AFC Wimbledon 2 ( Johnson 65, Kelly 79), Charlton 0
Charlton’s pre-season preparations hit an awkward roadblock with this defeat by League Two hopefuls AFC Wimbledon just two weeks before the serious business kicks off at Wigan. There will, of course, be a philosophical reaction at The Valley. Only two weeks ago, we were celebrating an excellent performance against a strong Crystal Palace selection, its all-round quality marred only by a late, if admittedly brilliant, equaliser. It’s swings and roundabouts at this embryonic stage of the 2024-25 campaign. The trick is to sort out one from the other.
There was little sign, meanwhile, at Wimbledon’s neat little ground, of the controlled aggression which nonplussed Palace, leaving Charlton anonymous, colourless and devoid of personality. The charisma with which the likes of George Dobson and Alfie May partly redeemed last season’s mediocrity was conspicuously absent. In its place, a collection of apparent strangers made it up as they went along and what they came up with was pretty awful.
Dobson and May were allowed – indeed encouraged – to leave in a scenario painfully familiar to Charlton supporters. It’s not wise to get close to players, as Basil Fawlty famously advised Manuel in regard to rats, but it was impossible not to warm to this pair of wholehearted triers. One made the bullets, the other fired them with impressive accuracy. They will be difficult to replace by a manager, who clearly didn’t fancy either of them.
Reacting to the Cherry Red debacle, Nathan Jones was at least candid about what he’d seen. “I’m really disappointed with lots of the stuff. It’s not about the result, it’s about the performance really. First half we weren’t aggressive enough. We were categorically different the other day where we were really aggressive all over. Today we were a mile off in terms of that. It’s a bit of a wake-up call for me in terms of going forward, what I need to do. So it’s served its purpose in that way, albeit in a disappointing way.” In terms of explanations, we were put squarely in the picture with language we could understand. Fair enough!
Against Wimbledon, a side led by Johnnie Jackson (that late, late winner at home to QPR still brings a thrill), an ex-Addick still legendary at The Valley but another who was treated shamefully by some best-forgotten owner and his minions, Charlton embarrassed themselves. A blow-by-blow description of their “efforts” won’t detain us long while, to be honest the Dons were not a whole lot better. This was no pre-season humdinger.
Scrupulous research through my reporter’s notebook reveals that the Addicks could, in fact, lay claim to being the “better” side during an opening half of stultifying boredom. An awkward, if sometimes ponderous, handful for Jackson’s defence, Chuks Aneke stood out, if that’s not too strong a term in this context. Making a second successive start, the big striker put himself about and was responsible for his side’s best – make that only – effort on target to interrupt a first half snoozefest. Taking Matty Godden’s pass in stride, Aneke stung Goodman’s palms with a fierce drive. Godden then headed Tennai Watson’s cross over Goodman’s bar as the visitors came briefly to life. Sharp link-up between Luke Berry and Godden later set up the latter to volley narrowly over the bar.
At the other end, Jake Reeves’ comically screwed shot failed to trouble Will Mannion but achieved the feat of staying in play. More than that is hardly worth mentioning until, with dreary predictability, the home side went in front just past the hour mark. The goal was set up by wide man Josh Neufville, who picked up Mannion’s punched clearance of Reeves’ left wing corner, made it to the right byeline and crossed hard for Ryan Johnson to finish crisply into the bottom right corner. Defensive resistance, it has to be said, was less than resolute.
Fellow substitutes Daniel Kanu and Tyreece Campbell combined briefly to threaten an equaliser but the latter’s weak shot barely troubled Goodman before Wimbledon’s second goal confirmed their win. Bursting into the penalty area, Callum Maycock slid in Josh Kelly to squeeze an acutely angled shot past a stranded Mannion into the far corner. The issue, such as it ever was, had been duly sealed.
Before Portsmouth’s visit to The Valley completes the pre-season build-up, Jones is left to pick his way through a variety of shirked tackles, botched passes and general incompetence before making sense of it all. He’s the latest in a line of similarly baffled gaffers.
Charlton: Mannion, Watson (Asiimwe 77), Alex Mitchell (Zach Mitchell 77), Gillesphey (Edmonds-Green 77), Jones (Ramsey 77), Coventry (Taylor 77), Docherty (Edun 77), Berry (Anderson 77), Edwards (Small 77), Aneke (Ahadme 46, Kanu 77), Godden (Campbell 77).
Referee: Charles Breakspear. Att: 3,156 (1,002 visiting).