, Taylor, Haynes, Kerkar. Booked: Wilson, Gower.
Bristol City: Heaton, Nyatanga, Fontaine, Louis Carey, Cunningham, Anderson, Kilkenny (Ajala 86), Bryan, Reid, Baldock (Adomah 53), Taylor (Burns 84). Not used: Lewis Carey, Foster, Kelly, Elliott.
Referee: Carl Berry. Att: 18,981.
N.B. This final report is dedicated to fellow travellers on Betty Hutchins’ coach (herself a veteran of Lewis coaches) and those other faces regularly glimpsed in foreign fields. Betty rules with a velvet grip and the club are lucky to have her. Her pies are legendary as indeed is she. Any talk of her turning it in must be vigorously discouraged. It’s not on. She’s a Downham girl who survived a potentially fatal collision with an outdoor tin bath tub to get where she is today. There’s years left in her yet. The bath tub’s a goner, though.
Anyway, where there’s no sense, there’s no feeling so we’ll be seeing you all next season. Be well. Be lucky. Be Addicks. K.N.
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