Derby County 1 (Calero 87) Charlton 0.
Kevin Nolan reports from the iPRO Stadium.
As usual, Charlton’s encounter with the Capital One Cup was brief. Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson spent more time stiffening their lips and being terribly decent over endless tea in the station buffet. To be honest, I preferred Arthur Lowe’s re-take in Dad’s Army. At least he got on with it. Sadly though, it ended up the same.
It’s only fair to say, before recounting the main details, that the Addicks gave it a good shot at the iPRO Stadium, which is what they call Pride Park these days. Everything’s commercially sponsored at Derby, including goalmouth scrambles. And there were plenty of them at Charlton’s end in the second half.
Eventually, under the most dubious of circumstances, one paid off for the Rams and they scraped through to the next round. Bob Peeters probably won’t mind too much. In fact, he probably won’t mind at all.
Battered but resilient, the visitors soaked up constant pressure, hit back occasionally and stayed in the hunt until a late, scandalous refereeing decision proved their undoing. With no fewer than six starters reared in the club’s peerless Sparrows Lane academy, they defied their much vaunted hosts and showed, if nothing else, that they have enough about them to thrive in the Championship.
The most recent of those kids to break through has been Nick Pope and nobody deserved less to be on the losing side. A performance of nerve and skill, which included one especially fine save from Leon Best, looked like earning the visitors the poisoned chalice of extra-time but was ultimately doomed to disappointment. Which is where self-important referee Graham Salisbury came in.
For an hour, we hadn’t really noticed the ref, which might have riled him. He certainly made up for it in the closing stages, beginning with an almost laughable booking meted out to Michael Morrison for an awkward but perfectly fair challenge on Best. Charlton had been warned but there was no way of knowing what Salisbury had in store for them.
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There were three minutes left when Pope delayed a routine clearance at the edge of his penalty area. Since the tie was due to be settled on the night, he had no reason to waste time but that cut little ice with our man Salisbury. Arriving on the scene in a flurry of indignation and authority, he sternly lectured the rebellious youngster, before booking him, presumably for infringing the dimly remembered six-second rule. Making up new laws as he went on, he then mysteriously re-started the game with a free kick to the Rams a few inches inside the 18-yard line, thereby ruling out any suggestion that Pope had handled the ball outside the area. Any semblance of commonsense had by now fled the scene.
Anyway, it got curiouser and curiouser until, amid general confusion, Johnny Russell’s free kick was eventually charged down by the wall and found its way to Chris Martin, who shook off Callum Harriott’s marking and made a determined run into the area. A short square pass set up fellow substitute Ivan Calero to take a steadying touch before blasting an unstoppable drive into the top left corner. Even the magnificent but betrayed Pope had no answer to that.
Preoccupied as they were with defending, the Addicks hadn’t offered much in reply. When they looked dangerous a few minutes before Calero settled the tie, the inevitable Salisbury had behaved ingloriously. Failing to spot the blatant foul by Craig Forsyth which prevented Lawrie Wilson from running clear on to Franck Moussa’s cute pass, he was alerted to the offence by his more vigilant assistant. A booking for Forsyth was obvious but oddly -or perhaps not so oddly – overlooked. Substitute Johann Gudmundsson almost applied his own rough justice but Lee Grant spectacularly tipped his curling free kick over the bar.
Salisbury was on a pompous roll by now. During five minutes of added time (in the excitement I missed the sponsor’s name), he worked himself into a lather over the precise placing of a harmless free kick in Charlton’s half, stamping his foot impatiently as a succession of Addicks sought to keep on his right side. He wasn’t a man to be trifled with, a kind of Captain Mainwaring without any of his many saving graces. A “silly old fool”, in fact, as that eyebrowed Caledonian Fraser would have called him. By the way, I don’t know how you feel about it but the good captain’s lady was the real fool for leaving him. They had more chance than Trevor and Celia. That pair of gasbags would have talked it to death. A bit like Graham Salisbury. On second thoughts, a lot like Graham Salisbury.
Derby: Grant, Shotton, Keogh, Whitbread, Forsyth, Mascarell (Martin 69), Russell (Santos 69), Hendrick, Dawkins (Calero 69), Hughes, Best. Not used: Roos, Christie, Bryson, Rawson.
Charlton: Pope, Gomez, Morrison (Gudmundsson 79), Bikey, Fox, Wilson, Cousins, Jackson (Buyens 64), Harriott, Moussa, Tucudean (Vetokele 64). Not used: Mitov, Wiggins, Church, Ben Haim. Booked: Morrison, Pope.
Referee: Graham Salisbury. Att: 16,367 (297 visiting).